Pet food costs increase

Antonio65

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How are food prices and other pet-related costs are going in your area?

Over here in Italy it's total madness. Prices on the shelves at stores, or online shops, are increasing at the speed of light. I personally witnessed a particular item going up 4% from morning to afternoon in the same shop.

My cats are on wet and dry food. My colony is on dry food only.
Wet food for my cats has gone up 33% in 12 months. Dry food up 22% in less than a year. Litter up 27% in four months.
For my colony, the dry food has gone up 37% in the same period of time.
So far, it seems that vet bills are quite the same, but I expect a shock in that department soon.

How are you handling these increases?
 

verna davies

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Its the same here in Wales, recently the food I buy increased by 12% between Monday and Friday. I try to look for sales in shops and online and stock up, it's crazy.
 
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Antonio65

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Sometimes it is hard to stock up because even online shops are out of stock for something, and when the item is available again, the price has increased a lot!
 
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Antonio65

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Shop sales when I can, use places that have point systems and looking for better jobs....
Same here, I shop large amounts during sales or discounts, collect loyalty points at shops and use them as a rebate at the end of the year (like I did in December), but about my job, I have what I have.
 

Alldara

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Same here, I shop large amounts during sales or discounts, collect loyalty points at shops and use them as a rebate at the end of the year (like I did in December), but about my job, I have what I have.
That's fair. My wife and I are just starting in new fields. So lots of growth to go. 🤞 Something with human benefits, because cat benefits cost $27/month but human ones are over $200
 

Babypaws

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I live in Massachusetts and the prices here are getting out of hand. My 12 cats eat both wet and dry, went to get dry food the other day and there wasn’t any of the brand they eat, went back a couple days later and they had a few bags. Grabbed 2 22 pound bags while I could get it. Even Chewy has food “out of stock”. Seems like it’s harder to get cat food than people food..And then the can cat food has so many fillers, stuff cats normally wouldn’t eat (veggies) but that doesn’t stop them from raising the cost! After all, those big businesses still have to make their big profits! I think a lot of prices being so high is “price gouging”
 

rubysmama

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Same here In Canada. The food I buy for Ruby is now $4.29 per can, and I used to be able to get it for $2.99 per can. Not sure what percentage increase that is, but it's certainly considerable. I do get some free from time to time, using loyalty points, but it's still a very noticeable increase in my cat food budget. And I only have 1 cat. I really feel for cat parents with more than one cat, and/or those who feed colonies.
 

neely

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Yesterday I used a 20% off coupon for both wet and dry food at our local pet store. However, when I saw the total I knew something was up. Sure enough the 5# bag of dry food I give Carleton as a snack went up $2.00. Although the wet food price was the same I'm sure it will be going up soon too. :rolleyes:
 

KittyFriday

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It's definitely price gouging. These corporations all have record profits, at our expense.

I get food through Chewy or Petsmart - I like going to Petsmart because I can play the treat trail game and get a coupon. I'm not very good, I only get the second level coupon, but it used to be 20% off and now they've knocked it back to 15%. Any amount is nice but that was a punch to the gut, especially as I had to switch to more expensive food for my dog. I suppose I'm lucky though - I only have one dog and one cat and their food tends to last a long time. My parents have a bunch of cats and they go through multiple cans of food a day. They also have a really hard time even finding the canned food.
 

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So, it seems that there's also a shortage of pet food?
This is beyond corporations wanting to make profit, it's something different and more wicked in my opinion.
There has been rolling shortages across pet food companies here in North America. Which has led to more panic buying.

We switched from Royal Canin to Purina kitten because of RC shortages, and Purina could be bought at the grocery stores too in walking distance (we have 2 pet stores and many groceries within 15 min walk).

A few months later Purina was then effected. We called stores daily, I even called Purina and there were no bags within a 5 hour driving radius and many stores were shorted. We felt like jerks when we bought two bags when it finally came in to the grocer -- 10 bags total. But Magnus has a limited diet, we couldn't suppliment.

There was snow in Texas and apparently lots of the chicken for pet food (for North America) comes from there and many chickens died from cold. But it doesn't explain the continued shortages and price gouging.

They use stuff as an excuse and the continue with it.
 
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Antonio65

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There has been rolling shortages across pet food companies here in North America. Which has led to more panic buying.
[...]
There was snow in Texas and apparently lots of the chicken for pet food (for North America) comes from there and many chickens died from cold. But it doesn't explain the continued shortages and price gouging.
These shortages might be caused by this sudden cold in Texas (maybe), but no doubt that the many unexplainable fires and incidents in food processing factories and plants across the US and Canada have contributed to the shortages much more, and they can't be a coincidence, not so many, not in such a short period of time.
This is what I mean when I say "wicked".
 

neely

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I don't know how true it is or if this is a factor but one of the reasons for the cat food supply shortage was said to be caused by the increase in cat adoptions during the pandemic. Thoughts???
 

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I don't know how true it is or if this is a factor but one of the reasons for the cat food supply shortage was said to be caused by the increase in cat adoptions during the pandemic. Thoughts???
I know a combination of new adoptions, plus people keeping their pets alive longer and being more willing to take them to the vet is contributing to the veterinarian shortage in Canada.

I suppose more adoptions means less pets pts at shelters so more food needed?
 
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Antonio65

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I don't think that more adoptions meant shortage of pet food.
After all, these adopted cats were eating even before the adoption.

This thing of kill shelters is something that we don't know over here, it's so inhumane!
We should have a greater shortage of food, but we don't, only much higher prices.

Also, more pets in households don't contribute to shortage of vets here, because practices and clinics don't have a maximum number of patients.
 

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I know a combination of new adoptions, plus people keeping their pets alive longer and being more willing to take them to the vet is contributing to the veterinarian shortage in Canada.

I suppose more adoptions means less pets pts at shelters so more food needed?
But if the cats/kittens were in a shelter to begin with, they were being fed so I don’t see if that would effect the shortage?? Don’t know for sure but a few times I heard it was because there was shortage of the cans…i heard that in the beginning but doesn’t make sense either. I have noticed for the can cat food there’s more Pate food available than the morsels/filets texture….unfortunately my cats won’t eat Pate…
 

KittyFriday

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I don't know what's up. There is food around, but it's hard to find. It may be at one store, but not another, so they've just started grabbing a box when they can.

Human food is weird too, because my local Walmart and Kroger have shortages all the time, but the HyVee always has full shelves.
 

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It might be artificially arranged, or it might not. It seems odd that the massive corporations can't control their supply lines and production. However, here are some stats on Purina and Mars, just to let you know you needn't worry about them folding.

Nestle SA (which owns Purina) annual gross profit for 2021 was $45.954B, a 3.3% increase from 2020. Nestle SA annual gross profit for 2020 was $44.488B, a 4.37% decline from 2019.

More - Nestlé | Company Overview & News (forbes.com)

Mars Corporation – Revenue 45B

Mars | Company Overview & News (forbes.com)
 
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