More Foods

We sure allus love when more foods arrive on the doorstep.  This time we have Wellness minced Chicken, minced Turkey, sliced Salmon, and minced Tuna.  And Whole Earth Duck pate and Beef pate.  We like pretty much all flavors except blends and chunks.  We would go all Wellness, but they dont have duck or beef without a lot of other stuff mixed in.

TBT says he thinks shipping is getting worse.  In a race to cut costs, there seems to be less and less padding in the boxes.  The last Petco delivery had only a little on one side of the box (which didnt have any benefit).  Chewy adds a top on the individual cases, but they really need it on the bottom of the box.  We usually get damage on the bottom cans.  Would a single layer of bubble wrap on the bottom cost so much?

TBT has explained this to both shippers but they never change anny...  He says he may have to shop locally again, but Petco and Petsmart dont allus have the stuff he wants and they are usually loose cans.  He says that's a real pain because you can find 8 of one flavor but 60 of another, etc at Petco because they like loose cans.  Petsmart likes whole cases, but half the time they just dont have the ones we like.  Neither shipping nor shopping werks purrfectly.

Its seems there are 3 parts about getting our food.  Selection, availability, and undamaged.  The local stores never have damaged cans, but you never know what is available and there are some flavors we like they just dont carry.  With shipping, there are damaged cans.

Another nice thing TBT does is keep 6 flavors.  We 3 go through 5 cans a day, which keeps our weights purrfectly (Marley 12.5 lbs, Iza 10, and Ayla 6.5).  And that means we start each day with a different flavor. 

We LOVE that!  Not that we exactly recall the previous days first breakfast, but me know it is a differnt one, and that matters.  And we get a variety.  There is a poultry, than a fishy, then a poultry, then a fishy, then a poultry, then a beef.   And the order changes a bit each new pantry refill.

Hey, variety is good and we appreciate the effort...

What is your pantry like?

New Foods!

We got a delivery from Chewy.  We are allus so happy to see the box. It means we won't starve.

We were suspicious at first.  We allus go growl when anyone enters our driveway.  But we LOVE these guys.

Goodbye good delivery person...

We got some of the usual.  Wellness Chicken, Turkey, and Tuna.  But this time they sent us the REAL Salmon.  In small cans, cause they don't offer the real stuff in the big cans.  We bet TBT was surprised at THAT! 

We were really happy, cuz the big cans of salmon we WERE getting are a bit odd.  Sort of like Shredded Wheat cereal to TBT.  Iza ate it, but she will eat ANYTHING.  She ate butterred BROCOLLI once.

He opened 2 cans of the GOOD salmon and gave it to us right away.  We ate it and practically fell over in happitude.  We mean, iffen TBT had dropped fresh Nip leaves next to the bowls, we would have chosen the salmon.

Well, "maybe".  He didn't so we aren't sure.  We are getting Turkey next and then Tuna.  Dang, it can't get better than THAT!  All the cans look the same to us, but he SAID so!

Mr Chewy, Part 2

THE BIG THING:  Well, I need to add to/restate yesterday's post about Mr Chewy.  I didn't want to leave the impression that we didn't like him!

First, about the packing.  As I said, all the cans arrived in perfect condition, but I was concerned that might have just been good fortune since the cases were a bit loose in the shipping box.  I had placed online delivery orders with 2 other companies, and a number of cans were badly dented.  Well, 1 of those surprised me because the cases were packed so well (and the shipping box undamaged) I couldn't see how any damage could occur.  I'm now wondering if the damage occurred in the warehouse from rough handling, and that Mr Chewy treats their products more carefully.

Second, about the prices.  I failed to account for sales tax at the local stores, and that adds up!  Sure the local stores sometimes have stuff on sale, but when I only buy food every few months, that's hit or miss.  Plus, if you set up an automatic delivery schedule, Mr Chewy takes 15% off the first delivery.  And I should add that the regular non-sale prices at Mr Chewy were only 35 cents more per case than Petco (for Halo) which is really irrelevant.

Third, about selection.  No one carries everything, and one of the flavors the cats like was only temporarily out of stock (Halo Lamb).  Another may no longer be available (Science Diet Culinary Creations).  I do wish Mr Chewy sold the Soulistic and Eukanuba canned foods though.  To be fair, Petco had only a few cans of Halo flavors available today.  So nothing is available all the time or everywhere.

Fourth, about convenience.  One of my gripes at Petco is that many of the canned foods are stocked loose.  A shopping cart of 100 or so loose cans is a pain to unload and carrying bags of loose cans is awkward.  They spill all over in the car, too!  And sorting all that out at home is tedious.  I'll take sealed cases delivered to my doorstep  over a few dollars saved at Petco anytime.  Saves on gas too.

Another convenience thing is the automatic delivery schedule at Mr Chewy.  I set up an automatic delivery for every 8 weeks.  And if you start getting more than you need, it is easy to skip a shipment or change the schedule at their website.

So...  I've placed another order with Mr Chewy and set up a delivery schedule.

Thank you, Mr Chewy

P.S.  Because I like to arrange all the flavors so that the cats get the most variety each week, when the new order arrives I will be taking out all the cans and stacking them up on the dining room table.  THAT should be a sight to see!  I'm guessing that will be a great picture for a post next week.

Mr Chewy

We got an offer from Mr Chewy online sales a week ago.  We were thrilled!  FREE FOOD!

You can trust us that we won't lie about anything.  Someone offers us free stuff, we'll take it.  Marketing can be wunnerful.  But we won't say annything nice about a supplier iffen we don't like the products or service.

We have ordered canned food from a couple online sites before and we were VERY disappointed.  Many of the cans arrived dented so badly that The Big Thing judged them "unsafe to eat".  Of course, we dont wanna eat unsafe foods.  Yakking is bad enough, botulism is worse.

So naturally, the important thing ta us was that the cans of stinkey goodness arrive undamaged.

Well, guess what?  The cans from Mr Chewy arrived undented in the least degree!!!  Not the LEAST tiny dent.

Here is the box as it arrived. 

The packing...

The1st case of food wrapped up really tight...

The layer of cardboard inbetween.

The 2nd layer below.  Note that it had no protective packing around it.

The bottom of the box.  No packing material under it.

But See?  No dents annywhere.

 New flavors to us, by the way.  TBT decided to try new brands of foods.  Castor and Pollux chicken (we are poultry fanatics)...

 Halo (which we like) but Lamb flavor (which we dont know).

 A higher view...

OK, so the Mr Chewy cans arrived well.  But we  think they could use better packing.  The cases WERE loose in the box (SEE ABOVE 3rRD PICTURE) and with other online suppliers that resulted in seriously dented cans even in shrink-wrapped cases.  Dented cans = BAD...  We suspect Mr Chewy might have just been lucky in this shipment.  It was NOT packed well.  We would like to see a 2nd shipping experiment with Mr Chewy.

But that also  depends on the selection.  We hate to say this, but the local Petco has more of what WE want than Mr Chewy does.  

We like (for stinky goodness canned stuff) Soulistic Chicken; Halo Chicken, Turkey, and Lamb (separate flavors); Eukanuba Lamb with Rice and Gourmet Chicken; and Science Diet Culinary Creations Chicken.  We will sometimes eat Castor and Pollux chicken or Evo 95% chicken/turkey but they aren't favrits. And the Eukanuba chicken kibble is WAY cheaper at the local PetSmart.

Mr Chewy offered only Halo Chicken and Turkey today of all the brands/flavors that we wanted (only 2 of 7 brands/flavors).  We can get all the others (but Castor and Pollux Chicken which is kinna neutral fer us) at the local Petco and at better prices than at Mr Chewy (even with free shipping).

We thank Mr Chewy for the great coupon, but until he has a better selection, packing, and better prices than the local Petco, we will have The Big Thing hunt locally fer us.

Sorry Mr, Chewy.  We SAID we would be honest...