Wild Calling Cat Food

[ghiblithecat]

Yes, Wild Calling uses the same factory as Evangers...BUT if Evanger's main scandal that separated their issues from the other brands (who have recalls) that members love, is the fact that they lied about what was in their food, I see no reason to shun a completely different company that uses the same facility. If the main problem with Evangers is that they lied about what was in their OWN food, I personally don't consider this as a big risk when feeding Wild Calling. As mentioned on the Natural Cat Care Blog... this scandal had nothing to do with the plant's canning of other small brands like Wild Calling. 

It is already so hard to find a food with No carageenan, no artificial anything, is sourced in the US, and is also low carb. It has such good ingredients. I made a very careful decision to use Wild Calling in my rotation and my 8 month old does amazing with it. He loves the rabbit, turkey, and buffalo flavors! 

Don't get me wrong, I probably care more about my cat's food than my own.... but I think being THAT picky is unnecessary when there are very few brands of cat foods that are all around as good as Wild Calling when it comes to ingredients. Just my opinion.

 

[wallee bear]

Hi my kitties were on Nature's Variety and one of them now has crystals...my vet suggested Royal Canin for one month to clear them up and it did, I am now trying Wild Calling due to the ingredients and research that I have done. 

Has anyone else experienced their cats having crystals after eating Nature's Variety?

 

[dorimon]

 
Hi my kitties were on Nature's Variety and one of them now has crystals...my vet suggested Royal Canin for one month to clear them up and it did, I am now trying Wild Calling due to the ingredients and research that I have done. 

Has anyone else experienced their cats having crystals after eating Nature's Variety?

Which food were you feeding, exactly?  Nature's Variety sells dry, canned, and raw foods.

I don't have any experience with Wild Calling, but our Coco has had urinary problems in the past.  We fed RC Urinary SO Moderate Calorie dry food for her two morning meals (and canned food at night) for a long time before we realized how horrible the ingredients are in the RC.  We've started adding filtered water to her wet food to increase her water intake.

Have you read Dr. Pierson's site (http://catinfo.org/)?  There is a page on urinary health that you may find helpful: http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

Dr. Pierson also writes about the "prescription" diets that are often recommended by vets: http://www.catinfo.org/#Prescription/Therapeutic_Diets_

 

[gladys]

Hi Read your post. and yes, I have one kitty who ate the dry food of NV and blocked up. I haven't had any trouble with the wet food though. My vet put him on Royal Canin so and it cleared up. She also recommended canned food only and dry as a snack only. I feed Hounds and gatos canned food and mix with Merricks bistro line cat food. U can also add bottled water to the canned if you like to give the extra fluids, and most cats like it this way. Wild calling is a good food but a bit pricier, you can also buy at Petco or order on line the Chicken Karma by soulistic that petco carries. I mix it with the other canned foods, and they love the variety!!!. Tiki cat also has quality foods available for your kitty. I give my cats only bottled water which is better for them. Hope this info helps. 

 

[teeveecat]

Hi my kitties were on Nature's Variety and one of them now has crystals...my vet suggested Royal Canin for one month to clear them up and it did, I am now trying Wild Calling due to the ingredients and research that I have done. Has anyone else experienced their cats having crystals after eating Nature's Variety?

Were you feeding dry or canned Nature's Variety? What were the symptoms? I've read that the only symptom is to detect crystals in the urine.
Did you acutually see them and if so, what was the size?

Which food were you feeding, exactly?  Nature's Variety sells dry, canned, and raw foods.

I don't have any experience with Wild Calling, but our Coco has had urinary problems in the past.  We fed RC Urinary SO Moderate Calorie dry food for her two morning meals (and canned food at night) for a long time before we realized how horrible the ingredients are in the RC.  We've started adding filtered water to her wet food to increase her water intake.

Did Coco ever eat Nature's Variety?

Hi Read your post. and yes, I have one kitty who ate the dry food of NV and blocked up. I haven't had any trouble with the wet food though.

Due to allergies, I've been feeding Nature's Variety canned instinct (almost exclusively rabbit) to my cat for about a decade and about the only problems I've had is when they weren't grinding the bones fine enough in some batches over the years, and occasional hard stools. I think the stools are caused by hairballs as she's a long hair, so I regulate it with some Petromalt every so often.

 

[dorimon]

Did Coco ever eat Nature's Variety?

Coco and her new little sister Callie both eat Nature's Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein (chicken flavor) mixed with Wellness Air Dried Original on weekday mornings.

They've also both had a couple cans of Nature's Variety Instinct (rabbit and lamb) this one time when I had a coupon.

 

[teeveecat]

Coco and her new little sister Callie both eat Nature's Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein (chicken flavor) mixed with Wellness Air Dried Original on weekday mornings.

They've also both had a couple cans of Nature's Variety Instinct (rabbit and lamb) this one time when I had a coupon.

I've found that the only way to save money on Nature's Variety Instinct canned is to wait for a Petco coupon code and order enough for free shipping.
You should also be using cashback sites like Ebates.

I would also suggest loading up before the weather warms up because the 3rd delivery trucks aren't climate controlled and the heat affects the consistency of the food.

 

[LTS3]

You can sign up on the Nature's Variety web site to get coupons via email: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/subscribe I haven't seen a NV coupon recently. I think the last coupon was about a month ago and it was for dry food.

 

[dorimon]

I've found that the only way to save money on Nature's Variety Instinct canned is to wait for a Petco coupon code and order enough for free shipping.
You should also be using cashback sites like Ebates.

I would also suggest loading up before the weather warms up because the 3rd delivery trucks aren't climate controlled and the heat affects the consistency of the food.

 

[guilly]

I can confirm the customer service is lacking. After waiting 3 weeks for a reply I heard nothing. I then decided to leave a review direct on the website. I got a response then. I have been finding bone fragments that are too large and very sharp in multiple recipes of wild calling. Very dangerous and frustrating. It is hard enough finding quality cat food without sharp bone fragments being a concern. The VP asked me to send an image to [email protected]. I did right away. I was expecting an immediate response I got nothing back yet and it has been 24 hours. I highly suggest not purchasing this and risking problems. The company may have had good intentions and maybe they just picked the wrong company to manufacture their food.

 

[gladys]

Hi  I'm sorry to hear about that. I used to feed Wild calling when it first came out about 2 years ago, they are quite pricey and although it seemed that the ingredients are good, there was always something lacking in their canned foods, I switched over to the Hounds and Gatos line. You can order @ Mr chewys on line. I also mix with other high quality cat foods,since my cats eat only wet food. and dry only as a snack. I hope wild calling doesnt start to "slack off" in their food. 

 

[spotmenow]

I just contacted Wild Calling because of yesterday's Evanger recall (they still make the buffalo and rabbit canned cat foods that my cats are currently eating.  I got the following dismissive B.S. answer from Wild Calling - very disgusted and now have to find a new company for my cat with food allergies...

"Our dry foods are made at CJ Foods in Kansas.

As of March 9, 2015, all our canned varieties except rabbit and buffalo are produced by Simmons Pet Foods in Emporia, KS. Rabbit and buffalo are still packed at Evanger's but we continue to work diligently to have them produced at Simmons.

Previously, all our canned product were manufactured by both American Nutrition and Evanger’s. As we are aware, there has been a lot of negativity surrounding Evanger’s. Unfortunately with only 5 canneries in the US and only two willing to produce product for young startup companies like us, we were limited in choices when we first started the company. I can assure you we have very strict manufacturing guidelines and random testing in place with all our copack partners. Furthermore, we use one of the industries top nutritionist to help build all our products. Never have we found any issues with the product produced at Evanger’s and it is actually favored among consumers between product produced at ANI v Evangers. Evanger’s has been cleared of any wrongdoing surrounding the product they produce by the FDA. It is very unfortunate they have legal issues surrounding what appears to be a lack of judgement and personal deficiency but this in no way impacts the quality of product they produce. Now, more than ever they are concerned about producing a quality product that abides by all applicable laws. We would not have partnered with them if they didn’t agree to abide by our strict standards. They produce product for several of the industries canned foods including Weruva, Party Animal and Addiction to name a few. We are very excited they are moving into a new state of the art facility as well which they are hoping will be Leeds certified.

I know there are websites where the content creator has a certain viewpoint or agenda they want to promote. I would hope you would reach out to the manufacturer as you have done to get correct information from the source. Thank you for doing this. We are a company committed to open transparency and will gladly share any more information you would like clarified. If you would like to discuss more in-depth please don’t hesitate to call me at my number below."

 

[gatinos]

Hi everyone! First of all: It's great to be here and find such an amazing group of animal lovers.

I just created my account on a Sunday morning (5.30am). My cat woke me up vomiting after reluctantly eating his dinner of rabbit Wild Calling cat food last night.

We recently started buying this food and the results were amazing. My oldest cat (12)Nene, had been sick for several months with diarrhea and the problem seemed to be a food allergy to poultry.

In less than 24hrs of feeding him WC rabbit canned food the symptoms subsided! I was so happy and he seemed to be getting better every day. That was about three weeks ago.

I carried on buying single cans until I was sure this was the way to go and ordered a whole box of 24.

As soon as I opened the first can I thought it didn't look the same... instead of the healthy smell, color and consistency I'd noticed previously, it looked more gray, thicker and smelled a little rancid. I thought maybe it was just me or the cold in the past few days that had made the food a bit thicker... I don't know!

Then I tried feeding it to kitties and my oldest and savviest of the two wasn't having it! He'd loved it all this time and all of the sudden he was eating it very reluctantly.

Last night he ate quite well after opening several cans. We finally found one he would eat and funny enough, it was also the one that looked more similar to the ones I'd bought at first.

I noticed there was a small whitish material in the food but he was eating it so I didn't think much of it.

This morning he woke me up vomiting what looked like those small white things. I cleaned the floor with paper towel and it was full of them! I don't know what they are, they're quite hard, almost like small pieces of bones.

I also noticed the cans were VERY dirty when I brought them home and cleaned them all one by one before putting them away. They still look a little old to me and a bit rusty.

After reading all your comments and advice I am moving off Wild Calling and going to start looking for something else.

We need to feed him a novel protein such as rabbit. Any recommendations of good and safe canned foods out there?

I'll be contacting the company today and will try to figure out what's up with this. Will keep you posted.

Lesson of the day: kitty knows best! [emoji]10084[/emoji]

 

[lisamarie12]

Gatinos: Sorry to hear about your kitty.

I wouldn't trust any food canned by Evangers, given the recent recall for pentobarbital found in canned beef food for dogs. Evangers does the canning for WC.

If you are looking for canned rabbit, Nature's Variety makes a limited ingredient (LID) rabbit food, rabbit and peas. The food is carrageenan and gum free. I used to work for NV and I trust them.

If you are open to feeding raw, Primal makes a frozen rabbit only product, also very good.

 

[gatinos]

IMG_6656.JPG

• gatinos
• Feb 20, 2017

To follow up from my post:

This is a photo of some of their vomit, there's two more photos apart from this one.

The pet store I usually go to just contacted me to let me know they'd been in touch with Wild Calling, who said I'd be reimbursed for all the cans I bought and they recognized that alghough finding small bone fragments occasionally could happen, this was clearly too much.

 

[gatinos]

To follow up from my post:

This is a photo of some of their vomit, there's two more photos apart from this one.

The pet store I usually go to just contacted me to let me know they'd been in touch with Wild Calling, who said I'd be reimbursed for all the cans I bought and they recognized that alghough finding small bone fragments occasionally could happen, this was clearly too much.

Wild Calling got in touch with me and on top of reimbursing the cans I bought, they offered to send me a voucher for a whole case of canned food.

I was quite upset about what happened but I must say their customer service seems pretty good. It doesn't change the fact that I don't trust them as long as they continue using Evangers as their manufacturer but I thought they had a very nice gesture. 

Thank you to all of those who read, comment and care for their precious four legged companions <3

 

[destinyz12]

I decided to try Wild Calling a couple of months ago after seeing how good the ingredients in it were supposed to be,  but I didn't know anything about Evangers at the time and all the issues that went along with them.  So I bought the food- individual cans of different flavors and none of them looked quite how I'd expect them to look- although I didn't have anything to compare them to, to be sure.  But some of them had what looked like some kind of white residue on top after opening them- that CANT be normal! And the cans weren't expired or even close to it, according to the dates on them.  The ones that looked semi-normal I tried out with my cat, but she barely touched them.  Shes pretty picky to begin with, but I don't blame her for this brand.  I ended up just throwing most of them out although I should have tried for a refund instead.

 

[gatinos]

Hey Destinyz12,

Thank you for your comment.

I think what you saw was the same thing I saw and that my cat vomited: small bone fragments. I was so excited to use this brand and like you, I started using it because they were supposed to have great ingredients.

The Wild Calling customer service representative told me that having small bone fragments is normal and in fact, after doing some research, I found out that bones are not necessarily bad for cats. 

The problem for me was that they seemed too many and too big. I don't know if they'll change their recipe but for now, we're sticking to Nature's Variety and hoping for the best. 

 

[destinyz12]

From what I remember, it didn't really look like bone fragments though- unless the bones got melted together.   All of the residue was on top of the rest of the meat and looked almost like a layer of something filmy.   It was weird, and looked like the food went bad or something.   I know bones aren't bad for cats, but you do have to avoid or limit them with certain medical conditions because of the phosphorus levels.  

 

[zoocat]

Where can I find a list of all the cat foods that are manufactured by Evangers? I found one on Truthaboutpetfood that listed all the manufactures and what they packaged, but it was a 2012 list so not up to date.