Pet owners, stores facing canned food shortage

LOS ANGELES - The next time you go to the pet store don’t be surprised to see some empty shelves. 

Many pet stores are facing a shortage on canned pet food. 

Store shelves at PetSmarts' from Monrovia to Culver City were all out of stock on canned food. 

The manager of Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies in Torrance, Jen Muise, says it’s a problem plaguing pet stores since late last year for several reasons. 

The most popular dog and cat food comes from overseas which is stalled by shipping and other delays. There is also a shortage on protein like chicken and beef, along with a shortage of workers at the canning facilities that often make human and pet food...and of course, human food is taking priority over pet food. 

"Brands like Stella and Chewy are converting into pouches of food as well as packs so they don’t have to be dependent on the cannery or aluminum situation that we have," said Dan Ryu, COO of Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies.

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"A lot of times it’s a good idea to work with groups that have their own physical canneries, brands like Lotus and Fromm who actually have not just U.S. based canneries but they own their own canneries so that way they control the supply, they control the functioning, you don’t run into as many issues with that," Muise mentioned.

Some pet food brands have also tripled in price in the past few months... protein costs are going up along with labor and shipping costs.

"My roommate gets Costco brand so I’ve been feeding him that and he seems to like that more honestly so I haven’t really been buying the expensive stuff anymore," said dog dad Matthew Adams.  

That’s a win-win for Waffle and his owner.

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