Another food conundrum, but for Leo

I’m not the only one in this household who has issues finding appropriate food: That problem now includes Leo, too. That’s my boy! Or, something.

For more years than I can remember, we’ve fed our furbabies dry food made by Eukanuba (owned in by Mars Incorporated, except for Europe, apparently). I was recently in the pet store to get Leo some more of his food, and there was a sign saying that “due to changing customer demand” they were discontinuing most of the brand’s dry dog food, though it said they’d be carrying at least one for a dog the size of Leo, though they were out of stock on that day.

Most premium dog food in New Zealand’ is sold through two Australian-owned pet store chains, and I checked online with the other one and found that they, too, seemed to be eliminating all or most of that brand. No other online retailer seemed to sell it, either, but I confirmed that the pet shop I go to still had some of the adult version of Leo’s dry food, but he’s actually been on the senior formula, which is slightly lower in calories, for a bit more than a year. I was running out of Leo’s food, so I bought the adult version to tide him over, and even used the transition method normally used when changing brands—just in case.

In the meantime, I researched alternatives. Many of the dog foods available are made by big US-based corporations, and I was concerned about ongoing availability: If an established brand can disappear, for whatever reason, it could happen again.

I decided to restrict my search for dog food made in Australia or New Zealand, in the hope the shorter supply routes may keep it more available. I chose the Australian one because they have a small dog senior formula, but I’m also going to buy a small bag of the NZ-made one (which is freeze-dried, not a dry food) to use as treats. Hopefully, between the two of them I should be able to keep the same brands for Leo for several years, just as we used Eukanuba for at least 17 years.

This whole thing has required a lot of research, time, and energy, and now I’ll just have to wait and see if Leo likes the new (to him) brand. That transition is still several weeks away, though, because I only bought the stop-gap bag of food a couple weeks ago. On tyhe other hand, that means I can have a few weeks of normality, too, and that’s a good thing.

This is the first time I’ve had to make decisions about Leo’s food—or any furbaby’s food in New Zealand—by myself, and, yes, I found that reality challenging and a bit confronting. I just approached it the same way I do when I need to find a food substitute: I researched the alternatives, found what I felt was the most nutritious option, and made a decision.

I’ve been doing a lot of that deciding thing lately. Huh.