Livefood

Many reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates require livefood (insects and other invertebrates) as a whole or part of their diet. Some mammals such as pygmy hedgehogs do to. At Angell Pets we have stocked a range of livefood options since we opened over 13 years ago.

We often get new customers who have been buying their livefood either on line or at a chain store comment on the quality, condition and price of our livefood when they first come in. Our pre-existing customers have obviously been benefitting from this qualityfor some time and know why they shop with us. How do we keep our prices down and quality up? Well hard work and care mainly

livefood

Sticking a box of livefood on a shelf and leaving it there until a customer picks it up is just about it for most outlets. Not us. When we get the livefood in from one of our high quality suppliers (on their own temperature controlled vehicles, not via courier where the heat of summer or cold of winter decimates the stock before it even arrives) it is first inspected for quality. Any substandard packs are removed and not put onto our shelves. Fortunately for us this is a rare occurence and is usually where a tub lid may have come off in transit. The tubs of livefood are then fed, usually with a thin slice of organic carrot, before putting on the shelf for sale. It would be easy to just put in a large slice and leave it at that for the week but it is important that all the food is eaten before it has a chance to spoil. Too large a piece and it will start to rot and spoil the tub of livefood. For this reason we revisit each and every tub three times a week to remove any uneaten food, replace with a fresh slice and also remove any moulted skins from the insects (crickets, locusts, mealworms, morio worms etc.). This is very time consuming and fiddly but essential if we are to keep up our excellent standard of livefood that our customers have come to expect. As I write this blog it is a bank holiday Monday. When I have finished the first draft here I am off to the shop to feed and water the animals (reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and fish) and yes, feed all the livefood tubs on the shelf.

livefood

Toward the end of the week, especially in the large and extra large sizes during the summer months, some of the tubs will have grown into adults or started to deteriorate. We then go through every tub, removing any dead insects and replacing with live ones (consolidating the tubs) to ensure a tub bought on a Wednesday afternoon is as good as a tub bought on a Thursday morning when the fresh delivery arrives. We also consantly review the numbers ordered and we have become quite good at ensuring we order just enough to keep stock on the shelf for the week and are just running out when the new stock arrives so the tubs are never older than a week and look as fresh as when delivered.

livefood

Why do we go to all this effort. Well, the main reason is it is important the the food you feed your animal is as full of nutrients as possible. Just being alive is not enough. A starving, dehydrated locust, with an empty gut and not enough energy to really move let alone grow is not as benificial to your animal as one that is fit and healthy. Also by keeping our tubs of livefood well fed and hydrated we ensure we lose very little stock to spoilage. Each tub lost is a tub not sold so effects the return on our investment. By ensuring spoilage is at a minimum we are able to control costs to the business and keep the price to our customers down. Finally although reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates such as tarantulas do require livefood to survive we believe we have a responsibility to these insects whilst they are in a our care. Just letting a tub die because “they are just crickets” doesn’t wash with us.

We hope you as a customer share our views on the importance of looking after livefood for the benefit of you and your animal and look forward to seeing you during the week when you can be confident that you are getting the best quality for the best possible price.

The Angell Pets Livefood Team

FREE Local Delivery Is Back

As the lockdown continues and the government continues to encourage everyone to stay at home as much as possible we have decided to do our bit to help. As of today we are re-introducing our FREE local delivery service for ALL customers.

We used to offer this service from our last premises but had to withdraw it following a spinal injury and subsequent serious illness that left me unable to lift anything (or even to stand at one point) and impeded my mobility. In order to enable us to bring the service back Billie will have to do the deliveries and that means we have to close the shop early each day to do it.

free local delivery

From today we have introduced new reduced opening hours to enable us to carry out deliveries (and supplier collections) in the afternoons. The new hours are as follows:-

Monday 13:00 – 1600

Tuesday 10:00 – 14:00

Wednesday 10:00 – 14:00

Thursday 10:00 – 14:00

Friday 10:00 – 14:00

Saturday 10:00 – 14:00

FREE local delivery will be available for ALL orders over £5 to the following postcodes:- GL1, GL2, GL3, GL4 GL50, GL51 (that’s Cheltenham and Gloucester). Please telephone your order to 01452 501882 before 14:00. If it is a stock item we will deliver that day or the next. If it is not something we usually stock (or is currently out of stock) we will deliver it when the order arrives at the shop. We will still be OPEN everyday to receive deliveries and for those customers who still wish to visit the shop. Please note that all orders for the FREE delivery must be placed by telephone and paid for by card at the time of ordering. We cannot do cash on delivery at this time.

If you give us your contact number we can call you just before we arrive then knock and leave the item on our doorstep for you to come out and retrieve it before we leave. Alternatively we can leave it in a previously agreed secure area at the customers risk. Everyone should be home (that’s kind of the point of doing this) so we will only attempt one delivery. If we cannot get a response we will return the item to the shop for collection by the customer. Of course click and collect is still available on our website and by telephone. This system has been working well up to this point.

We are already doing FREE delivery to the vulnerable members of our community and we have reduced the minimum order value for this service to £5 to make it even easier for them to shop. The shop early closing is just to carryout the large volume of deliveries we are getting and expect to see increase. We are very busy and cannot cope with the deliveries with the shop still open and needing staffing. Please note this delivery service is for essential items so we will not be delivering animals. We insist that customers come to the shop to view animals before purchasing anyway and have suspended most animal sales during the current crisis.

So for FREE local delivery call 01452 501882 before 14:00. If you call after 14:00 we will be out delivering so will have to call you back when we are in the shop, which won’t be until the next working day.

No Price Increase On Most Livefood Items

As with all businesses, decisions have to be regularly made on pricing of products. Costs are increasing all the time; cost of raw materials, cost of energy, cost of utilities, cost of transport, cost of wages. Unlike some large businesses such as supermarkets (who can often dictate to the supplier what price they are willing to pay and even charge suppliers for the privilidge of stocking their products) we have to pay the prices our suppliers demand. We can sometimes negotiate discounts for products we sell in volume and we belong to various wholesaler schemes that provide promotional offers. These discounts and offers we pass directly on to our customers, members of our emailing list, followers of our Facebook page and this blog will be familiar with our regular monthly offers and discounts. However price increases happen every year, often more frequently with some suppliers, and we have to make decisions on how to handle the increases.

Where we can, we always look first to absorb cost increases into our business. There are a number of ways this can be done and we always exhaust all of these methods first. However, once these are exhausted we have no option but to pass on some of the increase to our customers. We never want to do it but some times it is unavoidable. It is only ever done as a response to genuine increases in cost to our business and in response to justifiable increases by our suppliers. In some cases, where we have felt supplier increases have not been justified and an element of unfair market manipulation has been at work, we have stopped stocking that suppliers products, rather than colaborate in overcharging our customers.

livefood

We have recently been informed of what we consider to be a justifiable increase in cost by our livefood supplier. The cost to us for livefood has not increased for a number of years, in fact it actually went down due to improved volume discount a few years ago, a reduction we passed on in full in our own pricing. However the suppliers costs have been steadily increasing over this period. Like us they have done a number of things to avoid passing on these increases but are now at a point where they can no longer do this. Some of their cost figures are eyewatering. They have absorbed increases in production costs over the last decade of a whopping 42%, without passing any of this on. This feat has been acheived by efficiencies, market growth (higher sales volumes) etc.. Unfortunately with the recent increase in the National Minimum Wage and other increases in feed and energy costs they are forced to increase their prices to us. Whilst most of the increases on their high volume items are relatively small (2.3% for prepacked locusts for example), some of the more exotic, small volume items are quite large (10% for dubia roaches).

livefood

So, what do we do? Just pass on the increases to our customers so it remains viable for us to sell these products but lose customers? Absorb the costs and keep our prices the same but go out of business because we no longer have money to pay our own costs (rent, energy, utilities, insurances , suppliers , etc, etc.). In the end our only sensible option is to anaylse each product range in turn and come up with a compromise.

livefood

From the end of May then, there will be a new pricelist for livefood and I am pleased to announce that the higher volume items such as crickets and locusts will not be increasing in price at all. They will be staying at £1.99 a tub. However some of the lower volume sellers will have to go up a little. For example dubia roaches will increase to £2.75, although lobster roaches will remain at £2.49.

livefood

It is never a good thing to increase prices but we do feel that these supplier increases are justified this time round and that our livefood quality remains the best around. We do not just receive it from our supplier, stick it on the shelf and hope it sells before it dies. We look after our livefood, feeding every couple of days (yes it is very fiddly and time consuming but worth it), cleaning out old food and any dead insects, keeping numbers in tubs up by recombining tubs where necessary and controlling temperature to ensure the food is in the best condition possible for your reptile, spider or whatever. Also we do have our loyalty scheme. This means participating customers get an additonal 2.5% off everything they buy when their poiints accumulate. So we are confident we still offer the best value for money on livefood.

So apologies for the small increases in price of some products but remember NO INCREASE in price of locusts, crickets, mealworms, morioworms and waxworms..

Livefood deliveries during the autumn/winter

Our Angell Pets FREE local livefood deliveries in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Painswick are very popular. During the warmer months we are happy to leave the deliveries in a secure location, by prior arrangement, if the customer is out.

livefood

However as the nights draw in and during the colder months this is not possible as the insects would likely die before being brought in by the customer. So with this in mind and wishing all our orders to remain in tip top condition, could all customers ordering livefood for FREE local delivery please ensure they request delivery for an evening they know they will be in to receive it.

From now until the mid spring we cannot leave any livefood deliveries in outside locations (recycling bins, outside storage cupboards etc.) if a customer is out. We will still attempt to redeliver the order during the next delivery slot for that area, as per our delivery policy but we cannot just leave the orders outside to spoil.

Obviously this only affects livefood (and already is the case for frozen food orders). Packaged pet foods and non perishable goods can still be left in a secure location by prior arrangement.

Thank you for your understanding.

The Angell Pets Team

Livefood down in price at Angell Pets

Livefood prices are following the general trend of negative inflation that we have seen over the past few weeks. We have negotiated a better deal with our suppliers and are passing on the savings to our customers.

livefood

Our livefood prices have not increased in the past five years. This is the first price change we have had on this essential item and we are pleased to say it is down.

The new livefood price list is as follows:-

Crickets now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Locusts now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Waxworms now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Mini Mealworms Now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Mealworms now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Morio worms now £1.99 (REDUCED from £2.75)

Calci worms now £2.99 (REDUCED from £3.07)

Bean Weevils now £2.99 (REDUCED from £3.83)

Fruit Fly cultures now £2.99 (REDUCED from £3.83)

Tropical Woodlice now £2.99 (REDUCED from £3.83)

Whiteworm culture now £2.99 (REDUCED from £3.83)

Springtails NEW £2.49

Pachnoda (fruit beetle lavae) now 2.99 (REDUCED from £4.24)

With the recent 40% price reduction of the price of jelly pots, this makes buying and keeping your livefood a whole lot cheaper.

Don’t forget all livefood can still be delivered locally FREE OF CHARGE as well and we are renouwned for the quality of our livefood. We feed the livefood boxes three times a week to keep them in tip top condition. None of this will change, it’s just the price that has come down.

The Angell Pets Team

 

Livefood protein and fruit jelly pots

Livefood jellies to prolong the life of the insects. These convenient jelly pots can be fed to livefood or directly to reptiles. Either way your lizard is getting the full benefit of these nutritious feeding solutions.

Livefood at pet shop Gloucester

The pots can be used with the single or double holders to mount inside a glass vivarium to feed geckos or inside livefood keepers, Alternatively just invert the egg carton in a box of livefood and they fit snugly and provide an excellent food and water source greatly extending the life of the insects.

The pots sell for 99p each or 50p each when purchased with a box of livefood and come in five different flavours. The protein gel pot is best for keeping livefood alive over an extended period and will allow them to grow.

Just ask at the till when you next purchase your livefood.

The Angell Pets Team.