Boreal Cat Food

Has anyone tried this? I bought a can of their wet food because of the "low-hypoglycemic" mention on the label, thinking it would be good for my diabetic cat. Haven't tried it yet. It's a Canadian company. Don't know if it's available in the US. Here is the information from their website:

http://borealpetfood.com/chicken-salmon/

Our Boréal Chicken & Salmon canned cat food is 90% Meat/Fish and is designed to have almost no carbohydrates or starches and lowers the risk of unwanted weight gain.  Our Salmon & Chicken is made with wild salmon from British Columbia and Canadian chicken. Salmon & Chicken like all our canned cat foods a free of cereals, grains, starches, artificial colour or added salt. Can is 156 gm (5.5 oz)

Salmon, Chicken, Potassium Chloride, vegetable gums, vitamin and mineral supplements, zinc methionine and water for sufficient processing.

No cereals, grains, starches, artificial colour or salt added. All North American sourced ingredients including BC Salmon.

Feed Analysis

cocheezie said:

 
Has anyone tried this? I bought a can of their wet food because of the "low-hypoglycemic" mention on the label, thinking it would be good for my diabetic cat. Haven't tried it yet. It's a Canadian company. Don't know if it's available in the US. Here is the information from their website:

http://borealpetfood.com/chicken-salmon/

Our Boréal Chicken & Salmon canned cat food is 90% Meat/Fish and is designed to have almost no carbohydrates or starches and lowers the risk of unwanted weight gain.  Our Salmon & Chicken is made with wild salmon from British Columbia and Canadian chicken. Salmon & Chicken like all our canned cat foods a free of cereals, grains, starches, artificial colour or added salt. Can is 156 gm (5.5 oz)

Salmon, Chicken, Potassium Chloride, vegetable gums, vitamin and mineral supplements, zinc methionine and water for sufficient processing.

No cereals, grains, starches, artificial colour or salt added. All North American sourced ingredients including BC Salmon.

Feed Analysis

Moisture     84.50% Protein     10.00% Fibre     1.50% Ash     2.00% Fat     6.30% Carbohydrates Maximum   1.00% Energy     100Kcal/100g

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I have never bought it but it looks great . 

I emailed the company asking about phosphorus levels, and heard back almost immediately. Four stars for that!

They claim the phosphorus level is 0.9%. Not sure if I believe it or not, considering that it does list salmon as a first ingredient.

They also claim they use "only the finest Canadian ingredient sources."

Will see if my cats go for it.

cocheezie said:

 
I emailed the company asking about phosphorus levels, and heard back almost immediately. Four stars for that!

They claim the phosphorus level is 0.9%. Not sure if I believe it or not, considering that it does list salmon as a first ingredient.

They also claim they use "only the finest Canadian ingredient sources."

Will see if my cats go for it.

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That's good . I hope your cats like it .  I wish my cats would something like Boreal but they are super picky about wet food .

The one and only thing they will eat is Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey Feast(  pate )..  They love it so much they each eat 2 full cans per day . I am just happy they are finally eating all wet diet ..

Well, it looked okay. Felt a bit spongy as if it had tiny air pockets. Neither cat would eat it. Cocheezie eventually ate some, but only after I spread a tiny bit of FF salmon on top of it. Too bad - it would have been nice to support "made in Canada" with Canadian sourced ingredients.

cocheezie said:

 
Well, it looked okay. Felt a bit spongy as if it had tiny air pockets. Neither cat would eat it. Cocheezie eventually ate some, but only after I spread a tiny bit of FF salmon on top of it. Too bad - it would have been nice to support "made in Canada" with Canadian sourced ingredients.

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I know the feeling , my cats are super picky . I would love to feed them some higher quality can foods but they won't have it ..

what brand is best for a diabetic cat. Someone had mentioned instinct...

thanks

janet

Janet Robinette said:

 
what brand is best for a diabetic cat. Someone had mentioned instinct...

thanks

janet

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Any low carb canned food (or raw food) that your diabetic will eat See http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292158/diabetes-info#post_3689878 for a link to low carb Fancy Feast and a link to the FelineDiabetes.com web site and board for more info on how to care for your diabetic cat.

I have a persian Himalayan and she absolutely loves it, shes not incredibly picky with food which is a bonus. This stuff is pretty affordable and seems to be pretty healthy. Supporting a canadian company is always a plus. 

I got this back from Boreal when I asked for the metabolic (caloric) breakdown. This is definitely not that! I believe it to be the FPC content (and Ph content per 14oz can) I notice that the phosphorous % is different than what cocheezie received. These appear to be extremely high phosphorous rates and I've questioned the company. If I ever do get the caloric breakdown and an answer to my Ph question I'll post it here. Really excited about finding a food with all ingredients sourced in Canada!

Flavour Fat Carb Protein Phosphorus

Salmon/Duck 6.3% 1.64% 10% 0.17%
Salmon/Chicken 6.3% 2.05% 10% 0.21%
Chicken/Duck 6.3% 1.74% 10% 0.22%
Lamb/Beef 6.3% 1.76% 10% 0.15%

Just reviving this older thread. 

I discovered that one of my cats has a food allergy, so in the process of doing 'elimination' diets I picked up a few cans of Boreal Lamb and Beef. It was... kind of disgusting. It smelled like dog food (not sure what the exact difference in smell from cat food is, but it really didn't smell appealing). Both cats turned their noses up at it and looked at me like 'you expect us to eat this crap?' and then both walked out of the kitchen- you know they're upset when...

So I fed them something else, and after the opened can of Boreal sat in the fridge overnight and I went to try again the next morning, I saw that it had separated into a congealed mass of gelatine on the bottom of the can- nearly 1/3 the entire volume of the can. I opened the other cans and they were the same; essentially I bought 2/3 of a can of food that they wouldn't eat anyway, and 1/3 can of meat jelly. I flushed it all down the toilet. It was pretty gross cat food and I haven't tried their other flavours because of this experience. 

BTW I'm pretty sure fish is the allergy culprit; she healed up on rabbit and has now been fine on chicken- seems to react a bit on beef and fish. I have to read every ingredient to see if fish is added.

Another revival. I was checking this thread as i just purchased few of their 400 grams cans ( 4 varieties ), because price was right for very good nutrition according to description. But there's something strange: all the cans have exactly same nutritional value regardless of which meat , flavor or protein is used. It's like copy paste. And then if you add the % of contents, you get to 105 % or so. In theory, they should come to 100 % combined but rarely do so on any brand and this is how I was told you figure the carbohydrates( 100% - total content = carbs ). But here they are already listed as 1%, but total is exceeding 100 %. I don't know how is that possible. Never saw it on any other brand. So I'm hesitant to open them and thinking of returning them. Something is wrong in the analysis and nutritional content listed on the cans or the web also.

I can't speak to the "105%" total of ingredients, but thought I'd update my last post. After reading a few comments on here, I decided to give Boreal another try, and picked up their Chicken and Duck. Unfortunately, the result was the same- my cats wouldn't even go near it. It had the same dank, kind of unappetizing smell as the Beef and Lamb, as well as the same 1/3 can of gelatine. I just don't think this is a very good product. If it works for some, great- but I'll never buy it again.

I think I won't open any of them. I'll just return them or exchange for something else. Too bad I had high hopes, but something is just not right about the analysis, and all that gelatin stuff. Already have 2 picky eaters.

I actually returned them and exchanged for the smaller Tuna variety. Got the plain Red Tuna, then with chicken then with shrimp. My cats loved the 3 flavors and ate like crazy. They looked and smelled  so appetizing also. But I don't know if red tuna is safe for cats or not , because all the 5 flavors contain  red tuna as first ingredient. Hope it's safe as the cats love them.

Another post abut Boreal- I was in Korna Pets just outside Vancouver today (Coquitlam) and they are pulling Boreal products due to quality issues.

A month ago a store manager in a pet store in Montreal ( Global Pet Food ) told me they were pulling Blue Buffalo products for quality issues, false advertising, recalls, etc.... I learned later  they were being pulled for language issues ( no french translation on the products ) and till or if  they fix the issue, they won't be selling them in the province of Quebec. Not to defend Boreal, as I don't know anything about their products. From what I read here, nothing good. I tried the fish varieties, and they seem very good and cats love them. But sometimes stores give different versions for different reasons ( maybe they did not agree to the distributors terms, maybe not enough incentives,) ... or could be like you were told, quality issues also. I'll keep an eye on this as I don't want to take any chances with my cats.

Both my male cats have been on Boreal dry as well as canned food for the last 14 months. They look great and their fur is amazing, however, and this is a BIG HOWEVER, they have urinary struvite crystals now and they didn't on the previous food. The younger cat almost got blocked as a result of that.

Turns out the fruits and veggies in the Boreal dry food changes the pH of the urine towards alkaline and this encourages crystals to grow. The vet has put both my boys on prescription diet now (which I am not happy about, but at least they will stay alive - urinary crystal blockages can be life threatening for a cat).

So if you have a male cat, I would think twice about using Boreal dry food. I could have lost my boy if he had become blocked due to the urinary crystals. 

Is this to do with Boreal  ingredients or with a lot of dry food ? I've heard a lot of bad stories about dry food.

At first, I thought it was to do with dry food, but my cat has 1/2 a can of wet food daily and drinks a lot of water. So I don't believe he formed crystals entirely due to the water content of his diet.

Anyway, I am a woman of science, so I go by numbers. I just got my kitty's lab results an hour ago and his pH is 8.0 (which is alkaline).

Alkaline pH encourages struvite crystals to form. Alkaline pH is not due to his water levels - it's most probably due to his food intake. That's why the vet has but him on a diet that brings the urine pH back into the acidic range. All cats and carnivores need to have a urine pH in the acidic range. 8.0 is way too high.

What causes the high pH? Fruits and veggies - basically plant matter. Plants are darn good for humans, but mess things up for cats. I'm so disappointed that all the "good" grain-free brands are adding so many fruit and veggies these days. I thought I was doing something good for my cat, but he could have died as a result. Thank goodness I was home and saw that his litter box habits seemed abnormal.