Mud Bay

This place is so great! Staff has been nothing but wonderful the two times I’ve come in. First of all, the place is pretty big! One open floor with well defined sections. The staff have been so helpful and knowledgable; I recently adopted a dog and have been having some difficulty figuring out what she likes in terms of food, treats and toys. They have provided great suggestions and have even given me samples of kibble, canned food and treats! They genuinely care about their customers/​animals and it really shows. The woman who helped me this evening gave me a bunch of recommendations and tips, send me home with samples and told me to make note of the ones that my dog liked so she can help me next time I come in. This place is great– I have had such a positive experience with them. They even gave me a thank you card for coming in including a $ 5 coupon! THANKS Mud Bay!

I love this store. Great parking, convenient location, SUPER friendly staff and it’s always extremely clean. This really is my favorite pet store in Seattle! I should mention, all the foods they carry are fantastic, and they have a great variety of cat toys — which my «boys» love.

I’ve never ventured too far from Petco, but as of today, I am a Mud Bay convert. I would be proud to serve my cats any of the food they offer. Everything is top notch and wholesome with recognizable ingredients. Also, they readily offered free samples of any of their canned food! Very nice and very knowledgeable staff.

I would like to share my recent experience which validate their commitment to provide safe & quality pet foods.
I am a loyal Mud Bay customer for a decade but never really felt any definite reasons that I need to shop here by paying a premium price. However, I shop my stuff at WholeFoods, so I thought it is natural for me to shop for my cat at Mud Bay.
Few weeks ago, unfortunately I found a foreign material from one of my cat’s favorite canned food. Good I caught the object before I feed my cat. I immediately reported to the manufacture but did not get a response right away. So, I reported to the Mud Bay corporate office, they response back to me within an hour and got the manufacture involved. I understand, those things happened even though manufacture has good quality assurance guideline in place. The investigation is still underway, I hope this was an isolated case. The manufacture seems very responsible too but without having Mud Bay contacted the manufacture, I don’t know if my case got the same level of attention from the manufacture.
The lady at the Mud Bay corporate office was very knowledgeable and really knows what’s most important to a consumer. Her sense of urgency and personalized responses gave me a piece of mind. She also gives me couple of suggestions on alternate canned foods, and offered me full refund of used/​unused inventory from the same brand.
I went back to the Ballard store to get refund. I briefly explained the issue. Without giving a full detail, they acknowledged the trouble that I needed to go through and sympatric about the foreign material that I found. They quickly refund the money and giving me several samples from other brands to try out.
Ballard store is my store but I also shop other Mud Bay stores from time to time. All locations, they are consistently have knowledgeable, professional staff always there to help and educate a responsible pet owners.

I’ve shopped at All The Best in Queen Anne and Ballard location, but they are less helpful and limited selections. All The Best have reward program but Mud Bay doesn’t. However, I found myself end up spending more for what I won’t need from All The Best, they are little hard sell though. In addition to that, All the Best in Queen Anne and Ballard does not have any parking spaces but Mud Bay Ballard and U village are both located in a very convenience location with plenty of parking spaces!
Now I have a good reason to shop at Mud Bay :)

I’m always able to find the type of food we feed our dog, which you normally can’t find in a large box pet store. The staff is always friendly and super helpful. Anecdote — the last time I was there, they forgot to put my bulk treats in the shopping bag. Mistakes happen. I called an hour later, they were super apologetic, and gave me a coupon for a free pound of treats. I didn’t need it but that was really nice of them.

I’ve used Mud Bay for a while now and every time I go there the staff is helpful and very friendly. Also, if I have questions about food or products they always take the time to explain and answer my questions. Thanks!

I have nothing but praise for the Mudbay staff. I recently lost my beloved cat and had made big purchases for cat food and litter the week before. The staff took all of my unopened items with no hesitation and were very caring. They treated me with compassion during my grieving time. Thank you, it meant a lot to me.

Mud Bay vs. All The Best… FIGHT!
Okay, I will cross-​post this with an All The Best review, since these are the two Ballard stores that are in direct competition with one another, and the only two choices in Ballard you should consider for buying your pet’s food. Truth is, you really can’t go wrong with either store, but depending on your buying habits, one store may have an advantage over the other.
Selection: visually estimating, Mud Bay appears to have a much wider assortment of brands. And in fact, some of the brands I favor are only available at Mud Bay. Yet, there is room for improvement in offering more varieties within some brands. All The Best appears to carry fewer brands, but offer a full selection of the brands they do carry. To say this another way, Mud Bay may offer 3 flavors each of 20 different brands, while All The Best carries 5 flavors each of 12 different brands. Both stores have 60 options, but the assortment varies. I end up shopping at both locations regularly, because neither has everything that I buy.
Prices: Mud Bay is slightly cheaper across the board, and for the items I purchase, match the prices offered on Amazon. Everything at All The Best is marked up higher (about 5−7% for the items I purchase), HOWEVER, All The Best also has a rewards program, giving you store credit after you have accrued so many points. PLUS, they participate in manufacturer reward programs. For example, The Honest Kitchen has a program that gives you a free box of food for every 10 boxes purchased. The program is only available at participating retailers — All The Best participates, but Mud Bay does not.
Non-​food products: Both stores have a limited selection of toys and accessories. I wouldn’t ding either one for this, since their primary business is pet food. Toys and accessories are a huge market, so just know there is a lot more out there than either of these stores sell. For supplements, Mud Bay appears to have a little bit wider range of options.
Other considerations: Both stores feature friendly, welcoming staff that are happy to spoil your dog with treats. Both stores have free parking, and reasonable hours, but Mud Bay does open earlier and close later.
Check out both stores, see what they have to offer from your favorite brands. If they both have what you regularly buy, it’s probably cheaper at Mud Bay. If you buy a lot, you may want to do the math with All The Best to see if their rewards program will make them the cheaper option. Either way, you can feel good about your choice as they are both good options.
UPDATE: although it’s not perfect, I had to bump Mud Bay up a star due to one huge advantage — they recently installed a huge sample bar. This will let you make sure that your pet will not turn its nose to a new flavor without having to risk wasting money on an entire bag of the product. I recently bought a $ 35 bag of Oracle at All The Best, which turned out to be a waste. If I could have sampled it like Mud Bay allows, I’d have saved some decent money. Thanks Mud Bay!

Just got back from stopping by this Mud Bay. Went in and was right away greeted. I was looking for a good kibble for my dog who seems to have a sensitive stomach. The guy working educated me for a good few minutes on everything I needed to know and he was super confident in what information I was looking for. I left with 6 free samples of a couple different brands to try out. This was what I really appreciated. Instead of saying «oh yeah you should buy this one» he gave me options to try out first and even said if I did need a bag of food right away, I could buy one and bring it back if my dog didn’t like it. Overall, I got great help during my visit for what I needed and I wasn’t pressured to buy anything. Rather, I’m able to try out all of these free samples so that I know what to get later on… no going back and forth wasting bags of food :) Thanks!

I love this store! I come here for the specialty cat food for my allergy prone kitty, the fun dog treats, and great service. These folks are knowledgeable too. Ask em anything!

As an owner of multiple house rabbits, I was ecstatic to see a wide selection of safe & high quality small-​animal products available here! So many cat & dog stores have a tiny section for small-​animals, if any.
The hours are convenient (open quite late), and the staff is friendly and helpful. They always offer to carry heavier items to my car for me, and often send me home with treat samples for the rabbits.
Love this place!

Amazing and helpful staff, you can tell they really care about their customers and their fur babies. Awesome selection of quality food & treats too!

Love this store! Friendly staff, great choice for natural and healthy options for my fur baby and your 1^st time in they welcome you with a gift :)

I love this Mud Bay for several reasons, but chief among those reasons, it’s literally right down the street from where I live. (But don’t get too excited; I still drive there, haha).
Mud Bay is is open surprisingly pretty late for a pet store. This is my go-​to place to buy my cats’ fancy, overpriced, expensive cat food. Joking aside, I think that Mud Bay provides a variety of decently priced and healthy alternatives for your pet. The bonito flakes here are my cats’ absolute favorite treat. And you get a big container for around $ 5. I won’t buy litter here, because I’m not totally insane, but I won’t get my food anywhere else.
The staff is always really nice and often ask if they can help me carry things out to my car, which is a nice touch. And a private parking lot! This speaks volumes in a city where most people commute, so parking is a luxury.
El Camion shares a parking lot with Mud Bay. Could this place get any better? Methinks not.

Very bad return policy

I’ve given this place another shot, and have to say that over the past couple of years they have really stepped up their game. I’ve not encountered any of the problems I pointed out in my previous review, and now this is my preferred place to go to buy food for my cats. They give a case discount, and also offer free treats when I check out. And each time I’ve come in for the past few months they offer to help when I buy large quantities. I’m happy to report that this place now rocks.

Both me and my dog love going to MudBay in Ballard! She always gets lots of love, pats, and treats there, while I am able to find exactly what I’m looking for and am able to trust that I’m giving her the best options available. Of course, I could probably find most of this stuff at the bigger chain pet stores, but the service I receive is unparalleled. The clerks clearly are animal lovers and are willing to spend as much time as necessary talking about your pet’s needs and you can tell they’ve been trained well.
Keep up the great work guys!

Mud Bay is amazing. After adopting my puppy the first stop was to Mud Bay. The employees there were super knowledgeable and helpful. They gave great tips and gave us a huge sample pack of food to figure out what my dog would like and didn’t like. For the past 5 weeks that I’ve had my dog, I’ve been to Mud Bay about twice a week and every time we go the employees are so friendly and loving. The Mud Bay on Capitol Hill and U-​Village are just as great, but we love the one in Ballard.
The Sunday evening crew (a girl and a guy) are so amazing. They remember exactly who my dog is and help with his «sit» and «lay down» training. I’m bummed they no longer have training or a dog class since I missed out right before I got our dog, but it doesn’t even matter. I love Mud Bay and Fred and I look forward to our trip every (twice) a week!!!

Mud Bay has amazing employees.
I went to Mud Bay for the first time last year when I adopted my Cairn Terrier mix. I knew nothing.
They held my hand through the food selection, leash, harness, and treat buying process. I’m a terrible shopper, because I want to know everything before I make a decision. The employees at Mud Bay were patient and knowledgeable.
If you want assistance with finding great pet care products, I recommend Mud Bay.

The Greenwood Mud Bay used to be my go to for pet supplies before I moved to Ballard. Hercules and I tend to shop at All the Best now that we’ve moved, but Ballard’s Mud Bay is our runner up.
Mud Bay has a bigger inventory of dog food, treats and toys than All the Best does, but their staff tends to stick behind the counter and isn’t as helpful or approachable as the staff at All the Best. Hercules *loves* being social and I appreciate it when a store’s employees seem to enjoy the animals that they encounter.
Herc went through a spell of having an upset, nervous stomach, so I was hyper aware of what I was feeding him and what sort of food would be suitable. Thankfully, Mud Bay carries Active Care, which I haven’t always been able to find at other pet stores.