Fresh Is Best Freeze Dried, Boneless Raw

[mschauer]

I brought up a discussion of this brand of freeze dried raw cat food in a thread that was started to discuss another product so I thought I would try to stay on the good side of the mods by starting a new thread about my experience with it rather than continue to take the other thread off topic.

I've been looking for a boneless, freeze dried raw food for a while. I currently use Stella & Chewy's freeze dried but I hate the little shards of bone in it especially since I feed it dry.

The thread about the other brand prompted me to look again for a boneless freeze dried food and I found Fresh Is Best. It is a nutritionally complete, as per AAFCO recommendations, freeze dried raw. It uses MCHA (powdered, freeze dried whole bone) instead of ground bone so no shards! It does contain some veggies but I'm all right with that. Each is a pure protein containing meat, heart, liver and gizzard from only the protein (e.g., turkey, duck) listed on the label.

I ordered their duck and turkey varieties from Amazon. They arrived yesterday just in time for Coco's noon meal. I offered the turkey first. I noticed right away that it didn't have much of an odor compared to the Stella and Chewy's. When I put it in front her she sniffed then gave me the famous kitty "What is this and where is my food?" look. Since she was expecting to be fed she kept going back to it and sniffing it but she wasn't interested in even tasting it. Fortunately I also got a package of their freeze dried turkey giblet treats (heart, gizzard, liver). It had more of an odor so I crushed some and sprinkled it on top of the turkey. She dove right in and ate very bit of it!

Today I gave her a bit of the duck complete food and she immediately ate it all without needing any kind of topper.

I also used the turkey giblets as a topper on Zara's raw home-made chicken. It can take her hours to finish a meal especially chicken. With this topper she ate the chicken much faster.

I'm very happy I found a boneless, freeze dried, complete food! Yay!

Fresh Is Best®

Raw, Freeze-dried Foods and Treats for Dogs and Cats

www.freshisbest.com

Warning: Some of the information on their web site is confusing because they also have frozen raw products they only sell locally and so aren't on their web site. They contain ground bone.

 

[lisamarie12]

It's a very good alternative to the other freeze dried products with bone, however, my cat still became constipated on both the duck and turkey unfortunately.

Both cats really liked the taste though, I may get it again for my one cat who doesn't have constipation problems.

 

[mschauer]

They also have beef and chicken varieties.

I didn't know particular proteins could cause constipation in cats. Are you sure it is turkey and duck and not something else in the foods you were feeding?

Edit: I'm not sure I understood you correctly. Are you saying your cats got constipated on Fresh Is Best Duck and Turkey?

 

[lisamarie12]

It wasn't the protein in FIB that caused constipation but rather the bonemeal that caused Mikey to become constipated. He can't have any type of bone in his food, unfortunately, even when I used the fattier duck, extra fat helps him but not with FIB unfortunately.

I just contacted the company to see if they would ever consider making a product without any bonemeal and use a calcium supplement instead and was told likely never - given that FIB makes food in small batches, a calcium carbonate supplement would be too "cost prohibitive" for the company.

It's too bad, he did very well on raw and now he's back on canned food with less energy and stinky breath, due for a dental soon.

 

[darg]

Interesting. So if I understand it, the FIB has bone but it's powdered. So if bone causes constipation in ones cat, the FIB would not remedy that, correct?

I feed the S&C freeze dried turkey but not very much of it. I generally use it as a mix in or topper and sometimes as a treat so I'm not feeding much of it. However, I've never seen bone shards in any of the Turkey and I have crumbled it and mixed it with water to rehydrate so I would expect that I would have noticed it. Not doubting the claim, just stating that I haven't experienced the same.

 

[mschauer]

Interesting. So if I understand it, the FIB has bone but it's powdered. So if bone causes constipation in ones cat, the FIB would not remedy that, correct?

It is certainly a possibility. Whole bone contains a lot of minerals other than calcium. When using MCHA to make our home-made food you would use a lot more of of it than you would use of eggshell or calcium carbonate. Edit: Just worked it out: would need 120 grams of MCHA to get the calcium in 39 grams of eggshell.

I feed the S&C freeze dried turkey but not very much of it. I generally use it as a mix in or topper and sometimes as a treat so I'm not feeding much of it. However, I've never seen bone shards in any of the Turkey and I have crumbled it and mixed it with water to rehydrate so I would expect that I would have noticed it. Not doubting the claim, just stating that I haven't experienced the same.

Honestly I don't know how you could not have noticed the bone shards in S&C. I also crumble it and have gotten poked in the finger many times by the shards. I have also occasionally found pieces of bone that weren't sharp but were big enough that I wasn't comfortable with feeding and so threw them out. I would consider it less of a problem if I were feeding it re-hydrated as the manufacturer says I should.

 

[darg]

I'll keep and eye out but so far no poked fingers and no bone shards that I've noticed. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[mschauer]

I just contacted the company to see if they would ever consider making a product without any bonemeal and use a calcium supplement instead and was told likely never - given that FIB makes food in small batches, a calcium carbonate supplement would be too "cost prohibitive" for the company.

Wow. That's odd. I know for a fact that MCHA costs a lot more than calcium carbonate. Maybe it has something to do with the quantities involved or maybe they have a good MCHA supplier.

I'm glad they use MCHA since it is my calcium source of choice but I can see how it might cause problems for people who don't make their own food but are stuck with how ever much a manufacturer uses.

 

[lisamarie12]

Interesting. So if I understand it, the FIB has bone but it's powdered. So if bone causes constipation in ones cat, the FIB would not remedy that, correct?

When I first started feeding FIB, I didn't know the bonemeal would cause Mikey constipation. He was getting constipated on another commercial raw (that he had eaten for 4 years without any issues) so when I saw FIB's use of bonemeal, I thought it would be different, that his constipation was due to excess bone in the other commercial raw.

When he became constipated on FIB, that's when I realized he couldn't have any product with ground bone or bonemeal.

 

[lisamarie12]

Wow. That's odd. I know for a fact that MCHA costs a lot more than calcium carbonate. Maybe it has something to do with the quantities involved or maybe they have a good MCHA supplier.

I'm glad they use MCHA since it is my calcium source of choice but I can see how it might cause problems for people who don't make their own food but are stuck with how ever much a manufacturer uses.

That is interesting that the MCHA is more costly than the calcium carbonate. Maybe they do have a special supplier.

Anyway, it's still a decent alternative to the others, just not for my little guy. Also their calcium / phos #'s are a bit better, at least what I remember reading for the turkey / duck a couple years ago.

Glad your kitty likes it, I hope it works out well for you.

 

[Tobermory]

Thanks for this info, mschauer . I may give this a try, although they do love their S&C Duck Duck Goose and NW Naturals Turkey (as a treat only).

 

[daftcat75]

I'm still running Krista Test Kitchen to find a raw she likes that also treats her well on both ends.

I haven't been able to find Stella And Chewy's Selects in rabbit locally. Maybe I just need to call around and do some driving. Or ask one of the local shops to order it for me.

She liked the taste of Tiki Cat Raw but never ate enough of it to keep feeding it. I am not comfortable with my nearly toothless cat trying to get through pieces of bone bigger than her three or four remaining mismatched teeth.

I am currently grinding the Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried (shelf stable, not the freezer patties) and using it as a topper for her Rawz. This is getting her to eat the Rawz that she's currently not as excited about anymore.

I made two batches of Alnutrin and she didn't like either. That's going to be a different thread.

I'm willing to try FIB with her until I find a complete mix or recipe she will eat and enjoys.

 

[darg]

I didn't know that S&C had the Selects in rabbit. Just Turkey and Chicken. It's not on their website. Is it new?

 

[daftcat75]

I didn't know that S&C had the Selects in rabbit. Just Turkey and Chicken. It's not on their website. Is it new?

Turkey? Did they discontinue the rabbit and start offering turkey? That's even better. Krista likes turkey more than rabbit anyway.

 

[daftcat75]

I ordered the Fresh Is Best in turkey and duck. I've also got a special order with a local pet food store for S&C Selects in turkey.

 

[darg]

I've never seen rabbit in the selects. Only Turkey and Chicken. I started buying the Turkey several months ago.

 

[mschauer]

I haven't been able to find Stella And Chewy's Selects in rabbit locally. Maybe I just need to call around and do some driving. Or ask one of the local shops to order it for me.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of NW Naturals in rabbit? They have it: Freeze Dried Cat Nibbles

 

[daftcat75]

Are you sure you aren't thinking of NW Naturals in rabbit? They have it: Freeze Dried Cat Nibbles

I thought they initially started with chicken and rabbit. But Krista likes turkey better anyway.

 

[daftcat75]

Oh thank goodness! She’s eating it! I hope this agrees with her and isn’t a one-time thing.

 

[She's a witch]

But can Fresh is Best be called Boneless Raw if it has MCHA? My girl has a tendency to get constipated and I'm not sure if FIB is a good idea in her case?