What to do when faced with supply issues

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Sooner or later available supply is likely to become an issue for your doods fav food.  What to do?  Build yourself options now.  Recently I had a couple of people inquire of me if I had any knowledge as to the cause of the Orijen/ACANA fish product shortages.  I got a little windy and decided to just throw this in as a discussion (hope that is okay Karen).  Following is my recent attempted response FYI, but I thought this might also be an outstanding place to report supply issues, alternatives, etc... 

 

02.16.10

The shortages of the the products which have fish as the sole protein, 6
fish Orijen and ACANA Pacifica actually began November-ish.  As I have come
to understand it this is not about manufacturing but rather the quotas
being met for the fishing licenses.  This is the second year I have
experienced this as a user of the products and knowing this to be so I can
tell you that next year I will plan to stock up on those products by
November to carry through perhaps February.  I have heard nothing of a U.S.
manufacturer and would say this is highly unlikely, if they were going to
compromise quality they would do so in outsourcing fish suppliers which
clearly they are unwilling to do or there would not be a supply issue. 
Honestly as much of an inconvenience as it is, this very evidence of the
control they wish to maintain over their ingredients further drives my current
loyalty to the product. 

 

You are correct I rotate through the entire ACANA grain free line and the
Orijen line.  Unless I have 'baby puppies' who have only begun to eat kibble each
bag is different from the one before.  By the time the babies go home, they too
have begun a rotation diet.  I do this for several reasons, the primary being after
the 2007 recalls I do not ever want to not know where I am going next again should there be
an issue.  Even when we are content with our food we never stop looking and test
driving the taste buds of our doodles here.  Second, what if your doodle say developed a
routine and taste for only lamb and suddenly there was an export problem from New Zealand,
now what?  Third we develop allergies by exposure, chicken is often the first protein
source dogs may have an issue with if they are prone to have such problems.  It is the
reason we continue to see more exotic meats roll out for our pets.  Think of rotation as your
built in plan B.  By the way I do the same with my cats, with even more diligence because cats
seem to get more set in their ways and faced with a forced food change will practically
starve themselves.

 

I have selected a food for our primary kibble that I know to be more
vulnerable to issues that may affect the supply on the shelves so I have built myself options.
Sometimes the factor may be weather, the FDA complaining that the label reads 'fresh never frozen'
and requiring the entire load to be returned with new packaging to remove the word 'fresh' (really
happened), availability of ingredients and in this case the licensing period coming to a close.  In
addition to the ACANA and Champion line, we throw a bag of Petcurean (another outstanding
Canadian company) 'NOW', which is a grain free line about every 5-6 bags, we also toss in a bag of
Petcurean's 'GO' Salmon and Oatmeal - beautiful nice and simple formula.  There are others we throw in the mix and I am reviewing a new selection currently.  Several times a week 
our diet may also include some homecooked meals, commercial raw food and
Ziwi Peak air dried food. 

 

I hope you find some of this helpful and thank you for your patience with me,
time has become a luxury I mostly daydream of but still steal some moments to
catch up with our friends at doodlekisses. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think it's a great idea to post this advice, which we have discussed before, but with so many new members, bears repeating.
In my own case, my local stores were short on the regular Adult Orijen formula, the mainly fowl based one. Although we made do with the other two formulas, I did get nervous and started looking at other options. I did try a bag of EVO herring formula, which Jack (and my nostrils) hated, and investigated a few others. I do have a couple of other foods in mind to use if I had to switch, but it would probably be a good idea to buy a bag or two and try it now.
I urge all FG members to do this. Let's make it a kind of unofficial "assignment"! Within the next couple of weeks, try to pick out a food that you would use if your current formula(s) or brand(s) were not available. Those of you who are active here have all the tools you need, and this will be a good test of what you've learned. We can discuss our choices here, too!
Thanks for starting this, Dianne!

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Not a problem. As you are aware some of my input comes from assisting a friend in her premium pet food store with consultations on the weekends. The voices that speak for their furkids are not always scientific but are often the bread crumbs that begin my trail as when you begin to have a number of consistencies it warrants a closer look. I can tell you that many who also tried the EVO complained of very gassy tummies and significant stool changes. Those that have used the Petcurean have resulted in some coming in for an additional bag. The only thing I have turned up on Petcurean involved a time when they sourced manufacturing to a U.S. company that I am not terribly fond of, following that they pulled it from them.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Petcurean was one of the companies that did have a voluntary recall in 2007, related to the Chinese melamine recalls and the brokerage companies involved. Marion Nestle has the details in her book. However, this doesn't mean that there is still a problem. I know of a few people who use it and would be willing to try it on your recommendation.
I am looking also at Horizon Legacy, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Fromm's grain-free "Surf & Turf", and one I recently heard of called Organix. And I just might try Solid Gold's "barking at the Moon" one of these days.
But Jack really, really loves the Orijen and has been doing so well on it. He has forsaken his beloved fish recently in favor of meat, and he is crazy for the Regional Red Orijen formula...which of course is even more expensive than the 6 Fresh Fish formula. Sigh. For a dog born in a puppy mill, he certainly has taken the "Designer Dog" moniker to heart!

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Here is some interesting reading on the troubles of Petcurean I made reference to ~
http://itchmoforums.com/news-recall-related/in-depth-look-at-2003-p..., as stated it was being manufactured by one of my non favorite Texas companies.

Yes the Regional Red is the bomb too, I do already have knowledge that it may not always be a consistent supply so the key theme here is rotate, rotate, rotate.

I had been interested in Horizon Legacy but am reserving comment at this time and am not currently moving forward with that selecetion.

On Blue products used them a long time ago, when I have questioned reps of distributors whether they could guarantee there were no Chinese ingredients I have been told no they could not. As all things change it calls for a new inquiry.

Big sighs on price here too, as my dogs go more 'natural', so do I as my highlight budget has rolled over into my doodle kibble =0

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Now I'm not sure if they did voluntarily recall any foods in 2007. It may have been 2003. I don't own the book so can't look it up.

[Beth & Piper]

Dianne, Thank you for posting this here instead of just back to me. I do think this is something we all need to think about. While I had hear there was a shortage with the Acana in the late Fall, I never had trouble getting it at my local store. Imagine my surprise when I went in to get a bag of food last week and was told there was none to be found. Luckily, Bailey is doing great with the Grassland formula, so I do think I will now rotate between Pacifica and Grassland.

Now, should we all think of another food from a different company in the event the current manufacturer has an issue? I am thinking I should, but don't want to! I guess now that I know that Bailey can handle a protein other than fish, I have more options. I think I will stay grain free, the decision is which grain free to try. Because he is only 9 months old I didn't want to go with one of the higher proteins yet; just not ready for the grief from my vet! Time to research foods yet again!!

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Don't feel you have to reinvent the wheel Beth, there are many that have likely already done the ground work here for you ~ it's a beautiful thing!

[Bronwen Watts]

Great discussion as I recently ran into this problem with the Acana Pacifica, which we had only just switched to. Already had my back-up plan though because of this group! On a plus note, I spoke with a Champion rep on Friday, who told me that within a week or so stores will have the products available again, and they are working hard to make sure that they won't have such extensive supply problems again--they've increased production staff & hours, and have been working with suppliers to increase their supply and keep it more steady.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Yes I have heard the same, all caught up by the end of February ~ fingers crossed.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Dianne, Thanks for the great post. I am going to start the thing now. The boys have iron stomachs so shouldn't too much to switch them around. Harlow on the other hand seems to get very loose stools every time I switch her. I guess I could mix half n half with every bag.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Have there been shortages for entire lines (for example Fromm) or just flavors (duck vs. pork)? Interesting topic - thanks for bringing up. I am not as concerned about Peri - she would eat just about anything I think. But I should come up with a backup for Taquito. Thanks for posting this.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Allyson I think you see this primarily with an ingredient BUT anything is possible and with a company like Champion ALL of their formulas are fish based hence a general shortage. Tonight I have heard the puppy formula is looking very sparse, of course we are probably personally responsible for blowing through that supply (like a 30lb bag every 2 days right now!). Some ingredient difficulties I am aware of are rabbit and sweet potato ~ both heavily coming out of China and not abundantly elsewhere, so reformulations and absent product result. Another trend in the industry is to go from identifying individual fish proteins to 'ocean fish' or 'ocean fish meal' ~ this is BAD, it means they are #1 buying on the commodities market so it is likely preserved with ethoxyquin, #2 total lack of consistency ~ you may be getting salmon and mackeral one bag and herring and whitefish in the next and #3 you do not know WHAT is in it which presents further challenges if your dog must avoid a specific fish.