Sheba?

I'll take a guess to say that Sheba's owner, Mars Inc., is more interested in promoting its other pet food brands than Sheba.  News reports say that in the middle of the Great Recession Mars Inc. intended to shut down Sheba in the U.S. market, but reversed course several months later.  Still, in the New York City area my experience is that the supply of Sheba 3oz cans at the supermarket is significantly less than the supply of Iams cans, another Mars Inc. product, even though the price of Sheba is greatly discounted several times during the year.  My supermarket even carries Royal Canin, another Mars Inc. brand, more than Sheba.  That's why I purchase Sheba online.  The pet shops near me charge much more for Sheba than the online retailers.

TheGreyStalker said:

I'll take a guess to say that Sheba's owner, Mars Inc., is more interested in promoting its other pet food brands than Sheba.  News reports say that in the middle of the Great Recession Mars Inc. intended to shut down Sheba in the U.S. market, but reversed course several months later.  Still, in the New York City area my experience is that the supply of Sheba 3oz cans at the supermarket is significantly less than the supply of Iams cans, another Mars Inc. product, even though the price of Sheba is greatly discounted several times during the year.  My supermarket even carries Royal Canin, another Mars Inc. brand, more than Sheba.  That's why I purchase Sheba online.  The pet shops near me charge much more for Sheba than the online retailers.

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Hmm that's interesting. I hope that they don't decide to discontinue it again! My kitties love Sheba. It does seem strange though that they don't put as much effort into promoting Sheba. Now that I think about it, I have seen Sheba on sale/clearance much more than the Iams products recently.

Ashekitty said:

Hmm that's interesting. I hope that they don't decide to discontinue it again! My kitties love Sheba. It does seem strange though that they don't put as much effort into promoting Sheba. Now that I think about it, I have seen Sheba on sale/clearance much more than the Iams products recently.

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I don't think Sheba will be discontinued again in the near future.  They just refreshed some of their product packaging (there are some new 6-count cases of Perfect Portions), and are also now available at Petco.  I have been seeing fewer of the cans and more of the Perfect Portions lately though, which is unfortunate since I only buy the 3-oz. cans.

dorimon said:

I don't think Sheba will be discontinued again in the near future.  They just refreshed some of their product packaging (there are some new 6-count cases of Perfect Portions), and are also now available at Petco.  I have been seeing fewer of the cans and more of the Perfect Portions lately though, which is unfortunate since I only buy the 3-oz. cans.

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That's good to hear! I am also glad they will be available at Petco, I shop there pretty often. I do wish they sold the 3 oz cans in more places, they are more economical than the perfect portions.

I've found perfect portions aren't so perfect for my cat. He needs more than that tiny bit of food. Had a bad experience with a similar product and he became very underweight and anemic.

dorimon said:

 
I don't think Sheba will be discontinued again in the near future.  They just refreshed some of their product packaging (there are some new 6-count cases of Perfect Portions), and are also now available at Petco.  I have been seeing fewer of the cans and more of the Perfect Portions lately though, which is unfortunate since I only buy the 3-oz. cans.

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That's exactly what the cynic in me fears. I'm thinking that Perfect Portions makes more profit for them because they charge higher prices for it (not just higher for the case, the PP is only 2.6 oz compared with 3 oz for the cans, over 10% smaller) and the plastic trays are likely cheaper for them to buy than the aluminum cans.

My Kabby wound up in the vet because of the portion being not enough food.

ZunarJ5 said:

That's exactly what the cynic in me fears. I'm thinking that Perfect Portions makes more profit for them because they charge higher prices for it (not just higher for the case, the PP is only 2.6 oz compared with 3 oz for the cans, over 10% smaller) and the plastic trays are likely cheaper for them to buy than the aluminum cans.

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That's a good point. I will not continue to buy from Sheba if they discontinue the 3 oz cans. The Perfect Portions don't make sense for me. I have three cats and it isn't economical. Not only that, each portion is barely enough for one cat. We will see. We can only hope!

I would love it if Sheba went in the opposite direction and started making the 5.5 oz cans...

Ashekitty said:

That's a good point. I will not continue to buy from Sheba if they discontinue the 3 oz cans. The Perfect Portions don't make sense for me. I have three cats and it isn't economical. Not only that, each portion is barely enough for one cat. We will see. We can only hope!

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I agree about the perfect portions. They are OK for a snack or something like that but other than that they are overpriced. I have some in my pantry because I had a buy some get some free coupon which made it worthwhile. My very picky eaters are starting to reject Sheba though. I may donate them. 

While the Perfect Portions are quite convenient for our household (we feed the two kitties four times a day), they are definitely too expensive without coupons/sales (and also don't fit inside of my 3-oz. can dispenser).

I really hope that they don't discontinue the cans, but my local PetSmart has already clearanced out all of the cans.  There are only a handful left.

Kat0121 said:

 
My very picky eaters are starting to reject Sheba though. I may donate them. 

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Our Coco stopped eating Sheba for an unknown reason last summer, for about a month or so.  She wouldn't touch it at all.  But then she went back to happily eating it one arbitrary day.  Not sure why... Callie didn't have any issues with the food.  We don't feed it very often, though.  Just once or twice a week.

Is Sheba being available at Petco a brand new thing? I went looking for it there a couple of months ago and they weren't selling it at my location. That will definitely make things easier for me since I prefer shopping at Petco.   

BTW...are the Sheba cuts just as good as the pates? My cat prefers the cuts and they seem to have the same ingredients as the pates but I've read several times that the pates are healthier. Why is that?

It would be interesting to see a Mars Inc. financial statement that describes in detail the revenues the company garners from Iams, Sheba and the other Mars pet brands respectively.  My wild guess is that Sheba gets shabby treatment from its corporate parent because Sheba's profit margin or sales is significantly less than that of Iams and the others.  That's a classic scenario in corporations that manufacturer several different lines of products.  They might not care if one line of product has stagnant sales, if that product represents a minuscule portion of their overall operations.  They might eventually abandon such a product and not make any enhancements in it or improve its marketing anytime soon.

A friend of mine came across such a situation years ago with a product which seemed to be headed for renewed interest and a substantial increase in sales.  He bought stock shares in the product anticipating increased sales.  After months of no improvement, he called the corporate office and asked them what the heck was going on;  why the miserable stock performance?  A management rep candidly told him that "sir, that's not our primary business and it represents less than 1% of all profits for this company."  End of conversation.

destinyz12 said:

 
Is Sheba being available at Petco a brand new thing? I went looking for it there a couple of months ago and they weren't selling it at my location. That will definitely make things easier for me since I prefer shopping at Petco.   

BTW...are the Sheba cuts just as good as the pates? My cat prefers the cuts and they seem to have the same ingredients as the pates but I've read several times that the pates are healthier. Why is that?

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Sheba in Petco stores is a recent development.

And pates in general tend to be healthier than formulas containing gravy (wheat gluten is in many cheaper non-pate formulas), but the Sheba Cuts in Gravy seem to be on par with their pates.

@dorimon  Thanks.  I like to avoid any form of grains, and Sheba cuts seem to be safe from that according to their ingredients.  It's one of the few types my really picky girl will eat!

On a side note- I just called Petco to check for Sheba, and they do have it in stores, but not currently available on their website unfortunately.  And only the perfect portions in store, not the cans.

destinyz12 said:

@dorimon
 Thanks.  I like to avoid any form of grains, and Sheba cuts seem to be safe from that according to their ingredients.  It's one of the few types my really picky girl will eat!

On a side note- I just called Petco to check for Sheba, and they do have it in stores, but not currently available on their website unfortunately.  And only the perfect portions in store, not the cans.

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Hmm... the fact that they only have the perfect portions worries me. I hope they eventually get them in stock!

My underweight cat loves Sheba but I can't feed it to her, Speedy is on a low-sodium diet and I can't get complete nutritional info on Sheba. I have written to customer service twice and never got a reply. Then I posted a question in Facebook and they told me to write to customer service.

So I am not impressed with their service and I suspect they don't want to reveal the complete nutritional profile. 

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Ashekitty said:

Hmm... the fact that they only have the perfect portions worries me. I hope they eventually get them in stock!

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More evidence of my suspicion that Mars is transitioning away from cans. That explains why fewer and fewer flavors are available at the big e-tailers.

I like Sheba as back up if I need it and usually keep some in the pantry as a back up . My grocery store has a great grain free inexpensive dry that I use to as filler but he is a great drinker so I'm not to worried about water thing . I do have a pet store near me that does the whole high end thing but gives discounts on cases as well as a frequent purchase kickback and I try to keep at least 50 percent of his diet there ..... but yeah finances . .... I allow one over priced premium can a day , than the good grain free dry ( which is way cheap compared ) than the Sheba if baby boy is extra hungry ... but again he drinks a lot . If I was lower on funds and he did not drink water like he did than Sheba ( some flavors) and purina( some flavors) would be where I would be .When he was a baby I gave mostly wet though and only enough dry to make sure the habit /ability was ingrained . I still force him to eat things he doesn't love because I know life enough to know I don't want a picky premium taste cat and no funds to accommodate it lol .... but that's easy enough because I work from home and can give out a spoon at a time replacing when I worry about bacterial growth multiple times a day until he he gets hungry enough to cope and eat ..... I do not repeat the experiences I can see he truly hates but for the most part I have flexibility in his diet and if I'm low on finds a week I can feed him enough , know he has good nutrition and still make budget .