Animal Welfare Professionals

I am curious about what kind of food shelters use?  Do you have a specific kind that you use or do you mix food that is donated from donors?  Thanks for your imput

Hi,

We use Purina EN which is made for boarding and shelter animals.  It is a bit more expensive but the "output" from the animals is less as well as less stress related gastrointestinal issues.  

That’s what we use to for the same reasons, but it is a little pricey.  Do you mind me asking where you purchase yours?  

We purchase through our Henry Shein rep.  They run specials where when you buy 4 bags you get one free and things like that.  I have found that the price out weighs the time we use treating diarrhea.  And I can move money in the budget from things we can shop around for cheaper.  The EN has Colostrum and is suited for a wide range of ages.  Our Purina Rep will be coming in to do a Learning Lunch in a few weeks.  I would be happy to send along any materials.  We have tried Science Diet, Diamond, Purina, River Run and Mixing Donated food.  The Kennel Staff prefer the..... ah.... results of the EN better.  and I have measured the leftovers of all the above experiments.  EN had the least amount of leftovers.  They also have the EN canned for the picky ones.   

Thanks.  That is whomwe purchase our food from.  Just looking at weights to get the best deal.  We have been having good results so far with mixing EN with Rachel Rays Nutrish

At mckamey we use science diet

We use regular Purina Cat, Dog, Kitten, Puppy Chow.  Would love to use the EN version but I can't imagine how we would cover the cost.

I've seen that Science Diet has a discounted food program. Does anyone know what the discount is?

I applied for the Science Diet program and was turned down because we are a smaller shelter and the number of adoptions do not meet their requirements.

That's disappointing. Did they happen to tell you the minimum?

No they did not say what the minimum was.

Purina has a shelter feeding program (with discount) so you may want to check into that.    We transitioned to Purina from Hills Science Diet and it was a big savings for our shelter.

Which PUrina do you use?

You have a choice of types/costs/quality of Purina foods.   My contact person is Catherine (Cat) Small   Catherine.Small@purina.nestle.com.

The email below is the response that we received from Cat at Purina. We are reaching out to the sales dept to find out pricing. I'll let you guys know what we find out.

From: "Small,Catherine,ST LOUIS,Pet Welfare" <Catherine.Small@purina.nestle.com>
To: Janine McGrath <janine@mostlymutts.org>
Date: February 20, 2019 at 5:38 PM
Subject: RE: Discounts for shelters

Hi Janine,

Thank you for reaching out.  We currently do not have an open feeding program. We do offer occasional food donations that are managed by our partner, Rescue Bank.  If you are not registered with them you can find an application at www.rescuebank.org.

Nestle Purina also offers community support through product donations, disaster relief and grants for pet shelters, as well as event sponsorship. To request support, please click on the link below to read our criteria and submit an application through our website. Donation requests will be reviewed within 7-10 business days and you will hear back via a generated email.    https://www.purina.com/our-giving-programs 

Unfortunately, Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets are not a product option for donation requests.

Purina does have Pro Plan Veterinary sales representatives that can help facilitate ordering EN for your shelter.  You can e-mail Purina for Professional team to get a sales contact customerservice@purinaforprofessionals.com

Thank you and have a great day,

Cat-

Also do you have the website?

I spoke to Hills and was encouraged to apply but told they dont disclose price until after reviewing the app. Maybe sliding scale depending on variety of factors? 

Applied to Purina but declined even though met all requirements. Everyone I know who has applied to them has been declined...including a group in their backyard in St Louis. The email I got said they were partnering with Rescue Bank. Most major mfrs have. I  contacted RB almost a year ago, even offered to fill a distribution location gap, and never received a reply either way. Their requirements are more stringent. 

As we all know, a consistent, high-quality diet is very important. If none of these options work out (and even if they do) be sure to include desired food products on your Amazon wushlist. 

What is Purina EN? I see it listed in several comments below!

I appreciate all the discussion.  Seems like we are all in the same boat.  We have started mixing our Purina EN with Rachel Rays Nutrish.  Seems to be going well.  

We are a small shelter (120 dogs/year) and we have been fortunate to typically be able to fill our food requirement with cast-offs from a local Pet Co (discontinued brands, broken bags and returned food).  We only use the grain-free bags, and give all other donations away to low income families with pets.  When we buy, we buy from local vendees and choose Taste of the Wild for our puppies and Nutra Nuggets (which has rice) for our adult dogs.  Most dogs transition fine to the food we feed, but we always add probiotics (Activa) to the first few feedings.

We use science diet.  This is at mckamey in Chattanooga, tn