Hi everyone! Has anyone tried The Honest Kitchen cat food brand? It is dehydrated cat food and you just add water. The food is human grade and completely natural. I want to try for my two cats but was wondering if anyone has any good/bad experiences with the brand. Thanks!
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The Honest Kitchen
- Thread starter arnie1222
- Start Date
There are quite a few threads here on TCS about The Honest Kitchen
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/316066/has-anybody-tried-honest-kitchen-dehydrated-food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259343/has-anyone-tried-prowl-by-the-honest-kitchen
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/250569/honest-kitchen-dehydrated-cat-food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/283454/looking-on-switching-over-to-honest-kitchen-any-advice
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/290315/honest-kitchen
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/125909/honest-kitchen
The food is pretty high in carbs, around 20% or so. Cats don't do well with such a high carb diet. Some cats just don't like either product, maybe a texture thing or smell thing or whatever the cat finds "icky". My Aby briefly ate The Honest Kitchen Prowl as a kitten but quickly got tired of eating it. You can request a sample from the The Honest Kitchen web site to try insteadof buying a whole expensive box only to find that your cats won't touch it.
The Honest Kitchen isn't just dehydrated cat food, it's dehydrated raw cat food. Another similar dehdyrated raw food is Addiction Wild Brushtail and Berries Entree.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/316066/has-anybody-tried-honest-kitchen-dehydrated-food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259343/has-anyone-tried-prowl-by-the-honest-kitchen
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/250569/honest-kitchen-dehydrated-cat-food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/283454/looking-on-switching-over-to-honest-kitchen-any-advice
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/290315/honest-kitchen
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/125909/honest-kitchen
The food is pretty high in carbs, around 20% or so. Cats don't do well with such a high carb diet. Some cats just don't like either product, maybe a texture thing or smell thing or whatever the cat finds "icky". My Aby briefly ate The Honest Kitchen Prowl as a kitten but quickly got tired of eating it. You can request a sample from the The Honest Kitchen web site to try insteadof buying a whole expensive box only to find that your cats won't touch it.
The Honest Kitchen isn't just dehydrated cat food, it's dehydrated raw cat food. Another similar dehdyrated raw food is Addiction Wild Brushtail and Berries Entree.
I am giving this a try, not as a complete diet, but mixed with high-quality canned food, and hopefully, later, actual raw food from Hare Today. There is a bit of a back-story here, so please bear with me.
I am trying to get my cats off kibble. I've had to treat four of my six cats for FLUTD, and my vet recommended Science Diet c/d. I put all the cats on it, simply because it is not practical for me to feed different foods and trust no one will eat something not intended for them. I hate Science Diet. I think their regular food is overpriced trash, and the prescription stuff is insanely expensive, for what it is, particularly in light of the fact that the best thing to do for FLUTD cats is make sure they are properly hydrated. So, hoping to eventually get them to accept raw, I have taken the first step of giving them canned food, trying to avoid the worst stuff whilst still not killing my budget. So far, so good. Now, on to Honest Kitchen...
We recently adopted a new dog. He is a black and white Pomeranian who had been shuttled from one home to another, and he is an absolute joy. He is also a very picky eater, who was fed Pedigree kibble and way too many treats. Last weekend, we went to a local pet food store in search of canned food he would eat, and got several cans of Koha, Fromm, and Tripett, to mix with some of the more affordable brands. I noticed a promotion for The Honest Kitchen: a two pound box for $11.98, with a coupon for $10.00 inside. I decided to try it. Both of my dogs are small (I also have a Chihuahua who was given to me by a woman who decided she was not breeding material), and I like the idea of being able to make only as much food as is required for each meal, rather than opening a can and throwing a good part of it away because they won't eat it anymore. I had to mix some of the super-tasty canned with the food to get them to eat it, but they both seem to be accepting it now. Today, we went back, and I got four more of the boxes with the coupons, and a four-pound box of the Prowl, as well as a few cans of Lotus and Koha (used to be Mauri) to mix with it to tempt the cats to try it. I also have a good supply of Triumph and Dave's for the cats. Again, not perfect, but they will eat it. Several years ago, I had a disastrous experience with trying to get a stubborn cat to switch her diet from dry food to canned, with hopes of getting her on raw eventually. She was very close to me, but other than that, rather shy, and it was nothing unusual for her to eat her meals unobserved. I had no idea she was not accepting the new food until she became very ill, which led to an expensive and unpleasant (for both of us) course of treatment, including tube-feeding her for a month. If I am going to err this time, it will be on the side of caution as the diet is slowly changed.
Cost is an issue for us, which would, on the surface, seem to be an argument against The Honest Kitchen, but the coupons have pretty much offset that, at least for now. Storage space is also a concern, and if I can use this food as even a portion of my pets' diets, it will be a very good thing. I'm hoping to get to the point that the cats and dogs will both accept this food along with items from Hare Today, like rabbit chunks and green tripe, as well as any appropriate raw meat I can find at our local grocer's. I realize it is not a perfect diet, but it has to be far superior to what they have been eating.
Side rant: I had a conversation a couple of days ago with a young woman who insisted kibble is best because, among other things, it helps to clean the teeth. I bit my tongue and tried to be polite, all the time thinking "because you clean yours with Doritos, right?"
I am trying to get my cats off kibble. I've had to treat four of my six cats for FLUTD, and my vet recommended Science Diet c/d. I put all the cats on it, simply because it is not practical for me to feed different foods and trust no one will eat something not intended for them. I hate Science Diet. I think their regular food is overpriced trash, and the prescription stuff is insanely expensive, for what it is, particularly in light of the fact that the best thing to do for FLUTD cats is make sure they are properly hydrated. So, hoping to eventually get them to accept raw, I have taken the first step of giving them canned food, trying to avoid the worst stuff whilst still not killing my budget. So far, so good. Now, on to Honest Kitchen...
We recently adopted a new dog. He is a black and white Pomeranian who had been shuttled from one home to another, and he is an absolute joy. He is also a very picky eater, who was fed Pedigree kibble and way too many treats. Last weekend, we went to a local pet food store in search of canned food he would eat, and got several cans of Koha, Fromm, and Tripett, to mix with some of the more affordable brands. I noticed a promotion for The Honest Kitchen: a two pound box for $11.98, with a coupon for $10.00 inside. I decided to try it. Both of my dogs are small (I also have a Chihuahua who was given to me by a woman who decided she was not breeding material), and I like the idea of being able to make only as much food as is required for each meal, rather than opening a can and throwing a good part of it away because they won't eat it anymore. I had to mix some of the super-tasty canned with the food to get them to eat it, but they both seem to be accepting it now. Today, we went back, and I got four more of the boxes with the coupons, and a four-pound box of the Prowl, as well as a few cans of Lotus and Koha (used to be Mauri) to mix with it to tempt the cats to try it. I also have a good supply of Triumph and Dave's for the cats. Again, not perfect, but they will eat it. Several years ago, I had a disastrous experience with trying to get a stubborn cat to switch her diet from dry food to canned, with hopes of getting her on raw eventually. She was very close to me, but other than that, rather shy, and it was nothing unusual for her to eat her meals unobserved. I had no idea she was not accepting the new food until she became very ill, which led to an expensive and unpleasant (for both of us) course of treatment, including tube-feeding her for a month. If I am going to err this time, it will be on the side of caution as the diet is slowly changed.
Cost is an issue for us, which would, on the surface, seem to be an argument against The Honest Kitchen, but the coupons have pretty much offset that, at least for now. Storage space is also a concern, and if I can use this food as even a portion of my pets' diets, it will be a very good thing. I'm hoping to get to the point that the cats and dogs will both accept this food along with items from Hare Today, like rabbit chunks and green tripe, as well as any appropriate raw meat I can find at our local grocer's. I realize it is not a perfect diet, but it has to be far superior to what they have been eating.
Side rant: I had a conversation a couple of days ago with a young woman who insisted kibble is best because, among other things, it helps to clean the teeth. I bit my tongue and tried to be polite, all the time thinking "because you clean yours with Doritos, right?"
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If you're trying to get your cats off kibble, you'll probably have better luck switching to canned first - the smellier the better. If they like Honest Kitchen, that's great, but it seems to be hit or miss and it probably won't be their favorite.
I view products like Honest Kitchen and freeze-dried raw as backup to a diet based on fresh meat/bone/organ & supplements, for times when you need the convenience, forgot to defrost dinner, will be away and have a neighbor coming to feed your cat etc. I suppose you could use it as a mix-in with a fresh diet, but not sure what the advantage is in doing so. Buy Grace rather than Prowl. Grace is only about 13% carbs, which is acceptable for occasional feeding. It also has more calories per cup, so cost is effectively about the same as Prowl.
Oh btw - the kibble and teeth thing is a myth. If it weren't, there would be a lot fewer cats out there with dental disease, given how many of them are kibble-fed.
I view products like Honest Kitchen and freeze-dried raw as backup to a diet based on fresh meat/bone/organ & supplements, for times when you need the convenience, forgot to defrost dinner, will be away and have a neighbor coming to feed your cat etc. I suppose you could use it as a mix-in with a fresh diet, but not sure what the advantage is in doing so. Buy Grace rather than Prowl. Grace is only about 13% carbs, which is acceptable for occasional feeding. It also has more calories per cup, so cost is effectively about the same as Prowl.
Oh btw - the kibble and teeth thing is a myth. If it weren't, there would be a lot fewer cats out there with dental disease, given how many of them are kibble-fed.
I've already started giving canned food. Fortunately, I was able to skip the worst of the worst, and have been using mostly Triumph and Dave's, with a couple of cans of Koha or Lotus as a special treat. One of the primary reasons I am hoping they will accept Honest Kitchen, frankly, is storage. I have six cats and limited storage space, both in my pantry and in my freezer. I'm hoping to get them to eat this as about half of their diet, and use raw food from the grocer's or from Hare Today for the rest. I may get some Wysong Uretic to put in treat balls to get my overweight FLUTD cats moving. I know not to use it as a daily menu item.
The kibble myth isn't going to die until more vets quit promoting it.
In a perfect world, I would put my cats, my dogs, and my housemate's dogs all on prey model raw and be done with it. Unfortunately, 100% raw is simply not an option for me...yet. The housemate must be acclimated along with the cats.
The kibble myth isn't going to die until more vets quit promoting it.
In a perfect world, I would put my cats, my dogs, and my housemate's dogs all on prey model raw and be done with it. Unfortunately, 100% raw is simply not an option for me...yet. The housemate must be acclimated along with the cats.
It seems like honest kitchen is great for a lot of dogs, especially ones that are picky or not feeling well enough to eat other food or have teeth missing, etc. It's very soft and the human grade ingredients seem to make it extra tasty! Someone who feeds it told me it's like the dogs think they are getting to eat people food for every meal, maybe partially because it's "prepared" in the kitchen first. But I don't think their cat formulas are different enough from the dog ones as they should be. Cats are obligate carnivores unlike dogs, who can handle a little more variety. Like it's been said, the plant matter content is high. Still better than a lot of foods with fillers, but there are healthier canned options.
I had planned to use it together with either a very high meat-content canned food, eventually replacing that part of the diet with raw meat from Hare Today, but I've given up on it for the cats, and I returned it today. Even when I mixed a small amount with canned food that they like, they would take a few licks, and scratch all around the bowl, as if trying to bury it. Ah, well...live and learn. I'll probably keep a couple of the formulas in the rotation for my dogs, but I had to return the Love variety, as they didn't care for it at all. Fortunately, we are blessed in my community to have a truly wonderful pet supply store that encourages customers to try as many foods as they need to to make their pets happy. Rejected and returned items are donated to rescues and shelters.
