JohnZ
Active Member
Hi All,
I've been to 2 different Walmart stores and 2 different Shoprite stores and the shelves are empty of all Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food!
I suspected (and feared) that Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food was no longer available.
Did a google search and found the following from Examiner.com... If it's true we are losing a major source of what was a readily available, low cost, good quality, low carbohydrate canned cat food. Might be a good idea to buy any Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food you can find! Thank goodness 9 Lives still has many low carbohydrate cat foods (Meaty Pate's), although my cats don't like it as much.
From Examiner.com:
Purina nixes Friskies Special Diet cat food
Pet food maker Purina has decided to stop producing Friskies Special Diet canned food, which was formulated for adult cats prone to urinary tract problems, a company representative said June 15.
“We discontinued the items due to slow sales and declining consumer demand, ”Purina spokesman Bill Salzman told Examiner.com. “We offer a wide variety of cat food options in wet and dry form, and consumers ultimately determine which ones stay in the market.”
Special Diet was low in magnesium, a metallic substance that can contribute to crystal formation in the urinary tract. The food came in five varieties: beef and chicken, chicken bits, ocean whitefish, salmon, and turkey and giblets. The product line was introduced in 1995, Salzman said.
The news will likely disappoint some cat parents. The main non-prescription wet food alternative is Purina Pro Plan’s Urinary Tract Health Formula—Chicken Entree, a premium brand that typically costs several times more than Friskies. Prescription food prices also far exceed those of Friskies.
“Bring back Special Diet; I depend on it,” an anonymous person wrote on a Friskies website. “Prescription food and the other alternatives are too expensive.”
I've been to 2 different Walmart stores and 2 different Shoprite stores and the shelves are empty of all Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food!
I suspected (and feared) that Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food was no longer available.
Did a google search and found the following from Examiner.com... If it's true we are losing a major source of what was a readily available, low cost, good quality, low carbohydrate canned cat food. Might be a good idea to buy any Friskies Special Diet Pate cat food you can find! Thank goodness 9 Lives still has many low carbohydrate cat foods (Meaty Pate's), although my cats don't like it as much.
From Examiner.com:
Purina nixes Friskies Special Diet cat food
Pet food maker Purina has decided to stop producing Friskies Special Diet canned food, which was formulated for adult cats prone to urinary tract problems, a company representative said June 15.
“We discontinued the items due to slow sales and declining consumer demand, ”Purina spokesman Bill Salzman told Examiner.com. “We offer a wide variety of cat food options in wet and dry form, and consumers ultimately determine which ones stay in the market.”
Special Diet was low in magnesium, a metallic substance that can contribute to crystal formation in the urinary tract. The food came in five varieties: beef and chicken, chicken bits, ocean whitefish, salmon, and turkey and giblets. The product line was introduced in 1995, Salzman said.
The news will likely disappoint some cat parents. The main non-prescription wet food alternative is Purina Pro Plan’s Urinary Tract Health Formula—Chicken Entree, a premium brand that typically costs several times more than Friskies. Prescription food prices also far exceed those of Friskies.
“Bring back Special Diet; I depend on it,” an anonymous person wrote on a Friskies website. “Prescription food and the other alternatives are too expensive.”
I am guessing I am too late, but will have to go by PetSmart and see what they have left today. Thankfully it wasn't the only thing we feed Taz.
We were using the Special Diet for Rosa's diabetes and for CKD in one of our other cats as it's low phosphorus. We do feed the regular pates as well as our CKD girl seems to do just fine with her phosphorus levels on a mixture of the 2 but I don't want to switch Rosa away from the Friskies because she loves it and is doing well on it...but feeding the regular pate is too much phosphorus for our CKD kitty to have at every meal. So, a question for anyone who might know - all our cats eat from the same bowls. Only one requires low phosphorus. How bad is it for the ones that don't need low phosphorus food if we add a binder to the regular pate? Is it going to leave them short of the phosphorus they need or is it safe for all of them? At this rate we're going to have to start separating the cats - and as they all free-feed (again, I'm not prepared to change that because Rosa does well on it), they'd have to be separated just about all the time.
