Author Topic: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?  (Read 37057 times)

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Offline Auntie Crazy

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2011, 01:43:39 PM »
...
...At the time, I had the choice of buying all one brand or tossing in a bit of scary brands, due to availability issues.  Sooooo, I went with the "better carpy wet, than dry" theory." (That sounds lame...even to me!)
I was looking into the supplement, that I posted, because it was recommened by someone that I admire.  I'm kinda stressed out, with the kitties being on a food roller coaster ride lately.  Actually, I've been stressed out since I almost killed one of the felines feeding him a "quality" dry.  

Raw is where I would like to end up...soon.  BUT I have to have some sort of back-up plan working first.  I think.  

It shouldn't be so doggone hard to find a decent quality pet food, especially one that isn't going to make our kitties ill! *shakes head in frustration* I'm very sorry you're going through so much right now, Lola. <<<hugs>>>  (For what it's worth, I'm in the "any wet is better than any dry" camp, too.)

AC
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Offline Auntie Crazy

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #16 on: September 05, 2011, 02:43:13 PM »
I TOTALLY agree with rotating brands and flavors.  There is no food that I like enough that I would want to eat every day for every meal!  Not even B&J ice cream. 
...

By the way, my all time favorite food, bar none, is Ben & Jerry's 'Cherry Garcia' ice cream. If there is no Cherry Garcia in heaven, I'm not going!  LOL!!

AC
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Offline Lola

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2011, 10:33:49 AM »
By the way, my all time favorite food, bar none, is Ben & Jerry's 'Cherry Garcia' ice cream. If there is no Cherry Garcia in heaven, I'm not going!  LOL!!

AC

I'll get the pet food problem figured out one of these days...hopefully soon.
JUST to see what the cats would do with raw anything...I gave them a tiny bit of raw ground beef yesterday.  Half of them ate it...with gusto.  They just had lunch, so they weren't hungry.  That means they ate it, because they actually LIKED it. 

Back to B & J ice cream...Peanut Brittle is currently the flavor of the month in my area.  B&J puts out a new flavor every month...and then it is gone.  Anyway...bought it.  I told myself I would only eat a little...the pint IS 4 servings.   Bumpurr1  4 servings can be consumed in one sitting...with very little tummy upset.   :D
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Offline Auntie Crazy

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2011, 01:28:02 PM »
I'll get the pet food problem figured out one of these days...hopefully soon.
JUST to see what the cats would do with raw anything...I gave them a tiny bit of raw ground beef yesterday.  Half of them ate it...with gusto.  They just had lunch, so they weren't hungry.  That means they ate it, because they actually LIKED it. 

Back to B & J ice cream...Peanut Brittle is currently the flavor of the month in my area.  B&J puts out a new flavor every month...and then it is gone.  Anyway...bought it.  I told myself I would only eat a little...the pint IS 4 servings.   Bumpurr1  4 servings can be consumed in one sitting...with very little tummy upset.   :D

All the pints I buy are single serving. What's that you say? No, I don't need to look at the label, they are ALL SINGLE SERVING. /discussion.

:-}

AC
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Offline Amber

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #19 on: December 24, 2011, 01:38:49 AM »
I feed raw but keep canned on hand mostly for emergency situations. Sometimes I go out of town for a weekend or so, and the person feeding her can't be bothered to thaw out her raw. Sometimes a batch of raw food runs out at an inopportune time, and she eats canned for a day or two until I have the time and ingredients to make her more food.

My top choice is currently the by Nature 95% meat line, and I buy all four flavors: Chicken, Turkey, Beef, and occasionally the Sardine and Mackerel, which she never gets more than twice in any given month. I have to order this online, via PetFlow or Petfooddirect. I used to feed all the EVO 95% meat varieties, which I also had to order online, but since the P&G takeover, I don't allow it in the house anymore. I used to purchase the Natural balance Venison & Green Pea and Duck & Green Pea varieties, but now they are having issues, so they have been removed as viable options. My second choice is now the Before Grain 96% line, and she has eaten all of their flavors as well. I can buy this at the local Petco when I am not able to order her food online. When I have to stick to foods I can buy at Wal-Mart or the Commissary, she gets Newman's Own Organics Chicken & Salmon, Chicken & Rice, Turkey, and/or Turkey & Vegetable or the non-seafood Natural Life flavors because, and I know I am going to get bashed for this, I would rather feed her food without byproducts and other questionable ingredients and with some grain that food with byproducts and without grains. Neither the Newman's Own or the Natural Life contains by-products, unspecified meats, BHT, BHA, ethoxyquin, or menadione, corn, wheat, soy, or _____ gluten. And like I said, this stuff doesn't exactly play a large part in her diet, but even if it did, my position on the byproducts/unnamed meat sources/carcinogens would be the same.

When she was a kitten, before I knew to avoid fish-based foods as a primary diet, she got the Pinnacle Chicken & Tuna and Chicken & Oceanfish varieties.


As for B&J ice cream, my favorite flavors are Coffee Heathbar Crunch, Peanut butter Cup, Everything But the..., Mud Pie, and Half-baked, in that order. I want to try Bonnard's Buzz.

Offline CarnivorousCritter

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #20 on: December 24, 2011, 03:19:56 AM »
It shouldn't be so doggone hard to find a decent quality pet food, especially one that isn't going to make our kitties ill! *shakes head in frustration* I'm very sorry you're going through so much right now, Lola. <<<hugs>>>  (For what it's worth, I'm in the "any wet is better than any dry" camp, too.)

AC

The demand just isn't there  :(  For now, those who do know better are considered "food snobs" and an Internet cult.
I know of not ONE person "in real life" who doesn't think sci-die & Purina are the best they can buy and there's really no way to convice them. I know at least a dozen people whose vets tell them otherwise so they think I'm off my rocker. One lady has 7 dogs and her vet sells the food  :(   She would pay top dollar without hesitation (she is well off) for species-appropriate food if she only knew, but can't make her click a link when she trusts the one with the degree.  :(
If she & more people only knew that "pricey & fancy"  species-appropriate food would end up being CHEAPER than the over-priced poison in the bags anyway!!! :o :o
« Last Edit: December 24, 2011, 03:30:37 AM by CarnivorousCritter »

Offline CarnivorousCritter

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #21 on: December 24, 2011, 03:24:34 AM »
Another vote for Cherry Garcia  ;D  When there's regular ice cream in the house, I "spike" it with crushed Maracino cherries.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2011, 03:26:30 AM by CarnivorousCritter »

Offline Lola

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #22 on: December 29, 2011, 04:27:20 PM »
Believe it or not, I've never tasted the Cherry Garcia flavor!  
Ben And Jerry came out with a new flavor "Schweddy Balls."  Soooooo many customer complaints, stores are taking it off their shelves.  lol

Quote
Vanilla Ice Cream with a Hint of Rum & Loaded with Fudge Covered Rum & Malt Balls
« Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 04:29:05 PM by Lola »
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Offline Auntie Crazy

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #23 on: December 29, 2011, 09:58:37 PM »
The demand just isn't there  :(  For now, those who do know better are considered "food snobs" and an Internet cult.
I know of not ONE person "in real life" who doesn't think sci-die & Purina are the best they can buy and there's really no way to convice them. I know at least a dozen people whose vets tell them otherwise so they think I'm off my rocker. One lady has 7 dogs and her vet sells the food  :(   She would pay top dollar without hesitation (she is well off) for species-appropriate food if she only knew, but can't make her click a link when she trusts the one with the degree.  :(
If she & more people only knew that "pricey & fancy"  species-appropriate food would end up being CHEAPER than the over-priced poison in the bags anyway!!! :o :o

Ah, but consumer demand for quality pet foods has been steadily increasing since 2007. And that demand has definitely gained the pet food industry's attention.

In one prime example, they started concocting "grain-free" foods. Of course, they just replaced one nasty carb with another, but they heard the public's moaning and groaning about not like grains in cat foods.

Currently, there is an acknowledged need for raw foods, and more are coming to market all the time. Here are a few articles from within the pet food industry:

New petfood products: What comes after humanization?: "Where do we see the concept of humanization in petfood going in the future? Look for a continued focus on natural formulations, on communicating specific, understandable ingredients and on products that balance the concept of “just like what we eat” with what is most important for pets to consume."

Extruded vs. raw vs. cooked beef-based diets for cats: A study that most assuredly wouldn't even have been contemplated if there wasn't a strong awareness of growing consumer desire for more species-appropriate foods.

Are consumers willing to pay for petfood proven safe?: Last paragraph, "Because, judging by the overwhelming consumer response to the 2007 melamine-related petfood recalls—which in turn has led to a continuing explosion of websites, blogs and other Internet forums touting so-called experts and expertise on petfood and pet nutrition—pet owners would very likely welcome marketing messages and other information that includes such evidence of safer petfood. And hopefully, they would put their money where many of them say their hearts are: providing the best, safest, most wholesome nutrition for their pets."

Bright future for refrigerated, frozen and raw petfood

We just need to keep the pressure on!!

AC
« Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 10:11:43 PM by Auntie Crazy »
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Offline Middle Child

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #24 on: January 02, 2012, 06:31:13 PM »
Cherry Garcia would be good if they didn't put the chocolate chunks in. I don't like hard things iin my ice cream

I am now feeding:

 one, non finicky cat, in rotation

Weruva nine livers (no more than once a week)

Soulistic good Karma chicken (^ditto)

Before Grain (beef, chicken, turkey) (most often)

California Natural chicken and rice (very infrequently)

Wellness (beef & chicken, turkey, chicken (^^ditto)

Petite Cuisine sesame chicken (^^ditto...until it is gone, it was my cat4 angel5 's food)

Merrick Grammy's pot pie (^^ditto.. and only until it is gone)

the other, finicky, cat on a canned diet

Before Grain beef (only once a week, she won't eat it more often than that)

Merrick cowboy cookout  (beef) (^ditto)

California Natural Venison and brown rice (^ditto)

Castor&Pollux chicken and vegetable casserole (^ditto, until it is gone, but with four cases in the house it will take a while)

Natural Balance Platefuls chicken and liver pouch (less than once a week, because, while she loves it, I don't)

Natural Life chicken (eats it every two or three days! bananamiddlechild )

Natural Life lamb (^^ditto bananamiddlechild)

She would like the Weruva and Soulistic too, but it makes her sick



Offline Middle Child

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #25 on: January 31, 2013, 07:39:11 AM »
I see my list from a year ago needs updating!

Foods I feed:

By Nature Organic canned

Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw (chicken, duck&goose)

Rad Cat frozen raw (chicken, turkey, lamb)

Prey Model Raw (homemade raw diet)

Offline Lola

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #26 on: February 01, 2013, 03:26:08 PM »
I see my list from a year ago needs updating!

Foods I feed:

By Nature Organic canned

Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw (chicken, duck&goose)

Rad Cat frozen raw (chicken, turkey, lamb)

Prey Model Raw (homemade raw diet)

I didn't realize you had removed all canned wet... other than the By Nature organic.  Way to go!!! 
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Offline Middle Child

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #27 on: February 01, 2013, 09:27:26 PM »
I didn't realize you had removed all canned wet... other than the By Nature organic.  Way to go!!! 

Aw, thanks Lola!  Well, I just can't find anything else I'm happy with.  The Tiki Cat chicken costs as much as Rad Cat, when figured on an oucne per ounce basis, and considering raw is more bio-available, it makes the Rad Cat come out as less expensive.  I would like to try it but it just goes against my grain to be gouged like that.

 It makes me a little nervous to be feeding only one canned brand.  What if something happens to the By Nature organic? Where will I turn for their canned portions?  And as far as that, SK is back to eating ONLY the turkey&chicken flavor.  She has no trouble with variety on raw, but the only canned food I have found that does not give her trouble is By Nature Organic Turkey&Chicken. She won't eat the turkey&liver, and the chicken&liver gives her digestive distress. I kind of dread when I move on to a new batch, LOL.  The formula hasn't changed but we all know batches can turn out different.

Offline Lola

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #28 on: March 02, 2013, 10:04:15 PM »
For us, the foods currently in rotation are:
Canned:  By Nature Organic (Turkey and Turkey Liver, Turkey and Chicken), Natures Variety (variety of flavors), Wellness (Turkey and Chicken).  Always end up back with Wellness. for one reason or another.
Dehydrated:  Stella And Chewy's Chicken and Honest Kitchen's Prowl.  
Real raw chunks (chicken)... as snacks.  Not fed as often as it could be.

Rad Cat... HAVE to get some!!!!  
« Last Edit: March 02, 2013, 11:05:27 PM by Lola »
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Offline Middle Child

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Re: What Wet Brands Do You Feed ...And Why?
« Reply #29 on: March 02, 2013, 10:56:59 PM »
So you went back to the Stella&Chewy's!  bananamiddlechild And they are liking it now?  And the Honest Kitchen prowl?  Congratulations!

I've decided to keep some Nature's Variety canned in the rotation for TC,  the one cat who doesn't get any commercial raw. One fourth of her diet is Prey Model Raw, but with the elimination of carrageenan foods, that has narrowed her variety too much for comfort. She always did well with NV canned, so I am watching for a sale.

The other two get Stella&Chewy's and Rad cat along with the By Nature Organic and PMR, so I am mostly content with that for them. I do wish I could find just ONE MORE canned food.

By the way, the thing I was worried about,

Quote
And as far as that, SK is back to eating ONLY the turkey&chicken flavor.  She has no trouble with variety on raw, but the only canned food I have found that does not give her trouble is By Nature Organic Turkey&Chicken. She won't eat the turkey&liver, and the chicken&liver gives her digestive distress. I kind of dread when I move on to a new batch, LOL.  The formula hasn't changed but we all know batches can turn out different.

Has come to pass.  I started a new batch of the turkey&liver and it took two weeks for her system to adjust to it.

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