Quoting Marie, any list of great pet stores supporting apartment life will have to take into account that the savvy, "go to different stores for different products."
Whiskers is a far cry from the posh, high end poodle spas in the West Village. Specializing in natural food and remedies for for all pets, this "holistic" East Village gets rave reviews and has a "full service" website:
Hazel says: Whisker has an excellent selection of holistic products, great staff, delivery, AND open on xmas ... Plus a kitty "rescue ranch"!
Lisa says: My favorite pet store in the city, by far, is the estimable if uncreatively named Whiskers...
The owners are incredibly knowing about holistic petcare, and very generous with that knowledge. They have an amazing selection of byproducts-free (pet)food. And they deliver--even to Brooklyn!
However, Vera says: They are very knowledgeable and generous (by giving their front window over to potential adoptees), but they aren't very courteous to their neighbors.... apparently customers parking in front of the store lead to loud honking...
More Vera: I used to live in the building across 9th Street - there is a bus stop right there in front of Whiskers and the owners would encourage their customers to park there while shopping in the store! So when the M8 bus would come, it would have to stop in the middle of 9th Street, so cars would back up behind it and honk. I went in there and pointed this out to them, but they didn't seem to care about the fact that the constant honking was very annoying to the store's neighbors (not to mention the fact that parking in a bus stop is illegal).
(Re-edited from original post on 2005-01-19 - mgr)
i'm still have no idea why i want holistic pet products. anyone?
hi.. just found your website and was very flattered to read the comments. thank you for this mention in your site. i must comment on the parking comment though. we have never encouraged customers to park in a bus stop. as a matter of fact, we ask them not to as we know they will get a ticket and make shopping with us unpleasant. regarding "honking", where again we do not encourage honking. we have put out two great benches for people waiting for bus to be able to sit and have gotten many praises for that. So vera, we apologize that you thought we were encouraging people to be rude and unpleasant ... you should come back and see the great responses we get regarding our frontage. and as far as why you would want natural products for your pet.... please go to our website for great information and answers to that and other questionhs. 1800whiskers.com
I thought we were done with pet/cat/dog/bird month. Please let this end. I looked forward to the end of last month but it still keeps coming!
"Holistic" pet products usually means things like dog food made without sawdust and cow hide, vitamin and mineral supplements for aging pets with joint disorders or intestinal troubles, treats made without unhealthy non-food ingredients...
"Holistic" = not trash, however I should mention that the absence of the word "holistic" does not necessarily imply garbage. It just often does. Shopping at a store that is intentionally not stocking pet foods/products made with unhealthy waste materials is good for you pet. It's that simple.
Whiskers is a great store. I used to live just down the block from them. Very helpful staff who genuinely cares about pets.
As for why you want holistic remedies, my husband's old cat got cancer and the vet suggested holistic products and a diet of just meat and veggies (the vet gave more guidance than that, but I'm summing it up). My husband was feeding the same products to his other cat, and he said they both got so healthy-looking and their fur was plush. I have no idea if it prolonged the life of the cat with cancer, but my husband does feel like it made a difference.
There's a lot of garbage in commercial pet food, too. We feed our cat an organic cat food. Yes, I know, it sounds kind of ridiculous (and only people in a wealthy country would do this), but after reading what Iams does to animals in the name of testing, I want to buy food that I can feel decent about.
Our cat had been having digestion problems. Took her to the vet and they just told us to expect older cats not to be able to keep their food down to deal with it. A friend recommended Whiskers, we took our problem to them, they recommended different holistic foods and vitamins. And within a week our cat could eat again, kept the food down, was happier and had more energy. I almost perfer to take our cat the them then our own vet! Whiskers is THE BEST pet store in the city, can't say enough good things about them.
The vet had diagnosed my cat with kidney disease, stating that nothing could be done for her. My sister suggested that I visit Whiskers, and Randy recommended that I start feeing her holistic wet food. This was five years ago, and she has recovered her weight and has a healthy glow. I can not thank Randy enough for saving my cat!
I think this store may have saved my cats life - after Borts 7th urinary tract infection and 2 kidney failure I turned to the advice from the great staff at Whiskers which was supplements - camis mix and abady apex food. He recovered almost immediatly - passed the blockage and hasnt been sick since. I cant praise them enough. Keep your vet - but Id really suggest alwasy getting a second opinion from them.
I am a cat-rescuer specializing in bottle-feeding orphan kittens and in healing cats and kittens with medical "issues" so they can find homes. I turn to Whiskers's mail-order department for all my life-saving needs. Then the huge problem becomes finding permanent homes for healthy fuzzballs raised on Whiskers's food or the brands they condone (or vegan, which is fine with me) - can't let them go to a by-products home! If you are interested in adopting a rescued kitten and are hip to the issues about "pet food" about which Whiskers promotes education and informs, PLEASE call 609 933 0902 - overloaded with fabulous, affectionate, laugh-riot kittens looking for holistic-savvy homes!