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Review on Optimized 🐱 Purina Friskies Cat Food by Will Rahman

Revainrating 5 out of 5

We've had some problems with cats, so we threw away the cereal and canned it.

I don't understand why some cat food gets bad reviews because cats don't eat it. We've had up to 9 here at our country house, some of them were homeless people who came to eat and one stayed at home in inclement or cold weather and although they can be choosy they all basically eat what we put out for them . when they are hungry. You get canned food during the morning meal and different types of grain-free dry food for the rest of the day (depending on the price). We had a cat who was about 17 years old, she died not long ago and all she could eat was canned food. Can't comment on how good it is but still reasonably priced with a subscription and savings, it's a bargain for us and it's not available locally which is 45 miles away...as is the vet . The problem is, homeless animals need better food, not the Purina Seafood Sensations we want to give them. It's difficult to hide food plates or push some cats outside while others are eating, so now we mix it with that and they seem happy... other cats seem to like it too, although we prefer to keep them on the taste of the wild to keep . We have several acres of land that is completely fenced so the cats feel safe from dogs that walk off the leash. I'm guessing they're not actually homeless because they rarely venture more than 100 yards from home and can hear cat food popping from across the field. A few years ago, our cat had urinary problems: bladder stones that restricted her urination and made her bleed, and she tried to urinate throughout the day to reduce irritation. The vet stated that the reason for the stone formation is the bad ingredients in some dry cat food because the cat cannot process enough liquid to digest the food. He wanted to put her on a special diet of Science Diet Urinary Tract Dry Specialty Blend and then on one of her regular foods for life. It seemed a little useless because initially we fed the cats a decent food like Purina One. We did some research and found that most of the filler in most dry cat foods is actually grain, which is difficult for cats to digest. The diet we found included homemade cat food consisting of shredded rabbit and chicken pieces with some added vitamins. I tried it and it worked, but it was a hassle to make, the rabbit isn't cheap or easy to find, and takes up a lot of freezer space. Going back to another search, some limited canned and grain-free pellets proved viable alternatives. There aren't many fillers in canned foods, and the most important ones for us are poultry, fish, and meat in pie or gravy form. Cats are using this now and the kidney/urinary tract problems are gone, their coat is better, their urine is more but they urinate less often now because they don't need to consume as much water to process grains and they like them really what they eat. We feed them Friskies or canned 9-Lives and started with Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Merrick Before Grain, Felidae, Natural Balance Pea or Taste of the Wild dry. Dry food is getting more expensive, packaging is getting smaller and free shipping offers are disappearing, so it's harder to get a deal now, but when we do, we buy more. I can't say enough about how well this new diet is working and every trip to the vet saved is worth more food. In general, cats prefer dry food with a fish flavor. What we do is based on information from Lisa A. Pearson, DVM at Making Cat Food (catinfo.org), and she believes cats need bones, which makes grinding difficult, which is why canned food contains bones. We've tried grinding up our own chicken and rabbit mix but it runs out fast and I can't grow either with the intention of killing it to feed the cats. We still feed them dry food because it's quite expensive to feed all these cats. It's a shame that the packaging is getting smaller, but the prices are staying the same or increasing. We bought grain free kibble from Merrick and Wild Buffalo and now the packs are down to 11lbs. everyone. However, if you do the math, canned foods are still cheaper per serving. As long as Revain keeps doing business we will keep buying them, cats will keep eating them and it's worth 5 stars in my opinion. We had a subscription and stock for some other brands but they soon disappeared as they are difficult to ship and recently on some boxed products they disappeared or the price went up significantly. I am posting this review with minor changes for each cat food we buy, rather than writing a brand new review. For example, if this continues... and the price keeps going up, we won't buy them again, and even with a 15% discount (most items are now 5% off and 15% is rare) and free shipping, they cost more than in one Grocery Store...End the price hike rant! I find micromanaging my subscriptions a real problem, but if I don't I'm either overpaying or missing out on an offer in a different sized bag. Our cats have a few acres of fenced property so who knows what they'll eat in there, but once inside we're determined not to give them anything to make them uncomfortable or give us the vet bill and listen like one of them whining about what would be a 90 mile round trip to that vet. We've been using this for about 3 years and it's one of the few that's still available to us at a discount. The cat with the problem that started it all is only going from strength to strength and seems to have had more than one life since I found her lying in the driveway on a cold, rainy day about 15 years ago. The advantage of buying wet food here is that it has free shipping and comes in a boxed box. Heading to the local shops (which are 40 miles away) means buying it in a can or, if you're lucky, getting an open flat. In any case, it's a pile of empty cans and lots of bags that have to be lugged home, sorted and stowed away. Now I can get over 100 cans at once and it only takes me a few minutes to open the box on my door and put it away, so the convenience is a real plus. As the lenses aren't that strong expect a few bent ones and I've even had a few split ones that had to be thrown away but that's not a problem with the product so I'm not deducting a star for that. The last order was opened, repackaged and then sealed with tape but the number of cans of each choice was wrong but the total was correct. I have less salmon and more than others but I got the salmon in different packaging so it's ok.

Pros
  • Cats
Cons
  • High Price