Archive for the ‘General’ Category
This Saturday, October 27 we’ll be holding our 2nd Annual Customer Appreciation Day!
Drop by for:
We had a great event last year, and we hope you can come by and check out our event this year!
We’re huge supporters of Canadian products, so we’re offering a special this Friday through Sunday (June 29 – July 1) on Canadian foods. When you spend $30 on cat food, or $40 on dog food, we’ll give you a Benny Bully’s treat! For your kitty, we have a 27g bag of Chicken Chops (retail value $3.99), and for Fido you can pick from the 80g bag of Liver Chops, a 52g bag of Chicken Chops or the 30g bag of Beefy Chops (retail value $6.99). Qualifying food brands are Orijen, Acana, now FRESH, go!, Holistic Blend, Canadian Naturals, Canisource and Amore. Limited quantities available, while supplies last.
Wow! The posting that we put up a few weeks ago regarding the changes to the Acana Classic formulas and the new Acana Singles Duck and Bartlett Pear formula is getting a tonne of hits! It has also generated a bunch of questions from both local customers as well as people in other parts of Canada plus the US. Most of those questions are around the ingredient changes to the Classic line.
We have now received the new formula in at least some (if not all) sizes of each Classic variety. As mentioned before, the changes have been made for a few different reasons, but we didn’t look at all the changes, so let’s take a peek at the new panel.
First, rice has been removed from all formulas as it is not regionally available and Champion’s preference is to use local, trusted suppliers. The only grain is now oat, which is considered hypoallergenic, is available regionally and has a lower glycemic index (42). Removing the rice does create a bit of a manufacturing issue however. Since rice has a lot more moisture than oat, making a dry food with oat as the major carbohydrate would make the resulting kibble rough and dry! Which brings us to the second change.
Potato has been added. Burbank potato is, again, a regionally available ingredient and provides the additional moisture that the new formulas require in order to be properly steamed in their own juices, which is how Acana and Orijen are “cooked”. Steaming the potato also keeps the glycemic index lower (65).
The change in the major fish protein is the third difference you’ll notice in the new formulas. Salmon has been replaced with flounder. This change was primarily made in order for Champion to stick to it’s fresh, never frozen mandate. Wild caught salmon is hard to get year round so the options were to go to farmed salmon, use frozen salmon or change from salmon altogether. Wild-caught flounder is available year round. Champion sources their flounder from North Vancouver Island and consequently it can always be delivered fresh (never frozen). To make up for the difference between salmon and flounder in omega-3 levels, herring oil has been added. This actually brings the new levels higher than the old formulas.
The final two changes are both increases in fresh ingredients. On the protein side of the equation, more fresh chicken has been added, displacing some of the chicken meal. On the fruit and vegetable side, fresh, regional parsnips, butternut squash and Bartlett pear have been added bringing the overall fiber levels up slightly.
Together, all of these changes have bumped the percentages in the analysis around slightly. For instance, the newly named Chicken and Burbank Potato is ringing in at 28% crude protein, 17% crude fat and 4% fiber compared to the 29%, 16% and 3% of the former Adult Dog, respectively. It’s also worth noting that although the ingredient panel lists more individual sources of carbohydrates, the actual overall percentage has not increased. Finally, we are told by Champion that palatability and stool trials for the new foods had great results.
So that’s it in a nutshell for the new Acana Classic reformulations. If you have good or bad experience with the new line, whether you are a customer of ours or someone across the globe that has stumbled across our site, please leave a comment! As usual, the health and well-being of your dog is our primary concern so we’d love to hear how things are going so that we can best advise our own store customers.
If you’ve been in the store lately, you’ve probably noticed that we have run out of a couple of Acana varieties, and are running low on a couple of others. The reason for that is the upcoming change to the existing Acana Classic (with grain) line. At the same time, Champion Pet Foods will also be introducing a new formula and adjusting the size and style of packaging slightly.
The Acana Classics follow Champion’s Biologically Appropriate, Fresh Regional Ingredients, Never Outsourced (BA.FRI.NO) mandate, and have historically contained either 30% steel-cut oats (Lamb & Apple) or a blend of 20% steel-cut oats and brown rice. In order to achieve a more gradual rise in blood sugar, the brown rice is going to be removed from all of the Classics. This week we will start to receive the reformulated versions, starting with Acana Adult Small Breed. In addition to the change in grains, the Acana Classic Adult will be renamed Chicken and Burbank Potato.
Acana Lamb & Apple has always been a popular single protein/single grain choice with our customers, especially those with allergies to specific proteins. In order to expand the options available to those dogs, Acana will be introducing Duck & Bartlett Pear to what will now be known as the Acana Singles line. Lamb & Apple will be renamed Lamb & Okanagan Apple at the same time.
We really love both Acana lines of food for many reasons and these changes will only make a great regional product even better. We’ll keep you updated on when each of the reformulations, plus the new Duck & Pear arrives in the store.
UPDATED: If your looking for a bit more info, we’ve posted an update here.
The contestant’s photos are all posted on our Facebook page, so let’s get voting! To vote for your favourite, just “Like” their photo. We’ll be taking votes until 6:00pm on Saturday, November 5. Best of luck to all our entrants.
We’ll be holding our first Customer Appreciation event this coming Saturday, October 29!
As you can see, we’ve got some fun things planned for our new and existing friends! We’ll have free goodie bags, stuffed with tasty and fun things for Fido and Ms. Whiskers, plus free treat samples and draws on some great baskets. We’ll also have the Kool 101.5 street team dropping by to hand out some free swag.
Our good friend Stacy Campsall from Petcurean Pet Nutrition will be here giving out free samples of go! and now!, and filling people in on the new products that they will be launching this fall.
Since we’re so close to Hallowe’en, get Rover all dressed up and enter our Costume Contest, which will be judged by our Facebook followers.
If you’re having an issue with your canine companion, have a chat with the gals from ImPAWSible Possible. They can give you some tips on the positive methods that you can use to modify those unwanted behaviours.
And what would a customer appreciation event be without discounts! We’ll be offering 10% off on all our treats and accessories.
As any of our current customers know, we are passionate about supporting animal rescue organizations. As the parents of three rescues (dogs Kona and Bailey, and bunny Chloe) we know first hand how fulfilling it is to give a second chance to an animal in need, so we naturally have an adoptathon event in the store as well. Pawsitive Match Rescue Foundation will be here with some great dogs who are looking to find their forever home. Check their website for the latest news on which of the dogs in their care will be here.
We hope that we see you on Saturday!
Our grooming has expanded!
A few weeks ago, we added groomer number two to our staff. With the addition of Diana, we can now offer services Sunday through Friday. Diana has been grooming for over 20 years, and has impressed our clients with her easy going temperament and excellent service and skills. Di will be here Sunday, Monday and Tuesday while Echo will continue to groom on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
It’s also not to early to start thinking about your Holiday grooming needs. Grooming appointments book up quickly for the days in December, so make sure you call in plenty of time to get the best spot.
Labour Day is upon us, and we’ll be here on the holiday Monday from noon until 5:00pm to look after your puppy’s, kitten’s, or small animal’s needs.
Have a very happy and safe long weekend!
Our sincere apologies to anyone who has tried to send us an email over the last couple of days. Our domain registrar, who also hosts our email has been having hardware issues which has caused email delivery to be sporadic. Since this is the third time in the last few months that this has occurred, we have made a quick switch to another email host and hope to be back online shortly.
