Nature's Variety?

What do you guys think of their Instinct (grain free) canned food? I was looking at feeding either this or Wellness canned. I also found that the Nature's Variety cat food is exactly the same as the dog food that you can buy in the 13 ounce can. I went to the store to buy a couple cans of this and Wellness and found that the NV food rep had a bunch of $2 off coupons on the cans!

reads well but my boys prefer the wellness ..

It's good stuff, my kitties eat all six flavors. I feed it in rotation with the three non-fishy, grain-free wellness flavors and the wellness core, along with several other canned foods.

Why not feed both? Or a variety of brands? This keeps the cats from being too picky and makes sure you have a backup in case there is a recall. Plus, in case one is lacking in some form, the others will round out the analysis.

I've fed Wellness, Natures Variety, Merricks, etc. I guess I have picky cats since I haven't found one that they will eat for a long time. So, I ended up in a canned food rotation to mix it up a bit.

Sometimes you can find a canned that is the same in dog and cat food. You just have to very careful to make sure the nutritional comparison is the same. I remember there was another food like this (the name escapes me) but it was way cheaper to buy the dog food canned over the cat food canned and it was identical. I think even Sharky mentioned it in a previous posting.

Originally Posted by Russian Blue

...Sometimes you can find a canned that is the same in dog and cat food. You just have to very careful to make sure the nutritional comparison is the same. I remember there was another food like this (the name escapes me) but it was way cheaper to buy the dog food canned over the cat food canned and it was identical. I think even Sharky mentioned it in a previous posting.

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Evo maybe?

I feed five Natural Balance flavors, too. My cats really like NB.

I've only tried the Instinct lamb formula, but it is a hit with all my cats. My Sprout eats it exclusively. The other two are mostly on Wellness these days, but they like both brands equally.

Originally Posted by Russian Blue

Why not feed both? Or a variety of brands?

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That was my plan so far, I got a can of rabbit, one of chicken, and a variety of non fish Wellness. The lady that rescued Cozmik says he eats anything so cross your fingers for me!

Fingers crossed!

I feed my cat ALOT of brands of the "best" wet foods out there.

And hands down Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken and Rabbit are her favorite foods.

My brother's cat I take care of is into dry food, and usually licks and takes a few bites of wet. NV's rabbit turned that around!

(for the record, Rabbit is both cats favorite, but with it's high price and unknown "consquences", kitty gets it every sunday night.

Honestly I wish NV would get more traction here and in the stores. They are one of the few companies that seems to have no suppliers, and any they would have are local.
I have been facinated for a while as to where they souce their Rabbit and Venison (people stopped eating rabbit where I lived decades ago, and all Deer around here is hunted)

Originally Posted by Korina

I feed my cat ALOT of brands of the "best" wet foods out there.

And hands down Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken and Rabbit are her favorite foods.

My brother's cat I take care of is into dry food, and usually licks and takes a few bites of wet. NV's rabbit turned that around!

(for the record, Rabbit is both cats favorite, but with it's high price and unknown "consquences", kitty gets it every sunday night.

Honestly I wish NV would get more traction here and in the stores. They are one of the few companies that seems to have no suppliers, and any they would have are local.
I have been facinated for a while as to where they souce their Rabbit and Venison (people stopped eating rabbit where I lived decades ago, and all Deer around here is hunted)

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MOST rabbit is coming from China at the moment ...

I tried several cans of it last year, but Riley didn't seem to like it much. He would eat some, but then wouldn't eat it when it was offered again.

Originally Posted by sharky

MOST rabbit is coming from China at the moment ...

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I could be wrong but I somewhat remember that canned rabbit is fairly fatty. At least the couple of cans that I can remember looking at.

Originally Posted by chris10

I could be wrong but I somewhat remember that canned rabbit is fairly fatty. At least the couple of cans that I can remember looking at.

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rabbit normally is a lean meat under 10% ... could it have been the gums ?? I have not used rabbit cooked for a while. Last time rabbit was in the house was raw and I stopped that upon finding out it was coming out of China

Originally Posted by sharky

rabbit normally is a lean meat under 10% ... could it have been the gums ?? I have not used rabbit cooked for a while. Last time rabbit was in the house was raw and I stopped that upon finding out it was coming out of China

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I think what I am thinking of is evo canned rabbit. The rabbit is fattier than the regular evo for dogs and cats. Just a little bit fattier than the other 95%'s. I also have read rabbit is fairly lean. But after researching if evo canned dog can be feed to cats I remember learning that the rabbit was a little fattier. But I don't think its really anything to worry about.

The one difference I've seen between the EVO cat and EVO dog canned food formulas is that it seems the cat ones don't contain selenium while the dog ones do. Does anyone know why?

Originally Posted by KatGoddess

The one difference I've seen between the EVO cat and EVO dog canned food formulas is that it seems the cat ones don't contain selenium while the dog ones do. Does anyone know why?

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Good question. Dogs, according to the AAFCO, only require 0.01 more mg/kg than cats. And they have a max intake of 2.0 mg/kg and cats don't. So I don't know why.

Originally Posted by sharky

MOST rabbit is coming from China at the moment ...

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Really? That news is quite annoying to me.
Gotta love American laws, you don't have to write country origin if it is packed here.

I have no overly paranoid opinion on China, or Thailand's ability to produce food for international clients, they have been doing it for years.
I just find this news disappointing as I guess I fell for N.V.'s slick marketing.
All this time I imagined their company as some slaughter house in Kentucky that decided to start making pet food.
I guess I just to need to call or email them and ask.
I have wanted to know for a while as I have been curious where they source all their products from.
(Also equally curious where Evangers gets their Pheasant meat from)

Mostly for my cats I don't get hung up on the term "human grade" as much as I care about quality protein sources and cleanliness/safety.
Like with their Deer meat product, are the Deer farmed or is it just neighborhood hunters dropping off their weekend hunts at the NV front doors?
Is the meat tested at all?

Feeding my cat exotic varieties of "game" meets does her no good if it's not safe.

Sharky if you are reading this, I think it's time we make a thread covering all the "top tier" cat food's sources and facility locations.
Ironic as before the big recalls I was feeding my cats Nutro Dry/Canned, now I feed them Orijen dry and N.V.(all cans), Merricks (thanksgiving, Grammys), and occasionally Weruva fish cans.
We shouldn't go around assuming that because the grain free premiums don't use wheat gluten that they are guaranteed to be safe or of better quality.

For example, we know that Weruva operates out of a USDA/EU human-grade approved meat packing facility in Thailand. Everyone knows that factory packs and sends fish products to American grocery stores, but when they say "our chicken breast is from open range chickens" I would like to know where their sources are for this chicken, just a little more.
If Thailand is satisfying the desires of nations who can afford to pay more for "free range" poultry then I would be fascinated to learn about that.
(My main problem is almost ALL chicken and beef that I eat in America is made here, AFIK)

Anyways Sharky, thanks for the info, I guess I will have to consider if I make Korina's sunday night/monday morning rabbit dinner a thing of the past (and damnit I just bought a case! and they are 1.89 a can!).

<We shouldn't go around assuming that because the grain free premiums don't use wheat gluten that they are guaranteed to be safe or of better quality.>

I think we also shouldn't assume because a company says they are wholistic, organic, grain-free, small, super-premium, or privately owned that they're guaranteed to be safe or of better quality, IMO. Especially if your pets don't thrive on it, or just don't like it!

Side note, out of curiosity - for companies too small to support a certified feline nutritionist on staff, or to run feeding trials (all of which is expensive and tend to require deep pockets), how do they arrive at their formulas? Do they hire a nutritionist on a short term contract? I know feeding trials can be controversial - I honestly feel for the companies who have to try to please everyone on this issue.

Originally Posted by darlili

<We shouldn't go around assuming that because the grain free premiums don't use wheat gluten that they are guaranteed to be safe or of better quality.>

I think we also shouldn't assume because a company says they are wholistic, organic, grain-free, small, super-premium, or privately owned that they're guaranteed to be safe or of better quality, IMO. Especially if your pets don't thrive on it, or just don't like it!

Side note, out of curiosity - for companies too small to support a certified feline nutritionist on staff, or to run feeding trials (all of which is expensive and tend to require deep pockets), how do they arrive at their formulas? Do they hire a nutritionist on a short term contract? I know feeding trials can be controversial - I honestly feel for the companies who have to try to please everyone on this issue.

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The FORMULATE to a group of % ... you can tell this by reading the small print on the cans or bag... If it says AFFCO feeding test substantiate then it was feed trial tests ...

if it says formulated to meet the AFFCO profiles then it was NOT tested


I look for a feed trial on dry food just as a safety ...


Korina
I learned about the rabbit from my vet when the RAW food company she was using stopped sending rabbit "looking for a new supply"... When it came back in stock the company WHEN asked answered it came from China ... I then went off to research, as their are pet site s dedicated to the recall and food safety out there ... And found out that nearly all rabbit was Chinese ...

Deer is another curious one as up to 50% of captive " farmed " have the wasting disease and up to 30% of wild


Today most companies are NOT very forthright in even saying where they can or who owns them... For this site it likely would turn into IMO material so unless one of the MODS tells me it is a great Idea I wont be putting up that thread ...

Thanks for the reply - I was curious as there are so few certified feline nutritionists out there, as I understand it (about 50 in the US, if I remember right), I wondered how companies arrived at their formulas.

I agree that tracing ownership can be much more, ah, challenging than one might think at first.