Rawz canned experiences?

[5CatDraw]

Gobbling it up at the speed of light and then aggressively begging for more, in a way she never did for any other food. The kind of reaction that makes you wonder "What the heck are they putting in this stuff?!"

She has enjoyed Primal (pork nuggets) and Stella & Chewy (Plate Lickin' Pork and Duck Duck Goose morsels), thoroughly rehydrated with warm water and mashed up into smaller bits. She seemed to like the Wysong freeze-dried quail the first time or two I offered it to her, but quickly lost enthusiasm for it.

If I haven't fed Fancy Feast in a few days, when I open a can cats come running from everywhere in the house. Definitely makes me wonder what they are putting in there. So I try to minimize the amount I feed. I’m using it now in an attempt to get them to try new foods.

My dogs love S&C – especially the Duck Duck Goose. My cats won’t even consider it.
I used to feed Primal Pork to my dogs and they loved it, but I stopped when one of my dogs started having seizures because all of the Primal contains Rosemary (potential trigger for seizures). I still have some Pork. I’ll dig it out and give my cats one more thing to snub me about.

You mentioned quickly losing enthusiasm for Wysong. That is a frequent theme for my cats when I try new foods. Makes me wonder if something in the food upsets their stomach. Or am I letting them eat too much of a new food instead of introducing it gradually? Or, are they just being cats and getting bored?

 

[5CatDraw]

Our cats loved pork Primal, too! But Ireland just didn't do well with the bone, even though that one wasn't/isn't super high in bone.

You really have tried EVERYTHING!

 

[lunch]

Hi 5Cat! I see that you've already decided to go forward with Rawz, but I wanted to chime in with my experience just in case it helps. I'm quite a fan of this brand and primarily fed my two cats Rawz pates, rotating between beef, turkey, chicken, and rabbit depending on what my local shops had available. Rabbit was the one I purchased least, because of the price. Beef was generally a thicker, dryer consistency, the others moister and easier to scoop, but overall found the quality of each consistent. I added warm water to the beef pate to make it a little more palatable to them. My cats did just recently start refusing it but I can't say I noticed a change in how it looked or smelled. Maybe they just want a change? I'm hoping to rotate it back in after a few months. I have quite a stockpile of it

I also topped it with Feline Natural Freeze Dried Raw. Still learning about feline nutrition so I appreciate this thread and your others with lots of information about what sets the different food varieties and flavors apart.

 

[Tobermory]

Sorry that I misinterpreted the halos and you had to explain. May Max, Lily and Iris rip. My 5 are all getting old, so I have some losses coming in the next few years.

Perfectly sensible conclusion! It just never occurred to me! It did make me laugh because Lily, whom I loved dearly, was not an angel during her lifetime.

Are the nuggets firm so they would be crunchy if I don’t rehydrate?

They’re not crunchy. They hold together, but if you squeeze the nuggets, they fall apart.

Are you estimating bone content from the ash content or getting it directly from the companies? For foods that don’t include a calcium supplement I guess the calcium content is a good indicator of high bone content too, right?

I emailed the company directly about 4-5 years ago, and they responded with the information. Mocha is prone to getting constipated so I’m careful about bone in her food. It makes sense to me that higher calcium content would indicate more bone.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

Oh, the comment from lunch reminded me of another freeze-dried raw food that Sylvie has eaten—Feline Natural Lamb & King Salmon. I think it was the first one we tried! She liked it a lot, IIRC, but the price was prohibitive.

 

[lunch]

LadyLondonderry do you remember if when you fed the Feline Natural raw you were able to rehydrate it well? I am fairly happy with the brand, but I do find it continues to look dry after I add the water, at least compared to when I fed Primal.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

It was more than five years ago, so I'm afraid I don't remember. But with most (all?) of the freeze-dried brands I've tried, I've had to let the nuggets or morsels sit and soak in warm water for several minutes to soften up. And the ease or difficulty of reconstituting and breaking them up can vary a lot from one flavor to another, depending on whether the meat source is leaner or fattier.

 

[lisahe]

LadyLondonderry do you remember if when you fed the Feline Natural raw you were able to rehydrate it well? I am fairly happy with the brand, but I do find it continues to look dry after I add the water, at least compared to when I fed Primal.

We used to feed Feline Natural freeze-dried and I remembering it being difficult to rehydrate. I seem to recall that Primal pork was also sometimes more difficult to rehydrate.

 

[LadyLondonderry]

We used to feed Feline Natural freeze-dried and I remembering it being difficult to rehydrate. I seem to recall that Primal pork was also sometimes more difficult to rehydrate.

Agree on the Primal pork—I used to mash the nuggets with a mortar and pestle before adding the water. The Stella & Chewy pork is also quite hard, unlike the Duck Duck Goose.

 

[lunch]

Ooh, interesting to hear others experiences. I wasn't aware of the correlation you spoke of LadyLondonderry . So is it fattier = firmer, or leaner = firmer? I suppose this should be a common sense kind of think but I'm vegetarian and really don't know much about meat

 

[5CatDraw]

Hi 5Cat! I see that you've already decided to go forward with Rawz, but I wanted to chime in with my experience just in case it helps. I'm quite a fan of this brand and primarily fed my two cats Rawz pates, rotating between beef, turkey, chicken, and rabbit depending on what my local shops had available. Rabbit was the one I purchased least, because of the price. Beef was generally a thicker, dryer consistency, the others moister and easier to scoop, but overall found the quality of each consistent. I added warm water to the beef pate to make it a little more palatable to them. My cats did just recently start refusing it but I can't say I noticed a change in how it looked or smelled. Maybe they just want a change? I'm hoping to rotate it back in after a few months. I have quite a stockpile of it

I also topped it with Feline Natural Freeze Dried Raw. Still learning about feline nutrition so I appreciate this thread and your others with lots of information about what sets the different food varieties and flavors apart.

Thanks for sharing that Rawz experience. That is troubling, especially if all of your cats started refusing to eat it around the same time. I have quite a bit of it on the way. Hopefully, by some miracle, it will be the food that works for them.

I really struggle to understand my cats’ eating habits. They will eat Wellness Tiny Tasters consistently and then suddenly they don’t want it at all for a few days. And many times it seems all of them decide they don’t want it at the same time. So I can’t help but wonder if there are quality control issues and we get a bad pouch from time to time, it makes them sick, and then they don’t trust it for a few days.
Same thing when I start a new food. Often they will eat it eagerly the first time but then the next meal want nothing to do with it. So I tend to think it upset their stomach the first time.
I sure am getting tired of watching them turn up their noses and walk away from their bowls. I often wonder if my cats just like messing with me.
Thanks for sharing - and appreciating.

 

[5CatDraw]

Oh, the comment from lunch reminded me of another freeze-dried raw food that Sylvie has eaten—Feline Natural Lamb & King Salmon. I think it was the first one we tried! She liked it a lot, IIRC, but the price was prohibitive.

I feed the Feline Natural FD to my dogs as a treat, and they love it. A couple of my cats will at least sniff it, maybe take one bite (either rehydrated or dry), which is more interest than they show in any other freeze dried. I've switched from Lamb & King Salmon to just Lamb, (experimenting with reducing fish) and they definitely preferred the former.
One cat does seem to be developing a taste for the Feline Natural Lamb, canned. So I guess that is progress. For them - since they don't worry about price.

 

[daftcat75]

I'm glad you are ordering from Incredible Pets. If you order the pates from Amazon, you are ordering from a third party as Amazon is not one of their authorized resellers. All kinds of shenanigans can happen with third parties.

My last cat, Krista (in the avatar there), she enjoyed Rawz in the turkey and rabbit flavors. We mostly got it from local retailers. Sometimes we had to go online. I had a Bookmarks Group (opened all at once) of all their resellers so I could hopefully find a case or two until local resellers got stock again. Incredible Pets was/is my favorite, not only for the ability to buy cans, but because they were only day or two shipping away from me. Rawz is a small batch producer which is why their consistency varies from one batch to the next. I found that I was frequently looking at batch dates to see which cans Krista enjoyed and which she was less enthusiastic about. When she passed in 2020, I had a lot of Rawz leftover because I was stocking up when I could find it during the pandemic.

When I adopted Betty in 2022, she came with her own tummy troubles. At one point, I did try Rawz with her and she really enjoyed it. At least she enjoyed cans from Krista's stash. When I brought home new cans for her to try, she turned up her nose. So that ended there. I knew I was never going to see Krista's batch again. The few cans I have remaining from her batch are being saved for emergency food if Betty swears off everything else. Betty seems to really enjoy prescription food (a mix of Hills A/D and I/D) and it seems to be agreeing with her. We may circle back to Rawz or Mouser another time. I'm just happy Betty is eating well and depositing it in the box instead of returning it on the carpet.

Tiki Cat After Dark might be another food you might try with your cats. Betty doesn't seem interested. She likes her prescription junk. But I think Krista would have enjoyed them if she her diet wasn't so limited by her conditions (IBD and eventually lymphoma.)

 

[5CatDraw]

I'm glad you are ordering from Incredible Pets. If you order the pates from Amazon, you are ordering from a third party as Amazon is not one of their authorized resellers. All kinds of shenanigans can happen with third parties.

My last cat, Krista (in the avatar there), she enjoyed Rawz in the turkey and rabbit flavors. We mostly got it from local retailers. Sometimes we had to go online. I had a Bookmarks Group (opened all at once) of all their resellers so I could hopefully find a case or two until local resellers got stock again. Incredible Pets was/is my favorite, not only for the ability to buy cans, but because they were only day or two shipping away from me. Rawz is a small batch producer which is why their consistency varies from one batch to the next. I found that I was frequently looking at batch dates to see which cans Krista enjoyed and which she was less enthusiastic about. When she passed in 2020, I had a lot of Rawz leftover because I was stocking up when I could find it during the pandemic.

When I adopted Betty in 2022, she came with her own tummy troubles. At one point, I did try Rawz with her and she really enjoyed it. At least she enjoyed cans from Krista's stash. When I brought home new cans for her to try, she turned up her nose. So that ended there. I knew I was never going to see Krista's batch again. The few cans I have remaining from her batch are being saved for emergency food if Betty swears off everything else. Betty seems to really enjoy prescription food (a mix of Hills A/D and I/D) and it seems to be agreeing with her. We may circle back to Rawz or Mouser another time. I'm just happy Betty is eating well and depositing it in the box instead of returning it on the carpet.

Tiki Cat After Dark might be another food you might try with your cats. Betty doesn't seem interested. She likes her prescription junk. But I think Krista would have enjoyed them if she her diet wasn't so limited by her conditions (IBD and eventually lymphoma.)

Good to know that Amazon is a 3rd Party for Rawz. My order from Incredible shipped really quickly, and by UPS. So I’m impressed with them so far. Receiving packages via USPS is really inconvenient for me, so I’m glad Incredible uses UPS. If the Rawz and/or Mouser work out I will become a very regular customer.

But, your experience with Rawz is troubling. It does sound like they have quality/consistency control challenges. I sure hope that maybe they have made progress in correcting that recently, because I don’t want to deal with that kind of frustration. But, realistically, any commercial food is a risk in that respect I suppose.

I did have some Tiki After Dark in my shopping cart last order, but then decided last minute that I had gotten carried away and something had to go, so I didn’t get it. Maybe next time if the foods I have, and have on the way, don’t work out.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[lisahe]

I did have some Tiki After Dark in my shopping cart last order, but then decided last minute that I had gotten carried away and something had to go, so I didn’t get it. Maybe next time if the foods I have, and have on the way, don’t work out.

Tiki After Dark (shreds) is another one that's on-and-off, at least in our experience. Our cats loved it for some time (alas, I don't remember how much time!) but then hated it. This could be because Tiki changed the recipe but, again, I don't remember. I haven't ought much Tiki at all in the last four or five years but remember there was a time when I had variations of the same food ("the same food" in terms of "menu" name on the label) in the cat food cart. All that said, After Dark was one of their better foods for the cats... when they'd eat it! We only ever fed the shreds. The mousse and pate foods have stuff we can't feed, like agar-agar and/or xanthan gum. *sigh*

 

[5CatDraw]

Tiki After Dark (shreds) is another one that's on-and-off, at least in our experience. Our cats loved it for some time (alas, I don't remember how much time!) but then hated it. This could be because Tiki changed the recipe but, again, I don't remember. I haven't ought much Tiki at all in the last four or five years but remember there was a time when I had variations of the same food ("the same food" in terms of "menu" name on the label) in the cat food cart. All that said, After Dark was one of their better foods for the cats... when they'd eat it! We only ever fed the shreds. The mousse and pate foods have stuff we can't feed, like agar-agar and/or xanthan gum. *sigh*

Hi there. I’ve been waiting to give you a full report on the new foods I recently ordered until I had complete findings, but here is what has happened so far:

Nulo Silky Mousse: The first thing I fed them when the package arrived and to my delight 4 of the 5 cats really liked it. The 5th cat never eats canned, so she doesn’t count. Then my success high was deflated next meal. None of them would have anything to do with it. I’m going to wait a couple day before trying it again. Maybe this time I will only let them eat a little bit (if they will) and then work up gradually.

Merrick: On it’s own it was a “no” but mixed with some Fancy Feast a couple cats will eat it. So we will go from there . . .

Tiny Tiger: A hit! They seem to put it on the same level as Fancy Feast for tastiness. And no fish and no artificial flavor. I just hope their enthusiasm holds and if so it will replace FF.

And, inspired by your homemade routine, I’ve been cooking a little bit of turkey for them every evening. Three cats will at least eat a little bit as long as I serve it right away, while it is still warm. They are more interested in it this way (gently cooked) as opposed to raw. So, PROGRESS! I’ll take it!

 

[lisahe]

Hi there. I’ve been waiting to give you a full report on the new foods I recently ordered until I had complete findings, but here is what has happened so far:

Nulo Silky Mousse: The first thing I fed them when the package arrived and to my delight 4 of the 5 cats really liked it. The 5th cat never eats canned, so she doesn’t count. Then my success high was deflated next meal. None of them would have anything to do with it. I’m going to wait a couple day before trying it again. Maybe this time I will only let them eat a little bit (if they will) and then work up gradually.

Merrick: On it’s own it was a “no” but mixed with some Fancy Feast a couple cats will eat it. So we will go from there . . .

Tiny Tiger: A hit! They seem to put it on the same level as Fancy Feast for tastiness. And no fish and no artificial flavor. I just hope their enthusiasm holds and if so it will replace FF.

And, inspired by your homemade routine, I’ve been cooking a little bit of turkey for them every evening. Three cats will at least eat a little bit as long as I serve it right away, while it is still warm. They are more interested in it this way (gently cooked) as opposed to raw. So, PROGRESS! I’ll take it!

Oh my goodness, a report! It's always so interesting to see how various cats do with the same foods. And so:

Nulo: It's so odd how cats will love one meal but then not the next. Yes, give it a try another day. This is the one that Ireland (picky) absolutely loves but Edwina (will eat anything) is so-so on. Meaning that it's a quirky one.

Merrick: Ireland will have nothing to do with it but Edwina will eat it. (Either turkey or chicken.) Both this and Nulo are great for Edwina because she's so so-so on them, meaning she's unlikely to overeat. (She does like the Merrick chicken > turkey.)

Tiny Tiger: Yes, both our cats like this one a lot, too.

And good for you for cooking a little turkey for them! Progress is good. Here's hoping there's more where that came from!

 

[maggie101]

I have an update. I am never buying rawz again. The cans had water on top and my cat Coco would not touch it. Maybe it was a bad batch but it's too expensive to buy more not knowing the cause

 

[5CatDraw]

I have an update. I am never buying rawz again. The cans had water on top and my cat Coco would not touch it. Maybe it was a bad batch but it's too expensive to buy more not knowing the cause

That's unfortunate. I haven't experienced that yet, but I have only opened a few cans. So it is probably only a matter of time before I encounter some bad ones. My cats are not interested in it except that one of them has a little bit of interest in the rabbit, but not the other recipes. Hope you find something else that works.

 

[Biomehanika]

Been trying to add another high quality wet food to my rotation. I introduced Rawz to my cats recently and just spent a small fortune on two cases of cans (duck and turkey) so I hope they are the same quality LOL. They seem to like the rabbit too but the cases for that weren’t available so I’ve skipped it for now (already expensive enough with the case discount). I also tried Farmina and Feline Natural and the Rawz won out over them easily (mainly because Bitsy wouldn’t touch these no matter how I offered them up, but also because 1) the farmina cans are just too small and 2) the FN seemed really dry and chalky for a wet food, I really wasn’t a fan of the texture)

Surprisingly, so far, the Rawz is a food that my picky Bitsy girl will eat. Haven’t tried it all by itself for her yet but she will eat it mixed with her other wet foods, so that’s a big win as she usually refuses most food, even that way. So now there are a total of 3 wetfoods in existence that I know of that she’ll eat!! Moose eats all flavours of it happily without complaints, which is great, because he will likely be getting the Rawz more often than Bitsy (because Bitsy also has a senior wet food she loves that Moose cannot have). Texture is smooth and moist and perfect and similar to their other food which is a big help. I just love how pure and high protein it is, and that it has no suspicious ingredients.