The Great Food Switch

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lionessrampant

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Well, we gave up the ghost with Innova Evo...everything started out ok, but about a month or so in, things went downhill for both cats (and the ability to breathe through my nose in my apartment), so we've switched.

Now, we're using Nature's Variety Prairie. Of all the All-Stagers I looked at (BTW, Cal Natural is not an all-stage), it seemed to be the closest to what I want my babies eating.

If this doesn't work, the options are as follows:
-Felidae
-Azmira
-Brightlife

Who can tell me about these brands? Does anyone use them? What do you think?

We've also gone back to a clay litter (I'm a horrible person) after World's Best and Feline Pine got rejected by one or both in my crew, and Swheat Scoop got too dusty and sticky. I feel horrible, but it's what they accept the most easily.
 
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danalee2682

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Hi there! May I ask what went wrong with the EVO? My baby's been on EVO for a little over a month now, and I'm just curious as to what problems others have run across. BTW, I sympathize with the smell issue, Clinton can sure um permeate the whole apartment.

While I've never tried any of the other brands you've listed, I have heard really good things about Felidae. And don't feel bad about the clay litter. It's all Clinton likes too, and boy have we tried several. (He prefers to dig to China...and expects his holes to stay put! haha)


Good Luck with the new food!
 
kai bengals

kai bengals

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Yes, the EVO....one horrible stench!

The other Innova brand isn't so bad for smell.

Wish I could steer you in the right direction, but I think all the commercial brands are defective in one way or another.

It's ok to go with Clay..our cats won't use any other and we've suffered no ill effects.
 
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yosemite

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I switched from clay litter only because when Bijou was a baby he was sneezing a lot and after I changed to Swheat Scoop he stopped sneezing.

As for food, after getting educated on this forum I'm now switching our kitties over to non by-products brands. I'm actually feeding them several different brands right now - Wellness, Nutro, Merrick and Natural Balance and just alternate the different brands each day. They haven't had any upset stomachs or change in stool after about a month of this, so I guess they are OK with it.
 
sharky

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Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Well, we gave up the ghost with Innova Evo...everything started out ok, but about a month or so in, things went downhill for both cats (and the ability to breathe through my nose in my apartment), so we've switched.

Now, we're using Nature's Variety Prairie. Of all the All-Stagers I looked at (BTW, Cal Natural is not an all-stage), it seemed to be the closest to what I want my babies eating.

If this doesn't work, the options are as follows:
-Felidae
-Azmira
-Brightlife

Who can tell me about these brands? Does anyone use them? What do you think?

We've also gone back to a clay litter (I'm a horrible person) after World's Best and Feline Pine got rejected by one or both in my crew, and Swheat Scoop got too dusty and sticky. I feel horrible, but it's what they accept the most easily.
Click to expand...
I like Felidae... I need to look at cal natural again I thought it was an all stage...
 
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lionessrampant

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Thanks all,

Danalee, the EVO, out of nowhere, caused both cats to have fairly frequent digestive upsets, including vomitting, regurgitation, diarreha and generally soft, stinky stool, which leads me to believe that it could have all the nutrients in the world but that didn't matter since my two didn't seem to process the food. I had both tested for worms and other disorders/infections, and they're both perfectly healthy cats...so we took them off wet and nothing got better. So now, we're going bakc on wet and switching the dry. I suspect it was the EVO, because I've heard of this happening before.

Nial, I know you're a raw guy and that's cool, but I'm going to have to agree to disagree. Sure you wouldn't find kibble in the kalahari, but there are truthfully risks to feeding raw and risks to feeding commercial wet/dry. For my furfamily and I, it's best we stick with commercial, but I'm happy for you and your furfamily that raw works so well! Thanks for the input!

Yosemite, I wish I could do that with their wet, but they're both so finicky about the brand of wet food. We do Wellness and Evanger's for wet. They seem to do well!

As for litter, we're trying the new Tidy Cats Small Spaces. It's the scoopable texture that they like and the boxes are in my dressing room/closet, so yeah...small space!
 
sharky

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Good luck with the new food ... how old are the kids now???
 
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I know of and like Felidae. Azmira - uses garlic in all their canned formulas, and here is the ingredients list for the dry cat food formula: "Poultry Meal, Whole Ground Yellow Corn, Full Fat Soybeans, Ground Whole Wheat, Whole Brown Rice, Poultry Fat preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, Citric Acid, Rosemary Extract, and Ascorbyl Palmitate (a Vitamin C ester), Oatmeal, Whole Dried Egg, Fish Meal, Natural Flavors, Flax Seed, Phosphoric Acid, Monosodium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin Supplements (E, A, B2, B12, D3), Niacin, Calcium Ascorbate, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Inositol, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Biotin, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Fulfate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite."
I don't care for the ingredients in red, or that 4 of the first 5 and most prevalent ingredients are grains, with more further down the line (i.e the oatmeal).

I am not familiar at all with Brightlife - but found an ingredients list: "Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal, Whole Ground Barley, Chicken Fat (Stabilized with Mixed Tocopherols), Whole Ground Oats, Ground Rice, Salmon, Natural Flavors, Dried Whey, Yeast Culture, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, DL-Methionine, Garlic, Dried Carrot Meal, Tomato Pomace, Blueberry Extract, Cranberry Extract, Turmeric Extract, Dried Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Fermentation Solubles, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Betaine, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Rosemary Extract, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity) "

The garlic would be a deal breaker with me
 
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lionessrampant

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Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I know of and like Felidae. Azmira - uses garlic in all their canned formulas, and here is the ingredients list for the dry cat food formula: "Poultry Meal, Whole Ground Yellow Corn, Full Fat Soybeans, Ground Whole Wheat, Whole Brown Rice, Poultry Fat preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, Citric Acid, Rosemary Extract, and Ascorbyl Palmitate (a Vitamin C ester), Oatmeal, Whole Dried Egg, Fish Meal, Natural Flavors, Flax Seed, Phosphoric Acid, Monosodium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin Supplements (E, A, B2, B12, D3), Niacin, Calcium Ascorbate, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Inositol, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Biotin, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Fulfate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite."
I don't care for the ingredients in red, or that 4 of the first 5 and most prevalent ingredients are grains, with more further down the line (i.e the oatmeal).

I am not familiar at all with Brightlife - but found an ingredients list: "Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal, Whole Ground Barley, Chicken Fat (Stabilized with Mixed Tocopherols), Whole Ground Oats, Ground Rice, Salmon, Natural Flavors, Dried Whey, Yeast Culture, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, DL-Methionine, Garlic, Dried Carrot Meal, Tomato Pomace, Blueberry Extract, Cranberry Extract, Turmeric Extract, Dried Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Fermentation Solubles, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Betaine, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Rosemary Extract, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity) "

The garlic would be a deal breaker with me
Click to expand...
Pat- how do you feel about the Nature's Variety?
 
pat

pat

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Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Pat- how do you feel about the Nature's Variety?
Click to expand...
It's a food I want to like, but the dry uses alfalfa (I just posted a link yesterday discussing that this can cause stomach upset),and frankly a lot of ingredients I don't yet have an opinion on (i.e. cloves).

Their canned food uses garlic, a deal breaker for me.
 
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lionessrampant

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Originally Posted by sharky

WOw little Lola is getting old.. hehe
Click to expand...
Yeah...she weighs 6 pounds soaking wet, so she's my little pixie, and she still has her kitten crazies, but she's starting to get her pretty little adult cat face. My little girl is growing up!!!
 
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