food...

olitter (PawsForThought) wrote in message ...
From: (Steve Crane)

Most companies use various survey companies. Neilsen for instance in
grocery stores buys information from grocery stores. Companies like
Audits & Surveys tabulate sales from a wide variety of retailers,
including grocery, mass market (Wal-Mart), pet specialty,
veterinarians, independant pet retailers and farm and feed. They
conduct manual inventory measurements at several hundred retail
outlets and use the purchase history and inventory levels to determine
actual sales each quarter. They sell that information to companies
like Hill's who want to know what kind of market share they have.
Audits & Surveys data is not always dead on accurate, but it is the
most accurate of the available data.

So there are no numbers posted anywhere where a consumer can see the actual
figures? I just wonder because I've heard other companies, like Nutro for
example, that claim to be the best seller in the natural cat food market. I
called a company yesterday that gets the figures for natural foods. I asked
them what brand of natural cat food is the top seller and they told me I'd have to pay them $250 to get that information.

That is correct. I'm surprised they would sell it so cheap. I would
have to guess that it was outdated information that has been out in
the "public view" long enough to have little value. The cost of Audits
and Surveys data is vastly more expensive than $250. There is always a
small lag in the data, for instance the 3rd quarter data covering
July, August and September did not show up until November 10th. Pet
Food magazine publishes twice a year with data for the major
companies, giving market share for the US as percentage of the total
market. The November 2003 issue gives the following:

Nestle Purina 30%
All Other brands 14%
Hill's 12%
Iams 12%
Master Foods (Pedigree etc) 11%
Ol' Roy 10%
Del Monte 7%
Nutro 4%

You can't expect a company that pays hundreds of people to go into
stores and veterinary clinics, inventories the foods, and reviews
purchase and sales history to give you that information for free.
That's how they make a living and if they gave it to you for free, how
would they pay all those people who work for them?

"Diane L. Schirf"


There are numerous statistics as to what (wild) animals in the wild die
of; I remember that parasites and poor nutrition are two of the top
contenders, even for young animals, so I'm not sure what your point is.

Poor nutrition in the sense that what they were able to find to eat did not
constitute a nutritionally balanced diet, or poor nutrition meaning starvation?

"Diane L. Schirf"


There are numerous statistics as to what (wild) animals in the wild die
of; I remember that parasites and poor nutrition are two of the top
contenders, even for young animals, so I'm not sure what your point is.

Poor nutrition in the sense that what they were able to find to eat did not
constitute a nutritionally balanced diet, or poor nutrition meaning starvation?

Diane L. Schirf wrote:

In article ,
ospam (Yngver) wrote:


What, are you arguing that wild cats in a natural environment die prematurely
mainly due to poor diet?


There are numerous statistics as to what (wild) animals in the wild die
of; I remember that parasites and poor nutrition are two of the top
contenders, even for young animals, so I'm not sure what your point is.


Human predation and parasites/diseases, yes. Poor nutrition, no - unless
you mean starvation.

Diane L. Schirf wrote:

In article ,
ospam (Yngver) wrote:


What, are you arguing that wild cats in a natural environment die prematurely
mainly due to poor diet?


There are numerous statistics as to what (wild) animals in the wild die
of; I remember that parasites and poor nutrition are two of the top
contenders, even for young animals, so I'm not sure what your point is.


Human predation and parasites/diseases, yes. Poor nutrition, no - unless
you mean starvation.

In link.net,
Diane L. Schirf composed with style:
In article ,
"Karen M." wrote:

Human predation and parasites/diseases, yes. Poor nutrition, no -
unless you mean starvation.

Human predation is actually much lower on the list for what kills
most wild animals.

Poor nutrition leads to susceptibility to disease/parasitism. So
it's
more than just simple starvation.

Depends on your description of "human predation".

In link.net,
Diane L. Schirf composed with style:
In article ,
"Karen M." wrote:

Human predation and parasites/diseases, yes. Poor nutrition, no -
unless you mean starvation.

Human predation is actually much lower on the list for what kills
most wild animals.

Poor nutrition leads to susceptibility to disease/parasitism. So
it's
more than just simple starvation.

Depends on your description of "human predation".

From: ospam (Yngver)

If you haven't figured it out already, Nutro reps will tell you anything to
get
you to buy their food.

Uh-oh, a Nutro basher!

I've had nothing but bad experiences w/ Nutro reps and I'm not the only one.

From: ospam (Yngver)

If you haven't figured it out already, Nutro reps will tell you anything to
get
you to buy their food.

Uh-oh, a Nutro basher!

I've had nothing but bad experiences w/ Nutro reps and I'm not the only one.

Tell me again what the life expectancy is for a cat in the wild? Compare
that
w/ cats in "captivity".

What, are you arguing that wild cats in a natural environment die prematurely
mainly due to poor diet? I think most of them die due to a host of other
factors. Nature is not kind to predators once they are past their prime.

Thus, the bottom line is that housecats live longer, better quality lives than
do their wild counterparts--my point all along.