Anyone familiar with these cat foods?
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free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:25 am

I am currently researching cat foods and am trying to find a natural brand (no icky meat cuts or excessive chemicals etc - and definately no corn in the dry food). I love the Mother Hubbard/Wellness line, but also have been lookig at so-called natural lines available inside Japan.

Anyone familiar with any of these?

Yarrah
Natural Balance
Organix
ANF
Artemis
Innova
California Natural
Green Fish
Chicken Soup (holistic pet foods)
Solid Gold
Denes
Nutro (Natural Choice)
Dr. Harvey's

Thanks!

Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:51 am

tiger_tim wrote:

I am currently researching cat foods and am trying to find a natural brand (no icky meat cuts or excessive chemicals etc - and definately no corn in the dry food). I love the Mother Hubbard/Wellness line, but also have been lookig at so-called natural lines available inside Japan.

Anyone familiar with any of these?

Yarrah
Natural Balance
Organix
ANF
Artemis
Innova
California Natural
Green Fish
Chicken Soup (holistic pet foods)
Solid Gold
Denes
Nutro (Natural Choice)
Dr. Harvey's

Thanks!

Innova by Natura--it's holistic, table-quality food without by-products. Natura also does Evo which is a completely grain-free, high-quality, high-protein food. I feed my kitties these, Wellness and Amore.

I think Natura might also do California Natural.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:13 am

My 14 year old cat is thriving on a combination of Innova and Wellness. It was interesting to hear about Evo, though it isn't carried by our local Global Pet store.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:02 am

tiger_tim wrote:

I am currently researching cat foods and am trying to find a natural brand (no icky meat cuts or excessive chemicals etc - and definately no corn in the dry food). I love the Mother Hubbard/Wellness line, but also have been lookig at so-called natural lines available inside Japan.

Thanks!

I'm not familiar with the brands you mention, but if you want natural you should feed raw meat. And those "icky meat cuts" is actually much more important nutrition for your cat than rice, potatoes, pasta, grains, carrots, peas.... etc. Ideally cat food shouldn't contain more than 5% carbohydrates, but so far I've not found any brands with a low carbohydrate %. Too bad dry food is so easy and convinient, or I would have feed mye cat a raw diet... Wink

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:15 am

they cat I had for 13 years growing up lived on a diet of nothing but raw meat. Chuck steak and heart with the occasional bit of liver. He would not eat anything else. Laughing

I do intend to give them some raw meat in their diet, as well as the occasional bit of steamed fish, but need something else to fill in the diet (and to use dueing a busy working week).

By "icky" meat I meant the reconstituted (or whatever you call it) meat stuff and by-products they tend to use in a lot of pet food. I want to use canned food with table/human quality meats.

I am very excited to have found somewhere in Japan that sells the Wellness dry line for not much more than the US price!! Just wish I could find the canned food...

Oh and Havanna8, you are right, natura do California Natural. At least now I have tracked down 3 good foods here in Japan. Must try and find Evo and Amore

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:05 am

I use nutro natural dry for my puppy! She loves it, no wheat (hince no wheat gluton either).

I realize this is about a cat, but I can comment on the dog food side..if that helps any!

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:30 am

Yes, my little cat had a delicate digestive system towards the end of her life and I bought both Denes and Yarrah for her. She seemed to like them and they're supposed be very good quality. They were also recommended to me by other cat people.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:47 pm

I feed my cats Innova. I was feeding them the Evo and they all did very well, but my little girl put on too much weight. It is a very rich food. I am now mixing some of the Innova Reduced fat in with their food. They all do very well. They have beautiful, shiny, soft coats.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:03 pm

I've heard of both the Nutro and the Natural Balance brands but haven't purchased them myself. I have been feeding my cat Nutrience Holistic and he seems to really like it although he is not really a fuss kitty. For treats I give him Greenies which he just loves and I recently purchased this all natural chewy kind of treat but I can't remember the name. I find that his coast is much softer and shinier than other cats and he always seems happy and healthy. Seems to be working well for him.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:30 pm

I've tried several of these (both feline & canine versions)...

Natura makes Innova, California Natural & EVO. They're great foods, but too rich for some critters (cause soft stools or worse). Mine didn't have a problem with that, but the dogs put on weight quickly and the cats weren't too keen on the taste (of the dry food - loved the canned).

Natural Balance is a good food - more readily available than some of the others. Had the same problem with my cats - didn't care for the dry, loved the canned.

Nutro Natural Choice is one I've used mainly in a pinch (when I'm out of food & the only store I can get to is PetsMart or the grocery store). It's ok, but the canned food is also on the recalled pet food list.

Solid Gold is good brand. Haven't used it in a while, but if I remember correctly, both dogs & cats liked it. It can be a little too low in fat for some animals. And the Solid Gold folks will have you adding all kinds of supplements, which I have found does not work well with cats...

Wellness is one of my faves. Their dry food is baked instead of extruded and they use great quality ingredients.

Right now I'm using Nature's Variety Prarie foods for both dogs & cats. They have dry food, canned food, freeze-dried raw & frozen raw. I mix it up - both "flavors" and "styles" so they get a well rounded diet (harder to do with cats).

Another one you might look at is Flint River Ranch - they tend to use MLM-type marketing, but they have a great auto-ship program here in the States - don't know how that works overseas. They have a baked dry food and a freeze-dried type of food too...

Can you tell I'm into my pets? I swear they eat better than I do! Smile

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:35 pm

wildflower wrote:

For treats I give him Greenies which he just loves

PLEASE be careful with Greenies...they get stuck in doggie and kitty intestinal tracts...

My friend's dog had to have intestinal surgery because of dog Greenies. My cat threw up his normal food because the pieces of Greenies (which he too LOVED) were getting stuck in his GI tract.

Sad

Story of bowel obstruction from Greenies for doggies:
http://www.kirotv.com/money/5325021/detail.html

Another dog article:
http://doggiewoggie.com/2005/12/01/be-careful-with-greenies/
http://www.optimumchoices.com/Greenies.htm

There are lawsuits with Greenies:
http://www.optimumchoices.com/Greenies.htm#Lawsuit

The treat has actually KILLED some dogs.

ETA: The composition of feline Greenies is different than the dog variety, therefore some consider it safer, and some vets say it's just like regular kibble...but I can attest...they can obstruct little kitty intestines!

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:47 pm

was just going to type be very very very afraid of greenies....60 mins or 20/20 did huge show on those things...they kill animals...but the percents no high enough for the guy making billions to stop making them.....

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:39 pm

We are into natural, high-quality pet foods and we like to feed our kitties Innova Evo, Wellness, Felidae and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:06 pm

Supposedly they are reformulation Greenies so they will dissolve more readily and won't cause intestinal blockage. We haven't had more greenie emergency surgery in a while at our hospital Smile

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:27 pm

Given the choice, I would choose Innova Evo, but sadly it is not available on my little island (and shipping here is prohibitive). Here is a review of it:

http://cats.about.com/od/catfood/gr/evo.htm

I feed my boys (and girl) Nutro Ultra Holistic. It is the best quality food that is available locally. Nutro Natural Choice is not as high quality as the Nutro Ultra. None of the Nutro foods will be as high quality as Innova.

free skin care · Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:57 pm

ParisTroika wrote:

wildflower wrote:

For treats I give him Greenies which he just loves

PLEASE be careful with Greenies...they get stuck in doggie and kitty intestinal tracts...

Oh CRAP! I have 2 bags of Greenies here and I just got done feeding my girls about 8 Greenies each as a treat! They LOVE Greenies - especially the little one (I swear if she could she'd do cartwheels when she sees the package!).

Ok, so no more Greenies for the girlies. Are there any other good treats for kitties that any of you recommend? This is all so scary - not being sure what to feed my fur babies.

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:30 am

hi tiger!

I have always used wellness, both dry and wet, for my cats, and they are very healthy, coats silky, just in perfect form... they use human grade ingredients, you cannot ask for better than that.
i have also used nature's variety freeze dried snacks and dry food--excellent quality, seems to be internationally available.
felidae and innova, i'm actually less impressed with--i test out a cat food by how their wet food looks and smells, and these smell like commercial wet food to me. it cannot be good for them!

my current FAVE is Almo Nature--their wet food cans have human grade meats, and for instance, in the pacific tuna/shrimp wet food, you can see little bits of shrimp, and the tuna actually looks like tuna, and it smells fresh when you open it up! it is so nice, and i do believe it is fortified with other ingredients as well.
i buy all sorts of flavors and switch off every night...

when i get back to the states, i'm definitely going this route:

http://www.companionnaturalpetfood.com/shipping.php

--avalange

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:31 am

i forgot to mention that my cats do not like the almo nature dry food... so i have been feeding them hill's science diet out of desperation... now i'm super-freaked out!

--avalange

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:11 am

MermaidGirl wrote:

ParisTroika wrote:

wildflower wrote:

For treats I give him Greenies which he just loves

PLEASE be careful with Greenies...they get stuck in doggie and kitty intestinal tracts...

Oh CRAP! I have 2 bags of Greenies here and I just got done feeding my girls about 8 Greenies each as a treat! They LOVE Greenies - especially the little one (I swear if she could she'd do cartwheels when she sees the package!).

Ok, so no more Greenies for the girlies. Are there any other good treats for kitties that any of you recommend? This is all so scary - not being sure what to feed my fur babies.

I don't know when the company supposedly reformulated the cat greenies...if it was in the past few months then maybe they are truly different, but my cat had problems as recently as 6 months ago. I found an article dated to Dec. 2006 about the reformulation...
so I probably was feeding him the old formula.

I still won't feed him Greenies though...he ADORES them but I think that's part of the problem...he'd literally inhale some of them without chewing (which actually was a common statement in the articles I read) so I think the pieces need to be larger to actually force cats to chew them.
So if you've purchased the bag recently, you are probably okay.

Quote:

i forgot to mention that my cats do not like the almo nature dry food... so i have been feeding them hill's science diet out of desperation... now i'm super-freaked out!

--avalange

avalange...which Science Diet food? I just last week took my cat off Science Diet regular formula...however, I checked the ingredients and I did not see Wheat Gluten on the label...and that's the ingredient that is contaminated. Unless it's another ingredient as well, your kitties haven't been ingesting wheat gluten (unless it's a different flavor...I've found a lot of the chicken varieties have had the wheat gluten in them...).

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:05 am

I've done A LOT of research on pet nutrition and natural foods since the poison pet food scare started. I used to feed my cat Science Diet Hairball Formula dry food, and the Nutro Natural Choice wet food in the evenings. My cat loves the gravy in the Nutro, but it is one of the foods affected by the recall, so I would not recommend it, even when the issues are resolved - even though it's called Natural Choice I think some of the ingredients are questionable, and I've also discovered that Nutro tests on animals (horrible conditions, in little bitty cages). I found a great natural pet foods store near my house, talked with them a lot, and then bought a whole bunch of different foods for my cat to try - Innova, EVO, California Natural, Wellness, Newman's Own, and other brands that I can't think of right now. Out of what he's tried so far Very Happy

, my cat definitely has preferred the Innova and EVO wet food - it's got the gravy type juices he likes, and the meat is real flakes and chunks of meat and fish, not byproducts formed into little meaty squares. He also tried something called "Spot's Stew," which is human grade, essentially the same as if you cooked for your pet yourself, but didn't really care for it.

He is also taste testing two new natural dry foods, the brands of which escape me, but which are higher in protein and lower in carbs than most dry foods. He has definitely shown a preference toward one - I want to say it is also Innova or Innova EVO, but will have to check.

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:14 am

Oh No! I just bought 2 new bags of Greenies as well. Have been feeding them to the cat for a few months now and never encountered a problem but this disturbs me. Is the risk soley if they don't chew the treats and just inhale them? If so then I may be ok because my cat actually bites into them and chews them in pieces. (He's a very dainty and clean eater - picks up the pieces he dropped from his mouth before moving on to what's in the bowl. LOL) I was more concerned with the chewy soft treats since I thought they might be difficult to break down. I just started feeding him those (only 2 so far) so I am going to have to watch to see how he eats those. Are there any other good natural treats you guys can recommend? The Natura (Nutra or Nutro - can't remember which)Pet chewables and the Greenies seem to be the only natural treats I can find.

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:02 am

Wildflower, dried fish or meat would probably work fine as a treat! Smile

Where I come from this is the usual pet treat, and also dried pigtails/ears (mostly dogs).

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:00 pm

Schnee wrote:

Wildflower, dried fish or meat would probably work fine as a treat! Smile

Where I come from this is the usual pet treat, and also dried pigtails/ears (mostly dogs).

Hm, don't know about the dried pig ears or tails but I used to feed him the dried fish and salmon treats. He didn't like them as much as the treats I am feeding now. I liked the Greenies treats because of the dental health aspects so don't want to let them go altogether without knowing more about them. I am going to do a bit more research on Greenies and see what I come up with. As for the soft treats I feed, I checked the bag now that I'm home from work and then name of them is Zuke's Natural Purz. Here's a link to the company in case anyone is intersted: http://www.zukes.com/

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:31 pm

I couldn't let this Greenies thing go so I just read through a few online articles about them and this is what I found so far. The sad and unfortunate occurrences of death seemed to have occurred only to dogs who had comsumed the old formulations of Greenies treats (shaped like little toothbrushes and coming in various sizes). Causes ranged from improper consumption such as dogs inhaling the treats and/or not properly chewing them, choosing the wrong size of treat for the dog, or simply an unfortunate accident. Articles of tragedies were dated 2005 and early 2006 and I believe class action lawsuits are still pending. The company was then purchased by S&M Nu Tech in 2006 who reformulated the dog treats (in response to the controversy) to make them more chewable and thus, safer for dogs to eat. It appears the cat treats were never involved in the controversy and may not have even been around at that time, so I think this new forumulation may be safe for cats as well as dogs. Inhaling anything without chewing, whether it be a treat, regular meals or anything for that matter, can cause injury to animals as well as people so it's important to monitor your pets' eating habits from an early age so that bad habits are not created. Hope this has helped eliminate some fear for people feeding their precious pets the Greenies treats. Now of course I'm not a vet and can only go on what I found, but if there are any Vets here at EDS I'd love to hear your comments and professional opinions.

free skin care · Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:59 pm

A colleague who is very into animals (dogs, cats, & hedgehogs) got me using Royal Canine cat food. It has NO animal by-products (e.g., "parts") and has several formulations for different breeds, activity levels, etc. I get it at PetSmart, and it is similar in price to other premium foods.

They do not make a wet food, however.

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