I have been feeding my three indoor cats and one outdoor cat high-quality dry, canned, and raw Felines Pride for about five years. Never had a problem with a cat getting sick from the raw FP food. They prefer it to any canned or dry food. If you Googled the company, you might have seen that the food was recalled in July 2010 because a lab test showed bacteria. There's a long story surrounding the issues FP had with the testing that was done...and Shelby, who was handling the day to day operation of the company, died around the winter holidays last year and there was corporate move and upgrade going on at the time. In any event, Shelby's brother, and Jennifer, mentioned elsewhere here, have stepped up and do quite well to answer any questions. As for the bacteria issue, any raw food will have some bacteria, but a cat's digestive system (unlike a human's, and unless the cat is being treated for something with meds that suppress its immune system and/or the food is downright rotten) is geared to handle it easily. I've left the food out in the bowl at room temp (not at hot summer temps) for three or four hours and never had a problem.
In any case, my cats enjoy it. They are all rescues from outdoors, two as kittens of a feral cat and one as an adult stray. The one that I rescued as an adult developed inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD), and a change from FP chicken to cornish hen and a half tab of prednisolone every other day made all the difference in the world. One of the younger cats had skin flaking and that disappeared on the raw diet. None of my cats vomit anything, including hair balls.
The cost of shipping can be expensive, particularly if you live at a distance from their Buffalo-area shipping point or one of the other distribution sites. I live within two or three hours' driving time from Buffalo and am going to be moving to NC, so I was concerned as to whether or not I could afford to ship, and worried some about the effect of seasonal heat on the packaging. Luckily, FP has begun to offer a kit so you can make your own raw meal with meat you purchase at the grocery store or other local provider. It comes as a little tub with a container of food grade bone meal, and two kinds of oil capsules...you take a pound of raw meat, add an egg yolk, a tablespoon of the bone meal, contents of one each of the capsules, raw chicken liver, and water and whir it up in the food processor. The two cats without the IBD love the homemade stuff. The minute they hear the food processor they are staking me out and meowing up a storm. I should note that I add a tablespoon or so of Missing Link (available at Petco or PetSmart or online) as well.
Some vets that recommend a biologically appropriate raw diet for cats say that the food made with the bone meal is OK, but a raw food made with ground soft bones (as in chicken or cornish hen) is better. Worried a bit about the expense of shipping FP to NC, before they offered the homemade food kit, I bought an electric meat grinder that will deal with the bones, but haven't had a chance to go to the trouble of choosing a recipe suitable for the cats and trying it out. For this reason, and just to be sure I have my bases covered, I continue to offer high protein dry (including the Royal Canin hypoallergenic for my IBD cat) and canned in addition to the raw.
I might contact the owner to see what he thinks.
