DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI/CNN) — There’s a cat food shortage, and an Iowa State professor says COVID-19 supply chain issues are to blame.
Specifically, there’s a shortage of the meat used in cat food.
Meanwhile, cat adoptions have increased since the pandemic. Most pet adoptions saw a spike and drop off. Cats, however, continue to be adopted at the same rate as their pandemic highs.
The professor said small changes have big impacts on the supply chain, and it can be very hard to recover from because demand doesn’t decrease.
He said aluminum, which most wet cat food is packaged in, is also in short supply.
He notes online pet retailers like “Chewy” have done away with aluminum packaging to fight the cat food shortage.

