Mouser cat food!

[Box of Rain]

I find an easy way to freeze food like this is to line a tray with waxed paper (or parchment paper) and form into appropriately sized patties. Place the tray in the freezer until the food becomes solid, then transfer to ziplock bags.

Bill

 

[daftcat75]

I’m fortunate in that Betty will eat the leftovers from the fridge. For those portions that go into her timed feeders, as long as I set a couple of hours or more on the timer, that seems to be enough to bring the fridge portion to room temperature. For those meals that I feed “fresh” (e.g. on a plate rather than a feeder), I place the portion in a plastic baggie and press it flat. Then I fill a washed out Mouser can with hot water and submerge the baggie for a minute or two. Usually in the time it takes for me to clean the last meal’s plate, the baggie portion has come up to a temperature between room and prey. Since it’s a cooked food, I don’t have to worry about the water temperature.

For a raw food, I took a candy thermometer and measured out 100F from the water stream and then used a pair of stickers to mark off that water temp on the sink fixture. Line up the stickers and the water should be approximately the same temperature. This takes longer to thaw a portion with lukewarm water. But I don’t have to worry about unintentionally cooking a raw food while trying to take the chill out.

 

[Furballsmom]

don't understand how the phosphorus is the same for all the formulas.

I think, --not positive about this, but one of the other brand's reps made a reference; for brands that have the same nutritional content across varieties, they have a calculation that takes into account what's already in the various ingredients, and add phosphorus, or iodine, et al, as necessary to meet aafco guidelines.

 

[Box of Rain]

Why are they adding tomato paste?

Bill

 

[LTS3]

Mouser cat food!

It's fine to give kittens an adult food as a treat. If you accidentally give adult food as a meal, no harm done really :) FWIW one of my cats has always eaten "adult" food since he was weaned because there is no raw food specifically made for kittens. He's almost 12 now and is healthy if you...

thecatsite.com

LTS3 said:

This web site sells individual cans of Mouser: Incredpets.com

Ingredients are listed for each product. Tomato paste is the third ingredient, maybe as a thickener in the same way one would use in cooking a meal?

Yes. I think like Rawz uses fenugreek seeds as a natural binder, Mouser uses tomato paste. It’s not as tomato-y as I was expecting. And it certainly didn’t stop Betty from eating a hole in the plate. Almost. Alligator jaws, teeth hitting the plate, snarfing noises, I think she enjoyed it. And now we wait to see how it treats her on the transit before I can continue with the transition. Even with the tomato paste, the carb content is 9% on dry matter basis compared to the 35% in her Hills I/D. Even if I can’t get her off the Hills completely, this should go a long way in reducing total carbs in her diet.

 

[daftcat75]

Why are they adding tomato paste?

Bill

They are using it as a thickener. It doesn’t look or smell tomato’ish. And since this is going to my IBD cat, I much prefer that over any number of gums. Some of the alleged LID foods contain multiple gums making them absolutely worthless for an elimination diet.

 

[Box of Rain]

They are using it as a thickener. It doesn’t look or smell tomato’ish. And since this is going to my IBD cat, I much prefer that over any number of gums. Some of the alleged LID foods contain multiple gums making them absolutely worthless for an elimination diet.

I am glad they have a formula that works for your IBD cat.

Bill

 

[daftcat75]

I am glad they have a formula that works for your IBD cat.

Bill

I’m glad I finally have a second food I can feed her. She likes Rawz rabbit and I like that recipe too. It made me so nervous with my angel kitty Krista when all she could eat was a single food, Rawz rabbit. So at least we have two foods we can rotate between. And if and when she can come off steroids, I’d love to look into raw or homemade for her. Except rabbit is so $$$.

 

[Box of Rain]

I’m glad I finally have a second food I can feed her. She likes Rawz rabbit and I like that recipe too. It made me so nervous with my angel kitty Krista when all she could eat was a single food, Rawz rabbit. So at least we have two foods we can rotate between. And if and when she can come off steroids, I’d love to look into raw or homemade for her. Except rabbit is so $$$.

Does Krista have issues with proteins other than rabbitt?

I can imagine it must be distressing when food options are limited, not easily sourced, and/or expensive.

Bill

 

[daftcat75]

Does Krista have issues with proteins other than rabbitt?

I can imagine it must be distressing when food options are limited, not easily sourced, and/or expensive.

Bill

Krista couldn’t have chicken or fish. When her IBD progressed to lymphoma, turkey and egg was also determined to be triggers. Rabbit was a novel protein that I could (usually) source easy enough as several local stores and a number of online resellers have Rawz. There were some shortages, especially during the early pandemic, where I was driving two hours to find a case because my locals and onlines were out of stock.

Krista passed in 2020.

I adopted Betty this year and found out quickly I had another IBD cat on my hands. It’s tough because I had ten years with Krista before she developed IBD. Then I had almost three years of exhausting special needs and care with her. I was looking forward to some easy healthy years with Betty before any of this started up. I suspect she was a kibble addict in her former home.

Betty is not doing as bad as Krista was when she started to present. Krista often vomited her food several hours after eating it. Betty doesn’t do that. Her only presentation, besides an occasionally weak appetite, is hairballs. I finally stopped arguing with the IM specialist pretending to know more than him about IBD and gave the steroids and a food change a try. She’s doing really well on the pred and we’re nearly finished with the food transition from prescription Hills I/D (chicken and vegetable stew in a starchy carby gravy ) to Rawz and Mouser. Mouser means I have not one but two foods with a clean recipe to feed her. If and when the next shortages come, hopefully both companies won’t be affected at the same time. But once we’re done with this transition and I’m confident she’ll eat enough and do well on these foods, I’ll start hoarding cases ahead of the next shortage

 

[Box of Rain]

Krista couldn’t have chicken or fish. When her IBD progressed to lymphoma, turkey and egg was also determined to be triggers. Rabbit was a novel protein that I could (usually) source easy enough as several local stores and a number of online resellers have Rawz. There were some shortages, especially during the early pandemic, where I was driving two hours to find a case because my locals and onlines were out of stock.

Krista passed in 2020.

I adopted Betty this year and found out quickly I had another IBD cat on my hands. It’s tough because I had ten years with Krista before she developed IBD. Then I had almost three years of exhausting special needs and care with her. I was looking forward to some easy healthy years with Betty before any of this started up. I suspect she was a kibble addict in her former home.

Betty is not doing as bad as Krista was when she started to present. Krista often vomited her food several hours after eating it. Betty doesn’t do that. Her only presentation, besides an occasionally weak appetite, is hairballs. I finally stopped arguing with the IM specialist pretending to know more than him about IBD and gave the steroids and a food change a try. She’s doing really well on the pred and we’re nearly finished with the food transition from prescription Hills I/D (chicken and vegetable stew is a carby gravy ) to Rawz and Mouser. Mouser means I have not one but two foods with a clean recipe to feed her. If and when the next shortages come, hopefully both companies won’t be affected at the same time. But once we’re done with this transition and I’m confident she’ll eat enough and do well on these foods, I’ll start hoarding cases ahead of the next shortage

I'm sorry for your loss and also very sorry I conflated the stories of your two cats. My apologies.

I hope Betty is on the mend soon.

Bill

 

[lisamarie12]

I actually notice the same thing myself (re: phosphorus). My assumption is that there is a scant amount of mice in these recipes. I'm somewhat surprised that mouse meat is so expensive, but that is certainly the case.

Bill

If there is little mouse meat in the recipes it seems unusual then that the phos for the poultry/rabbit would all be the same.
I remember about 8 or 9 years ago when I purchased mouse meat from a raw food supplier, she indicated the high cost of of the meat was due to the many mice that were needed to make just 1 lb of food.

 

[lisamarie12]

I think, --not positive about this, but one of the other brand's reps made a reference; for brands that have the same nutritional content across varieties, they have a calculation that takes into account what's already in the various ingredients, and add phosphorus, or iodine, et al, as necessary to meet aafco guidelines.

Ok, that's interesting, thank you.
I may just give a call to the company to inquire.
I'll post back when lil' missy samples her first can, if it works out, hope the company will make the food in 3 oz cans.

 

[LTS3]

The high cost of of the meat was due to the many mice that were needed to make just 1 lb of food.

Does Mouser use the entire mouse carcass or just the meat? An adult mouse weighs about 25 grams. About 18 adults would be needed to get 1 lb of meat.

 

[daftcat75]

Does Mouser use the entire mouse carcass or just the meat? An adult mouse weighs about 25 grams. About 18 adults would be needed to get 1 lb of meat.

I’m sure they use the entire carcass. I can’t imagine a mouse processing operation. Tiny butchers?

 

[Margot Lane]

Got the word from the chief on the tomato paste (the guy making the Mouser Catfood): “It is just there to provide the cats a little roughage, plus they like the slightly acidic taste. It is pure tomato paste, nothing else, and is only 1%.”

 

[Margot Lane]

I’m sure they use the entire carcass. I can’t imagine a mouse processing operation. Tiny butchers?

Was wondering that too…since cats generally eat an entire mouse (minus one tiny bit of offal…can never figure out how they do that) I don’t think they’d mind a whole mouse. Mice breed so quickly I shouldn’t think there’d be a shortage.

 

[lisahe]

Got the word from the chief on the tomato paste (the guy making the Mouser Catfood): “It is just there to provide the cats a little roughage, plus they like the slightly acidic taste. It is pure tomato paste, nothing else, and is only 1%.”

Thanks for this, Margot, this is good to know!

 

[daftcat75]

I don’t know if it’s a batch difference. I’ve gotten Mouser cans from three different sources now. But it seems Betty has lost interest in the rabbit Mouser. I’m having a hard enough time keeping her interested in Rawz that it may not be personal. Betty has developed a batch preference with Rawz and prefers a batch I’ll never get again (leftover from Krista ) It seems I have some interest in a newer batch. But no interest in the latest batch. If I’m lucky I can transition her to the newer batch and buy up the remaining stock. That gives me almost three weeks to get her interested in the most recent batches. And this kind of batch variability nonsense was what I was hoping to be able to weather if only Mouser kept her interest.

 

[Margot Lane]

It IS a very different kind of cat food! I wonder if she might like a different version of it? I would suggest my Farmina quail and pumpkin, but it’s hard for me to say, since I think due to Pred Zorro would eat…you name it! Farmina has kept his poos steady and regular and he gives it five stars! I still think MAYbe your idea of not giving into her snubbing will see that dish clean….worth a try!