I finally found it...

[pompy]

...A cat food that Felix will refuse. 

I joined in hopes of switching him to raw, which I started to do a few days after joining. I bought a bag of Primal freeze dried food (I believe the chicken and fish one) and gradually introduced it mixed to his wet food. He took to it well. He loves it! Great! 

...Then in my excitement, I went and bought two bags of Nature's Variety Instinct raw...the chicken and tuna, and the regular chicken.  
I've never had a problem with Felix turning down food! I thought to myself. He loves to eat everything, even "bad" brands! Of course he'll like this!

...He doesn't like it. 

I've been slowly adding a few pieces of the raw mixed in to his freeze dried food, and he eats around the pieces and leaves the raw behind. I've tried feeding him just the raw pieces a few times, and he won't touch it...I even tried mixing it with some of the 'broth' from his canned food.
The only success I've had was waiting until the raw pieces were totally warm and mushy, and then mashing it in to the mushy freeze dried food mixture. I don't know if it's the taste, the smell, the texture, or what...it might be too cold for him, but this is also the cat who pratically jumps into the fridge to eat his leftover canned food from last night. He'll devour chilled wet food with the same gusto as room temperature food. No joke, he's the complete opposite of picky...which is why I'm so shocked.

Lesson learned: cool my jets on the whole raw feeding thing, lol. If he doesn't like the Nature's Variety, I don't mind keeping him on Primal freeze dried foods...from what I understand, they're pretty much the same thing as frozen raw anyway...just a bit more expensive? Does anyone else exclusively or primarily feed their cats freeze dried raw?

(For those wondering why I don't just buy Primal frozen if he likes the brand: they don't have it for cats at the ONE PET SHOP in my city that sells raw food. They only have raw food for dogs...and Petsmart only carries Nature's Variety Instinct in terms of raw food...and those are my two options...yep, haha).

 

[lemondrop]

My cats also have a huge preference for Primal over NVI, though I use the frozen kind. They ate the NVI when I tried it out (they'll eat anything I give them), but they were really unenthusiastic and no one licked their bowl clean. When we have Primal, I can hardly keep them off the counter long enough to serve it!

Have you asked your pet store about special orders? Many local stores are willing to order things they don't usually keep in stock for you. Otherwise, if you stick with freeze-dried, I think Primal and Stella and Chewy's are the most highly recommended brands.

 

[ftmba]

How interesting, the NVI chicken/tuna is actually our girls favorite! They love the duck flavor as well and consistently eat the chicken/turkey.

For primal frozen they love pork and beef, like rabbit, and are hit/miss with chicken, and turkey.

For primal freeze dried they devour the chicken and turkey flavors.

Frozen raw can certainly be a different transition than FD raw. We spent a lot of time warming frozen raw in ziploc bags when we were introducing it, but nowadays we just serve it cold and they usually wait a bit to eat it (we got lazy haha).

I'm a big fan of just restarting the introduction period in a few days if it doesn't work out at first. Hopefully Felix takes to it since there's a lot of nutrition and variety to be had!

 

[lisahe]

 
My cats also have a huge preference for Primal over NVI, though I use the frozen kind. They ate the NVI when I tried it out (they'll eat anything I give them), but they were really unenthusiastic and no one licked their bowl clean. When we have Primal, I can hardly keep them off the counter long enough to serve it!

Have you asked your pet store about special orders? Many local stores are willing to order things they don't usually keep in stock for you. Otherwise, if you stick with freeze-dried, I think Primal and Stella and Chewy's are the most highly recommended brands.

It's totally the same here! Primal > NVI. The only difference is that our cats have a very strong preference for freeze-dried. NVI was a failed experiment at variety!

@Pompy -- we feed our cats a lot of Primal freeze-dried (two meals a day) and they love it. It's pretty much the same thing as the frozen, just without the moisture. We used to feed them frozen, which was far less convenient (freezer space, aargh, planning ahead and thawing, curses!), so I have to say I'm very glad the cats decided to prefer freeze-dried. We make them custom blends (ha!) of Primal pork, turkey, and chicken, with a garnish of Stella & Chewy's.

One other thought. Is Rad Cat available in Canada? We also feed a small serving of that every day: it's a frozen raw food and they love it. (It's their very favorite so I don't want to feed them too much of it so they get tired of it!)

 

[lemondrop]

Frozen raw can certainly be a different transition than FD raw. We spent a lot of time warming frozen raw in ziploc bags when we were introducing it, but nowadays we just serve it cold and they usually wait a bit to eat it (we got lazy haha).

I warm up the food by adding some warm water to the bowl. The food doesn't get warm, but it's not refrigerator cold anymore. We switch between canned and raw for lunch, so they're used to having extra water mixed in.

 

[sophie1]

I had a lot of problems with freezer burn in Nature Variety products.  It's worse with the bites than the medallions.  Ultimately, though, the only form of NV that I've found to be reliably edible are the 5 lb chubs made for dogs, carried by a local store that keeps them in a deep freezer not accessible to customers.  I break up the chubs and add taurine.  No freezer burn, my cats love it, and it's half the price of the cat food.

 

[pompy]

I'll ask if the pet store is willing to order foods for me. They have frozen Stella and chewy' for dogs, but nothing for cats. I looked up rad cat and it seems like there aren't any stores in my province.

 

[kittyluv387]

Yeah my pets supplies plus dont carry primal frozen for cats but thy do let me make special orders for em.

 

[lisahe]

It's funny that @sophie1 mentioned the NVI food being freezer-burned: I remember that, too! I wonder if it offended our cats' delicate palates?

Primal was less freezer-burned, as I recall, though I used to mix it 50/50 with freeze-dried. Even so, it got so they wouldn't eat the freeze-dried with the frozen mixed in.

Now that I think about it, the Stella & Chewy's frozen was also a bit freezer-burned and they weren't particularly keen on that, either. They would eat it, though the reaction was just a sort of "meh" instead of a happy "meow." That, however, was many steps up from their very negative reaction to NVI frozen! All of which is to say that S&C might be worth trying.

It's too bad, @Pompy, that there's no Rad Cat nearby. It's very good food!

 

[sophie1]

Yes that's my experience also:  my cats refuse to eat food with even a hint of freezer burn.  It's a big problem in my area with all the commercial foods.  Chubs are far more resistant to freezer burn than smaller pieces.  Ordering from Hare Today completely solved the problem, but it's nice to have something pre-made in the freezer. 

 

[Columbine]

...A cat food that Felix will refuse. :dk:

I joined in hopes of switching him to raw, which I started to do a few days after joining. I bought a bag of Primal freeze dried food (I believe the chicken and fish one) and gradually introduced it mixed to his wet food. He took to it well. He loves it! Great! 


...Then in my excitement, I went and bought two bags of Nature's Variety Instinct raw...the chicken and tuna, and the regular chicken. 

I've never had a problem with Felix turning down food! I thought to myself. He loves to eat everything, even "bad" brands! Of course he'll like this!

...He doesn't like it. :mmm:

I've been slowly adding a few pieces of the raw mixed in to his freeze dried food, and he eats around the pieces and leaves the raw behind. I've tried feeding him just the raw pieces a few times, and he won't touch it...I even tried mixing it with some of the 'broth' from his canned food.

The only success I've had was waiting until the raw pieces were totally warm and mushy, and then mashing it in to the mushy freeze dried food mixture. I don't know if it's the taste, the smell, the texture, or what...it might be too cold for him, but this is also the cat who pratically jumps into the fridge to eat his leftover canned food from last night. He'll devour chilled wet food with the same gusto as room temperature food. No joke, he's the complete opposite of picky...which is why I'm so shocked.

This happened to me with Asha - totally unfussy girl (though with a delicate digestion). Started her on freeze dried raw and she LOVES it. After a while, I got the same brand, same flavour of the frozen raw, and guess what...she wouldn't touch it :frusty: If I totally coated in in crumbled freeze dried or crushed kibble she'd eat it, but not otherwise...and it proved impossible to wean her off the coatings. After a while I just gave up. It just wasn't worth the fight (especially as some family members are really anti raw feeding - germaphobes )

Now she has a mostly canned diet, with a little freeze dried raw and kibble as treats. (The only freeze dried I can get in the UK is in 40g bags, marketed as treats despite being a complete food....its just WAY too expensive to use as a primary food)

 

[pompy]

I just inspected both bags of NVI and they both have freezer burn...so yes, that may be why he didn't like it. Now I have another problem...he seems to be turning his nose up at wet food too! He used to love canned food...I ran out of the freeze dried a few days ago, so I've been feeding him canned food...but he just a sniffs it and walks off, but begs for food where I stored the freeze dried food. I have about 10 cans of food because I won't have the money to buy him more freeze dried until the end of the week, but now I'm worried he's not eating a canned food he used to like.

(The canned food is NVI lamb, which I hadn't fed him before, so I thought he just didn't like lamb, and nutrience grain free chicken and ocean fish, which he used to happily eat)

 

[sophie1]

What I thought about NV frozen food.  There's something amiss with their distribution/delivery.

Try sprinkling some ground up treats on the canned food, if you are stuck for options?  Honestly...cats like what they like and when they like it!  My Charlie won't touch dry food of any kind, and looks bored when you offer him a treat and only eats it to humor me.  To say he is not food motivated is the understatement of the year.  But get out the jar of Honest Kitchen and he goes crazy, plus he begs for it every morning.  I'm glad I have something he likes enough to use as a bribe when necessary, but I am completely mystified by his food preferences.

 

[pompy]

Yeah, he is continuing to puzzle me with his food choices. :lol3: The canned food he used to love but is now spurning...he'll eat it occasionally if I put some treats on top. Same thing with the NV frozen. I recently bought Orijen kibble to use as a treat instead of the greenies I was feeding him before. Before I switched him to raw, he ate Orijen kibble, so he'll happily eat that if I put it on his canned food. I heard you weren't supposed to mix kibble and raw though so I haven't done it with that.


Another thing about the NVI- I noticed the chicken one smells...odd. Not the smell of spoiled meat, but it does have a fairly strong and somewhat unpleasant odour. The chicken and fish bag doesn't have the same smell...has anyone else noticed that? I may have just bought a bad bag.

 

[lemondrop]

 I heard you weren't supposed to mix kibble and raw though so I haven't done it with that.

My understanding is that you're not supposed to mix grains  and raw. Grain-free kibble like Orijen shoudn't be a problem. 

 

[lisahe]

Another thing about the NVI- I noticed the chicken one smells...odd. Not the smell of spoiled meat, but it does have a fairly strong and somewhat unpleasant odour. The chicken and fish bag doesn't have the same smell...has anyone else noticed that? I may have just bought a bad bag.

I've always thought NVI had a weird smell, too. And figured that was why our cats just don't like it!

 

[sophie1]

NV chicken does have a distinct slightly fishy odor, but it shouldn't be strong and overall it should smell like fresh raw meat.  Not like what you're describing.

You can mix whatever you like with raw food.  Or canned.  I think the story about not mixing raw and kibble came about because of the idea that they different transit times through the stomach, but I don't think there's much basis to that.

 

[pompy]

Ok, thanks for the replies on kibble! I'll try it tomorrow on his raw.

 

[violetxx]

Agree with many of the above.

We feed ours FD and frozen primal, but every once in awhile they turn their noses up to certain flavours. We have also had better luck with FD as the colder temperature can be unappealing some nights, and one of ours will throw-up if it's too cold. We have bought some FD Natures Variety trial packs which we will sprinkle on their food if it's a picky night or Orijen FD treats work too! They are great because they come in so many new proteins: chicken/turkey, elk/quail/trout, lamb, wild boar, beef/boar/lamb.

http://www.orijen.ca/products/cat-food/freeze-dried-cat-treats/

We are in Canada as well, and we have started having problems getting the frozen Primal as they seem to be slowly cutting back (not enough popularity in our smalltown). But our other pet store (Global Pet Foods) is great and will order certain FD flavours, like the venison which is not normally in stock. Might be worth asking them. 

 I wish we had access to Radcat too. They don't seem to be so common in Canada yet. 

 

[pompy]

We don't have a global pet foods here (just petsmart as a chain and a few independent stores), but I'm going to Toronto this weekend to visit my boyfriend, so I'm thinking of also checking out some pet shops there to see if I can find some more variety. As an update, Felix reliably eats the NVI now, but I can tell he's not crazy about it. Will switch back to freeze dried once the bag is close to finishing.