Friskies Canned

My cat doesn't like the expensive brands Wellness, Blue Buffalo.  A Petsmart employees told me he thinks Wellness formulas are to rich for a cat.

I'm trying Friskies for my 13.5 year old. She's been on a low fat food from the vet for years because of high blood fat levels. But she sleeps about 20 hrs a day - no energy - but her blood sure looks good on this low fat food.  I just feel at 13.5 years feed what she likes and forget about the blood work. Quality time over quantity time.

She seems to like Friskies Poultry Platter - anyone out there using Friskies full time for canned food?

I use the Friskies LOAF cans and avoid all the others (shreds, filets, etc.) because they have wheat gluten in them.  I also use the Fancy Feast Classics for my older fussier cats.  Since wheat gluten is NOT a natural food for animals, but often used as a protein source in pet foods, I just read the labels and stay away from it. Back in 2007 when so many animals were poisoned by various brands of pet food, it turned out that the common thread was wheat gluten from China that had melamine in it.  Because I avoided wheat gluten, none of my animals got sick back then.  So far, I have had no problems with Friskies canned foods.

I feed my cats Friskies pate full time (Mixed grill, turkey & giblets, chicken & liver) It's the only canned food one of my cats will eat. Works for us!

I feed my small cat colony Friskies Pate and Fancy Feast. They love FF!
The only food Ritz would eat before I transitioned her to raw was Fancy Feast Classic Seafood. This after liking some of the higher end foods, such as Wellness and Soulistic.

My cats get Friskies pate mixed in with other varieties of wet food they'll eat, but they're not all top of the line big premium brands. In fact, only one or two are. When it comes to Friskies, I've seen better foods and I've seen worse foods. Feeding Friskies is still better than something loaded with corns and glutens, and sometimes it's even more cost-effective.

Chef's Dinner is the key to Kismet's heart.

I think 13.5 years is still a young-un!   Since her bloodwork looks so good, maybe she's just a tad on the lazy side. Goodness knows I've got a few that think their life's work is seeing how many hours of sleep they can rack up. She could just be bored, too. Will she play with you?

My bunch all get Friskies pate, all flavors except salmon. More Country Style Dinner than any other flavor because it has no fish meal. We go through 2 cases of the 13oz cans per week.

But.... for the past 3 weeks my local stores have either been completely out or have had extremely low inventory levels and I'm beginning to panic. 

Even the petco website is out of stock. I've always kept a 3 week supply on hand, but as of today am now down to 7 cans! 

Anyone else having difficulties finding the big cans? How about you, @Red Top Rescue, should I head to the city?

You could be right = maybe she is bored. She's not interested in playing - and just seems to want to left alone.

Purina is having an ingredient shortage - that's why you're having trouble finding the food. They don't know when it will be resolved. The ingredient involved is pork which is used in just about all their products (liver and meat by-products).

Since when is pork in short supply?

There's a nasty pig virus going around. Causing big trouble.

Are they really having sourcing problems? I'd think a big company like that would have some kind of back-up plan :/. I haven't noticed any stocking issues. . .except for Walmart but that's their staffing/stocking problem not because they don't have any in back . But the other stores seem fine.

Meanwhile Canadian pork producers are pushing their product like crazy because Russia has boycotted Canadian pork, amongst many other products. Why isn't Purina jumping all over this?

The clan all eat Friskies Buffet for their canned food. It's pretty much all they will eat. And we've had three of our cats live for over 20 years, Bootser made it to over 21 years of age. Our two oldest now will be 19 in February. They're all in very good health, too, so I don't think Friskies Buffet is a bad food. And since it's all my gang will eat, I'll take it.

You can try all the so-called premium canned foods you want, but if your cats won't eat it (which is what goes on around here), it's all for nothing. 

Friskies Buffet was never on the list of pet foods from China, not even their shreds, bits, etc. .

Since you had me worried about the supply of the large cans, I just picked up 2 dozen at Tractor Supply.  That didn't clean them out, there were another 2 dozen or so left, and they may have more in the back.  Is there a Tractor Supply anywhere near you?  I get my litter there too (I use the Best Cob Horse Litter actually, 40 lbs for $8.99).  Anyhow, all stocked up on Friskie for a little while.  Thanks for the heads up.

We use chicken or turkey of the Friskeys that has a gravy mix in the can. My husband buys and feeds the kids.
The kids don't seem to like any other flavors.

For Friskies I stick with-

Special Diet:

Beef and Chicken

Turkey and Giblets

Pate:

Mixed Grill

Country Style Dinner

Turkey and Giblets*

Chicken and Liver*

and sometimes Poultry platter*

3 of the pates have fish* in them but they are the 3rd, 4th and 5th ingredients in each. I try to stay with lower phosphorus/magnesium foods due to my cats past issues with crystals. He had surgery to fix the issue but I still try to keep the phos content under 1.3% or <350mg. Carbs stay under 10% too.

I still feed him some Innova and Triumph, while the ing are better the fat content is high much like EVO. Considering switching to Friskies full time.

I'm no food expert by any means - some folks around here know quite a bit about it, but I'm not one of them - I just have real world experience.

For whatever it's worth, my girlcat was diagnosed with early (barely there) kidney disease 5 years ago. I switched both cats to canned only. they wouldn't eat the prescription kidney food, and wanted no part of the high-end canned brands.

Enter Friskies. They ate nothing but Friskies canned for years - the boy lived happily until 18 when cancer got him. He slowly lost weight the last few years of his life (he was enormous) and I attribute it to the canned diet. He never had any digestive problems and Friskies was his brand.

The girlcat is still at 18, she lived on nothing but Friskies canned (also snubbed high-end food), and even though the vet was pushing for "low protein" - since I was in a bind, I figured the canned was giving her more moisture, and even the lower end canned was better for a CKD cat than kibble (but that's just my opinion). Her CKD remained stable with no treatments for 5 years, until recently she has been having problems - but I don't see them as food related, she has other issues going on. Now, I'm trying to get her to eat certain canned for other reasons... but both mine were perfectly happy and healthy on Friskies for years. She still gets Friskies on fussy days, I don't sweat it.

Just my $.02. good luck!

Oh, and my girl had a problem with anything with beef in it - she would upchuck it. Until lately. But that could just be her.

If you ask many stores are MORE then willing to order the food in for you!  I find I can do a lot better though with the 5.5 on sale and using coupons.  I price match from other stores.  Petsmart by me is VERY on top of the 5.5 cases.  Friskies pate is great but the others I would not touch since they are high carb.  My food controlled diabetic thrives as does my cat with stomach issues(was on W/d and does better on Friskies canned!)

Mine went for the Friskies pate also, and there is some new one targeted at "good morning kittycat" that has an egg sauce. It's bits of food and not pate, but they loved it.

Red Top Rescue said:

 
Since you had me worried about the supply of the large cans, I just picked up 2 dozen at Tractor Supply.  That didn't clean them out, there were another 2 dozen or so left, and they may have more in the back.  Is there a Tractor Supply anywhere near you?  I get my litter there too (I use the Best Cob Horse Litter actually, 40 lbs for $8.99).  Anyhow, all stocked up on Friskie for a little while.  Thanks for the heads up.

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@Red Top Rescue  - holy moly... that litter - 40 lbs at 8.99? I guess it's not scoopable if it's made for horses? That would be one heck of a scoop! Great price though.

Wasabipea said:

@Red Top Rescue
 - holy moly... that litter - 40 lbs at 8.99? I guess it's not scoopable if it's made for horses? That would be one heck of a scoop! Great price though.

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I buy that too. It's not scoopable---the pellets turn to sawdust when wet. There are special set-ups for sawdust-y cat litters but I prefer to just change it frequently. It's cheap enough . I like it better than pine litter because the pellets are smaller and softer. Also because it doesn't smell pine-y :tongue2:.

Willowy said:

I buy that too. It's not scoopable---the pellets turn to sawdust when wet. There are special set-ups for sawdust-y cat litters but I prefer to just change it frequently. It's cheap enough

. I like it better than pine litter because the pellets are smaller and softer. Also because it doesn't smell pine-y

.

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So you could sort of use a big spoon for quick clean ups? I might have to look into that! It is cheap enough to change often and probably less dusty, I'd think.

Sorry - end of hijack!

And now back to our regularly scheduled Friskies discussion .