Hi Life Essentials discontinued?

[LouiseJ]

"New and Improved" when the only thing "new" or "improved" is the price

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Yesterday I compared the labels of the chicken hi life essentials pouch and one of the new fancy chicken ones as Wilkinsons sell both.  The only difference in ingredients is that the new one contained sunflower oil.  the rest of the ingredients were the same (chicken, minerals, taurine, tapioca if memory serves me correct).  Yet the new one was about 65p and the old essentials one was about 30p.  Definitely a con.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

What a  con

[LouiseJ]

As I was reading The Grocer at lunchtime which has a petfood special this week, I thought you might be interested in this:
"Shoppers are looking for added value as opposed to out and out value" and "consumers will pay higher prices as long as they see added benefits....."
the end result of which means the repositioning of Hi-Life into the super-premium and ultra-premium pricing bands so watch this space for the launch of Hi-Life "Indulge Me" and "Tempt Me!"   

[Gillian Harvey]

They are 'discontinuing' a lot of the Hi Life ranges, and reintroducing them, called something different, at three times the price! 

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

On closer inspection of the hi life site, it looks like the hi life essentials turkey and giblets (the one I'm after) might not be discontinued after all.  A lot of the hi life are being discontinued, including the petit pate, but there is a pic of the hi life essentials but the pic is of the salmon pate.  I thought for some reason that was the only flavour being kept but if you click on the picture it comes up with all 3 in the range (turkey, salmon and tuna) and it doesn't say discontinued for any of them.  I also managed to find it in Asda today (I bought every tin they had!) although it does look like the other supermarkets won't be selling it any more as it's the petit pate brand that most used to stock (I still think it is exactly the same as the essentials as both ingredients list and nutritional analysis are identical plus it looks exactly the same, right down to the little bit of "skin" that sticks to the bottom of the tin!).

So hopefully all is not lost and Mosi can still have his turkey and giblets pate that he loves.

If you want to contact Hi-Life to see if your variety is going to be discountinued I can let you have the email address of the lady I have been dealing with.  Just PM me and I'll send it :-)

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Thats the one that my late Kocka used to eat and I had a panic about it back when I lived in London.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

On closer inspection of the hi life site, it looks like the hi life essentials turkey and giblets (the one I'm after) might not be discontinued after all.  A lot of the hi life are being discontinued, including the petit pate, but there is a pic of the hi life essentials but the pic is of the salmon pate.  I thought for some reason that was the only flavour being kept but if you click on the picture it comes up with all 3 in the range (turkey, salmon and tuna) and it doesn't say discontinued for any of them.  I also managed to find it in Asda today (I bought every tin they had!) although it does look like the other supermarkets won't be selling it any more as it's the petit pate brand that most used to stock (I still think it is exactly the same as the essentials as both ingredients list and nutritional analysis are identical plus it looks exactly the same, right down to the little bit of "skin" that sticks to the bottom of the tin!).

So hopefully all is not lost and Mosi can still have his turkey and giblets pate that he loves.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

There will be lots of HiLife food in the auction this year ... I picked up 18 boxes of it on Friday.    (various flavours and varieties including the new .... unreleased options).

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Sadly this is what pet food companys are doing over and over and Sasas only wet food was stopped by Gourmet a year ago and she still wont eat anything else except biscuits.

They dont care about cats at all and just stop popular stuff and just dont know why.

I dont know the ingredients on the gourmet pate, they do ocean fish and turkey and they are currently on a bad offer at tescoes and think they work out very similiar price to the new hilife ones.

Sheba terrain is the closest to supermeat and my cats going off it cos they dont like supermeat.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I think I've answered my own question by looking on the hi life website (dont know why I didn't think of that to begin with).  It looks like the petit pate has been discontinued.  The essentials pouches looks to be still in production and also the salmon pate essentials (Mosi's not that keen on fish but he will eat this from time to time - I wouldn't want him having fish everyday anyway).  So part good news and part bad - at least I should be able to get the essentials pouches for him and supplement with the other bits and bobs.

I hate it when they discontinue cat food.  Don't they know cats are creatures of habit?!

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I've noticed recently that most of the stocks of hi life essentials in supermarkets (or hi life petit pate as it's sometimes called) have dwindled over the past few weeks.  This is Mosi's favourite food and I used to be able to get it 4 tins for £1 in Asda for years and then they stopped that about a year ago and I've had to pay something like 35p a tin.  But that was still reasonable.

Now I can't find the little tins anywhere and Sainsburys empty shelves have now been filled with what seems to be a new hi life food - hi life indulgance and hi life something else (one is a tin, the other a pouch).  I bought one of the tins on friday and Mosi liked it but they are 59p so a lot more expensive than the hi life essentials.

I'll be really bummed if I can't get the essentials anymore because Mosi is a bit fussy and I also like to give him cereal free food (the hi life contains sugar but no cereals) but I can't afford 59p a tin for his every day food.  I really don't know what I'll feed him if I can't get the hi life essentials.  Quality Save still had the essentials pouches last time I looked (which he likes but not as much as the tins) but I'm worried they will be next to go.

Anyone else feed this and noticed the same?  I'm hoping it's just the supermarkets discontinuing it and that the petit pate will still be available in pet stores?  Otherwise, can anyone else recommend a cat food that doesn't contain cereals/vegetable deriviatives and is a pate?  And cheap!