Pet food costs increase

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Antonio65

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So no shortages, but the prices are going up all the same.
I would like to stock up for several months or a year, but the food that I buy online sometimes has a short life. This means that they have been having it in their storage for longer than a year. They're selling at a high price something that was worth less when they got it.
 

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Alldara

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My understanding was that more adoptions out = less euthanasia = more pets.

Then we add some crises that cause ingredient prices to go up, and they pass that on to us as consumers. (Chickens been on the rise here for awhile, particularly because feed prices went up for them before 2020).

As demand goes up, they raise the prices to see how much we will pay for things. I'll be interested to see if any drop again now that many are using pet food banks here.

Nestle is a hard one. Are those profits for pet foods only? They own so much...
 

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It's my understanding these figures are companywide profits showing the strength of the company to deal with obstacles. Mars corporation also is companywide and covers food, vets they own, and other things.
 
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Antonio65

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Clinics set their own maximums here based on what they are able to handle.

If anyone does happen to be curious, as to not derail Antonio's conversation, the reasons how is started are here: Canada's veterinarian shortage is shaping up to be a full-on crisis
That's strange.
Different countries, different rules.
Over here, on average in the last few years, every year about 60 new vets register in my province only (in Italy, a province is one of the smallest subdivisions of a territory... town -> province -> region). My province has 2.3 millions people over an area of 6,800 km² (2,600 square miles), and has currently 1770 registered vets.

Because of my activity with ferals and colonies, I am familiar with a few clinics and practices in my area and I have never heard they have trouble accepting new patients.
Anyway, tomorrow I have an appointment for two ferals, and I will surely ask them what their feeling on this situation is.
 
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Antonio65

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It's my understanding these figures are companywide profits showing the strength of the company to deal with obstacles. Mars corporation also is companywide and covers food, vets they own, and other things.
This is another thing that might be new here, corporations ownin vets, but again, I will ask my vets if they are owned or controlled by any company.
Vets in Italy do not sell pet food, even the prescription one.
All food, for all conditions, is sold at pet food stores, and renal, diabetic, intestinal, etc food is available to anyone on these stores' shelves. Sometimes vets can sell some drug, but they are generally the antibiotics or cortisone, just to help people start the therapy right away, rather than sending them to a pharmacy.
 

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I think here in US the vets get a kick back from selling prescription foods, which to me is way over priced. I think the consumers are getting screwed by these big companies, it’s not surprising how much profits they’re still making.
that includes prices of gas why should diesel gas be more expensive here when it takes less to be refined… so it makes a lot of the products that are delivered with these big trailer trucks etc. more costly to the consumer. Sorry I think I got off the subject of the price of cat food…..
 

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Antonio, you can do a search on the net put in "Who owns clinic name?"
That way you don't have to ask the vet face to face until you know and then only if you want to. Also, be aware that corporations sell their various assets to each other randomly. You'll want to check who owns your vet clinic every so often. AND, once you get the owner corporation's name, you might want to check "Who owns the owner corporation" you just discovered. layers upon layers for all sorts of business reasons.
 
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Antonio65

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Well, so this morning I had this appointment for these two ferals. After leaving the two cats in the vets' hands, I had a lovely talk with the lady at the front desk, and explained a few things that I have learned here.
I told her that most, if not all, vet practices and clinics in the US and Canada have a limit to the number of patients, and also that many appointments can be obtained only several weeks later. I also told her that it seems that US clinics are in the hands of big corporations which influence the politics of the clinic iteself, and that only vets can sell prescription foods.
I asked her if she's aware of such things here in Italy.

She said that in this country there is no limit to the number of patients that any clinic can handle. They are a small-sized clinic and have at least 1,000 regular customers. They wouldn't have any problem handling some hundreds more. Probably the waiting list could be a little longer, but they could still manage it. Currently, we can have an appointment in one or two days, sometimes even on the same day, even if it's not an emergency. I never had to wait for longer than 4 days, unless I decide to have an appointment on a specific day.
It also seems that no clinic in this country is owned by an international corporation, no clinic is being influenced by big brands in pharma and pet food industry.
The clinic where I go is part of a chain of clinics that counts some 300 clinics in the country, it's the largest chain of clinics in Italy, and they are independent. The owner of the chain has always rejected any offer to become part of something bigger, even when he was offered huge amounts of money. He said that as long as he is alive, his "creature" will be independent.

The only problem here is that vets are very poorly paid, and the young generation of vets do not like to work nighs and weekends, and this is the reason which will lead most clinics to give up the emergency department.
For instance, the clinic where I go stopped working 24 hours a day since yesterday, because none of the young vets wants to work nights, and senior ones are tired. The patients of this clinic will be diverted to another clinic of the same chain, only a few miles away.
 

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Given what Antonio has said, I think it is fair to suspect the 'we can't take any more clients' and "you have to wait rwo to three weeks for an appointment. Most unfortunate you pet died while waiting' are methods of driving the prices up. Sort of a fancy form of shortages.

In the US there are in large cities emergency vets to take the night calls. They are very expensive and just do patch your pet together until you can get to a regular vet. So if you don't happen to live near an emergency vet, no night vet for you in the US either.

What you describe, Antonio, is what it was like before the corporations decided there was money to be made off sick and dying pets just as other corporations discovered there was money to be made off sick and dying people. Actually, I'm surprised it took the corporations buying vet practices as long as it did to figure it out.
 

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Antonio65 Antonio65 What an interesting conversation! Thanks for sharing.

It used to be like that here back when Nobel was young. I could be seen at any vet same-day, even one I wasn't already a client at. The limitations have a lot to do with the shortage of vets (here in Canada), rather than set limits by a government or corporation.

We have a lot of vets that are IN corporations, but that has to do with liability and not big companies buying them.
 

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I think I'm lucky to be near to a vet school. They have an emergency department and it also means there is no real shortage of vets here - lots graduate who open their own practices in the surrounding towns because they want to stay in the area. We do have some corporate vets (Petco and Petsmart) but the independent practices far outweigh the corporate ones.

The only thing is that some must be stretched thin. Our regular vet just has one vet on staff I believe, so she can only see so many patients in a day, which means that it may take a bit to get an appointment. The vet we switched from has multiple exam rooms and vets, so they can almost always get you in same-day. I may switch back to them just for that, even if they are more expensive.
 

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Dry food has def gone up, but I don't think the wet food I feed them has at least =/
 

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There is a shortage, food chain they say. Our Walmart has had empty shelves since last spring. The outside cats favorite Friskies has been out since then too, I have to get it online. The dry food side has a few bags here and there. I grab it when it comes in or order online. Their wet food finally came in and I bought a case. I hate doing that, but I hate coming in several times week and checking too. The prices were 52 cents a can last spring, now 74 cents. That is Friskies. Over a dollar a can at the local grocery, 80 cents at our Dollar General. i can get it in a pinch at Tractor Supply, but it is 79 cents a can. I started feeding more dry which they prefer anyway. I'm just so afraid these prices will never come down again. My retirement check sure hasn't gone up enough to cover everything. My gas bill more than doubled from last year, for almost the same amount of therms. Just 15 more therms than last year. I checked. so it is definitely higher too. Wait till all those electric cars, electricity will be outrageous! when we aren't in a blackout!
 

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I went to the pet store today, and fancy feast was in very short supply. I don't feed it often, but I like keeping it on hand for anyone who goes on a hunger strike. My work cats love dry as snacks or the occasional meal if I'm running low on other types of food, and I got two big bags for 10 bucks off a piece, so that was a huge win!
The problem is their raw food, rabbit is crazy expensive per pound and despite the price, I haven't been able to get any for awhile. Duck is almost the same. So it's been chicken and turkey (and a bit of beef for the cats that handle it) for awhile and will probably stay that way. I order that every 8 weeks or so, and it's several hundred.
 
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Antonio65

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I'm just so afraid these prices will never come down again. My retirement check sure hasn't gone up enough to cover everything. My gas bill more than doubled from last year, for almost the same amount of therms. Just 15 more therms than last year. I checked. so it is definitely higher too. Wait till all those electric cars, electricity will be outrageous! when we aren't in a blackout!
It's the same fear that I have, prices only go up, they rarely go down to what they were before a crisis.
I'm stocking up as much as I can when there are offers, discounts, sales.
Electric cars will likely put the power network under stress, and I'm afraid we will see lots of outages soon.
 
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Antonio65

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I went to the pet store today, and fancy feast was in very short supply. I don't feed it often, but I like keeping it on hand for anyone who goes on a hunger strike. My work cats love dry as snacks or the occasional meal if I'm running low on other types of food, and I got two big bags for 10 bucks off a piece, so that was a huge win!
The problem is their raw food, rabbit is crazy expensive per pound and despite the price, I haven't been able to get any for awhile. Duck is almost the same. So it's been chicken and turkey (and a bit of beef for the cats that handle it) for awhile and will probably stay that way. I order that every 8 weeks or so, and it's several hundred.
I'm on hunt for all sales and offers that I found online to stock up some dry and wet food for my cats and the colony.
Also, I take advantage of the coupons that physical stores give me when I shop and spend over a certain amount. Now I have three 15% off coupons to be used by Feb 14th.
Three coupons are too many, I will only use one and I will give the others to someone else.
 
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