Question of the Day, Friday, January 21

Winchester

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Good morning! :wave3:

The other day I went to Chewy for cat food for the girls and found very little for Friskies Buffet pate. Same at Petsmart, same at Petco online. I finally found some at Target and ordered several cases. Some of the cases are coming early next week with the rest following at the end of next week. It's gotten ridiculous. Our local news channel had a report on about canned cat food shortages. I haven't found Friskies in any store now in months; I switched their dry kibble over to another flavor of Friskies, too, because I haven't seen their favorite flavor in months. My SIL was in PetSmart a few weeks ago and they were stocking the Friskies shelves. And as soon as they did, a couple women came in and took every single can they had on the shelves, pate, prime filets, shredded, everything. She talked to them and both women had one cat. They said they come in to keep their stash in supply. I guess cat food is my big thing that I'm having trouble keeping in supply. I can pretty much get everything else, although our local Giant is, once again, putting limits on paper products. Prices, though, well that's another story.

Have you been able to find everything you need to keep your kitchen/home/pet supply stocked? What are you looking for that you can't find? Anything?
 

di and bob

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Cat food is the main one, I order much of it on Amazon now, or Target. Walmart's shelves have been mostly empty for months now. I am starting to see a lot of empty shelves again especially in the food isles, but have been lucky, often getting the last one of what I need. Meat is absolutely ridiculous, 6.99/lb for a roast!? 6.00/lb for pork chops!? I talked to some local ranchers and they aren't getting any more for their cattle, so it is the middle man. A couple of years ago I was getting pork chops in the family packs for 1.99lb! Good thing we are on a diet now and eating mostly rabbit food, that's bad too, but not yet out of sight. All these people that wanted such big pay increases sure are paying the price now! I am still hearing that almost no business can get help, and when they get the pay high enough to attract someone, they can't afford it. Most of our restaurants close early and stores have adjusted their hours down.
 

Jem

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So far I've been lucky to get everything I need but I have noticed some shelves are a little more bare than usual. We do have a complete shortage of kellog's cereals, but it's not just due to Covid or shipping issues. Several plants are on strike which is contributing. We haven't been able to get rice krispies among a few other types of cereal for a few months now. It doesn't bother me much as I'm not a huge cereal connoisseur, but I had wanted to use rice krispies for some of my Christmas baking...so I had to improvise and change up what I made over the holidays.
Thankfully, none of my kitties have any allergies and are pretty good about eating whatever I've put in front of them since adopting them. If I can't get the brand I feed them now, I'll just try a new one. They also don't have any issues with switching up their litter, so I'll be good there too if my litter becomes hard to get.
 

artiemom

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I have been having a terrible time getting cat food. It has been happening since 2020, when Royal Canin decided to change their formula and can size.. They blamed it all on Covid.

Geoffrey is eating prescription food, doing pretty well with it (rabbit). I did order a different brand, but I think it does not agree with him. I have a few boxes of those, in stock.

Right now, Royal Canin, has been sold to Mars... another story...
I called the them; only to find out that all of their prescript canned food seems to be out of stock!! with no estimate of a restocking date, anywhere.

There does not seem to be an issue with the dry food~~ as of yet.. but if they cannot keep the wet in stock, then I am certain the dry will be soon be short in supply.

Other than the cat food, I am ok with finding what I need. Yes, the shelves are really bare, at times.--then these items seem to return 2-3 weeks later. My oatmeal was out of stock, for a long time. I had to order some from Amazon.

It seems I am having more of an issue with the prices. They are outrageous; when you ahve to pay $7 plus for ground beef (hamburger)---it is ridiculous.

Oh, for the days when I had a store room.
 

Willowy

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My mom is having trouble finding the flavors of Friskies her cats like. Finding cat food in general is not the issue, just not what you want when you want it. So far the cat food I buy has been fine. It also depends on the store; Pet Supplies Plus was fully stocked on everything, including all Friskies flavors, but Fleet Farm had almost no cat food (just an example of 2 stores I've been to in the last week).
 

Lari

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We keep not finding Mountain Dew Zero for my husband, which is his caffeine vice. I got a ton of cat food before Christmas and we still have another week or two's worth. We feed Wellness, which I haven't noticed supply issues.
 

NY cat man

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We have enough cat food laid in to last several months. We also stocked up on non-perishable foods and paper products while they were still available. The bread shelves have been pretty barren at the stores, but Michele bought and froze bread flour and yeast so she makes what we need. For milk, we have been using powdered for over a year now. We get that in 10 pound bags at BJ's. I guess you could say that we were preppers before it was cool
 

susanm9006

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Yes, wet cat food is a problem. My two only eat Fancy Feast beef pates and Nutro Chicken and Liver. Stores are nearly empty of Fancy feast but I can still buy it online through Chewy. The Nutro is another story. Chewy is out and has been out of most flavors for a month, and Amazon who I ordered from a few weeks ago is also all out. I did just find some order from Petco which will give me about a two month supply but it’s a little unnerving.
 

AbbysMom

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Whenever I go to the supermarket there are empty spaces. Cat food was dicey for a bit but seems to be a bit better and I've got a small stockpile now. With Abby's allergies/IBD/kidney issues and her general pickiness it is hard to find foods that she can/will eat. One of her supplements was out of stock for quite a few months online. I was able to get it at the vet, but it was double the coast. A particular mouthwash I use has been MIA. Sometimes it's my husband's preferred shampoo or shaving cream. Lettuce has been tough but that is because of recalls.
 

allmykitties

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My main issue is with cat supplies more than any other household item. I have been having significant trouble finding the correct wet foods (Circe, my 14yo cat, only eats Sheba pate that comes in those 'perfect portion' twin packs ... there was none in the store when I was there yesterday for the other cats' food, but I do still have 10 days of food for her to keep looking). Jemmy and Leo like Fancy Feast in gravy (shreds) .. I was able to get that (who would have thought that 15 months ago, they were living outside and hunting down their dinners ... they moved indoors with me in November 2020, got fixed, and now they're approaching their 2nd birthdays). Last time, I had to get something different, but at least they were willing to give it a try. The other four (Autumn, Domino, TV, Cosette) like Friskies pates, and that's the only one that I haven't had to struggle significantly to get.

Also cat litter. I use the Tidy Cat Free & Clean (non scented), and have been having major issues getting that--there's plenty of the kinds that have scents, and I'll get that if I'm desperate enough, but I really don't like using the scented stuff (and they all prefer the non-scented).
 

kashmir64

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Been having trouble finding Fancy Feast. Kumal (my black cat) can only eat pate without throwing up and the stores have only had a couple of cans when I go in. I can find only Sheba, but those things are not enough for 3 cats, and mine don't like it.
 

neely

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Same as everyone else, i.e. cat food shortages everywhere. It's kinda scary because Carleton is very picky so I can't really substitute although I may start trying just in case we run out. I don't want to become a cat food hoarder because I know other cat parents are looking for the same supplies but I'm also worried about running low. Trader Joe's has been out of some of my regular go-to items which I really like, e.g. no salt peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets and organic lentil vegetable soup (they have one from a different vendor but it's not half as good).
 

denice

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For some reason Kroger was well stocked with cat food last week when I went. It had been a while since it was like that. I only got a little extra. I simply am not going to clean off shelves when things are the way they are. Other people have cats that need fed as well.
 

Boris Diamond

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There was an article on CNN that mentioned the items that people are having trouble getting. Cat food was at the top of the list.

I went into a local grocery store about a month ago and the Fancy Feast had gone from $.72 to $.99 overnight! I went home and ordered five cases. I have been ordering cases from Amazon and Chewy regularly since then and I have about 12 cases of FF, 4 cases of Sheba and a case of Weruva Peking Chicken. Also several cases of other assorted brands and flavors. I am going to keep ordering ahead and keeping a several month supply.
 
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