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a different pet-food problem
Aug. 21st, 2007 11:29 pmNo, not poison this time -- just availability.
For years I've been feeding my cats Tender Vittles, a soft, non-messy food, because vets had warned me about an all-dry-food diet and, well, canned food is messy and expensive. We now do use some canned food, but it's for medicine delivery and to put weight on the underweight cats; it's restricted. Tender Vittles fills a useful niche.
A couple years ago it disappeared from local stores. But hey, internet to the rescue -- a few times a year I mail-order a couple cases and all is well. My last order came with a nice bonus: each box contained a $1.50 coupon for canned food that I can use, and each box cost less than that $1.50, so, hey, free food. I suppose in retrospect that should have raised a red flag.
It's time to re-order, and the stuff is nowhere to be found online. I've just learned that Purina discontinued the product in March because of "low consumer interest". Y'know, removing it from stores can have that effect... Grumble.
The internet tells me that it's only been discontinued in the US and it's still being made in Canada. Purina's Canadian web site doesn't talk about it in the past tense yet. However, thus far I have been unable to find any Canadian source that actually supports online sales. Can any of my Canadian readers suggest a source?
Alternatively, can anyone suggest similar food to occupy that niche? It's not that Tender Vittles is magic; it's just the only member of the class I've encountered. (Remember, non-messy is desirable, so the pouches of stuff with gobs of gravy aren't really what I'm looking for.)
For years I've been feeding my cats Tender Vittles, a soft, non-messy food, because vets had warned me about an all-dry-food diet and, well, canned food is messy and expensive. We now do use some canned food, but it's for medicine delivery and to put weight on the underweight cats; it's restricted. Tender Vittles fills a useful niche.
A couple years ago it disappeared from local stores. But hey, internet to the rescue -- a few times a year I mail-order a couple cases and all is well. My last order came with a nice bonus: each box contained a $1.50 coupon for canned food that I can use, and each box cost less than that $1.50, so, hey, free food. I suppose in retrospect that should have raised a red flag.
It's time to re-order, and the stuff is nowhere to be found online. I've just learned that Purina discontinued the product in March because of "low consumer interest". Y'know, removing it from stores can have that effect... Grumble.
The internet tells me that it's only been discontinued in the US and it's still being made in Canada. Purina's Canadian web site doesn't talk about it in the past tense yet. However, thus far I have been unable to find any Canadian source that actually supports online sales. Can any of my Canadian readers suggest a source?
Alternatively, can anyone suggest similar food to occupy that niche? It's not that Tender Vittles is magic; it's just the only member of the class I've encountered. (Remember, non-messy is desirable, so the pouches of stuff with gobs of gravy aren't really what I'm looking for.)