Well, it’s happened once again. Another of the few dry foods that poor sensitive tummy’d Heffalump can eat has been discontinued from Meiko, and I cannot find it from other known and trusted retailers.
Key is that it is a single protein food, venison. No potato and no pea, either in whole or meal form.
So I’m in full-on panic mode. If any of you see this food at your local (likely independent) pet shops, could I ask you to let me know?
A quick search shows an online retailer that I have never heard of, all4dogs, has this food, but I hate to buy from an unknown online shop given that so many are not reliable. Have any of you heard of this shop, and is it trustworthy? https://www.all4dogs.ch/etwas-fuer-d…1-KG::434.html
What is going on with single protein venison foods in Switzerland? First Escapure, then Lily’s, then Terra Canis, and now Lucky’s - all have disappeared from the retailers I trust. Really frustrating.
Anyway, if any of you have seen Lucy’s Black Label Wild in your local stores, I’d be grateful for a heads-up.
I’ve scrolled through their site, looks to be decent “breeding” in canine terms...
They offer collection from their warehouse so you’d know you’re getting what you expect without possibly needing to mess with a return, if not too far away.
Their website looks pretty legitimate and they have an active Facebook page but there is a caveat on their website that they are having trouble with supplies at the moment so you could give them a call first.
You can visit their bricks and mortar place via appointment.
Good luck in your search. Better to stay with what you know but if you do get really stuck here is a possible option
VENISON & POTATO
Characteristics: Exclusion Diet Hypoallergenic Venison and Potato is a complete diet food formulated for adult dogs to reduce intolerances to ingredients and nutritive substances.
This complete diet food contains selected protein and carbohydrate sources.
He's not 100% carnivore, just has a very dodgy tummy with a long list of foods he cannot tolerate. Heck, change itself is problematic.
A bout of food intolerence diarrhea can take ages to clear up, leaving him in a terrible state. He's an old man now, I'd prefer not to rock the boat at this point. I try to stick with what has been proven to work - and Lucky's Black Label is one of the few that works. It's a fairly simple food, which helps.
He has had the best results with venison - as a single protein - foods.
He can eat several different carbs (Lucky's Wild contains dinkel) and regularly eats some fresh veggies such as zucchini and pastiniak, but I prefer to avoid potatoes and legumes due to the FDA statements on a potential correlation to DCM.
(Research is ongoing, there are only hypotheses at the moment, no proven connections. Somewhere in the bowels of the pets corner is a thread on that subject.)
Nonetheless I would prefer to avoid potatoes and pea flour if possible, unfortunately they are the most common grain substitutes.
I've been on this merry-go-round several times before with some of my mutts. I find a food that works well, all is golden for a few years, and then suddenly the food becomes hard to find. That's the problem with niche brands.
I realize I am a dinosaur, but I am reluctant to use an 'unknown' online store.
I think the business is legit, personally I wouldn’t worry if I was interested in their wares.
Which says nothing about their competence, but their calendar says they’re rather active, they’ll be known like a “bunter Hund” (pardon the pun, a German figure of speech meaning everybody knows or has heard of them). You could meet them if you wanted, see their Termine (bottom right in the footer), earliest option would be Sept 24.
They claim to be registered with Agroscope, a federal agency, with the reg. number CH23966. That should be near-trivial to verify with agroscope.admin.ch or (this may be faster) their social media accounts. But I bet there’s no way such a claim would be online for an extended time, theirs has been online since August 2020.
We use a service in Germany called GrenzPaket, where we have things delivered to their German address and then go pick it up, just over the border. It’s very cheap – only about 5 euros per package, and there is no sign up fee. They have various locations (we use the one in Waldshut-Tiengen):
Edit: Oops, I apologize. I just noticed your post about being hesitant to use an online store that you’re not familiar with. But I’ll leave my post above as is. Good luck!