Wild Calling Cat Food

Its one thing to have an opinion about a food, but when people make comments about other people's opinions about that food, then this becomes a judgement of that person's opinion or choice. This is one reason why I am no longer interested in participating at this forum.

gladys said:

 
Wow!! I am sorry to hear that about your cat not liking this food. You say that you bought the 13 oz cans? Only the dogfood comes in the  larger cans. The cat food only comes in the 5.5 oz cans. My cats love this food and I haven't had any issues with this food at all. Although I sometimes mix in the Weruva paw lickin chicken or another weruva variety except the fish variety, my cats inhale it!!! Maybe you can try mixing it in with one of Weruva's "paw lickin chicken or the Steak frites by Weruva. If you have a Petco locally, you can try the "soulistic brand made by the same company, but only the chicken variety. I spend a fortune on catfood but I feed only the best,and it avoids a lot of heartbreak when they have to go to the vet for food related problems. Since feeding grain free canned food only, my cats have  been in better health than ever. So please keep trying for your "Furbaby"

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Yup, the 13oz cans are the dog cans.  Although, aside from 'Taurine' (which I add via supplement), there's no difference except from a slightly different binding ingredient I believe.

Perhaps I had a different batch of cans because the ones I opened smelled weird. That's the best way I can describe it.  

It should be noted that I have not had issues with feeding my cat other brands of canned 'dog' food, whose ingredients were either identical or in need of Taurine which I supplement.

Why would I do this? It's good value for the dollar.

Well said, U R 100% right. Just because a company had bad luck in the past doesn't mean it will stay bad. 

Hi. My 9 year old cat was recently diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease. We tried Rx cat food, but he and his brother went on a food strike. I was told by my vet to feed mostly wet food, no poultry of any sort and limited to no grains. She recommended a meat that my cat had never had before (so lamb, beef, and seafood were out). I struggled to find a food that had no chicken in the ingredients, much less the other criteria. I did find Wild Calling, and gave it a try. The boys will both eat the rabbit (although reluctantly), but they love the buffalo. Because of the food restrictions, we have not tried any other flavors of Wild Calling.
In terms of dry food (which I now feed little of) I could only find Region's Red Wild Boar that contained no chicken protein. The cats refused to eat venison!

For some reason, I didn't see updates to this thread until today, so I have alot of responding to do!

n3phthys said:

I had two concerns I asked them about:
1. There was rust on top rim some of the cans (I've seen other unrelated brands have it too so I was sort of curious what the deal is with it in general)
2. Using Evangers canning facilities. (I also wanted to let them know that it seemed like a lot of people wanted to like their product but couldn't get past the Evangers concerns.)

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The cans of Addiction cat food I purchased several years ago which were canned by Evangers had some rust on the top, but also some crust or dirt around the rims and on the bottom of the cans. Last year, when I was handed a can of Wild Calling at the local holistic food store by the owner, I noticed the same crust and immediately asked if it was canned by Evangers. They weren't sure, so I checked the net and saw a discussion mentioning they were indeed canned by Evangers. I later emailed Wild Calling to confirm.

After reading this thread, I decided to to throw out the remaining cans I have of Addiction Forest Rabbit. In the past, I cleaned off the rust/crust on the cans and fed them to my cat as the food smelled good enough to eat myself, and the seal wasn't broken. I haven't fed Addiction to her for over a year though. It was just for a change from her usual Nature's Variety Instinct. I'm also wondering about Addiction's policy of canned food being good for 3 years from date of canning. I bought the food in 2012 and the expiration date is in 2015, Many other canned natural food suppliers have a 2 year date of manufacture to expiration date. Any thoughts?

oneandahalfcats said:

Regarding the information about the rust on the cans, no can should have rust on it. If it does, this suggests to me that the products were sitting too long in a warehouse and/or exposed to the elements. The cat foods in cans that I have seen in my local pet supply, all come packaged in a flat wrapped in plastic, for easy transport but also to protect the product.

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I order quite a bit of Nature's Variety Instinct online, and the cases are always shipped with plastic around half of a carton. The cans are spotlessly clean. The only problem is that the metal used for Nature's Variety's cans isn't as solid as Addiction, Fancy Feast, and probably Wild Calling. Nature's Variety is canned by Simmons (which purchased Menu), and the cans they use aren't as solid as the ones used by Evangers. Sometimes the weaker can gets dented during shipment, or the bottom gets dented by vacuum sealing during the manufacturing process. Any cans that were severely dented during shipment were replaced by the online retailer.

gladys said:

I used to feed my cats Natures variety canned and some dry, until one of my younger males got a blockage. Fortunately, my vet, who treats cats only, was able to save him. She said that the blockage may of been from something in the food. Natures variety uses a type of "clay" as a binder to make their food. No insults here,but they also get their rabbit sources from China.  So if you intend on still feeding this food, I suggest you call the manufacturer and find out if they are still;; getting their rabbit from China, that is, if you feed the rabbit one.

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They have always maintained that they closely supervised the plant in China where the rabbit protein was prepared. However, they announced just this month that their rabbit protein is now being sourced from France. A representative told me that this started several months ago, and they wanted to wait until all the older cans were off the shelf before making any official announcement.

In regard to the montmorillonite clay in the Nature's Variety Instinct Formula, check out what Wysong says about it:

http://www.wysong.net/blog/what-is-montmorillonite-clay-and-is-it-safe-for-cats.php

Montmorillonite clay gained national exposure after it was featured on the Discovery Channel. The clay works as a detoxifier and is gaining popularity with veterinarians, both holistic and traditional. Vets are recommending the clay to pet owners because of the increase in chronic health problems among cats. Many veterinarians feel these problems stem from man-made and environmental toxins and can lead to diabetes, allergic, kidney and urinary disorders in cats.

Montmorillonite clay, available as a powder, can be mixed in water. When ingested, the clay naturally clings to internal toxins and flushes them from the animal's system through the colon. The clay has also been proven to strengthen bones and joints as well as boost your pet's immune system.

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Nature's Variety's site states they use the clay as an anti-caking processing aid and I'm not sure if there's a difference between the clay they add and what Wysong is using. Wysong mentions a powdered clay. The only other food I can think of that adds montmorillonite clay is Nature's Logic. If anyone has more information, please share.

Jenlynn71 said:

Hi. My 9 year old cat was recently diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease. We tried Rx cat food, but he and his brother went on a food strike. I was told by my vet to feed mostly wet food, no poultry of any sort and limited to no grains. She recommended a meat that my cat had never had before (so lamb, beef, and seafood were out). I struggled to find a food that had no chicken in the ingredients, much less the other criteria. I did find Wild Calling, and gave it a try. The boys will both eat the rabbit (although reluctantly), but they love the buffalo. Because of the food restrictions, we have not tried any other flavors of Wild Calling. In terms of dry food (which I now feed little of) I could only find Region's Red Wild Boar that contained no chicken protein. The cats refused to eat venison!

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Have you tried the Nature's Variety canned Instinct line? Read the last post by "Southpaw" here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259821/natures-variety-instinct-line-for-diabetic-and-ibd

Perhaps you can respond to a post or PM and see what success the poster is having with IBD and foods.


Just another note to all regarding the Wild Calling food ingredients. While it looks like a quality food, they do add guar gum as a thickener, and add dried brewer's yeast .
I'd be interested to know everyone's opinion regarding the following:

http://www.naturalnews.com/report_pet_food_ingredients_8.html
Worst Pet Food Ingredients

dried brewers yeast (1 stars) found in 1% of pet food products analyzed
Can become toxic to liver, waste product of beer and ale industry.

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(not sure if brewer's Yeast Extract is the same as dried brewer's yeast)
http://www.bestcatanddognutrition.com/roger-biduk/definitions-of-ingredients/

Brewer’s Yeast Extract: Condensed liquid left over from brewery process. Can become toxic to the liver. Major source of pet allergies and a host of other problems in cats and dogs.
Found in low quality pet foods. In nature, carnivores (dogs) and obligate carnivores (cats) don’t eat brewer’s yeast extract.
You will never, ever find brewer’s yeast extract in high quality commercially available pet foods, nor will you ever find it in healthy recipes for homemade pet meals. Where you’ll find it are in very affordable, highly processed, very low-quality pet foods. Pet foods containing quality ingredients never, ever use brewer’s yeast extract in any of their foods.

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What's confusing is that Nature's Variety has a positive review of brewer's yeast in their glossary, yet I don't find it in the ingredients lisfing for their canned or kibble line:

Brewer’s Yeast
Yeasts are not bacteria, plants, or animals; they are technically a type of eukaryotic microorganism classified in the kingdom Fungi. Yeast is a beneficial source of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. The yeast used in our food is inactivated and has been separated from its growth medium to prevent the potential for allergic reactions. Moreover, it is a different species from the harmful yeast that causes ear or skin infections.

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Something you all should know is, a good portion of their protein comes from wild animals as well. It has a different composition. Just like people, some animals prefer tame tasting meat over wild and game meat.

Well I am currently mixing a freeze dried raw food into my cats canned food mixture, that is also grain free, and so far so good. Because of all of the negs comments on the other canned foods, I won't haf to worry about the clay,brewers yeast and all of the gums they are using now days in the food. Cats in the wild eat and kill wild prey so we have to mimick their diet as much as we can to keep them healthy. I never just use one specific canned cat food and always mix with another, cats like the variety.

I'm starting to change my mind on Wild Calling canned foods. The last several cans (bought at a few different stores over the course of a few months) have gone from a moist, but still fairly firm pate into, ugh, I don't even know. Gloppy grossness, I guess. My cat has stopped eating it and I haven't found another nice can so far. I don't know if it's just my bad luck but it's still extremely disappointing to have to throw out can after can.

It's just not worth it to play canned food lottery. I use a lot of other brands that don't vary so widely in quality and I think I'm just going to stick with them. I'm just glad I didn't buy a full case!

yeah me too. I'm going back to Hounds and Gatos canned food. I's pricey,but my furbabys are worth it. I haf to order it through my local supplier since it isn't sold at any upscale pet stores. Maybe U should give this brand a try,although I always mix tiki chichen in it for variety. I never use just one brand, as my cats like variety(spoiled lil brats !!}

We had a similar issue with WIld Calling. The original beef ones we bought from our pet store really smelled like beef, but the ones we ordered online from chewys smelled like... cheap cat food? Not like the first batch we bought at all. I think we too will switch to maybe Hound and Gatos or Nature's Variety. 

I bought six cans of the Rabbit variety about two months ago and they smelled rancid. Enya would not touch them. I got rid of them and will not be purchasing Wild Calling again. It's too bad because it was such a promising food.

Yuppers, I pitched some out awhile back.  Rancid is a good description for the odor.  I tried 'Hoppy' (their rabbit), and a couple others.  Two of the proteins were rancid...the 3rd I didn't even bother and threw them out.

I was in discussion with the big cheese at Wild Calling and of course, he claimed there is nothing wrong with any of the canned foods.    Not that I'd expect a different answer for legal reasons but there you go.

I feed wild call and haven't had a problem with it smelling bad.

I just ordered a couple of cans of Wild Calling Beef last week.   Trying it out for the first time.    I'll let everyone know how they go over. 

Yeah too bad, cause I really liked this food and would mix it with hounds and gatos or natures variety, as my furbabys liked this. Wild calling adds brewers yeast to their foods and it is pretty high up on the list of ingredients, so it is a concern of mine. Time will tell,but I am not going to use this food until i see some positive reviews first.

The store I work at just started carrying this brand.   I loved the look of it - no carageenan, 95% meat, novel proteins.   I wasn't sure what the cat crowd would think since my guys basically despise pate style food.  Bought a few flavors - the rabbit, which I knew they'd go for because they'll even overcome their disgust of Hound and Gatos to get rabbit - the chicken, turkey and triple delight.   They all went nuts for it!  The Triple Delight is their new favorite food in the world, even over their precious Weruva.   It is reasonably priced too for the extremely high quality and an option for cats that won't eat the texture of Weruva and the like.

I wasn't aware of the Evangers connection, but from the email quoted above it seems like the Wild Calling folks are on top of it. 

The unanimous paws up response I got from my determined pate haters makes my decision to include this food in our rotation easy unless I hear something much worse about it than one of their co-packers having ethical problems.

I recently discovered Wild Calling while looking for a natural food for one of my cats who is so far refusing the raw diet my other cat took to from day one.  I find the ingredients in their products excellent except for guar gum and xanthum gum.  So for the time being I will feed only those that contain just one of the gums (guar gum) to reduce my cats' exposure.  That's the buffalo, pheasant & rabbit varieties. All the others have xanthum gum as well.

The company's website is quite informative and lists the ingredients for every product:  http://www.wildcalling.com/products/     They also plainly state on each description that "The liver source is protein-specific except for Salmon and Triple Delight[emoji]8482[/emoji] which have chicken liver."

I didn't want to rely on hearsay, so I wrote to the company twice myself and Jeremy J. Petersen, Executive Vice President, answered my two e-mails on the same day.  Here's what I learned:

Wild Calling recently began producing all canned cat food at Simmons Pet Food (except for rabbit and buffalo) and have made small additions to the formula to help better ensure consistency.  The rabbit and buffalo must temporarily continue to be canned by Evanger's because Wild Calling is locked into long-term ingredient contracts which at this time the suppliers mandate can only be delivered to Evanger's.

Since Evanger's crime was substituting a protein source that wasn't on the label, and fuel theft unrelated to food quality, I think I will still occasionally purchase the Wild Calling rabbit and buffalo.  There has been such an uproar and so much publicity about them that I suspect they won't try any more shady or dangerous practices.  Eventually Wild Calling can get out of their supplier contracts and stop using them altogether.

I also asked was is the "natural flavor" listed as an ingredient in the canned good, and Jeremy said it is dried liver.  He answered my concern about  the use of guar and xanthum gum by saying, "Without them the product would look like water since there would be no binder. Worse yet, the only alternatives are non-natural ingredients or carrageenan which has been showed to promote tumors in cats. We don't want to use those ingredients so the gums we use are the lesser of the evil and in our research are very safe for both dogs and cats."

I don't agree with the last phrase about safety, but I hope to feed canned cat food for only a short time for my finicky cat.  If both will transition to a raw diet with ground bones and organs, I can used canned food only when I'm traveling with them or depending upon a sitter.  

However, if she continues to resist, I will try to switch her to Pet Tropics products, as I don't want to feed anything with binders like guar gum and xanthum gum long term.

The best canned food I've found so far is made by Pet Tropics: http://www.petropics.com/tiki-cat/      This is what I prefer to feed if I can get my cat to eat it, but she refused the chicken variety (the only one I have bought) until this morning!  So there's hope.

Pet Tropics Tiki Cat brand is only shredded meat, consomme, vitamins and minerals.  Their Gourmet Carnivore brand has only diced meats, consomme,  vitamins and minerals (but according to members of TheCatSite forum it contains a high percentage of liver and muscle meats, which may be too much of a good thing.  Check out the comments at http://www.thecatsite.com/t/276526/new-tiki-cat-line-of-wet-food-gourmet-carnivore 

I will try the Gourmet Carnivore as several of those varieties contain liver, which I think is important (the Tiki Cat does not).  They use no binders, and I like the texture of their Tiki Cat product.  Their web site not only lists the ingredients in the food, but states the source of the protein and tells how it is prepared and cooked. 

My current supplier for raw cat food is My Pet Carnivore.  Their products contain finely ground meats, bones, and organs at reasonable prices and are packed in convenient 1-pound plastic freezer containers:     https://www.mypetcarnivore.com/index.php?lang=en

Taurine, vitamins, and minerals need to be added, so I bought a powdered supplement called Albutrin from Know What You Feed at http://knowwhatyoufeed.com/    I don't like that this supplement has dried egg in it, so I'm looking for something better for next time.  Does anyone have suggestions?

However, I only bought 20 pounds of chicken as my first raw feeding trial, so I'm not too concerned about short-term use of the dried egg.  When I find a suitable supplement without it, I will add raw egg yolk to the thawed meat before I serve it.

One of my cats took to the raw food diet as soon as I thawed and mixed the first container.  The other will talk a little more sweet talking. . .

One of my cats 

Hello. I've been feeding a mixture of cans including wild calling to my cat and she loves it. They have great flavors other companies just don't have. The mix up with the protein happens even with food sources for humans too! I don't think it will be a regular occurrence. Also since my cat doesn't have any food sensitivities I don't worry too much. As for rust I haven't had any so far on my cans.

Are the Wild Calling canned foods, cat and dog, BPA FREE?  Concerned since many canned pet foods DO use the BPA process (sealing. I believe).

mrtabbs said:

 
Are the Wild Calling canned foods, cat and dog, BPA FREE?  Concerned since many canned pet foods DO use the BPA process (sealing. I believe).

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I don't know about Wild Calling, but I DO know that Earthborn is BPA free.