Has Anyone Tried "Prowl" by The Honest Kitchen?

I wasn't sure if this should go into raw feeding or here.

I just picked up a trial package of "Prowl" deydrated  whole food for cats by The Honest Kitchen.  It's made from free range USDA chicken (there is a turkey version also, called "Grace") in human food facilities in the USA - no animal feed ingredients.  Grain free (although it does have potato in it and some veggies).  No preservatives.  35% protein,29.5% fat.

You mix up the dry with a specified amount of warm water, wait 5 minutes to hydrate and serve.  Kind of has a grits like texture if I had to describe it.  Can also be mixed with raw for variety, mixed with kibble as a whole food topper, used in place of raw if you're traveling, or instead of canned.  I can see that this would be excellent if a cat were dehydrated since the moisture content is so high; if the cat likes it of course.

The guy at the pet store suggested (if my cats weren't into it at first) putting it on their paw so they would lick it off to taste it.  Apparently some cats don't "get" the texture, don't recognize it as food right off.  However, I mixed it up with about a tablespoon of kibble and both of them had no problem with it.  In fact, both licked AROUND the kibble, at the Prowl right up and left the kibble over (at least the last time I walked in the kitchen, the kibble was still in their bowls).

So, it was a hit here.

Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude protein min 35%

Crude fat min 29.5%

Crude fiber max. 2.38%

Moisture max. 5.20% (NOTE: I'm assuming this is BEFORE reconstitution)

Calcium min 0.90% max 1.40%

Phosphorus min 0.70% max 0.90%

Sodium min. 0.20% max 0.38%

Magnesium min 0.07% max 0.14%

Taurine min 0.11% max 0.20%

Calorie Content, calculated:  5070 calories per kg/576 calories per cup

Suggested Feeding:

1-5 lbs 1/8 - 1/4 cup mixed with 1/8 - 1/4 cup water

6-10 lbs 1/4 - 1/2 cup mixed with 1/4 - 1/2 cup water

11-16 lbs 1/2 - 3/4 cup mixed with 1/2 - 3/4 cup water

17-21 lbs 3/4 - 1 cup mixed with 3/4 - 1 cup water

Suggested feeding  divide daily amount into 2 daily feedings.  Based on requirements of lean and active indoor/outdoor cats.  For less active or indoor only cats recommended to feed slightly less.  For larger cats, adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

Dehydrated chicken, eggs, potatoes, sweet potatoes, organic flaxseed, pumpkin, spinach, cranberries, rosemary, tricalcium phosphate, choline chloride, zinc amino acid chelate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin # supplement, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate.

Price seems to come out to about the same as a good quality can of 5.5 ounce of wet food.  The cheapest I saw it online was or about $41 for the 4 lb box which makes about 30 - 5.5 ounce servings I believe it said; so a months worth.

Maybe it could be had for less if one shopped well.

Thoughts?

My cats didn't like it. I haven't mixed it with meat yet but they didn't like it plain. It has a lot of veggies but is at least as good as most canned foods.

I am curious as to the percentage of veggies/fruits in this. I really don't like the spinach, cranberries and rosemary in there, but they're probably/hopefully a small percentage. This sounds a lot like the Stella & Chewy's dog versions. I prefer the cat version. Also, I don't see taurine listed in the ingredients, but it is in the GA. I'm wondering if that means they don't add supplemental taurine, but those are the min/maxes of the chicken itself?

I also don't see added calcium, so does the calcium come from bone like S&C's as well?

Good questions.  I haven't had a chance to go to their website yet.  Maybe I'll send an email if it isn't clear.

That 29.5% fat content is not to my liking. A sedentary older cat could gain a lot of weight fast with this much fat content.

I'm so bad with math.  I had no idea the fat content was too high.  That's a big concern for me, because our older one, Casper, just turned 12 and he's quite sedentary these days, unless Cocoa is jumping on top of him.  

I only bought a trial size to see if they liked it so perhaps this will be better off kept on hand as an emergency type of food.  In fact, I can see where I might stock up on a couple of these small boxes to keep around until the summer passes.  Last year, we got walloped by Hurricane Sandy, and were out of commission for a week.  Luckily, we only had one cat at that time, and enough food on hand for him but now with 2 of them, if we got stuck suddenly for more than a few days, towards the end of the month before I stock up again, we could be in trouble (although usually there is kibble on hand).

Maybe not the best but not the worst either. It would be a decent option to tide them over for a few days if the stores are all shut down and nothing else can be found.

My issue wouldn't be the fat (though you'd have to pay attention to amounts fed because of the calories), mine would be that It's kind of high in carbs. If you plug the GA into a dry matter basis calculator, even though you have to guess at ash, if we assume it's 8%, this is how it looks:

Protein 37%
Fat 31%
Fiber 2.5%
Ash 8.4%
Carbs 21%

If ash is 11% in the GA, carbs falls to 17.8%, still pretty high.

It doesn't look like EVO - but it's pretty up there in fat. Well - for the amount of protein in it, anyway. The first ingredient on that list may be "dehydrated chicken," but they're using the really fatty parts of the chicken. There's no other potential source of fat in that list of ingredients, other than the eggs, and that would boost the protein with the fat.

Just for comparison:

EVO canned (DMB basis) is 41% protein, 45% fat.
Nature's Variety frozen raw chicken is 43% protein, 34% fat.
Rad Cat frozen raw chicken is 70% protein, 28% fat.
Fancy Feast classic chicken: 50% protein, 22.7% fat.
By Nature Organic Turkey & Liver: 45% protein, 27% fat.

Of course, cats (unless there are specific GI problems) do well with fat. You just have to adjust the amount fed because of the calories in it (basically twice the calories of protein and carbs).

I bought a trial size of this today and mixed a little up as a snack for the cats. The consistency is disgusting. It looks like the aftermath of some sort of incident out of the Exorcist. One cat gave it a go and another looked at it and RAN AWAY from the plate. The rest sniffed it and then didn't touch it.

The trial size was under $4.00 and I suppose wasn't any worse than the expensive experiments with almost all of the super premium formulas.

I heard how good it was so I gave it a try - kitties said "no way"

Exactly! And it's sort of green.

I had purchased the trial size a while back.  Both of my cats ate it - they seemed to like it.  But I read afterwards that actually it still is too high in carbs so I ditched it as a rotation potential.  

The trial size is free at my store and I tried it out once on my cats.... They hated it. Wouldn't touch it. The texture is strange, like a gloppy mess.

The trail version should be free at most stores for a little while. I know you can get a free sample bundle online just pay shipping and handling. I was wondering what other people thought of it, the look of it is NOT pleasing to the eyes! But for the most part my cat likes it, specially mixed with her food, sometimes I give her some with shredded chicken for more protein. This food really ups cats water intake, which is a super plus. Needless to say its in my cats rotation diet A lot of cats hate it due to the texture, it helps if you mix it with your cats regular food. first time she tried it I mixed it with her favorite canned food, the next time I used it as a topper, then I just gave it too her by itself. She was confused by it but once she got used to it she seemed to really enjoy it.