We didn't set out to open a natural pet shop. We set out to solve a problem — and the shop came after.
For years before The Pets Larder existed, I ran a dog daycare in Cornwall. Hundreds of dogs through the doors over a decade. Different breeds, different ages, different temperaments, different diets. After a while you start to notice patterns that nobody in a veterinary textbook mentions — which dogs had shiny coats and which didn't, which ones had consistent energy and which flagged by midday, which ones had settled digestion and which ones didn't. The correlation between diet and daily condition was impossible to ignore once you'd seen it enough times.
That background shaped everything that came after.
The cat that started it
The Pets Larder's founding story doesn't actually involve a dog. It involves Louis, our cat, and a bout of cystitis that resolved entirely when we changed what he was eating.
Louis had been on a standard high-street cat food diet — the kind that sits in supermarkets in bright packaging with reassuring words on the front. He developed cystitis. The vet was helpful, treatment was given, but the episodes kept recurring. On the advice of a nutritionally-minded vet, we switched him to a grain-free, high-meat wet food. The cystitis stopped. Completely. No recurrence.
That experience — seeing a chronic, recurrent health problem resolve through a dietary change — is what turned an interest in pet nutrition into a conviction. If the ingredient quality in a cat's food could produce that kind of outcome, what was happening more slowly and less visibly in animals fed on low-quality diets their entire lives?
What a natural pet shop actually means
The term natural pet shop gets used loosely. It's worth being specific about what it means to us, because the word natural in pet food is unregulated — it can appear on any product regardless of ingredient quality, processing method, or meat inclusion.
When we say natural pet shop, we mean a shop where the stocking decision starts with the ingredient list. Every product we carry has been chosen because it clears a nutritional standard — named protein source, declared meat percentage, nothing added that serves a cosmetic rather than nutritional purpose. That applies to food, to treats, to chews, and to supplements.
It also means we don't stock things that don't clear that bar, regardless of brand recognition or how well they'd sell. We've turned down products. We've had conversations with suppliers that didn't result in a stocking agreement. That's not a position that maximises turnover — it's a position that keeps the shelf honest.
The Pets Larder opened in 2018, originally as Natural Cornish Pet, and rebranded in 2024. We're based in Hayle, in west Cornwall, and we serve customers across the county — Penzance, St Ives, Camborne, Redruth, Truro — and across the UK through our online shop. In 2021 we were named Independent Pet Shop of the Year by both the PetQuip and Pet Industry Federation. The award matters less than what it represents: a consistent and honest approach.
The whitefish cubes
Of everything we make under our own Natural Cornish Dog Treats range, the whitefish cubes are the ones that tell the story most clearly.
They started as a straightforward response to a gap. We were looking for a high-value, single-ingredient training treat that worked for dogs with sensitivities — something with a strong enough smell to hold attention in a training session, clean enough to feed in volume without digestive consequences, and simple enough that owners with dogs on elimination diets could use them confidently. Most of what was available involved multiple ingredients, unnamed protein sources, or additives that made them unsuitable for sensitive dogs.
The whitefish cubes for dogs are Cornish whitefish, dried, nothing else. That's the entire ingredient list. They're small enough to use as training rewards at high frequency, palatable enough that dogs that refuse almost everything else will work for them, and single-ingredient enough that they're appropriate for dogs on restricted diets. They're also naturally low in fat and high in lean protein, which makes them suitable for dogs managing their weight without needing to compromise on treat quality during training.
The fact that they're Cornish is not incidental. We source locally where we can, because traceability matters to us and local supply chains are shorter, more transparent, and easier to verify. Knowing where a product comes from — actually knowing, not just trusting a label — is part of the same principle that drives everything else we stock.
Fifteen years of working with dogs and their owners
The professional animal care background behind The Pets Larder is worth understanding because it shapes how we have conversations with customers.
We don't approach pet nutrition from a retail perspective — learning about ingredients through supplier training and brand materials. We approach it from fifteen years of watching what different diets did to animals in our care every day. It's also why we can have a useful conversation about a dog with chronic loose stools, or a cat with recurring urinary issues, or a puppy whose coat has never looked right, without defaulting to "speak to your vet" as the only answer — though we'll always tell you when that's the right call.
We work alongside veterinary professionals and take referrals from vets whose clients are looking for dietary support outside a standard clinical prescription. We're not vets and we don't diagnose. But the overlap between good nutrition and good health outcomes is well-documented, and bridging the gap between clinical guidance and practical food choices is something we do well.
What we make
Alongside the products we stock from brands we trust, we make our own.
Aflora is our grain-free dry dog food — named after Flora, our Airedale Terrier. It's manufactured in Lancashire by GA Pet Food Partners using a low-temperature extrusion process that preserves more nutritional value than conventional high-heat kibble production. It comes in Angus Beef, Chicken, and Lamb with Sweet Potato to name a few of the recipes and launching this month we are adding Turkey and Salmon. High named-meat inclusion, grain-free carbohydrate sources, no artificial additives.
Evie is our natural dry cat food, formulated to the same standard but for our feline friends. Named after chief taste tester and connoisseur Evie (Natasha our chief operators own mog)
Natural Cornish Dog Treats includes the whitefish cubes alongside other single and minimal-ingredient treats made to the same sourcing standard — traceable, readable, nothing added that doesn't need to be there.
Pets Larder Apothecary covers functional supplements — seaweed powder, pumpkin powder, kaolin clay — each chosen because the evidence base for their use is sound and the ingredient quality meets our standard.
What we're building
The Pets Larder is not trying to be a large pet food retailer. There are plenty of those. What we're building is something more specific — a natural pet shop with a genuine ingredient standard, a body of knowledge behind it, and the tools to help owners make better decisions for their animals.
That includes the Decode Your Label tool, which scores any pet food ingredient list out of 12 across protein transparency, hierarchy, and additive load. The Food Recommender, which takes you through your dog's specific situation and returns a personalised food recommendation. The Chew Finder, which matches your dog to the right natural chew based on age, size, and chewing strength. These tools are free to use whether you buy from us or not — because better-informed owners make better choices for their animals regardless of where they shop, and that outcome is worth building toward.
If you're in Cornwall, come in. If you're not, the online shop ships across the UK. And if you have a question about what to feed your dog or cat that you haven't been able to get a straight answer to elsewhere, contact us. Straight answers are what we're here for.
The Pets Larder — Independent Natural Pet Shop, Hayle, Cornwall. Independent Pet Shop of the Year 2021.
