Given all the luxury pet spas and fat camps exclusively for dogs, it’s about time cats get some love.
Earlier this month, UK brand Green Pantry launched a luxury cat food for a whopping $918 per month. (That’s the equivalent to $11,000 per year, $15.3 per serving or about $1.53 per mouthful.)
Each 2kg-packet—priced 30 times the average cat food at $306 and expected to provide ten days’ supply—contains Arenkha caviar, line-caught Scottish salmon, hand-caught Norfolk lobster, and locally-sourced Devon crab. With organic asparagus, quinoa, and saffron, it’s completely free from preservatives, GM, additives and artificial colors.
Named British Banquet after its high-quality British ingredients, the idea of this luxury cat food came about when celebrities and other VIPs reached out to Green Pantry for a more luxurious product, according to Simon Booth, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Green Pantry. And as the manufacturer of holistic pet foods for cats and dogs, the team felt a lot of emphasis within the pet trade is geared toward dogs. So to provide a high-quality dietary alternative for cats—which at this point is still largely based on cereals and their derivatives, the team spent two years developing this product.
Understandably, given the remarkably high cost of the ingredients, Green Pantry cannot mass-produce this luxury product. Currently, all the British Banquet is only available by special request via the company’s website. U.K. orders will be delivered for free, while customers from outside of the U.K. will be expected to pay an extra $61 for a 2kg-parcel, which roughly amounts to $183 for a month’s supply or a total of $2,196 for annual supply to cover postage and packaging, and administration costs. (In other words, for $11,000 of cat food per year, be prepared to shell out $13,196 if you don’t live in the U.K.)
Earlier this month, UK brand Green Pantry launched a luxury cat food for a whopping $918 per month. (That’s the equivalent to $11,000 per year, $15.3 per serving or about $1.53 per mouthful.)
British Banquet (Photo credit: Green Pantry)
Named British Banquet after its high-quality British ingredients, the idea of this luxury cat food came about when celebrities and other VIPs reached out to Green Pantry for a more luxurious product, according to Simon Booth, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Green Pantry. And as the manufacturer of holistic pet foods for cats and dogs, the team felt a lot of emphasis within the pet trade is geared toward dogs. So to provide a high-quality dietary alternative for cats—which at this point is still largely based on cereals and their derivatives, the team spent two years developing this product.
Some of the luxurious ingredients in the British Banquet include: Arenkha caviar, Line-caught Scottish Salmon, hand-caught Norfolk lobster, locally-sourced Devon crab, Organic Asparagus, Quinoa, and Saffron. (Photo credit: Green Pantry)
Dr. Eric Dougherty, Feline Veterinarian and Medical Director of The Cat Practice in New York City, doubts it. “Cats are obligate carnivores, so foods like asparagus, quinoa or saffron are not necessary at all,” he said. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, cats don’t particularly fare well with a seafood diet.
According to the feline expert, cats that are fed with strict seafood diet (and no other supplements such as taurine) have a higher risk of Pansteatitis (inflammation of fat as a result of prolonged deficiency of Vitamin E), and are more susceptible to mineral deficiencies plus serious cardiac issues.
“At $11,000 per year, this is clearly a product tailored for the one percent,” said the feline veterinarian. Since a cat would unlikely be able to distinguish the real benefits of Nova Scotia salmon from Scottish salmon, Dougherty believes this product is clearly more geared for the owners’ wants than the cats’ needs.
“Odds are, the people who would buy this cat food are the same people who would splurge $5,000 on a burger. And while I think this luxury cat food could make for a nice treat once in a while, what cats really need are high-quality protein like duck, turkey or chicken and lots of water within their diet,” he said.
As for those looking to create homemade or raw diets, check out Balance IT and Catinfo.org. “With everything you need to make a nutritionally balanced diet, Balance IT even customizes a diet with you, and makes sure that every step is designed for the best of your cat,” noted Dougherty.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment