Amazing Surprise with Weruva Fish Flavors!

[ghiblithecat]

I was discussing Weruva with one of the employees at my local independent pet store. Apparently they had all just taken a class on Weruva cat food and found out something super awesome about Weruva in general! All of the fish they use (specifically the tuna) contains basically no heavy metals or dangerous chemicals. My first reaction was--"even in their BFF line? How can that be possible if they are using tuna?" and she replied that they use a very special source of tuna that isn't much larger than your hand and don't live as long as the large predatory tuna that contain so many heavy metals. Weruva's goal was to provide fish that you could literally feed to your cat all the time without worrying about dangerous chemical and heavy-metal build-up in a cat's system. So if someone has a picky fish-lover cat... I feel that Weruva is obviously the safest route to go! If you cat also doesn't have allergies to fish, that is. 

I'm not sure if people already knew this, but I thought it was such awesome information that I had to share it! Finally I can feed some fish without feeling too bad about it

 

[Kat0121]

They do address this on their website.

http://www.weruva.com/tid-bits-detail.php?Is-Your-Pet-Eating-Trash-Fish-21

It doesn't seem to apply to the Soulistic though but it's hard to tell. Their site doesn't address any of that.

 

[missmimz]

Weruva is really the only brand I feel fish from and I feel comfortable feeding it fairly regularly. I've been feeding the Goldie Lux more recently in their rotation. 

 

[Kat0121]

 
Weruva is really the only brand I feel fish from and I feel comfortable feeding it fairly regularly. I've been feeding the Goldie Lux more recently in their rotation. 

My cats aren't big fish fans. Weruva has the best names for their foods. 

 

[ellag]

 
My cats aren't big fish fans. Weruva has the best names for their foods. 

i know! my cats are big fans of "funk in the trunk"!

 

[royblazer]

Good to know! I'm about to adopt a cat this week who's been eating solely Friskies dry/wet seafood flavors, and I imagine it's gonna be pretty hard to convert her off of that. Weruva to the rescue (hopefully!)

 

[violetxx]

Thanks for the post. This link explains it a little more:

http://www.weruva.com/tid-bits-deta...ned-about-mercury-How-often-can-I-feed-fish-1

I would take this with a grain of salt, because even in the human market it is very hard to find low mercury tuna fish, let alone for cats. The fish would have to be caught from the the North Pacific, fished with poles, and younger. My guess is this type of tuna is pretty expensive and less common as if would greatly affect the population to be removing young fish that haven't yet reproduced as tuna reproduce very slowly. This would be a big problem since tuna is rarely farmed due to their countercurrent exchange requirement for oxygen to be taken to the blood (i.e. they can never stop swimming in order to "breath"), thus taking young fish is not sustainable, unless there is a new technology am I not aware of (I took fish biology over 4 years ago - so there could be), but most tuna populations are at risk and some even crashing. 

To be honest, fish is not a natural prey of cats, so this idea that cats should be eating fish regularly is purely for marketing. In addition, fish foods are highly addictive and can contain other environmental toxins.  If you feel your cat needs a good omega 3 source - I would suggest krill or sardine fish/oil. It is much safer. 

 

 

[DreamerRose]

Oh, but fish are a natural prey of cats. When I was growing up, we had a cat that regularly fished in a neighbor's backyard goldfish pond. He would come home sometimes dripping wet after falling in. The neighbor complained about him.

 

[missmimz]

 
Good to know! I'm about to adopt a cat this week who's been eating solely Friskies dry/wet seafood flavors, and I imagine it's gonna be pretty hard to convert her off of that. Weruva to the rescue (hopefully!)

I think Weruva is a great choice for the transition but I would make as much effort as possible to make fish a treat in your cat's diet and not the main protein source. Not to scare you (or anyone) but there has been recent studies that suggest that cats fed a fish-based diet are linked to developing hyperthyroidism. Before i knew better i fed my oldest cat fish based foods a lot, including friskies seafood sensation (ugh) and he was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Just something to think about. 

 

[2bcat]

I'm not particularly surprised at this. Weruva works hard on the food safety of their products.  If they couldn't say with reasonable confidence that there wasn't a significant amount of heavy metal in their fish, I don't think they would continue to make those products.

That said, there are other health reasons to not feed so much fish to your cat.  I don't know about the hyperthyroidism noted above but it can also affect cats with urinary issues, and I think it is typically high in phosphorous which can be troublesome for kidney disease.  Some fish also can use a carcinogenic preservative, but I think Weruva is supposed to be sourcing fish without that.

Finally, nothing to do with your cat's health, but with Weruva and other foods canned in Thailand it is tough to know if they can follow through on a claim to be avoiding slave labor that the Thai fishing trade is quite notorious for.  Weruva does at least have a statement about it on the web site, or did, but just like other companies that have various labor practice statements that nonetheless turn up problems when their suppliers are audited for such things, Weruva's suppliers could end up the same way.  Presumably if caught such a supplier would be dropped, but we don't know how long such a supplier might be able to go undetected.

FWIW I am personally still buying Tiki Cat cans which are also made in Thailand.  I only buy chicken, but I don't know how that company is with checking on slave labor.  I haven't had the heart to try to switch away from it since it is my cats' favorite food, but I might eventually if I can identify some other options they like nearly as well.

 

[royblazer]

 
I think Weruva is a great choice for the transition but I would make as much effort as possible to make fish a treat in your cat's diet and not the main protein source. Not to scare you (or anyone) but there has been recent studies that suggest that cats fed a fish-based diet are linked to developing hyperthyroidism. Before i knew better i fed my oldest cat fish based foods a lot, including friskies seafood sensation (ugh) and he was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Just something to think about. 

Oh yes. I don't plan on keeping her eating fish as a main protein source. When I was at the foster's, it was the only thing I just went "Nooooo" internally when talking with her. But I think Weruva may help transition her to a slightly "healthier" fish based food, while I attempt to transition her to other proteins, and hopefully raw one day.

I'm hoping that setting timed meals will help too, as she is currently grazing/free feeding, according to the foster.