Nature's Variety - Worry free, affordable raw?

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by runtellthat

What???????????????? Are you sure about these prices? I was at a chain store in my area last night (Pet Food Express in San Francisco) and a 6 pound bag of NV Instinct Chicken patties (dog/cat food) was $35, which is $5.83/lb, which I thought was ridiculously high for a commercial brand at a chain compared with prices I've seen for some local brands (including some that make their's fresh daily!). I am trying to adopt out some foster kittens I have that had diarrhea for MONTHS until they started on raw food...if I could find $3.77/lb raw chicken feed I might even keep em myself, and I'd definitely have a much easier time trying to convince others.

Yup. Here is where I buy it:

http://www.healthypetboutique.com/se...egory=BOUTIQUE

They're located near my house so I don't have to pay shipping. I've seen comparable prices elsewhere locally. Shop around. Hopefully you can find a better price than what Pet Food Express has. I'm pretty sure NV has a store locator feature on their web site.

 

[sharky]

Mschauer

Great info... I will pass along to a few who are borderline raw may make the decision easier... I have never had one who like NV but mine are picky ...

 

[ritz]

Ritz loves the NV raw beef. She was at first in love with Primal Quail, but seems to have grown bored with it. I add water to both before giving it to her (she needs the water), and I can tell you that I need to add more water to NV than I do to Primal to get it to a consistency I'm comforable with.
What I'd really like to find is a commercial raw that has ONLY: meat/poultry, organs, bones, and required supplements. No produce, no grains. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by Ritz

Ritz loves the NV raw beef. She was at first in love with Primal Quail, but seems to have grown bored with it. I add water to both before giving it to her (she needs the water), and I can tell you that I need to add more water to NV than I do to Primal to get it to a consistency I'm comforable with.
What I'd really like to find is a commercial raw that has ONLY: meat/poultry, organs, bones, and required supplements. No produce, no grains. Any ideas? Thanks.

Mine *love* Feline's Pride and Rad Cat but they are quite expensive. It was looking at the simple ingredient lists of these that made me realize that it really wouldn't be all that difficult to make my own.

The NV is nice because it is relatively inexpensive. There really is no need to be concerned about the small amount of non-animal ingredients it has. Even my food sensitive cat that has diarrhea or at least very soft stools after eating any processed food handles a small amount of veggies in raw food just fine.

 

[ritz]

Thanks for the reassurance. I can get RadCat locally. I too am thinking maybe I could do Frankenprey, but would, I'm afraid, worry excessively about whether Ritz was getting the right quantities of the right stuff. I have access to a decent variety of organ meats, but not muscle meat.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by Ritz

Thanks for the reassurance. I can get RadCat locally. I too am thinking maybe I could do Frankenprey, but would, I'm afraid, worry excessively about whether Ritz was getting the right quantities of the right stuff. I have access to a decent variety of organ meats, but not muscle meat.

Access to organ meats is usually the problem for most people considering making their own. Surely you have access to chicken, turkey, beef and pork for muscle meat?

 

[ritz]

Yeah, I do; but Ritz gets bored really quickly. So wanted access to rabbit and goat and....
Note to self: don't sweat the details...

 

[mschauer]

You might look into Feline's Pride. Shipping to your area might not be too bad. Shipping costs to Houston for it are pretty high.

 

[melesine]

Well to answer the question posed in the OP, I don't think any commercially prepared food is worry free. I worry more about what is in commercially prepared pet foods than the whole meat pieces I buy to feed my animals. That would include commercially prepared raw foods ( which I don't buy or feed).

Of course I still read packaging of anything I buy. But I don't buy ground meats even for myself. We grind at home if we are having burgers or meatloaf for example. The only times I've fed ground meats to my animals was the puppy when we first transitioned her to raw and we ground that ourselves.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by Melesine

Well to answer the question posed in the OP, I don't think any commercially prepared food is worry free. I worry more about what is in commercially prepared pet foods than the whole meat pieces I buy to feed my animals. That would include commercially prepared raw foods ( which I don't buy or feed).

Of course I still read packaging of anything I buy. But I don't buy ground meats even for myself. We grind at home if we are having burgers or meatloaf for example. The only times I've fed ground meats to my animals was the puppy when we first transitioned her to raw and we ground that ourselves.

What exactly concerns you about what is in the Nature's Variety products other than perhaps the fruits and veggies which have already been discussed?

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by mschauer

What exactly concerns you about what is in the Nature's Variety products other than perhaps the fruits and veggies which have already been discussed?

Answering for myself, the same concerns as I have about any commercial food. What is in there that we are not being told, the quality of ingredients used, the source of the ingredients, the danger of too much or too little of something important, the possibility of contamination.....and so on. Any commercial cat food product, be it canned, kibble, or raw is going to cause the same worries, if one is prone to worrying.

Which I am.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by otto

Answering for myself, the same concerns as I have about any commercial food. What is in there that we are not being told, the quality of ingredients used, the source of the ingredients, the danger of too much or too little of something important, the possibility of contamination.....and so on. Any commercial cat food product, be it canned, kibble, or raw is going to cause the same worries, if one is prone to worrying.

Which I am.

I see. So basically you don't trust anything you don't make yourself.

Since I've been making my own for so long now I would have a hard time going back to premade. It really is nice knowing exactly what goes in the food. Of course even if we make our own there is still uncertainty about the source of some ingredients unless we raise and slaughter out own livestock. I'm not ready to go that far though!