# Poll: Where do you buy your pet food and supplies?



## Lisa 216 (Oct 25, 2004)

I've been wondering where all of you shop for cat food and other supplies. I'm curious about the different sources and why each of you chose the place where you shop. 

I don't have alot of options near me -- we have Petco, and I've recently discovered Pet Supplies Plus which carries more high-end brands of food  For different reasons, I don't like the two local pet supply shops in my area  I haven't tried online yet but I'm thinking about it.

So let's compare notes


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## moggiegirl (May 15, 2005)

I have a Petco walking distance from my home which is convenient and a Pet People that's not far away but because I'm on public transportation I have to take two buses to get there. I use both stores. Natura Pet Foods does not distribute to large chains. I have to go to Pet People or shop on line at www.petfooddirect.com (which I've done before as well) to buy California Natural dry, Merrick canned, or Wellness Chicken and Lobster canned food. I buy World's Best kitty litter and Petromalt hairball remedy from Petco. For convenience I also buy various canned foods at Petco such as Iams, Petgold, and Purina Pro-Plan(My cats are not too crazy about canned foods like Natural Balance and Nutro). Lately Petco has been selling 10 ounce trial packs of Natural Balance so I've been buying those and mixing them with California Natural dry food and my cats love the dry Natural Balance(I wish they would eat the canned). For Wildside Salmon treats I buy from this website. www.thecatconnection.com I have bought Foster and Smith canned food and a pet drinking fountain and I buy filters for it at this site. www.drsfostersmith.com. I've bought toys and treats at cat shows and on line. I really don't have a one stop place to shop. So I didn't vote.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Well, I embarassed to say I buy my kitty's food at my grocery store.  

I've found what she likes, finally, so I'm sticking with it. I guess it's because she's young and in good health. I'm sure if she needed specialty food or diet food or anything specific, I'd go to PetCo. That IS where I get her toys, brushes, etc.


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## ionestar (Jun 18, 2004)

I would love to buy cat canned food online but the shipping charges is too much :? They should have free shipping and handling :wink:


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## AnoKukoko (Feb 5, 2006)

I go to Petsmart for food and treats strictly because its cheaper than Petco. Science Diet 8.5 lbs for 15 bucks at Petsmart while its almost 30 bucks of hte same weigh at PetCo. I do go to petco also for toys and might buy a tree there since its cheaper there. But i do visit big lots to see if they sell cat trees. Happens once in a while. 

Did check out online stores but theres pros and cons between online and going to the pet store. I chose the pet store because i like to look around long before i make any purchase in person.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Most I buy at one of the local chain retailers, some at grocery stores, and when I can't find what I want locally I buy online. Pet Supplies Plus is my favorite store. Best selection and best prices of the stores in my town.


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## moggiegirl (May 15, 2005)

AnoKukoko said:


> I go to Petsmart for food and treats strictly because its cheaper than Petco. Science Diet 8.5 lbs for 15 bucks at Petsmart while its almost 30 bucks of hte same weigh at PetCo. I do go to petco also for toys and might buy a tree there since its cheaper there. But i do visit big lots to see if they sell cat trees. Happens once in a while.
> 
> Did check out online stores but theres pros and cons between online and going to the pet store. I chose the pet store because i like to look around long before i make any purchase in person.


Be careful. I had bad experiences shopping for cat furniture at Petco. In fact you really do get what you pay for when it comes to cat furniture. I once bought a tree from Petco that would wobble and almost fall to the ground every time the cats jumped on it, if fact it would have fallen to the ground if I hadn't caught it. For high quality cat furniture, I reccommend going to cat shows. I also had bad experience with Foster and Smith as the nooks in the furniture are so small. I had given away a lot of cat furniture that was not to my satisfaction. I am very pleased with the cat furniture I have now which I bought from this site www.angelicalcat.com. However their stuff is expensive. You don't have to buy the most expensive cat furniture but I highly reccommend shopping around for it.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

I agree with moggiegirl about Petco's pet furniture, but I'll put it in stronger terms: Petco pet furniture is mostly worthless crap. :?

Some of the stuff at Petsmart is OK. But to get really good cat furniture you pretty much have to go somewhere else than the chains.


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## Sky Eyes Woman (Feb 26, 2006)

I only chose "other" because I buy my cat food at a large chain store AND a small local retailer. I work at the large chain store and can get the canned food I feed my cats (Nutro) there with my employee discount but they don't sell the dry food (Innova Evo) I use so I have to get that elsewhere. I really wish my store would carry Innova, but NaturaPet tells me they do not sell their food to large chains to avoid long-term warehousing which could lead to declining quality and spoilage.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

I picked other because I do some of everything; local stores, Petsmart and online. Depends on what I need and when I need it, who has the best price etc.

I try to stay away from Petco, their prices on most items are significantly higher, the local store used to be really dirty (although it's better now--I think there's a new manager) and they've treated the Shelter volunteer group I work with pretty lousy.


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## pookie769 (Feb 5, 2005)

I feed my gang Natural Balance, cans & kibble, and unfortunately only Petco carries that brand. They are ridiculously over priced on everything they carry but I have no other choice. I buy Wellness at a local pet shop. I buy Meow Mix pouches & Fanci Feast and litter for them at a local big box store called Meijers. I buy Friskies cans & Purina Cat Chow for a stray & a ferel I also feed.


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## fbodgrl (May 10, 2004)

I picked locally owned pet store. I buy all my cat food, dog food, turtle food at small local stores. I buy my litter at a local store also. Pretty much the only thing I buy from a chain type store (grocery or pet) is the litter crystals.

I was looking into some online stores, but the seemed kind of expensive.


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## Nola (May 10, 2005)

I used to shop at a locally owned pet supply/garden store, but they stopped carrying most of the pet supply since Katrina. I'm limited to Petco/Petsmart now. I've even had to switch foods because of it. That store was the only one in the area Innova. Some groomers in the area still carry the dog food, but I've been unable to find the cat food so my boys eat Natural Balance now.

New Orleans isn't exactly a pet friendly place. There really aren't any locally owned pet shops here. HMMM, that gives me a business idea


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## Lori (Jun 8, 2003)

Until recently I was ordering Innova online, but my local pet store started carrying it. I have always bought my litter and other cat products from my local store.

Now, my saltwater reef aquarium, that is another story. I order almost everything online for that.


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## Sky Eyes Woman (Feb 26, 2006)

Nola said:


> Some groomers in the area still carry the dog food, but I've been unable to find the cat food so my boys eat Natural Balance now.


Maybe if you ask the groomers to order it for you, they will. It's worth a try, and they will get some additional business out of it. The worst they can do is say no.


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## DesnBaby (Apr 18, 2004)

Petsmart: get the Nutro canned there, plus they have more of a selection of flavours then the regular stores and Pet Valu: where they have some flavours of it. Got the litter from Petsmart/Pet Valu, cat tree from Petsmart, bowls also from there, etc.


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## Azurah (Jun 29, 2006)

We only have two pet stores here and they are both locally owned. One only carries Nutroo and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. I usually shop at the other pet store which carries a wide selection of cat food brands like Wellness, Innova, Nutro, California Natural, Hill's, Iam's, and Eukanuba. Some brands I haven't ever seen here are Royal Canin and Felidae.

The bad thing about both pet stores is they are often understocked when it comes to pet products. I usually get litter, bowls, and toys from Walmart or Long's drugstore.

My kitty eats canned Nutro Indoor Formula in chicken & rice and she gets a small amount of the dry Nutro Indoor.


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## MandyJoBo (Apr 13, 2006)

I get their food from thecatconnection.com because it's not sold here. I even told the owners of the pet stores in town that I'd be buying 4 cases a month at least, if they would order it, and it was too much hassle for them. :roll: It's only $15 shipping for 4 cases of 5.5oz cans, so it's worth it to me because otherwise I'd have to go on a 4-hour round trip to get their food every month. (Which I did when they were on a raw food diet because I couldn't get organic meat here.)

I buy all of their toys, beds, furniture, bath products, health care (toothbrushes, pastes, ear wash, etc.) online. Too many websites to list!


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## Jet Green (Nov 28, 2005)

I picked "Other" since I buy most things at PetSmart, but I also frequent a couple of locally-owned pet supply shops and a feed store. 

One of the local places is actually cheaper than PetSmart, which really surprised me.


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## lilysong (Apr 4, 2005)

I've found only one food that all three girls can eat and not get sick - Natural Balance - and PetCo is the only place I've found here that carries it. So I'm stuck, at least for now.


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## shortlilcutie (Jul 11, 2005)

Can someone give me a website to buy Heartgard? I don't know where the cheapest/best place to buy is. I couldn't decide if I should just use Revolution, but someone said something about it making more sense for something for their heart should be injusted, and that just made sense to me.
(Sorry If that didn't make sense!) 
So, if I'm using Frontline Plus and Heartgard (if I can find it online), is that ok? I'm also brushing teeth with that Poultry toothpaste everyone talkes about. I'm still a pretty new cat owner, so is there anything else I should be doing for them? Besides their yearly shots, good diet, water, toys, love, etc?


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## simeysbluis (Aug 20, 2006)

We buy our food at Petsmart, for Simon we get Science Diet Sensitive Stomach, he gets sick and throws up any other food. Because of expense and the number of cats we have we usually use Special Kitty for the others, they love it. 

We also use Revolution for fleas, it is the only thing that kills them on our cats. Frontline worked the first time we used it but it didn't work after that. We tried twice, we have had no adverse reactions to Revolution and it is still killing the fleas after several uses. My mother in law and sister in law used Frontline - 2 treatments each on their dogs to no avail ,then the Revolution and it was sucessful.


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## Lisa 216 (Oct 25, 2004)

shortlilcutie said:


> Can someone give me a website to buy Heartgard? I don't know where the cheapest/best place to buy is. I couldn't decide if I should just use Revolution, but someone said something about it making more sense for something for their heart should be injusted, and that just made sense to me.
> (Sorry If that didn't make sense!)
> So, if I'm using Frontline Plus and Heartgard (if I can find it online), is that ok? I'm also brushing teeth with that Poultry toothpaste everyone talkes about. I'm still a pretty new cat owner, so is there anything else I should be doing for them? Besides their yearly shots, good diet, water, toys, love, etc?


Shortlilcutie, you may want to start a new thread about this. I'd hate to see your important questions get buried and lost in this thread :wink:


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

I'm rather surprised to see so many votes for local pet stores. Apparently the big chains haven't killed off all the independents yet.


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## Jessica (Jun 21, 2003)

I buy their food from both a raw food co-op I belong to for the raw fed cats and the kibble eaters, I buy their stuff online seeing as the stores here don't offer what I want to feed them.

I buy their cat litter at BJs and everything else from Jefferspet.com


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

I order minced chicken, turkey, beef, pork and whole raw meaty bones and liver from a pet store close by. They deliver it for FREE!


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## PrimoBabe (Feb 23, 2006)

I buy overpriced products at a quaint little store called The Old Town School for Dogs. I probably pay a premium just for the pretentious name. But, the store's convenient, has really nice employees, and sells the brands of food that I use (by the way, the store sells both dog and cat products).


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## TAsunder (Apr 6, 2004)

I buy from a local store here in madison, WI called MadCat. They are terrific. They carry every good natural dry and wet food brand, and even a couple of frozen raw foods. Their prices aren't bad, and their customer service is outstanding. There are a couple other local stores that sell good food too, but I go out of my way to visit these guys.

Plus for whatever reason they seem to hire a lot of attractive people, so I can get my flirt on while buying cat food.


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## DesnBaby (Apr 18, 2004)

TAsunder said:


> Plus for whatever reason they seem to hire a lot of attractive people, so I can get my flirt on while buying cat food.


 8O :lol:


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## Katten Minnaar (Mar 18, 2005)

We buy our cat supplies mainly online, for the reason being where we live in the orkney islands there is only one pet shop and that pet shop is very small and doesn't have much at all. So our only option really was to shop online and its actually turned out for the best . You can get everything you need there and also you can get some great deals also, plus the postage is not very expensive either. So we go to www.petplanet.co.uk for all our needs and I am sure its something we will continue to do every month .

Great idea for a post/poll by the way  very interesting!


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## Sunshine'sMeowmie (Jul 12, 2006)

We get the kitty food from the grocery store. Kroger has either a 18lb or 20lb bag of food for $5.00-FMV (For Maximum Value) brand. 

For toys and treats-grocery store, wallgreens, or cvs.


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## Sunshine'sMeowmie (Jul 12, 2006)

We get the kitty food from the grocery store. Kroger has either a 18lb or 20lb bag of food for $5.00-FMV (For Maximum Value) brand. 

For toys and treats-grocery store, wallgreens, or cvs.


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## roseeden (May 18, 2005)

I used to buy them everywhere whenever I see something on clearance.

Nowadays, though, I am way too busy and way too broke to shop a lot. I can't really shop online because neither of us can be home to receive packages and they would become stolen. So I shop at Petsmart.


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