Things that annoy you...

Apparently, according to The NY Times, we are not. Ten million filers, including us, have not yet received their federal income tax refund. Due to the IRS being under-funded, under-staffed, people out sick due to Covid, etc., etc.

I feel like screaming.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Nothing upsets me more than going to Stop and Shop & the shelves are STILL half-empty of canned cat food. I would go without food before I let my cats be hungry. I managed to find some, but it’s the same old flavors every time. So sick of this pandemic & its shortages. Apparently, Fancy Feast, which is what my cats eat, is the #1 cat food hard to find right now.

I also feel like screaming over this.

Fake Shortages...at least that's been claimed and is being investigated. I'm with you, I'm sick of half empty shelves and prices are raising too...I smell profiteering.

Profiteering, maybe. The NY Times yesterday put it down to shortage of truck drivers, ships stuck in ports, other workers out sick with Covid, etc. You’re probably right though.

I don’t have a problem finding my own stuff (I actually only eat certain things), but, as I said, the barren shelves that should be filled with my cats’ needs fill me with great anxiety.

It's pretty much just anxiety over working and everything else, causing certain mechanisms not to work as smoothly as they used to. Time to get different products...


Also, i suspect the COVID regulations having a lot to do with this...nothing slows down people as much as telling them not to do something.

Surmising you don’t have cats. Cats are very finicky. Not at first, but, when they get used to a single brand, it’s very hard to switch it. In any event, this is moot since Stop and Shop has almost no cat food of any brand. It just makes me mental that animals suffer because of us.

Unfortunately this has been an issue pretty much across the pet food industry. I'm the one who does most of the ordering for the prescription diets my work carries (Royal Canin and Purina) and it's been a huge struggle trying to get what our patients need. Each of my cats eats a different prescription food (one has urinary issues and the other gets horrible diarrhea if I feed him anything else) and I've taken to ordering their food at least a month before I actually think I'll need more just because the supply has been so unreliable. So many backorders and cancelled orders and so many upset pet owners who often take that frustration out on me.

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When you say an issue, because of the pandemic or even before it?

Sad to know I’m not the only one upset. I derive no comfort from this. Walgreens this a.m. had no Fancy Feast. When my supplies get low, I just go out & buy almost everything I see. This week, I’ve been to Stop and Shop, Walgreens, CVS, Family Dollar & two local convenience stores. Like you, I don’t drive so it’s a hell of a shlepp. In addition to my sole indoor cat (my other cat recently went OTRB), we feed up to 8 or so outdoor cats. They don’t all come at once, but if they want food there’s usually something to be found.

It bugs me so much that all the ones they really like - chicken with cheese, the creamy delights, etc. have completely vanished.

Yes, I could order online, but Fancy Feast has so many flavors it would necessitate me buying many boxes, which doesn’t suit me at all.

This too will pass I suppose.

actually i have two cats, they basically eat anything that has protein in it...i go between canned chicken, this dr. hill brand dental dry stuff (since one of my cats had oral surgery and it was very expensive...), and then whatever wet brand there is, the chicken and the wet stuff ensures they get enough water even though they really love the dry stuff...

Because of the pandemic. The only time we experienced anything like this was when Royal Canin's computer system got hacked several years ago and it took months for them to get everything up and running again.

Fancy Feast is one of the most popular brands and is recommended for diabetic cats due to the low carbohydrate content of the pate varieties. I'm in a group for owners of diabetic cats and a lot of people in the group are panicking over this. Even ordering online has been an issue for some due to delayed shipments and receiving the wrong products.

I didn’t know this. It’s difficult because you know how cats can be. Other brands look delicious to me, but our cats won’t touch them. They would rather go hungry than eat something not quite titillating.

Miss Vicky, thanks for what you do for animals. I know people can be very trying & difficult where their pets are concerned. Kudos to you for helping the pets & their owners.

I think the shortages are mostly Covid caused, but I seen a news article headline about investigations into the shortages. But I didn't read the article so that's all I can say. Shouldn't I be typing this on the Covid thread

OMG! We just went to Safeway for a few things and looked for cat food. The store was pretty well stocked except the cat food isle which was almost barren. There were some individual cans of Fancy Feast (the preferred food of our two lovely cats). So we bought some, but not all of it because my wife being the caring person she is said we should leave some food on the shelves for other cats. I agreed.

On a related note, I think there's a shortage in the raw materials used in Fancy Feast. Several people in my diabetic cat group have reported their cats suddenly refusing to eat the newly purchased cans despite them being the same flavors the cats are used to. The running theory is that the company may have had to change up their ingredients to compensate for supply shortages of the usual ingredients. I don't feed either of my cats canned food at all, so I don't have any first hand knowledge, but have seen several posts about the issue in my Facebook feed.

Thanks for posting that. It makes sense too I could see that ingredient shortages could happen. I just hope our cats eat what we bought because our older female cat is very picky. It's kinda of scary actually seeing the cat food section so barren.

What do you feed your cats, Vicky?

The older one, Jasper, is on a prescription urinary diet after he developed crystals and an obstruction several years back. He doesn't get canned food because he refuses to eat canned food.

The younger one, Copper, gets a prescription hydrolyzed protein diet - which only comes in dry. After over a year of chronic diarrhea that didn't respond to specialized gastrointestinal diets, multiple kinds of probiotics, prescription medications, fiber supplementation, and even fecal microbiota transplant capsules, I tried the hydrolyzed food and the diarrhea finally resolved. I was hesitant to switch him to it because he didn't have the classic signs of food allergy and because the hydrolyzed food is not low in carbs (he's an in-remission diabetic), but now that I have, I'm not switching to anything else.

I wonder how pets even get diabetes, can't be from too much mountain dew...

Yeah, Catholic guilt prevents me from taking every single can that I see.

Isn’t it odd that there seems to be no shortage of dry cat food, including Fancy Feast? (My cats eat wet & dry.)

It’s so scary. Just another level of stress to deal with.

People at the cash register who, when they’ve paid, start sorting out their stuff while people behind them are waiting. People, when you’ve paid, please move along.

Amen to that!... Citizen being such a good citizen always gets the hell out of the way as soon as I'm done paying at any store. Same at the gas station: I pay, pump the gas, get in the vehicle and leave so the next person behind me can get to the gas pump. I can't stand it when someone is done pumping gas but sets there in their car playing with their phone for 5 more minutes.