Dr. Elsey dry food new flavors, carb additions.

[Babypinkweeb]

I was checking their site today and noticed some additions to their kibble line. 3 new flavors of turkey, duck and rabbit. However it seems like they all include chicken and pork products as is in their normal chicken flavor. I also noticed that they decided to add chickpeas which is a no-no for me. I was so excited to see the new flavors too. I wonder why they decided to do this, when the reason many choose their Chicken kibble is due to no carb fillers! I really hope this won't mean they will sneak it into their chicken flavor in the future. What do you think?

Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein™ Rabbit Recipe Dry Kibble Cat Food

95% of Protein is Animal-Based, First Ingredient Rabbit, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, 100% Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, No Fillers or Artificial Preservatives

www.drelseys.com

Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein™ Turkey Recipe Paté Cat Food

First Ingredient Turkey, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free*, No Fillers or Artificial Preservatives, Non-GMO & For All Life Cycles

www.drelseys.com

Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein™ Duck Recipe Paté Cat Food

First Ingredient Duck, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free*, No Fillers or Artificial Preservatives, Non-GMO & For All Life Cycles

www.drelseys.com

 

[Maurey]

What a shame. Is it same price as the chicken? any clue what the chickpea is replacing? Could be they’re trying to reduce costs on using expensive proteins, so that the alternative proteins aren’t prohibitively expensive, ig. Would explain while they also have chicken and pork, though a shame for cats with chicken allergies.

 

[Babypinkweeb]

What a shame. Is it same price as the chicken? any clue what the chickpea is replacing? Could be they’re trying to reduce costs on using expensive proteins, so that the alternative proteins aren’t prohibitively expensive, ig. Would explain while they also have chicken and pork, though a shame for cats with chicken allergies.

There's no price on the website, and I assume they just added them for now. I didn't see them on the sites that carry the products so it's likely coming soon. They don't sell them offline sadly.

I thought keeping the other proteins like chicken and pork would be the cost saving measure but I guess they needed more? The first ingredient is the protein flavor listed at least. They still have gelatin so I honestly don't know the point of chickpeas. Hopefully they don't add that to the original flavors in the future.

 

[lisahe]

Oh no about the chickpeas! I just sent a note to Dr. Elsey's to ask about the chicken recipe. We feed almost exclusively wet foods of various types but have been using the chicken food for over a year: it's great for treats, toppers, and snacks. The cats love it!

I sent a note to ask about the recipe. I'll let you know what I hear back.

 

[lisahe]

Dr. Elsey's already got back to me: the chicken recipe has not changed and it does not contain chickpeas.

 

[Juniper_Junebug]

Dr. Elsey's already got back to me: the chicken recipe has not changed and it does not contain chickpeas.

So glad to hear this, thank you for checking and sharing. Last night I was researching dry food shelf life to figure out if I should start stockpiling the original version (since I go through a single bag pretty slowly)....

 

[Babypinkweeb]

Dr. Elsey's already got back to me: the chicken recipe has not changed and it does not contain chickpeas.

Thank you for checking, and what a fast reply from them! I hope it stays that way in the future as well. I also feed mostly wet but my 11 year boy is too set in his ways and will not eat until he sees some kibble plopped in the bowl.

 

[smosmosmo]

It's likely a cost-saving measure - duck and rabbit are pricier than chicken, but they wanted to keep the costs reasonable so there's not a huge discrepancy in pricing overall. Customers might be deterred if the pricing was a lot higher than for the flavors they're used to buying, so they've added chickpeas to bulk up the food. I've noticed everything has gone up in price and products rarely go on sale on the pet store sites now, so I assume companies are struggling during the pandemic. This might be an unfortunate way to cut some corners.

 

[Babypinkweeb]

It's likely a cost-saving measure - duck and rabbit are pricier than chicken, but they wanted to keep the costs reasonable so there's not a huge discrepancy in pricing overall. Customers might be deterred if the pricing was a lot higher than for the flavors they're used to buying, so they've added chickpeas to bulk up the food. I've noticed everything has gone up in price and products rarely go on sale on the pet store sites now, so I assume companies are struggling during the pandemic. This might be an unfortunate way to cut some corners.

That's understandable but I wish they just included more chicken or animal product instead of chickpeas. I guess this will be fine with less picky cat parents but it feels kind of stupid to go against the one thing that set their kibble apart from almost every other kibble out there.

Although I will say maybe I'm lucky but in my area all the local pet stores are having sales haha! One store has 15% of wet food over a certain amount, and another store is having a month long 20% of almost all products including some commercial raw.

 

[smosmosmo]

Yup, completely agree with you there - it's too bad they've added chickpeas to some flavors since the big draw to Cleanprotein is that it's almost entirely made of animal protein. I don't think cats want to eat chickpeas, lol. I've been buying off Chewy since I got my cat because their prices are usually so good, but nothing seems to go on sale lately. It's great that you're still able to get those deals while supporting small business, though.