Problems with Friskies?

[JamesCalifornia]

~ I remember the cat/dog food recall when China shipped the US tainted meat products ( among other things ) . At that time I called Friskies and was told the following : Friskies had not purchased any of the tainted products. All ingredients are inspected at point of origin, at point of entry and batch tested at the manufacturing plant. Friskies has never had a mandatory recall but sometimes run out of certain ingredients and all flavors may not be available .

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[FunnyFaceFamily]

A few of my cats don't get on with friskies at all but are ok with fancy feast, but only the turkey and giblets flavour. Friskies is not very good for cats , if you read the ingredients it's full of filler stuff rather than high quality protein. I feed my 6 cats mostly home cooked chicken breast and beef mince blended up with some added water. They also get canagan organic grain free chicken dry food free fed. I actually find that making home cooked food for them is cheaper than the tinned stuff. If we have to give them tinned occasionally we make sure that pure protein (chicken/turkey etc) is the first ingredient on the can (the largest ingredient) and avoid anything with grains in it if we can or at least with the fewest grains. Good luck.

 

[MissMolly08]

A few of my cats don't get on with friskies at all but are ok with fancy feast, but only the turkey and giblets flavour. Friskies is not very good for cats , if you read the ingredients it's full of filler stuff rather than high quality protein. I feed my 6 cats mostly home cooked chicken breast and beef mince blended up with some added water. They also get canagan organic grain free chicken dry food free fed. I actually find that making home cooked food for them is cheaper than the tinned stuff. If we have to give them tinned occasionally we make sure that pure protein (chicken/turkey etc) is the first ingredient on the can (the largest ingredient) and avoid anything with grains in it if we can or at least with the fewest grains. Good luck.

What fillers do you see in Friskies pate? The only filler I see in the flavors I feed is a tiny bit of rice after the meats.

 

[sweetblackpaws]

I have fed my ferals Friskies wet all my life and never had a problem. My current feral that I am in the process of taming has been on Friskies (pate variety pack) and is thriving. But after this thread, I will be sure to inspect the cans very closely.

 

[FakeGourmet]

Once in a while, my cats will refuse to eat Mixed Grill. Usually all 5 at the same time. I throw the can out and notify Friskies. If 5 cats won't eat a favorite food, there is something wrong with it. They send me coupons. My cats are picky (I swear, they have meeting to decide what they want to eat), but 2 have allergies, so have to go with what works. They are all related.

I don't blame you for being concerned after having had 8 cats get sick at the same time! But, similar issues happen no matter what food you get. If you still have the data, however, I'd report it to the FDA.

 

[JamesCalifornia]

~ A few of my cats like "junk food " now and then . I will get a few cans of cheap label ' Liver & Beef ' or ' Chicken Stew ' etc . I think they just need a change in flavor sometimes . However - mostly I mix Fancy Feast in with Friskies Pate as a treat when they get bored ...
I spoil the little Devils

 

[jemily]

A little over a week ago, all of my cats got really sick from some Friskies. All 8 cats got sick and were sick for about a week. The Friskies people said they haven't had any other reports like that, so I don't know how I got the bad can or cans. Maybe one of the cans had a bad seal and bacteria got in. I tend to mix all the food together in a mixing bowl and then dish it out into the cats' bowls, so I could have contaminated the whole big bowl with one can. Anyway, it's finally getting out of their systems. I took one to the vet and he was nice enough to send me home with enough antibiotics for all of them. He never did figure which kind of bacteria it was, because he didn't get a stool sample. Just prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic which he said should kill anything. Anyway, since they are finally eating again and I don't want to go back to Friskies. I've been giving them a variety of other things, but I should settle on something. It's expensive to feed that many cats, especially since I don't do dry food because of urinary problems. I was wondering:

Has anyone else had problems with Friskies lately? The flavor was Mixed Grill in the big can.

What are some ideas for the healthiest food possible without buying the most expensive stuff?

I've started cooking for them some, but I'm afraid of trying the raw diet because of bacteria. I can't go through another week like the last one.The cats were so sick it was scary. Vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, lethargy.

 

[jemily]

Hi Gayle, I know you wrote this a year ago, but I just want to commend you on feeding all canned food. I wish more people would feed canned daily to their cats. They just don't realize the importance of it and how much better it is for cats.

 

[xcourtney3]

My girl will only eat Friskies. I haven't had any problems. The mixed grill and country style dinner do not have fish in them

 

[Tailwaggers]

I had two five month old kitten eating Friskies. My vet recommended the Pate' for them both. About 2 weeks into feeding them Friskies, my male stopped eating, was lethargic, and running a temp. I took him to the vet and they did an x-ray of his stomach and found foreign materials that they thought was litter he must be eating. They gave him fluids and tried to flush his system, then repeated x-ray. The foreign material was still there. He was worse and his temp went higher. They ended up keeping him overnight to give fluids and NSAID and try to get his temp down. They knew he had some sort of infection and no longer thought he'd been eating his litter. The next day he wasn't much better and they thought we were going to lose him. Finally, the morning of the 2nd day in the hospital, he vomited and pooped. His temp immediately began coming down and they released him to us the next morning with the diagnosis of non-source temp, meaning they had no idea what had happened. I was told by a friend that Purina was getting complaints of foreign material like plastic were being found in the large cans. I went online and read and found there were many people who were having the same problems with sick animals after eating Friskies. I discussed this with my vet since I had split the can between the two kittens and the other kitten never got sick. They felt that my male must have eaten something in the food that caused a blockage and caused an infection. They felt he was lucky to be alive. I changed their food to Fancy Feast kitten food. But now they are a year old and I need to put them on adult food. Fancy Feast has its own problems since a change in ingredients or processing has made many cats sick, mostly with pancreatitis. There is no way I would feed anything made by Purina to my animals, cats or dogs. But finding a good food with low carbs and high protein isn't easy. I dread beginning the researching.

 

[KarenKat]

Tailwaggers, within in the last couple of months I have been researching canned cat food to switch our three adult cats over to wet food. Maybe some of this information will help out. I have a giant spreadsheet with brands and which cats liked what. Most of my information comes from Dr. Jane Hovfe's book "What Cats Should Eat: How to Feed Your Cat for Optimal Health." She has incredibly high standards, which can get expensive. I also look at the ratings on catfooddb.com.

Our girl Olive loves most food, and I've been feeding her Dave's Pet Food Shredded Chicken Dinner, Victor's Shredded Chicken Dinner in Gravy (the ingredients are identical, but according to catfooddb.com Dave's has more optimum protein/fat/carb balance). Our boy Gohan literally gags at the smell of it and Trin can be very picky.

What works for all three so far is Instinctive Choice (Life's Abundance). They only have one flavor (a pate with Chicken, Turkey and Shrimp) but all three absolutely love it and gobble it up. It's available at Lifesabundance.com for about $24 per 24-3oz cans (plus shipping).

Other one's I've tried are:
Wellness (one flavor gave Trin an upset stomach but other flavors were fine)
First Mate
Earthborn Holistic.

Other good resources are these sites which you can buy single cans of flavors to try out:
petstuff.com
onlynaturalpet.com
www.thebigbadwoof.com

Hope this helps, I've followed this down into the rabbit hole and have actually dreamt of cat food, lol.

 

[Minxxy]

My cats have been eating the Friskies for about a week now but for the last few days have vomited a few times . I don't believe the food is bad but I do think there is something that does not agree with my cats . Too bad cause they do like it . Time to search for a new wet food ....

 

[xcourtney3]

Tailwaggers, I doubt whatever your kitty ate was actually in the food. Some cats just eat random stuff. I've had one of my cats vomit up a milk ring. My girl has vomited piece of the broom she eats. (We try to keep it away from her now) Just yesterday my girl vomited a piece of plastic she ate. Also if you were using clumping litter there is a high chance that is what it is. Kittens are known to eat clumping litter.

Also, Minxxy, try to feed just the Mixed Grill and Country Style Dinner. My boy vomits when he eats fish, and these two flavors don't have fish and he does fine on them.

 

[Minxxy]

Tailwaggers, I doubt whatever your kitty ate was actually in the food. Some cats just eat random stuff. I've had one of my cats vomit up a milk ring. My girl has vomited piece of the broom she eats. (We try to keep it away from her now) Just yesterday my girl vomited a piece of plastic she ate. Also if you were using clumping litter there is a high chance that is what it is. Kittens are known to eat clumping litter.

Also, Minxxy, try to feed just the Mixed Grill and Country Style Dinner. My boy vomits when he eats fish, and these two flavors don't have fish and he does fine on them.

Thank you. I will definitely try that because they have been eating a lot of the fish flavors. I do have a few cans of the Mix Grill left so Ill try just giving them those for a couple days and see what happens .

 

[FakeGourmet]

I use Mixed Grill all the time. The guy at my supermarket once told me to always check for dents in the cans as cats can get as sick as people from contamination. I've returned cans to stores that were dented and they take them back. They are nearly always damaged in transport, so stores do get reimbursed.