How do you all feel about NV Instinct Raw?

[redvelvetone]

I went to a different pet food place than I normally do today and was happy to find some commercial raw food as well as EVO and Before Grain wet food (which I had been wanting to try but the other pet store I go to does not carry them). My 10-month-old, Magnus, currently gets fed wet food (rotation of Blue wilderness / grain-free, Wellness and Wellness CORE, and some Trader Joes cat food and Authority Cat food (not grain free unfortunately, but a little more economical). He also gets fed some raw food for one meal (usually deboned chicken breasts or else chicken giblets, but sometimes ground turkey or ground beef). 

But they also had these raw food medallions by Nature's Variety. 

Do you guys use these? Do you like them? Are they good quality alternative to preparing raw at home?

I plan on trying them out with Magnus tomorrow to see what he thinks of them. I don't anticipate him not liking it as I've yet to find a food that he won't eat (except for one can of food I got one time that had a lot of vegetable in it - that was the only time I saw him not eat his bowl clean in a few minutes). 

Also is it OK to continue to feed him wet food in addition to these medallions?

Also I am going away in few days for one day (I leave early in the morning and and get back very late). I was going to feed him his wet before I leave and was wondering if I could put out a frozen patty before I leave and will it be Ok for him to eat when it defrosts in his dish? If not I'll have to see if I can get a pet sitter to come by at some point to make sure he gets fed properly.... Or leave out a bunch of kibble, which I am loathe to do, but I don't want him to starve either.

 

[Willowy]

My kitties love NV raw chicken! Yes, you can feed it along with canned food, no problem. It's about 15% bone (target percentage is 10%) so if it was the sole diet you'd want to feed boneless meat with it to get the ratios where they should be. But as an occasional meal it shouldn't be a problem.

As for being gone all day, you can also freeze canned food on a plate and put that out. The kitty can eat it as it thaws and it will stay fresh. But a frozen NV medallion will work, too .

 

[feralvr]

Hi Lynette!!! Magnus is just as handsome as ever. I do use NV Organic Chicken medallions, Regular Chicken Medallions and there is a new one out, Duck. I have tried the Lamb, Beef and Bison. A no go with my cats. I do like the NV raw products very much. I just think they have to many bones and as I serve them up to my cats, I pick out the larger sized bones. I think they do have some sample bags, so see if your store can get some in for you. I would also recommend finding a brand that uses bone meal and not ground bone. It is good to have variation. Hopefully Magnus will be like my Walden and Wendall who took to raw anything from day one. My other four are coming around slowly and at a different pace. It is perfectly fine to mix with some wet food. I would not start out with one whole medallion. Start off with 1/4 medallion and see how he does. If all goes well, then you can offer the one ounce medallion. I would not recommend leaving out a frozen medallion UNTIL you know for sure he will eat it right up within 30 minutes time. You don't want it sitting out for hours and then he decides to eat it. It will be spoiled by then. Instead, you can leave out some frozen canned food. :lol3: Carolina came up with a fantastic idea. Use ice cube trays and plop some canned food into the little compartments and freeze. Then when you leave, you can put one or two in a dish for Magnus.

 

[redvelvetone]

Carolina came up with a fantastic idea. Use ice cube trays and plop some canned food into the little compartments and freeze. Then when you leave, you can put one or two in a dish for Magnus.

Ooh! that's a GREAT Idea! THANK YOU! I was worried about what to do on those occasions we are gone too long. Magnus is spoiled with both my husband and I working from home so we are always (usually) here to open up a can for him.

 

[redvelvetone]

My kitties love NV raw chicken! Yes, you can feed it along with canned food, no problem. It's about 15% bone (target percentage is 10%) so if it was the sole diet you'd want to feed boneless meat with it to get the ratios where they should be. But as an occasional meal it shouldn't be a problem.
o

.

Ok good to know, thanks!

 

[ldg]

It's definitely a good quality raw food. :nod: It does have 5% "other stuff" - but it is 95% meat/bones/organs. :nod: They tend not to have single-source proteins - not a problem for most kitties. The chicken also has turkey in it. The organic chicken has only chicken. My cats LOVED the rabbit (it has a lot of pork fat. :lol3: ). They also liked the lamb. :nod:

And just agreeing - you can totally feed raw and canned, no problem. Best to use grain-free canned food, because it's the grains that really slow down digestion. But commercial raw is quick and easy.

I agree with both Lauren and Willowy. :lol3: If I fed a meal of NV patties, I would then provide a meal of just raw meat. I also picked out the larger pieces of bones. Too much bone makes kitties constipated - and that 15% bone that NV targets gave two of mine problems after a while. :nod: You really don't NEED to pick out the larger pieces of bone before you feed it, so leaving out a frozen patty to dethaw would work just fine. :nod:

 

[nerdrock]

I'm staring to wonder if the US Nature's Variety is made differently than the Canadian one... I've NEVER seen the chunks of bone you guys have been describing in any of the raw foods that I've bought (medallions, patties and chubs) and I've never had a customer comment on that at my demos (I work as a demonstrator for Nature's Variety). It's something I keep meaning to ask my boss about but keep forgetting... 

Do you mind letting me know which varieties seem to have the chunks of bone in them? Maybe it's one that I can't feed...

 

[ldg]

They're not really "chunks." They're just larger round pieces. None of them are actually a problem for the cats to eat.

 

[feralvr]

My cats LOVED the rabbit (it has a lot of pork fat. :lol3: ). :

:doh3: OH how could I forget to mention the NV Rabbit :lol3:. I think you, me and Carolina all started our cat's on the NV Rabbit. They all loved it..... Then there was that rabbit shortage and NV rabbit was a rare to impossible find. Remember .... We were panicking !!! Then when the rabbit came back on the market again, and I bought it up thinking this was an answer to my prayers :lol3:. Then my cat's decided they did not like the NV Rabbit And there it began, the four PsIMA.

Now my cat's love the NV Organic Chicken. GOSH, I hope they never have a chicken shortage ara2:

 

[ldg]

A chicken shortage! :lol3:

 

[feralvr]

I'm staring to wonder if the US Nature's Variety is made differently than the Canadian one... I've NEVER seen the chunks of bone you guys have been describing in any of the raw foods that I've bought (medallions, patties and chubs) and I've never had a customer comment on that at my demos (I work as a demonstrator for Nature's Variety). It's something I keep meaning to ask my boss about but keep forgetting... 



Do you mind letting me know which varieties seem to have the chunks of bone in them? Maybe it's one that I can't feed...

The varieties that seem to me to have more bone are the Chicken and the Rabbit. Some are round half circles and others are sharp and jagged, but small. I still pick them out as best I can because Pipsqueak and Perkins have had a problem with a bone getting stuck somewhere in the back of their mouth and they sort of panic trying to dislodge it. Walden and Wendall (my independent, 100% raw eaters, meaning no supervision needed :bigthumb are very good at leaving the bones in their bowls, most of the time.

The lamb, beef and organic chicken do not have nearly as many bone fragments as the chicken and rabbit. I just purchase a bag of the duck It is new, I guess. Hoping it will be well liked by my fussies :cross: OH and I should mention, I only purchase the medallions.

 

[ldg]

The varieties that seem to me to have more bone are the Chicken and the Rabbit. Some are round half circles and others are sharp and jagged, but small. I still pick them out as best I can because Pipsqueak and Perkins have has a problem with a bone getting stuck somewhere in the back of their mouth and they sort of panic trying to dislodge it. Walden and Wendall are very good at leaving the bones in their bowls, most of the time.
The lamb, beef and organic chicken do not have nearly as many bone fragments as the chicken and rabbit. I just purchase a bag of the duck It is new, I guess. Hoping it will be well liked by my fussies :cross:

The lamb wasn't an issue.

 

[redvelvetone]

if my cat has never eaten bone before will they be a problem or are they small enough?

 

[redvelvetone]

I picked up the chicken ones as I know he eats raw chicken, and they had in trial size so I figured i would try it out first before buying a big bag. But I also saw they had bison. I'll have to look to see if they have rabbit or not. I'm excited though as now I can start feeding Magnus more raw.... I already noticed that his coat has gotten even thicker / glossier lately (which I think was when I started doing more grain free wet foods a few weeks ago, and in particular I think it's the Blue wilderness wet food. He's SUPER shiny / soft right now But maybe the fur changes may also be because I think he hit another growth spurt. So maybe a more adult coat coming in? I noticed he's gotten a lot bigger in the last three weeks or so (Or I believe he is, I don't have a scale here to weigh him).

 

[redvelvetone]

He ate it and licked the bowl clean

I put the raw chicken medallion in the bowl along with some canned Before Grain (Quail and Chicken flavor). He ate all the wet food first and I was worried he wouldn't eat the medallion (he never had quail before though so maybe he was extra intrigued by the flavor. Come to think of it, I've never had quail. Magnus gets more  food variety than me lol!. But he was sniffing at it so I mashed it up a little bit so it was more pate like, and then he ate it all

 

[ldg]

Yep - the bones, even the slightly larger ones - aren't a problem. NV just targets a high percentage of bone, so if you feed it exclusively, it needs to be diluted a bit with just meat. Glad he loved it! :bigthumb:

 

[redvelvetone]

I didn't even notice any bones in it today (though, to be fair, it was still dark out when I got up and my eyes were not focused yet lol). I did not hear him crunch anything so if there were bone bits they must be fairly small. 

Will these small bone bits help with keeping his teeth in good shape or do you need an actual bone-in meal like a chicken wing or something for that effect.

He's got great teeth now, I'd just like to keep it that way, and he does not currently eat any bone-in foods.

 

[ldg]

No, the bones in ground will not help with teeth cleaning at all. It's only crunching on actual bone-in meals that helps. :nod:

 

[redvelvetone]

Do you think I should try giving him a raw chicken wing once a week? I don't know if he'll know what to do with it as his previous raw food has been boneless and cut up into pieces for him.

 

[ldg]

Sure! Take off that third part with the bigger bone. In fact - maybe just start with the wing tip part. See if he'll eat it! You can use scissors to cut it in half if he needs some help.