Cat-astrophe? Whiskas pet food criticised over shrinking servings

theguardian.com:

The mercurial nature of cats means owners spend a lot of time trying to understand “cat speak”. However, the chances that loud miaowing is about food have increased after Whiskas not only slashed the size of its cat food pouches but changed the recipe .

The price of Whiskas has risen sharply in the past year and pet owners have taken to the brand’s Facebook page to vent their outrage over the smaller packets, which are 85g rather than 100g, but cost the same. Others complain their cat does not like the “new taste” and, in extreme cases, that it disagrees with them.

The practice of reducing product sizes but keeping the price the same effectively increases their cost per gram and is known as “shrinkflation”. Smaller Whiskas packs started arriving in stores last month but many owners did not spot the change until their pets started making a racket.

Cat owner David Reid said he was shocked by the price of Whiskas, with the pack size reduction the final straw. “It’s taken a couple of weeks to dawn on me why the pets were still hungry after being fed. I will now move to a different brand … it is now too expensive to feed them Whiskas pouches, as much as I love my cats dearly.”

Other recent casualties of shrinkflation include Magnum ice-creams, which these days are being sold in three rather than four-packs, and Mini Cheddars where a new bag size is “mini” too.

In her post on Whiskas’ Facebook page, Mauri Ann Beardshaw said she had been left wondering why her cats were asking for extra food. “Shrinkflation is probably fine for human snacks but it’s just not fair on the cats to reduce fixed meals. If they weren’t fussy I would be changing brand.”

The upshot of the smaller size meant you were getting just under two pouches fewer per