Grain/potato free turkey kibble?

[Margret]

Jasmine gets two meals of canned food every day, and she has kibble to snack on in between. When we first got her I simply gave her whatever kibble I found in the grocery store, and she quickly developed a weight problem. When I tried to restrict the amount of kibble she got she told me she was starving, and it didn't seem like the usual "No one ever feeds me" cat lie. So I switched her to a grain free kibble, Blue Buffalo at first, until I noticed how many recall notices the company had. Then I found Castor & Pollux Pristine Grain Free Free-Range Chicken & Turkey Recipe. She loved it, and it didn't make her fat, and all was well. And now it's been discontinued. PetSmart and PetCo recommend Merrick, instead, but I couldn't find a good variety of Merrick kibble locally. Either they had fish (which Jasmine dislikes intensely , and I worry about mercury) or they had potato. I did find (and buy) Whole hearted Grain Free Chicken Recipe, which is okay nutritionally, but I had hoped for something with turkey as well, so she'd have more flavor (she isn't very fond of beef, either, so I haven't been looking at anything with mammalian proteins).

I called the customer service number for Castor & Pollux and found out a few things:

1. Merrick is the parent company of Castor & Pollux.
2. As already mentioned, the Grain-Free Chicken & Turkey Recipe has been discontinued.
3. They went through their products and eventually recommended Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe.

So yesterday I visited both PetSmart and PetCo, and neither one of them carried it (which explains why I didn't notice it when reading labels earlier). I did a Google search on "Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe," which produced the information that I could find it on chewy.com. Well, I've just been to chewy.com, and they only have the canned version of Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe, which is not what I'm looking for at all. So I spoke with customer service, and after a thorough search, the best they could come up with was Fussie Cat Market Fresh Guinea Fowl and Turkey Meal. This has the advantage of adding another flavor of protein (guinea fowl), but the list of ingredients is just a tad bit worrisome:

Specifically, I'm wondering about the Alfalfa Meal. That sounds like a grain to me. Does anyone here have any knowledge of this?

Margret

 

[Maurey]

Alfaalfa is a flowering plant, and in no way a grain. Personally, I find the excessive use of protein meal (lower quality type of protein) and legumes a lot more worrying than the alfaalfa, especially with how high up an ingredient peas are. I wouldn't be surprised if the carb content is in the 40% range, if not higher. What are your specific desires for a dry food for your girl? Good quality and in Turkey & Chicken flavour?

 

[Kat0121]

Jasmine gets two meals of canned food every day, and she has kibble to snack on in between. When we first got her I simply gave her whatever kibble I found in the grocery store, and she quickly developed a weight problem. When I tried to restrict the amount of kibble she got she told me she was starving, and it didn't seem like the usual "No one ever feeds me" cat lie. So I switched her to a grain free kibble, Blue Buffalo at first, until I noticed how many recall notices the company had. Then I found Castor & Pollux Pristine Grain Free Free-Range Chicken & Turkey Recipe. She loved it, and it didn't make her fat, and all was well. And now it's been discontinued. PetSmart and PetCo recommend Merrick, instead, but I couldn't find a good variety of Merrick kibble locally. Either they had fish (which Jasmine dislikes intensely , and I worry about mercury) or they had potato. I did find (and buy) Whole hearted Grain Free Chicken Recipe, which is okay nutritionally, but I had hoped for something with turkey as well, so she'd have more flavor (she isn't very fond of beef, either, so I haven't been looking at anything with mammalian proteins).

I called the customer service number for Castor & Pollux and found out a few things:

1. Merrick is the parent company of Castor & Pollux.
2. As already mentioned, the Grain-Free Chicken & Turkey Recipe has been discontinued.
3. They went through their products and eventually recommended Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe.

So yesterday I visited both PetSmart and PetCo, and neither one of them carried it (which explains why I didn't notice it when reading labels earlier). I did a Google search on "Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe," which produced the information that I could find it on chewy.com. Well, I've just been to chewy.com, and they only have the canned version of Merrick Limited Ingredient Real Turkey Recipe, which is not what I'm looking for at all. So I spoke with customer service, and after a thorough search, the best they could come up with was Fussie Cat Market Fresh Guinea Fowl and Turkey Meal. This has the advantage of adding another flavor of protein (guinea fowl), but the list of ingredients is just a tad bit worrisome:
View attachment 378340

Specifically, I'm wondering about the Alfalfa Meal. That sounds like a grain to me. Does anyone here have any knowledge of this?

Margret

Does it HAVE to have turkey? I feed Dr. Elsey's chicken dry. The quality is excellent. Lilith is the one who eats it mostly. She loves it and is the pickiest eater (human and animal) that I have ever encountered in my life.

Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein™ Cat Food – feed protein, not plants

It is only available through Chewy and Amazon.

 

[Maurey]

If she'll eat air dried food (kind of like kitty jerky), Ziwi Peak Air Dried Hauraki Plains is a wonderful option ZIWI Peak Air-Dried Hauraki Plains Cat Food, 12-oz bag - Chewy.com

Wellness Core RawRev Turkey is a bit high in meals, but has overall good protein quaity, and low carb content https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-rawrev-grain-free/dp/172333

Primal has a good freeze dried turkey option PRIMAL Turkey Formula Nuggets Grain-Free Raw Freeze-Dried Cat Food, 14-oz bag - Chewy.com

Nulo's Turkey & Duck is also good NULO FreeStyle Turkey & Duck Recipe Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food, 8-oz bag - Chewy.com

 

[Margret]

Does it HAVE to have turkey? I feed Dr. Elsey's chicken dry. The quality is excellent.

I did find (and buy) Whole hearted Grain Free Chicken Recipe, which is okay nutritionally, but I had hoped for something with turkey as well, so she'd have more flavor

I already found chicken. I'm looking for turkey to mix with it.

Margret

 

[ladytimedramon]

Would this work? I didn't check the ingredients. I just remembered it from shopping.

Simply Nourish® SOURCE ™ Adult Cat Food - Natural, Grain Free, High Protein, Chicken & Turkey | cat Dry Food | PetSmart

 

[Margret]

Alfaalfa is a flowering plant, and in no way a grain. Personally, I find the excessive use of protein meal (lower quality type of protein) and legumes a lot more worrying than the alfaalfa, especially with how high up an ingredient peas are. I wouldn't be surprised if the carb content is in the 40% range, if not higher. What are your specific desires for a dry food for your girl? Good quality and in Turkey & Chicken flavour?

Chewy says the carbs are 32%. Turkey meal is the second ingredient; guinea fowl (not meal) is the first.

My specific desires? Good quality, bird based, more than one variety of bird (i.e. chicken and turkey), no fish or beef. Minor amount of greens, as a cat in the wild might get from the stomach of a prey animal. Available locally would be ideal, but I'm beginning to think that that's not an option. It would be lovely to find all of that in a single food, as I had before, but I'm perfectly willing to get two (or three) flavors of kibble and mix them.

Margret

 

[Margret]

Would this work? I didn't check the ingredients. I just remembered it from shopping.

Simply Nourish® SOURCE ™ Adult Cat Food - Natural, Grain Free, High Protein, Chicken & Turkey | cat Dry Food | PetSmart

Ingredients:
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Dried Peas, Dried Potatoes, Ground Flaxseed, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Fish Meal, Deboned Turkey, Pea Fiber, Natural Flavor, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Taurine, Minerals (Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese
Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite), Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid (Preservatives), Rosemary Extract
{Emphasis mine.}

If grains are bad, potatoes are worse. Also, it contains fish meal, and has a huge number of negative reviews, including one complaining about the amount of inedible kibble dust mixed in.

Margret

 

[Margret]

If she'll eat air dried food (kind of like kitty jerky), Ziwi Peak Air Dried Hauraki Plains is a wonderful option ZIWI Peak Air-Dried Hauraki Plains Cat Food, 12-oz bag - Chewy.com

Wellness Core RawRev Turkey is a bit high in meals, but has overall good protein quaity, and low carb content https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-rawrev-grain-free/dp/172333

Primal has a good freeze dried turkey option PRIMAL Turkey Formula Nuggets Grain-Free Raw Freeze-Dried Cat Food, 14-oz bag - Chewy.com

Nulo's Turkey & Duck is also good NULO FreeStyle Turkey & Duck Recipe Freeze-Dried Raw Cat Food, 8-oz bag - Chewy.com

Thanks. I'll check these out.

Margret

 

[ladytimedramon]

Ingredients:
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Dried Peas, Dried Potatoes, Ground Flaxseed, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Fish Meal, Deboned Turkey, Pea Fiber, Natural Flavor, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Taurine, Minerals (Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese
Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite), Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid (Preservatives), Rosemary Extract
{Emphasis mine.}

If grains are bad, potatoes are worse. Also, it contains fish meal, and has a huge number of negative reviews, including one complaining about the amount of inedible kibble dust mixed in.

Margret

Glad you checked. It's been probably 10 months since I looked at it. I've been mostly trying to get a wet food that Delilah would eat since Crave discontinued their wet lines.

 

[Margret]

It's been probably 10 months since I looked at it.

It may have been better when you last looked at it. All of those negative reviews mentioned a recent change in the recipe, accompanied by a major price increase.

Margret

 

[catsknowme]

CatPerson offers a chicken & turkey kibble. I can afford only the wet food for my seniors with health issues so I don't have experience with the kibble but the wet food is working out great and well worth the price. I don't consider legume protein superior to grains but it seems hard to avoid.

Grain-free & High-protein | Dry Cat Food | Cat Person

 

[Margret]

CatPerson offers a chicken & turkey kibble. I can afford only the wet food for my seniors with health issues so I don't have experience with the kibble but the wet food is working out great and well worth the price. I don't consider legume protein superior to grains but it seems hard to avoid.

Grain-free & High-protein | Dry Cat Food | Cat Person

Perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've added it to my home screen.

Margret

 

[GeoDjay]

Perhaps you may consider Carnilove into the Wild. They have formulas with bird ingredients such as duck, pheasant, turkey, and chicken.
- Fresh Chicken & Rabbit (also has dried duck) Holistic feed for dogs and cats
- Duck & Turkey Holistic feed for dogs and cats
- Duck & Pheasant Holistic feed for dogs and cats