SuperZoo Product Picks!

I’ve spent the last 4 days in Vegas, feverishly taking notes on what’s up and coming in pet products at the annual SuperZoo pet retailer convention. The expo floor was this massive labyrinth of pet foods, toys, grooming supplies, software, treats…you get the picture. Every time I thought I covered the floor there was some alley or other that I had missed and more goodies to check out.

Cat scratching posts from Imperial Cat. I love cardboard scratchers- I think cats really do prefer them. I was so impressed at how sturdy the cardboard is in these, because a lot of cardboard scratchers are flimsy. Plus, they’re just super cute! Who doesn’t need a Halloween lounge shaped scratcher in their lives? 

Or a tiger bench scratcher?

The Company of Animals has a lot of innovative products on the market, including a really spiffy blinking LED collar that you can recharge via USB, but what caught my eye were these basket muzzles. They’re sturdy rubber but they still have some give, unlike the solid plastic ones out there now. Basket muzzles are very hard to find, I’ve discovered, and there are some pets for whom this is a really vital training tool so I am really glad to see it coming out in retail. I would love to use these in the clinic.

I’ve been a fan of soft e-collars ever since Mulan took out a favorite vase in 2002 thundering around the house in her satellite dish, but I’ve also seen the critique that they can be a little too flimsy. These Comfy Cones are very sturdy- almost the same thickness as a padded cat carrier- and still comfortable and secure. I like them quite a bit.

I LOVED these Poop Pacs. Brody always goes about 5 minute into a walk, and then I have to run with a warm bag of poop slapping into my forearm until I find a trashcan. So gross. The Poop Pacs are a hard sided case that has washable storage for the poop bag on one side, and room for keys/money/whatnot on the other side. The bags themselves are biodegradable and just pop out the bottom so you don’t have to open the bag to fish a new one out. This is so on my wishlist.

I’m a sucker for clean design with pet bags. The Pet Ego carriers are modern but also very clever. I loved this pet dome for people who bring their animals to work- it’s mesh all around so the pet can see and get plenty of air, and at the end of the day it folds up and slides right into the backpack carrier. Nicely done.

I love K9 Cakery products- I used their Fido Frosting on the Valentine’s Bronuts, if you recall- and now they have even more amazing fun stuff to play with. These pawprint silicon molds? Will be mine. I have soooo many ideas for these.

And last but certainly not least, I was quite impressed by the toys at the Bionic booth. They held up their claim to fame of indestructibility by putting a Bionic in a BlendTec. Being the BlendTec-o-phile that I am, I was all over that.

By the way, in the back they had the sad results of 5 other toys that had not fared so well in the BlendTec.