Merrick Before Grain cat food

Opinions please........or just wondering if anyone has heard any bad things on this dry food or not.


Thanks!

Thinking of this stuff.....

I had a problem about a month ago with my cats not eating Taste of the Wild cat food.
I tried several brands before I switched them to Merrick before grain. Though I feed them the Tuna flavour. They seem to eat less than before which is ok though.

I have fed the dry and wet before grain food to my cats and they seemed to like it. The only problem is the BG tends to be really rich and my cats ended up eating far less of it than other foods. Also, my half-siamese had worse throw up on it because of the richness, though he is my vomiter and a cat with a less sensitive stomach should handle it fine.

Originally Posted by GailC

I had a problem about a month ago with my cats not eating Taste of the Wild cat food.
I tried several brands before I switched them to Merrick before grain. Though I feed them the Tuna flavour. They seem to eat less than before which is ok though.

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Hmmm, I might have concerns about that diet.

Tuna in particular is high in unsaturated fat, mercury, magnesium and phosphorous, and as such is a risk factor for crystal formation, as are grain-free and a dry kibble diets in general. Add all of those factors up, and it makes me raise an eyebrow.

Thoughts?

To err on the side of caution, I'd feel safer w/ their chicken formula as a primary protein source on a dry grain free personally.

One of the few kibbles my cat did well on, the chicken kind. I like to keep the smallest bag around just in case I'm feeling too lazy to break out canned or raw or if we going to be gone. She is a puker but had no problem with this, she always does best on poultry though.

My guys liked the dry well enough.. I was giving it to them as treats... a little pile of kibble each ... a different taste than their routine dry which is Taste.

The wet... meh... they are ok with the Beef one if I mix in Fancy Feast!

Petey eats all flavors but turkey is becoming his least fav He usually eats a whole 6oz but BG is more filling as he tends to leave some behind on his second half of a 6oz.

Our 4 kitties didn't care for it. They do like Taste of the Wild, though.

When I first started feeding this (about a year and a half ago), none of the stores carried it; so I ordered it from their website. I loved the price and the ingredients, (because it was grain free and not too high in protein like EVO and Core - those were too rich for my cats).

But the kibble always came crushed and in bits. The cats would eat the whole parts but leave the crumbs. I was wasting tons of it, so I had to switch. They are now on Taste of the Wild.

I like the ingredients in BG wet varieties too, but sadly, my cats throw up after eating it.

Originally Posted by Meriweather

Our 4 kitties didn't care for it. They do like Taste of the Wild, though.

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With me it is the opposite. They were on TOW and I switched to BG. They love Merrick BG (especially the Salmon flavor) and now they will not touch TOW.

I got a bag of Before Grain kibble yesterday, as a freebie with 10 3 oz cans of Merrick weird-named-foods, which we normally alternate with Wellness cans. We'll try it out one of these days, maybe even today for lunch.

I don't anticipate problems, but then again, our cat is just a vacuum cleaner for food. The only thing she's ever refused to eat was some cheap can of Friskies (some green container), which was offered to her one of the first days in our house, while we were experimenting with foods (as well as the idea of possibly keeping a cat in our home).

BG was a staple for Ku Ku before she had surgery.
She LOOOOOVED it - both dry & wet, especially with chicken.
She didn't like the one with Tuna, though.

I've read somewhere in this forum that kitties gone nuts over the one with quails. Heard that it was the popular one and very hard to get it at stores, (especially here on this island). I somehow found one at the local store and purchased it but she didn't like it much...

I'm just stopping by to say that Merrick Before Grain really is cat approved:

My babies LOVE Before Grain. They are not picky eaters and pretty much eat whatever I put in front of them (before I went grain-free) and this is the only brand that practically brings them running when it's feeding time.

They are big fans of Quail and Beef wet...not so much turkey.

I was using it, but Jack started refusing to eat it (dry and canned) and got really picky. I switched back to the Blue Buffalo and he's fine now. The only Merrick I get is the beef canned food.

It may be too rich for him, but I'm not gonna have a cat that is not eating!