Best Canadian Made Foods

[Sweet Bee]

Hey everyone,

I like buying Canadian products and was hoping we could do a vote. If you’re familiar with these brands and formulas I would love it if you participated.

I’m particularly interested in the brand called Boreal. I’ve ordered a flat of it, in two flavours, to test out. It seemed comparable to a lot of the premium American brands. I’ve also trying Canisource dehydrated food, the red bag.

Thank you everyone for voting and discussing and if you would like me to add a brand please let everyone know (not sure how this site works for other users adding poll options lol)

• https://www.orijen.ca/foods/cat-food/
  
• CaniSource Grand Cru | Nourriture naturelle pour chats
  
• https://borealpetfood.com/Cats/
  
• https://firstmate.com/cat-food/
  
• https://www.openfarmpet.com/cat-food-recipes
  
• https://www.petcurean.com/for-cats/
  
• https://www.petkind.com/canada-fresh-cat/

 

[KarenKat]

I didn’t vote since I’ve only tried First Mate Free Range Chicken wet food, but I love the lack of fillers in it. We had two cats like it and one that complained a little bit. I have other flavors to try.

 

[Azazel]

I’m not sure I should help you out since we are in a trade war... kidding.

My experience is that Orijen and acana have too many different ingredients, and they are dry foods.. which I stay away from. I have tried firstmate- in my opinion it has way too many peas. It gave a couple of my cats diarrhea. Canada fresh looks good - I haven’t tried any of the others.

 

[Sweet Bee]

I didn’t vote since I’ve only tried First Mate Free Range Chicken wet food, but I love the lack of fillers in it. We had two cats like it and one that complained a little bit. I have other flavors to try.

Thanks KarenKat!! I like the fact that the chicken is free-range. I admit I don’t know a lot about feline nutrition - kind of taking a crash course, so I’m looking at things I DO know help make a quality food. Good, clean, chicken is one of those factors lol

 

[Sweet Bee]

I’m not sure I should help you out since we are in a trade war... kidding.

My experience is that Orijen and acana have too many different ingredients, and they are dry foods.. which I stay away from. I have tried firstmate- in my opinion it has way too many peas. It gave a couple of my cats diarrhea. Canada fresh looks good - I haven’t tried any of the others.

LOL you got me there on the trade war thing!!!

Too many ingredients? That’s interesting. I chose to start my kittens on Orijen mostly because I was familiar with the brand via dogs. I plan on giving the kittens a mix of wet, rehydrated raw and a constant bowl of dry kibble.

I’ve been looking at feeding them Wellness Core and Nature’s Variety (the limited ingredient one) for American brands. I’m looking strongly at Boreal and Petcurean (Go!Fresh) as choices that are more locally available to me.

 

[Sweet Bee]

Thank you guys I love researching this and you both have given me something to consider.

This is the can/details for Boreal. I’d love opinions.

 

[KarenKat]

I’d say overall a good cat food. The fruits and vegetables at the end aren’t really necessary, but they are low on the ingredient list. I sometimes am cautious when I see beans, peas or potatoes too high up because cats need animal protein not plant protein for best health. However, this food is 95% Chicken and Duck. The “95% Chicken and Duck” labeling means that 95% of the food is Chicken and Duck ignoring the water content. If it says “dinner” or “recipe” or something similar it only has to be 25%. This means that most of your protein is probably coming from those animals and not from the other ingredients.

Also, many people avoid gums, carrageenan and agar-agar since this can cause inflammation in the intestines. This is a rare food that doesn’t contain any of those ingredients which is pretty awesome.

Checking catfooddb.com, it shows 36% protein, 32% fat and 26% carbs. This is high on the carbs (probably the peas and beans) and maybe a little low on the protein. I think I read somewhere that a mouse is 63% protein, 23% fat and 2.8% carbs, so that’s the ideal balance (also hard to find). My tortie Olive loves Rawz Beef flavor food and it has about 20% carbs as well, but might be something to watch if you see her have an issue with too much weight.

In general I would definitely feed my own kitty this food, it looks really good to me. I might have to see if it’s available nearby!

 

[Azazel]

LOL you got me there on the trade war thing!!!

Too many ingredients? That’s interesting. I chose to start my kittens on Orijen mostly because I was familiar with the brand via dogs. I plan on giving the kittens a mix of wet, rehydrated raw and a constant bowl of dry kibble.

I’ve been looking at feeding them Wellness Core and Nature’s Variety (the limited ingredient one) for American brands. I’m looking strongly at Boreal and Petcurean (Go!Fresh) as choices that are more locally available to me.

My concern with too many ingredients is for cats with sensitive tummies (very common for cats). I also don’t like to feed anything with fish in it too regularly.

I have heard good things about Boreal.

 

[Tillybug]

2 other small Canadian pet foods are Satori and Vintage.

I feed my dog Satori and he looks incredible (better then he did on Orijen).

I’ve just got the Vintage kibble for my cat and kitten, so can’t comment yet as we are still transitioning. I had to take him off Orijen as it gave him explosive diarrhea. The kibble looks different and smells pretty good.

 

[Catlover579]

My cat loves the Origen regional. And their treats too