Why Don't We Carry Hills Science Diet, Royal Canin, or Purina?
We get asked this question a lot, from our long time customers and new customers that are just finding us. We have grown a ton over the last couple years and its a common question we answer. Especially if you have recently visited your veterinarian who has advised you to feed one of these foods. I am going to stay away from conspiracy theories and using strong language here. In addition, I absolutely will not be blaming veterinarians. These are my opinions alone, and any care or food you feed your furbabies is up to you, or you and your veterinarian.
For me, the above picture speaks volumes. The big 3 brands use ALOT of what I would consider cheap low cost ingredients. Then, they sell their products at very high prices. In comparison, our highest moving bag in the store (FROMM Classic) is all natural, is a 30lb bag, that costs $44.99 HERE, while a 35lb bag of Purina Pro Plan costs $75 HERE. In addition, when buying from a local pet supply store who works with brands like FROMM, you get additional deals like every 12 bags you buy you get 1 free, which is provided by the brand. So breaking that down a little further, with Fromm you are paying $1.49/lb and with Purina you are paying $2.13/lb.
Value Winner: FROMM (and most other brands in our store)
Let's talk a little more about the ingredients. You can use websites such as Dog Food Advisor HERE, or PawDiet HERE . These are not the end all be all, but they are very very helpful websites that help give a general idea of different foods. They both list out what they like and don't like in foods, and they aren't backed or tied to any brand, they are just an unaffiliated source that is very helpful to pet owners. The above picture comes from PawDiet where I did a comparison between FROMM and Royal Canin. FROMM uses very few "controversial" ingredients, where as Royal Canin uses a TON. On the site, you can click on these and they can tell you why they are controversial. Only Royal Canin in this comparison uses what are considered harmful ingredients. Again, FROMM is cheaper, and has much better and natural ingredients. Not one single pet food in our store uses cheap fillers like Corn, Wheat, or Soy. We also have no foods in the store that use cheap meat sources (By-products).
Ingredient Winner: FROMM (and ALL other brands in our store)
This next one is really more of an irritation point to me. These brands know how to make good food, but choose not to because they can make more profit and use cheaper ingredients because they can get away with it in the United States. The EU has much stricter guidelines when it comes to pet food. Quick synopsis (AI generated for transparency):
Now lets look at those stricter guidelines:
Essentially boiling down to, if you can't feed it to people, it cannot go in Pet Food. We actually saw a real time event happen recently where a high quality European Brand built a plant here in the US. Upon completion of that US plant, they started adding cheaper ingredients to the food which caused a loss of MANY customers and being dropped by Pet Stores (including us). In my OPINION for these big brands, it is Profit > Quality and what is best for your pet. They know how to make better pet food and do it in other countries, but do not here in the US, and use cheaper ingredients here in the US while selling the bags for a high price for a higher profit. We have brands in the store that originated in Canada for example (Open Farm), as well as brands that were born here in the US and have been operating since 1904 (FROMM) that choose to offer better ingredient/quality pet foods.
So why does my Veterinarian recommend Purina, Royal Canin, or Science Diet? I AM NOT speaking ill of veterinarians. They do not receive kickbacks like you hear folks claim. GO TO YOUR VET, get your vaccines, learn from them and keep your furbaby healthy! In my OPINION , it is not an issue with vets, but systemic problem with money and profits are involved from politics to education. The Big 3 fund alot of the education in veterinary programs. Again, while this likely discredits what I am saying, it sums it up pretty well, so here is another AI generation from a simple search asking "Do vets receive nutrition education in veterinarian school":
So, for those that made it this far, thank you for reading. This is a long winded answer to a common question we get as to why we do not carry Purina, Royal Canin, or Science Diet. When we looked at opening our store, we originally looked at franchises, but we didn't want to be told what we had to carry because we genuinely want you to have the best for your pets. So we sold our house to commit to that. We truly believe the foods we carry provide you with better quality ingredients, and at a lower cost than what you can buy commercially at big box stores. We do have higher priced foods and items, but we also have quality at affordable prices where you don't need to compromise the nutrition of your pets.
Comments
Post a Comment