[Updated 21 Aug 2016] It’s that time of the year again when kids look forward to lantern parades and adults try out the latest mooncake flavours. And our ever greedy canine friends are not left out. Mooncakes for dogs are not new in the market. What choices do we have for the mooncake festival this month? Come check it out! ;)
Category: Shopping Page 6 of 7
Thanks to Mr P’s lovely colleague, Donna now has her very first IQ toy!
Before this, I have not done much research on IQ toys. But I like the raw, minimalist look of this puzzle toy. Shaped like a disc, it is made of some form of compressed wood so it is rather heavy.
This demo video shows you the two different trap door puzzles that hide treats or food from the dog – (1) two sliding disc covers and (2) two flapping trapdoors that can be lifted by pushing a knob.
More about how Donna finds it after the jump!
If your dog has less love for her toothbrush than her rib bone, she is obviously not alone. Haha!
But if you read Dental Scaling under General Anaesthesia! Oh no! on this blog in June then perhaps you would agree with me that teeth brushing is an important routine for the dog, regardless of her, ahem, lack of fondness for her toothbrush.
In this post, I’m will go through:
- How regularly we’re brushing Donna’s teeth
- How I tried to help Donna like her tooth brush
- The pet toothbrush that didn’t work for Donna
- The pet toothbrush that worked for Donna
- How to brush a dog’s teeth
- And is it really true that we can’t use human toothbrushes for dogs?
Regular toothbrushing keeps dog’s teeth clean and gums healthy
I try to brush Donna’s teeth every day. Plaque starts forming on teeth 4 to 12 hours after brushing so it seems to be me that at least once a day will help remove plague more efficiently than 2-3 times a week.
When plaque is not removed, it hardens to become tartar. Tartar can only be removed by a dental professional. So of course I would want to remove plague effectively now than to pay more money more frequently for dental work at the vet. More about.
It’s not Donna’s favourite routine. And I have to admit that Donna’s lack of love of her toothbrush largely stemmed from the human’s bungling tooth brushing skills.
Helping Donna get used to having a toothbrush in her mouth
I did alright at first. I helped her like her toothbrush by making it part of a fun game of fetch. (See this video here on instagram.)
… although she did attempt to chew off the plastic handle at some point. Hmmm…
And she liked the flavour of the toothpaste I bought whether it was mint or poultry flavour.
But there was a one thing I did wrong.
I bought the wrong toothbrush for Donna
Being a dog newbie at the time, I decided to buy a dental kit that will give me both toothpaste and toothbrush. The pet shop offered a modest selection.
I chose the TropiClean dental kit based on the following:
- word of mouth recommendation
- two choices of toothbrushes to experiment with
- all the products in one pack, no need to think about what brand toothpaste to buy
- fancy toothbrush, I thought it could reach all the teeth surfaces better since it’s multi-dimensional
- vet recommended label
Tropiclean Fresh Breath Plaque Remover Pet Oral Care Kit, Large
But this kit was the wrong kit for Donna because:
- Donna’s mouth was small and narrow and it was hard to use the finger brush in her mouth
- The TripleFlex technology toothbrush has hard bristles. I imagine it hurt to brush with it because Donna more with this toothbrush and I could sometimes see blood on it after brushing her teeth!!
No wonder Donna hated the toothbrush!
I bought a less fancy but better toothbrush for Donna
So the next time round, I bought the less fancy looking Virbac C.E.T Home Dental Kit.
C.E.T. Duel-End Toothbrush, Fingerbrush & Enzymatic Toothpaste Oral Hygiene Kit
I chose the Virbac dental kit based on the following:
- Recognisable brand carried by Donna’s Vet
- Option for a small bristle toothbrush head to brush Donna’s small teeth in her narrow mouth
- Softer bristles compared to the TropiClean brush
- Enzymatic toothpaste – antibacterial so it inhibits the formation of plague
The switch in toothbrushes was a success!
Donna is now less resistant to brushing her teeth compared to previously. And while she still doesn’t love her toothbrush that much, at least she didn’t hate it as much as before!
The best thing?
No more bleeding gums when I brush her teeth!
Now that we’ve settled on the toothbrush, there’s still the matter of how exactly do you brush the dog’s teeth?
How do you brush your dog’s teeth?
I admit, I am the thorough and fastidious sort.
As a child in primary school, I used to follow exactly what the school dentist taught us as we squatted along the drain to brush our teeth together – you brush from your gum outwards with exactly ten strokes each and slowly proceed from one end of your set of teeth to the other end. And you repeat that with the teeth facing the inside of your cheeks and also the side of your teeth in your mouth cavity, and of course both top and bottom sets of teeth, etc, etc, etc.
I didn’t subject Donna to this of course, but I did try to be thorough for her good dental health. *Oops!*
But according to this video, dog teeth brushing appears to be a lot easier than what I was trying to do with Donna. So, go see if you would like to have a reference. If you have trouble playing the video, you can also check out the slideshow here.
While the video says that the finger toothbrush works just as well as the bristle toothbrush, be aware of the strength you use when brushing your dog’s teeth. Toa Payoh Vets has this case study of a Miniature Schnauzer with two loose front teeth and exposed roots. Brushing too vigorously can cause the dogs to experience receding gums, which is not good for them.
And if you’re extremely interested (haha!), here’s the recommended brushing technique, as used in the VOHC trials, available here – VOHC Brushing Protocol.
So they say you can’t use a human toothbrush for the dog’s teeth… is that true?
Every webpage I read when I researched dog teeth brushing tells me the dog needs to have a specialised dog toothbrush.
But why?
Is it the way the brush head is angled to enable the human to brush a pet’s teeth more easily?
It certainly didn’t seem like a more complex toothbrush design helped Donna, compared to the simpler toothbrush we bought later on…
Imagine my surprise when I read the following on the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) webpage for Products Awarded the VOHC Seal of Acceptance because they met “VOHC’s standards for effectiveness in retarding plaque and tartar when used as directed”.
ADA-compliant soft-bristle, flat head toothbrush
The only toothbrush that occurs in the all the dental products listed the accepted products list is “a tooth brush compliant with the American Dental Association standard ISO 20126:2005“.
And a ‘child-sized brush with soft bristles and a flat profile head was used in dogs in a trial conducted according to VOHC protocols…. The ADA standard ensures that the bristles have rounded tips to avoid damaging the gums‘.
Is it just me or does it seem like we’re better off using child tooth brushes compliant to the ISO standard for our dogs???
Note: VOHC is not a regulatory agency. Submission of results of clinical trials to VOHC on behalf of a product is voluntary. More here.
That’s certainly something that confused me. And I guess I won’t be so quick to express doubt when someone tells me they are using child toothbrushes on their dog next time round. ; )
Do you brush your dog’s teeth?
What sort of toothbrush and toothpaste do you like to use?
Some products on Amazon with VOHC Seal of Acceptance
 Milk-Bone Brushing Chews Daily Dental Treats – Small/Medium Value Pack, 22 Ounce – 28 Bones  |
 Greenies Dental Chews for Dogs, Regular, Pack of 27  |
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Despite what the label says, the human says this jam is for humans.
So Donna didn’t get any.
Boo!
#becausethehumanisasuckerforpackaging
Related
– Gourmet Australian products found in the heartlands of Singapore
– Blackberry Jam Product page
Through a dog’s ear: using sound to improve the health and behaviour of your canine companion is written by Joshua Leeds & Susan Wagner, DVM, MS.
Published 2008. ISBN 978-1-59179-811-8
In my research on ways to help Donna’s Thunder Phobia, the Through a Dog’s Ear calming music CD is something that I happened on quite a few times.
But this CD was never on my list of things to try NOW, simply because I just think (without proof :P) that Donna was too far in the deep end when it storms to even allow the music to work.
So when I happened on the book Through A Dog’s Ear in the local library, it seemed like a good time to learn more about it. How exactly does the CD promise to be effective for thunder phobic dogs? I hoped the book will have some credible answers.
Through a Dog’s Ear
The book – Through the Dog’s Ear – is written to help readers understand that an environment of sound can have good and bad effects on dogs.
The authors – a vet and a music producer/sound researcher – found from their inital research that Classical music relaxes dogs. And that a 2002 study by Wells found that heavy metal and/or grunge music can promote hostility, sadness, tension and fatigue in dogs.
They then decided to carry out two pilot studies. One, to find out if the effect of ALL classical music is the same on dogs. And two, if the music can be designed to “have an effect on specific anxiety issues in dogs.”
They found that
“solo instruments, slower tempos (50-60 beats per minute), and less complex arrangements had a greater calming effect than faster selections with more complex harmonic and orchestral content.”
The acoustically-designed music was also more calming on dogs with specific anxiety issues – other dogs/children, visitors in the home, thunderstorms, riding in the car, excessive need for attention, separation anxiety and fireworks.
The book goes on to explain how to use sound as a tool to help alleviate these specific anxiety issues.
I found the volume very easy to read. I finished it in two sittings, on the plane to vacation and on the plane back. :P The lack of distraction on the plane probably helped. :P
Does Donna show this sort of discerning taste for music?
I have been playing the CD that came with the book for a few days and Donna appeared to be happy to spend her time sleeping in her crate in the living room where it was playing. Or in the study, which means the CD in the living room sounded more distant.
She did seem to sleep more deeply and have more dreams or jerky movements.
In contrast, I have observed before that if we were watching some noisy action movie in the living room, she would retreat to her bed by the bedroom, which is the furthest point she could get away from us and the television set. This dog does not enjoy noise as much.
What most applies to a dog like Donna living in a flat in the city
Leeds and his co-author Susan Wagner also wrote about looking at the sounds a modern dog living in the city may have to adapt to.
They suggest a sonic inventory. That is, ‘spend thirty minutes sitting quietly in one place and catalog the sounds you hear inside your home’. The idea here is that if the dog has to live in a noisy environment, the CD can be played at a suitable level to help calm the dog.
“…we are not suggesting that this music be blasted at loud volumes to mask other disturbing noises. We actually suggest it is played at a soft volume. When played at a soft volume, it has the ability to calm the canine nervous system, which then makes the dogs less reactive to outside noises.”- Lisa Specter, Pianist for the CD
For our normal day, Donna will mostly be exposed to the loud construction noises coming from outside. Because I was at home, there was also the sounds of the fan, washing machine, closing of child gate, fridge doors, balcony doors, phone sounds, water sounds, etc.
But if not for the construction noises, this would be a pretty quiet flat since we live pretty high up and there are only 5 flats on each floor. So this environment could be pretty conducive for encouraging calmness in the dog. But if the human were not around during working hours on weekdays, one can imagine Donna may become very under-stimulated.
I have read before advise to leave the television or radio on for the dog when nobody is in the house. This was suggested to perhaps help the dog feel less alone with the human voices from the radio or TV. The book has other advice:
“The best thing would be to play an intentionally selected CD rather than the uncontrollable playlist of your local station – especially if you have a sensitive dog. Radio programming is driven by advertising dollars and the stations are looking to either stimulate or soothe their human listeners depending on the time of day and traffic patterns. Consequently a wide array of classical music is delivered with specific intentions that might not fit what you are looking to accomplish with your pup.”
Thankfully, the noisy construction sounds did not seem to cause over-stimulation in Donna. Perhaps because we keep the doors and windows closed so the noises are muffled when they filter though. And through time she has gotten used to them, despite not being able to tell the source of the sounds and analyse if it is a danger or not to her mortality. :P
It could of course be a different case for some other dogs, who may live with bigger, noisier families or on lower floors and get more stimulation and sounds from the streets.
Conclusion
In general, the book was very useful for understanding how the CD was designed and what perhaps makes it different from other calming music products.
The authors have added enough anecdotes to keep it interesting so it doesn’t become too factual and dry.
The book comes with a 44-minute CD with two tracks – one for calming the dog and the other designed to be uplifting. The uplifting one helps in that it is deliberately calibrated to NOT have adverse effects on dogs, although it may not be as soothing as the calming one.
As I said, I have been playing the CD for Donna on good days so she may relax and enjoy it. I’m just not sure when I can start playing it for her on stormy days, and when the next stormy day will come.
The book says that after she has been positively exposed to it for some time, it may be played on stormy days but does not really provide any sort of timeline as a recommendation. I suppose it would be difficult since it also depends on the particular dog and how often the human plays the CD!
I think the CD is good to have especially if you would like to have something easy to use with minimal effort on the human’s part. In fact, the authors suggest it as an intermediary tool since any desensitisation sort of training will necessarily take time.
Since it’s designed to be calming, the human finds it easy to listen too as well. Although sometimes, it might be just a tad too relaxing, which can be distracting if I am trying to be efficient and productive! :P
On that note, if you would like an alternative method of masking sound because music is too distracting – Eileen has a sound masking article here talking about using other alternative sounds instead.
Advertisement
Through a Dog’s Ear:
Using Sound to Improve the Health &
Behavior of Your Canine Companion.
Get this book on Amazon.
Official site: http://throughadogsear.com/about-book-and-cd/
More reviews from other sites
– review by Janet Tobiassen Crosby, DVM
– PetMed.com
– foreward reviews
– Goodreads reviews
Sun Petgamart. A convenient one-stop shop for dog owners staying in the north and central Singapore!
Sun Petgamart
26, Seletar West Farmway 1 Singapore 798126
Phone: 6484 0709
SGD$38 for 5-year membership gives you discount on purchases and free usage of doggy pool weekends and public holidays. $10/dog on weekdays.
1 Day 1 World Project: The human at 4:00pm – 5:00pm (last week)
Patisserie La Douceur, Taipei
I’m hijacking the saturdayTraining post for another lifestyle post because I’m playing catchup with the 1 day 1 World Project. And because these photos look good in sepia. :P
So anyway, I took a photo of these macarons from Patisserie La Douceur before they ended up in my tummy. Yum. I think the flavours were Coffee, Chocolate, Pistachio and some Orange Flower-watchamacalit. Needless to say, the Coffee one is the best. *thumbsup*
Some photos from the night we went to Patisserie La Douceur.
Now I love macarons. And those macarons got me thinking – are there macarons for dogs at all? I know there are pupcakes, but macarons???
Bubba Rose Biscuit Company, New Jersey
Now apparently that wasn’t an original thought because, guess what, this couple have ran a dog bakery in Boonton, N.J. for more than 7 years. And their shop Bubba Rose Biscuit Company sells dog treats and biscuits, including macaroons for dogs.
Source NBCNews.com
OK fine, so those macaroons look more like Oreo cookies than macarons. :P
The hunt continues and wallah!!
Wonderpaw, Melbourne
From Melbourne, Australia, the Wonderpaw Pup Patisserie Shop sells doggie macarons that look like the real thing.
Pup Macarons™ in a pretty package, what’s there not to like?
The best-selling flavours appear to be Peanut Butter Praline and Honey Lavender. You’d think a human would know those flavours, but Wonderpaw says that while their Pup Macarons™ are ‘made with human-grade organic ingredients, they may taste a little funny to the human palate, as they’re filled with pup flavours‘.
Like human macarons, Wonderpaw macarons come in a variety of bright colours. I was curious about how they create the colours in the macarons, and it appears that the colouring is derived from organic fruit and vegetables only.
I don’t think we have macarons for dogs in Singapore, do we?
So I guess Donna will just have to wait for yours truly to master the art of macaron-making … which I’ll say is not likely. Never made a single macaron in my life and I have no idea how one derives colouring from organic fruit and vegetables in the first place! :P
Note: As the macaron is a sweet treat, Wonderpaw recommends at most 1-2 pup macarons per day only. I actually think it depends on the size of dog too. I wouldn’t feed a chihuahua a whole macaron. It’s the kind of sinful pleasure you feed your dog on special days only, I think ;P Just like I won’t eat ice cream or potato chips everyday myself. ;)
Where to find
Patisserie La Douceur
– website
Shop address:
品悦糖 – 法式甜品专卖
台北市大安區金華街223號1樓
No. 223 JinHua St., Da’An District, Taipei City
call: (02)3322-2833
1PM – 9PM; fri/sat until 10PM
Other reviews – ladyironchef, hkepicurious, hungry in taipei, citynotes (cn)
Bubba Rose Biscuit Company
– Macaroons product page here
Bakery address:
236 Myrtle Ave., Boonton, NJ 07005
call: 862-209-4677
mon. – sat. 10am – 7pm, closed sundays
Wonderpaw
– Wonderpaw facebook
For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks. (I’ve no idea how we will do the sleeping hours, lol!)
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.
Home for Hope campaign helps dog shelters reach out to homeowners at Ikea
Locally in Singapore, Ikea is currently running a campaign with the shelters – Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD) and Animal Lovers League (ALL) – to help find adoptable dogs a home. Life-like standees of the dogs are placed in the Ikea store in the furniture display areas to show how “…sometimes, it takes more than a good piece of furniture to complete the home.”
The website Home for Hope shows the dogs that are looking for good homes.
Home for hope website screenshot
Of the 36 dogs listed, two have been labelled as adopted since the campaign launched this month (at time of writing this article).
Unfortunately, the website does not show which dogs are HDB-approved. But the great thing about the website is that you can see how some of these dogs behave by looking at the videos of the photo shoot. Here’s two dogs, not yet adopted at time of writing, with especially waggy tails.
Home for hope website screenshots
Consolidated data from 9 welfare groups on adoptadog.com makes adoption easier for potential adopters
In the same month, I discovered the website adoptadog.sg on Facebook. It doesn’t look as slick as Home for Hope nor does it have videos. But the functionality! Get this, you can search by age range, gender and whether it is HDB-approved or not on their database. Because who wants to adopt a dog that you may possibly be forced to re-home because you live in an HDB flat?
And I say this is awesome because when I was looking to adopt Donna, I only had so much time to visit 3 or 4 websites to look at what dogs are available. And to be honest I didn’t even know there were so many dog welfare groups in Singapore!
This site does it for you! It has the data from not one, not two but nine* different dog welfare groups in its database. The welfare groups are listed on the homepage. That makes finding an adoptable dog so much more efficient and effective because you now have a larger pool to shortlist from!
*The actual list comprise 10 groups but no dog shows up under the 3legsgood listing.
Adoptadog.com appears to be developed by an individual. The site is meant to be self-regulating so hopefully the dog shelters and the developer will continue to support and update the information there.
What does a real home with a dog look like?
Now since Ikea is showing customers at their store how these dogs could potentially fit into the small living spaces that Ikea typically caters for, I thought Donna will show you real life! How she fits into living in our flat ;)
See if you can recognise which ones are the Ikea furniture.
Panting after a game of fetch with her toy hippo. 
Abuses her toys, so I have to spend time with the needle.
I thought you said no sitting on the furniture, human.
Always likes to eat and chew on her beds and stain it, which is why I always look for busy patterns in the fabrics to hide the stains.
Has lots of beds scattered about the flat and still likes to nap in the middle of the floor sometimes. Mind your steps!
A pet is a great companion and addition to the household, but he/she is not a piece of furniture. A dog needs to be fed, exercised, played with, bathed, and groomed, be checked regularly by the vet and safe-guarded from specific canine ailments that can strike easily.
So adopt, with consideration, not with impulse. ;)
References
– homeforhope.sg
– Furniture mall partners animal shelters to find homes for abandoned dogs
– Ikea helping dogs find a home
– Ikea promotes dog adoption by advertising homeless dogs in its showrooms
Attention Most of what is written below is valid in terms of the methodology used, but the ranking has been updated & upgraded :P
This is the latest Top 10. The older article starts from after this table.
Don’t forget that you can also buy from Amazon.com
See also
Where do you buy your dog food and other pet products from?
When we adopted our first dog, we quickly found that her food costs added up really fast. We also found that she scratched and shed more on the dry and canned food that the shelter so kindly provided us with to tide us over the early days. That’s when we decided to upgrade her to try out other dry and canned food that meet the nutritional standards established by AAFCO – Association of American Feed Control Officials.
These food tend to be more expensive. And so costs jumped especially when we cut out canned food that we can get from the supermarket and bought more of the better regarded brands.
It wasn’t long before I decided to put on my bargain hunter hat to check out some online shops. I wanted to get a sense of the price difference between them and the more convenient chain store that we sometimes buy from.
A quick search on Google showed that it’s not difficult to find listings of local online pet shops all claiming to be the top pet shop in Singapore. But honestly, there can only be one top pet shop, isn’t it?
Which of these online stores are trustworthy?
Which have the lower prices?
Which online stores make it easy to find the products on their website?
Which of these online stores are the most popular or have the highest traffic?
Here are the Top 10 Online Pet Stores in Singapore based on Alexa Global Ranking, broken in to two charts.
Top 10 Online Pet Shops in Singapore : #1-#5
| Online Pet Store Ranking | Global Rank | Bounce rate (%) | Daily Page Views | Daily Time on site (mm:ss) | FB likes |
| 01. petloverscentre.com | 509,065 | 37.2 | 9.0 | 4:17 | 23,393 |
| 02. moomoopets.sg | 1,417,725 | 16.7 | 12.0 | 5:53 | 4,644 |
| 03. petsstation.com.sg | 1,550,521 | 53.3 | 5.0 | 3:54 | 4,911 |
| 04. singpet.com | 1,572,649 | 25.0 | 4.3 | 5:50 | n.a. |
| 05. polypet.com.sg | 1,753,041 | 46.2 | 11.0 | 5:08 | 1,685 |
Global Rank and Facebook Likes data retrieved between period of 8 May to 15 May, 2014.
Since revenue, order volume or total customers information is confidential, we can only try to make a guess looking at website traffic estimates from Alexa. Now I would be the first to say that Alexa is a free data source and it is not the most accurate source of data in the world, but this exercise is really just for fun so bear with me :P If you feel that I should verify if a store you are using should be in the list but is not, let me know.
Did you know?
Although supermarkets do sell dog food, 80% value share of dog food are sold via pet shops and pet superstores in Singapore. – Feb 2013 Market Indicator Report
#1 and #3 – It should come as no surprise that the two local pet chain stores are in the top 5.
#2 – MooMooPets is the more surprising for me in the Top 2 spot. MooMooPets started out as an online store that later opened a retail outlet in Jurong West. The outlet has since closed down.
#4 – Singpet.com originated from Australia, and is a localised copy of vetproductsdirect.com.au
#5 – Polypet is a 10-year local pet supplies retail store with the one shop-front at Sunset Way in Clementi.
Singapore-based online pet shops appear to be less mature in terms of the variety of products they carry and the e-commerce user experience. Therefore, it made sense that customers would gravitate towards trusted local retail stores that have got an online presence.
With the exception of Doggyfriend, the next five appear to be online stores in existence 4 years or less.
Top 10 Online Pet Shops in Singapore (#6-#10)
| Online Pet Store Ranking | Global Rank | Bounce rate (%) | Daily Page Views | Daily Time on site (mm:ss) | FB likes (as of May 8, 2014) |
| 06. doggyfriend.com.sg | 1,818,596 | 50.0 | 5.0 | 2:43 | 527 |
| 07. goofypets.com.sg | 2,250,923 | 42.9 | 2.7 | 2:47 | 4,731 |
| 08. petcare.com.sg | 2,453,880 | 64.3 | 2.3 | 1:48 | 208 |
| 09. theonlinepetstore.com.sg | 2,748,714 | 46.7 | 6.0 | 4:09 | 394 |
| 10. pawfamily.sg | 4,454,204 | n.a. | 1.5 | n.a. | 1,072 |
Global Rank and Facebook Likes data retrieved between period of 8 May to 15 May, 2014.
The data presented in the charts above are put together for an informal comparative reference of the popularity of Singapore online pet stores. Note that the data can change over time. I was able to find 47 online pet stores, out of which these are the 10 leading the pack in terms of Alexa Global Rank. All stores need to have e-commerce shopping cart capabilities to be included in this exercise. Stores that exist only on blogs, Facebook and/or Qoo10 are not counted. Stores that do not sell dog food are not counted in the sample. Please note that Alexa Global Rank cannot measure the true value of the stores’ popularity and transactional activity occurring with each store. Based on my own experience transacting with some online stores, after my first visit to the store, sometimes the repeat purchases can occur via SMS or email, with no actual visit to the online store.
I have compiled this information freely on my own time. Provision of the information does not mean that I know, visit, transact with or in any way recommend their store. I did not verify if any of the stores are engaged in the trade of live animals, in case you have any questions about that.
It honestly took me quite some time to compare the different online stores to find one with the best value. But in the end, it was all about compromise. The pet shop with the cheapest cost for the product I want may not have the variety for me to accumulate a total order value that qualifies me for free delivery. The shop that does have the wider range of products priced the products higher and also had a higher value set for free delivery.
Young start-ups likely have the challenge of generating traffic and interest. They also have to work harder to establish a reputation for trust and reliability. I do find myself trusting them less. If I do buy from them, I usually choose to pay Cash on Delivery rather than by Credit Card.
The result was that we continued to buy from both the brick-and-mortar shops and some of the online stores largely based on the situation. Sometimes we needed to save time and have the convenience of getting the product immediately from the nearest pet chain store. Sometimes an online pet shop may have promotional discounts, or I finally have a longer shopping list to meet the free delivery rates to make an online order.
So we have bought Donna’s canned and dry food from about three different online pet shops. One of them in the top ten list above, the other two ranked more than 10. We bought from them simply because the same pet food brand cost cheaper/cheapest with them and there is the option to pay cash on delivery. The downside is, regardless of the variety they advertise on their sites, they usually are out of stock for less popular products and even when I asked about it, they don’t seem inclined/have the capacity to bring in more stock. This means their product range is more limited in reality then what is being sold on their website.
So that in a nutshell is a rough ranking of online pet shops in Singapore and our experience buying from them.
Have you bought your pet food from an online pet shop before? Which one is it?
How do you decide which online store is trustworthy to buy from?
Did you have different experiences from us?
Note: Top Ten Online Pet Store chart data may change with time.
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