need new grain free food choices

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bradie96

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has anyone tried natures variety canned food?
i am researching food right now and besides tiki cat that i will be trying with the cats this weekend i saw the instinct brand in wet food..wanted to try the brand B.F.F but its alot of fish.
we are stepping away from EVO as today neither cat came close to touching that food, i feel bad because i cant replace their food until tomm when the store opens up again. so they have been nibbling at it but not eating it like they used too which is really weird, so something changed, i noticed a different smell this batch and the pieces of potatoe, they have been eating EVO for over a yr and now it seems this run is over with.

so back to wellness for a bit, but wanted to try a different brand wanted some opinions'

thanks in advance! :smile:
 
Re: natures variety instinct food choices?

http://www.naturesvariety.com/Instinct/cat/can/all

I fed my diabetic Nature's Variety Instinct, just the chicken one because the beef and rabbit ones were somehow "off" depending on which processing place it came from (NV uses 3 different places). It's a good low carb food choice. You can also feed the NV Instinct for dogs because it is the *exact* same recipe as the cat one (taruine included) and it comes in a larger size can.

Tiki Cat is also mostly seafood based. I wouldn't feed it as an every day food. http://www.petropics.com/TikiCat.htm

B.F.F is another one of those once-in-awhile meals/treasts. The same company makes Weruva which does have chicken and beef canned varieties. http://www.weruva.com The company says that their food is suitable for diabetics (http://www.weruva.com/tid-bits-detail.php?My-cat-has-diabetes-can-I-feed-Weruva-5 ) but some diabetic cats here have experienced higher bgs when eating the food. http://www.weruva.com/nutrition.html I've only fed the Mack and Jack which is fish in jelly and occasionally the Paw Lickin Chicken. The pouched Cats In The Kitchen are in gravy so are likely not good for diabetics. The company also makes Soulistic which is sold at Petco, kind of a cheaper version of Weruva http://www.soulisticpet.com/ The gelee (jelly) ones looks suitable for diabetics. The gravy ones are probably too high in carbs, though it says on the web site that all the varieties are low in carbs.
 
ok thanks for the response
i am going to try and get some case pricing on the merricks before grain too, they really liked the turkey one
the only down side is they dont come in the large cans which work great for two cats

was going to attempt the instinct chicken too, EVO was working so well and neither will touch it now.....
 
just out of curiosity why wouldnt tiki cat be a food they could eat all the time? taurine is in the ingredients along with other vitamins and minerals it looks like a shredded chicken type of food if it because of the tuna base then i would understand.
 
bradie96 said:
just out of curiosity why wouldnt tiki cat be a food they could eat all the time? taurine is in the ingredients along with other vitamins and minerals it looks like a shredded chicken type of food if it because of the tuna base then i would understand.
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You want to limit fish foods to a few times a week because of the mercury content, and because fish the most common food allergy for cats--the more you feed it, the more likely they are to become intolerant to it. There is one flavor of Tiki Cat that has no fish--the Koolina Luau flavor.

About half of the BFF flavors are ok to feed--you want to avoid the ones in gravy because of the potato starch: http://www.bestfriendsfoods.com/aboutfood.html. They all have fish in them, so you don't want to feed them all the time.

I've fed the Rabbit and Lamb Nature's Variety before to my non-diabetic, and Bandit would eat the remainders if she wouldn't finish the cans. He had normal BG for both varieties. I would avoid the Venison though--the phosphorus content is through the roof.

They're all the the updated food chart, if you want the numbers: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8Uu8g1u8Su9YTgxNGE1MDItM2MyMC00Y2Y3LWI4ODMtMzhkYTkxOGM4NThk/edit
 
Lotus Natural Pet Food just came out with grain-free canned cat food, http://www.lotuspetfoods.com/ It's not listed on their web site yet but I saw it listed on a local pet store's monthly specials page and it's on PetFoodFoodDirect.com:

http://www.petfooddirect.com/Produc...e-Grain-Free-Salmon-Pate-for-Cats-Canned-Food
http://www.petfooddirect.com/Produc...-Grain-Free-Chicken-Pate-for-Cats-Canned-Food
http://www.petfooddirect.com/Produc...e-Grain-Free-Turkey-Pate-for-Cats-Canned-Food

Based on ingredients, it looks decent for a diabetic.
 
My picky kitty LUBS the Merrick Cowboy Cookout. I don't think it's grain free, but the carbs are 4 or 5% I think. He's marginally impressed with the Southern Delight. Fancy Feast Classic wins the prize, though, and it's grain free! He'll only eat Wellness or anything "premium" with FortiFlora sprinkled on top. So the Merrick Cowboy cookout is the premium winner around here! I know it's beef, but he seems to have zero probs with that. The Southern delight has some fish, but they are second to chicken and are crawfish and catfish. Those seem less problematic than tuna or other sea fish because they aren't typically contaminated with mercury.

Fancy feast page on FDMB
http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm
 
Of all the food I've tried lately the two winners in my house have been Merricks Cowboy Cookout and Solid Gold chicken, turkey and whitefish. Jan
 
I tried Instinct for months and threw away about 50% of every single can. I have switched all my cats completely to Castor & Pollux Ultramix (there is chicken, salmon and turkey varieties). They are all in the 5% carb range. They are grain free but have potatoes. I pick out the potatoes and put them in one of the other cats' bowls. Not sure how much has to do with food and how much has to do with Pumpkin just being Pumpkin but he is down from 9u Lantus BID to 3u BID.
 
Tiki cat doesn't contain organ meat. You can get it in Chicken and Chicken and egg flavor which contains no seafood, however - again, it has no organ meat like liver. Gus was getting this food for a while, but his fur became kind of narly on it - less soft and eventually it started to make him sick. I personally think of it more as a treat food than a main food.

Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken is one that I feed. I have read two different reports on the carbs:

http://parenting-furkids.com/index.php?topic=747.0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... n_US#gid=0

The first link - the person says they got the info from the company and it's 15% carbs as fed. The other chart has it listed as .79 carbs as fed. I have no idea which is right. I have a hard time understanding all the "as fed" carb calculations. I only give Gus 1/4 to 1/2 a can of this food a day. He is in Purina DM the rest of the time because he has extreme food sensitivities and it's rare I can find something he tolerates.

Another low carb food in big cans - but you probably have to order it - is By Nature foods which have grain-free foods that don't have fish or artificial flavors:

http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/product ... atmain.php
 
Janet's food FAQ page explains why "as fed" numbes are used to calculate the values on her charts: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/foodfaq.html I belive the Pet Food Nutritional Values chart also uses the same calculations.

All of the NV Instinct cans are low in carbs. Janet's old food chart lists the chicken as 7% carbs while the more up to date Pet Food Nutritonal Values chart lists it as 3% carbs.

Other foods I have fed to my diabetic are two ProPlan varieties, Innova EVO, SOrganics (which doesn't look like the canned is being made anymore but the company still exists), and GO Natural grain-free.
 
we were doing well on evo until this months case and i smelled something different in it and saw what i thought to be potatoes
which is why i think we are where we are now with possibly having to go back onto insulin (trying to get into a vet tomm)
the place i get my food has a food seminar and natura will be there and they are going to ask about any changes, they said that another customer came in saying the same thing


we are doing wellness now, tried instinct chicken which STINKS like crazy, so that one is out
 
bradie96 said:
tried instinct chicken which STINKS like crazy, so that one is out
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One of my civies gets a little NV Instinct chicken but I've neve noticed it being stinky. Just a sort of chicken cat food smell. But I am still going through the case of cans I bought last summer so maybe something has changed since then.
 
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