Can you still afford to feed the very best pet food?

I recently received an email alerting to a price increase from one of my favorite natural, holistic pet food companies, Trilogy International, whose natural pet products line is marketed under the HealthyPetNet brand name.  My many rescue kitties have been on this food since January 2006.  I found this super premium food when I went looking for a volume discount program because, as you can imagine, a holistic pet food bill for that many animals can be quite expensive.  And, indeed, I was able to drop my pet food expenses quit a bit with their wholesale program.

But with these increases, I just wondered what was happening throughout the pet food industry.  I’ve noticed that people who used to be insistent upon feeding high quality, safe pet foods to their pets seem to be scaling back on pet food expenditures.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s Consumer Price Index, pet food prices for April, May, and June of 2008 rose by 8-9%.  It’s not as much as milk and gasoline rose (milk is up 28% over last year!), but we’re seeing the most significant price increase for pet food in years.

HealthyPetNet had already raised prices in May of 2008.  If I’m not mistaken, this was their first price increase in years.  And here, we had a second price increase within just a few months.

I wondered if that was normal across the pet food industry.  Guess what?  It is.  Del Monte Foods, maker of Meow Mix, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Milk Bone and other familiar pet foods, said it would raise prices an average of 5.5 percent across its lines effective this month. The company already had raised prices in February, following increases made last spring.

PetSmart says they are seeing pet food prices rise from 6 to 12 percent.  Hill’s Science Diet Dog Food is up $2 per bag.  Purina Dog Chow has shrunk from 50 lb. to 44 lb., but the retail price has remained the same at about $17. The story is much the same with Pedigree’s Complete Nutrition, which has shrunk from a 44-lb. bag to 40 lb. That bag sells for about $18. (Source: KCRA.com)

PetAge.com reports that some of the high-end specialty pet food stores are seeing price increases of a higher order, with some retailers noting increases from 15 to 25 percent!

Is it affecting the way people shop?  Yes and no.  Definitely, some people who were on ultra-high end pet foods seem to be scaling back.  One specialty pet food owner in California noted that his store’s sales were down 50 percent.  But other pet owners are brand-loyal;  they’ve found a good, safe pet food and they are not switching away.

I have to confess, I’m one of the brand loyal people.  But I’m not one-single-brand-loyal.  HealthyPetNet is always my first choice, but when I’m between shipments (because with many kitties, it’s sometimes hard to plan consumption just right), I’ve been known to feed Authority, Blue Buffalo, Wellness, and Solid Gold Dry Foods.  For canned, I feed Instinctive Choice, Felidae, PetGuard, Halo Spots Stew, Wellness, and others.

Where I scale back when the price of pet food goes up is on the canned cat food.  I refuse to feed the low-grade, wheat gluten and by-product brands, so I still feed expensive.  But I don’t feed it at every meal or even every day.  Unless I have a special needs kitty, my cats only get canned food once or twice a week, as a treat.  Hopefully, that will change because they really need and want the nice canned foods.

Going back to the HealthyPetNet price increase, compared to what we just read, it’s looking pretty reasonable.

In part, they said:

For almost ten years, we have provided our reps and their customers with the highest-quality products at competitive prices.  We refuse to skimp on ingredients because we will not permit a reduction in the quality of our products.  When it comes to companion animals, their health always comes before the considerations of cost.

To be able to continue providing our high-quality Life’s Abundance Health Foods for Dogs and Cats, we must implement another moderate price increase effective August 4th.  We want you to know that we are not taking profits from this increase, we are only offsetting the cost increases we have incurred.

• It will cost only 4 cents a day or 28 cents a week more to feed a 30 lb. dog Life’s Abundance Health Food
   

• It will cost only 2 cents a day or 14 cents a week more to feed a 30 lb. dog Life’s Abundance Weight-Loss Formula
   

• It will cost only 1 cent a day or 7 cents a week more to feed a 12 lb. cat Life’s Abundance Health Food

• Life’s Abundance Wellness Food Supplement for Dogs will ship in larger bottles, so while the price of the bottle is higher, it contains more product and will, therefore, actually cost 20 cents LESS per day.

You know what?  1 cent more per day per cat is not bad.  I was looking at the cost of the bag, which was making me worry, so I like that they broke it out per animal per day. 

To keep my kitties on a safe, healthy food is so important to me.  We haven’t had a bladder infection or struvite crystals ever in this rescue household.  No pancreatitis, no diabetes.  The only cat with kidney failure was an old rescue kitty who came in with that problem (and he lived a good, healthy year exclusively on the high end canned food).  These cats have beautiful, healthy coats, clear eyes and ears, and they seem to be able to avoid the chronic upper respiratory illnesses that so many cats get. 

I guess sometimes you just need to get the facts and think it through.  For me, it’s worth the added expense to keep my kitties on the best foods out there.

Teresa Holladay
IsYourPetFoodSafe.com

P.S.  If you know of other holistic pet foods that offer discount programs, please let me know.  Those of us with many animals to feed need every advantage to keep our expenses as low as possible!

•   HealthyPetNet has a free autoship program that gets you a 20% discount.  If you don’t want autoship, please use the Contact Us form on the HealthyPetNet link to ask us (my sister and I) to set you up as a wholesale customer;  it’s free.  Breeders have a special program for a low fee, please ask about that if you are a breeder.  Rescues have a program, again, please ask about that on the Contact Us form.
• Mulligan Stew has a club that for $25 a year gets you a 25% discount on their food.