Lotus and K9 Naturals

OK, we're all up to speed on Wellness. I know many of you are unhappy but change is the only consistent thing in this world...OK, taxes too.

John and Russell are very excited about two new products set to grace our shelves. The first is called Lotus and we have a young lady in our neighborhood to thank for the heads-up on this wonderful product. www.lotuspetfoods.com This sweet young lady comes in to Zane + Zara's regularly. She is a fan of sharing a cookie or two with her dog and running errands for her mom. The last time she came in she asked if we carried Lotus canned food. I was taken aback as I'd never heard of Lotus Pet Foods. Well, the research started.

This stuff looked really good. Great ingredients list and US owned and produced. The next step was a meet and greet at the Backer Show. (A pet care trade show held in Chicago each year.) We met the owner of Lotus Pet Foods and came away very impressed. They are quite an established brand on the west coast and are now making the move east. All natural ingredients and baked, not extruded so they have a better nutritional profile. Their canned food not only smells fantastic but looks the part. We put in our ISO (Initial Stocking Order) right then and there. Lotus will be the perfect replacement for Wellness as they are guided by tenants that guide our store: only the best stuff for your best friend.

Now Lotus, all of their fantastic ingredients aside, is a typical dog and cat food: Canned and kibble with a grain-free alternative. The other product is not so typical...in many ways. It is called K9 Natural and is from New Zealand.

As many of you know, John is a flight attendant for United Airlines. He was on a trip back from Amsterdam nursing a torn right shoulder. (A story for later on. Not one of John's shinning moments. Yutz!) One of the flight attendants came to John telling of a guy in Business Class that made dog food. Well, he was the owner of K9 Natural. He and John had much to talk about as his food was being introduced into the US market and one of the major distributors is one that we use: Zeus.  John came away impressed.

K9 Naturals is a freeze-dried product containing only the very highest grade ingredients. Their motivation is to give your dog a diet that most closely resembles that of a wild canine without the carcass to lug around the house. I was a little skeptical because most raw or freeze-dried diets become very expensive when dealing with larger, say 30lb and up dogs. Yet, the stuff really sounds impressive.

Speaking of expense, let's do a little comparison work here. Everyone likes to do comparisons using a small dog. I don't think that's fair, especially in Roscoe Village, home of the large family dog. We have three dogs in our house and the small one, Zara, is 40 lbs. I think we'll do our comparison using Zara.

Our top of the line kibble is probably Orijen Regional Red. It is grain-free and high protein with a spectacular reputation. The cost for a 29.7 lb bag is $75.99. Their feeding guide shows that a dog like Zara, who is 40 lbs, fit and active would be about 2.25 cups a day. When you do all the math, ugh, you get about 26 days worth of food in the bag. That works out to be approximately $2.92 a day.

If you want to step up your game and give your dog the benefits of a more natural diet, you can go the raw route. For this example we'll use our favorite: Stella & Chewys, large patties, beef. The cost of a 12 patty, 6lb sack is 28.99. If you use their on-line feeding guide, Zara would eat 1.5 of the large patties per day. Do the math and you come out with about $3.62 per day. This additional expense is one of the reasons that a raw diet is much more popular for smaller dogs. While feeding raw is a fantastic idea the larger dogs usually price themselves out of the market. It's a pity. Large breeds could use the benefits of a raw diet. It may be my opinion but, I think you'd see less of the ailments that haunt larger breeds, like hip dysplasia, if they had the benefits of a raw diet.

Now let's look at the product we are thinking about bringing in: K9 Natural. As with most things we won't be putting this our our shelves until it receives an in-home test. I will say that if you listen to the owner of the company and take a look at what is out on the web, this stuff looks to be the bomb. As with all things though, a cost must be attached and YOWZA does this stuff look expensive. Honestly really, really expensive; I think they are slaughtering gold plated animals. The product is freeze-dried so it is shelf stable (re. doesn't go bad.) and made with the very finest, human grade, New Zealand meats and produce. All you do is scoop it out, add a little warm water to rehydrate and put it down for your dog to enjoy. Now let's talk price: an 8.8 lb box is priced around $199.00. (I'll give you a moment to catch your breath.) That 8.8 lb box rehydrates into 35.2 lb. The feeding instructions for K9 Natural are a little different: for a 40 lb dog you would feed 1-3% of body weight. (I burned up the calculator for this one!) I used 2% as an average and for Zara that would mean feeding 12.8 oz per day. The 8.8 lb box converts into 563.2 oz of rehydrated food. Do the math and you get about 44 days worth of food in that 8.8 lb box. (Have you reached for the oxygen bottle yet?) K9 Natural will run you a very dear $4.52 per day to feed a 40 lb dog. That, my friends, is on the pricey side.

So, do we devote shelf space to K9 Natural? Honestly, I don't know if our market will bite on such an expensive product. It may be the finest product on the market but these are difficult times for many people, even those who still maintain healthy disposable income. Everyone should drop me a comment. Is your best friend worth the K9 Natural price? Is this just a product for smaller dogs where the price per serving is a little easier on the wallet? Does John need to start flying to New Zealand and smuggling in K9? You tell me. In the meantime John has promised us a box on K9 Natural to try. Between the three of us, that $199.00, 8.8 lb box should last....minutes, hours....maybe a week. All I can say is it better be the best thing since sliced bread and I'd better poop perfume after dinner. I'm just saying....