Stella & Chewy...anyone?

patti511

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Does anyone feed S & C mixed with water? My cats are liking it dry.
 

Tobermory

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Are you talking about the freeze dried? Yes, I do sometimes give them a meal of Stella & Chewy Duck Duck Goose. I crumble it up and rehydrate it so it's like a wet pâté. But I also give them the occasional treat of a dry nugget.
 

RajaNMizu

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Raja loves some Duck, Duck Goose, rehydrated with water. I've never tried giving it to her dry. I'll give it a go tomorrow and see what she thinks.
 

Tobermory

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Raja loves some Duck, Duck Goose, rehydrated with water. I've never tried giving it to her dry. I'll give it a go tomorrow and see what she thinks.
It’s so dry that I snip the nuggets in half before I give them one. Even so, they chew for awhile. I think it sticks to their mouths because it absorbs so much moisture.
 

RajaNMizu

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She's always seemed interested in it when it's dry and I'm the one telling her to wait till it moistens up a bit. Maybe she's trying to tell me something...:headscratch:
 
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patti511

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Are you talking about the freeze dried? Yes, I do sometimes give them a meal of Stella & Chewy Duck Duck Goose. I crumble it up and rehydrate it so it's like a wet pâté. But I also give them the occasional treat of a dry nugget.
Yes, the freeze dried morsels.
 
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patti511

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She's always seemed interested in it when it's dry and I'm the one telling her to wait till it moistens up a bit. Maybe she's trying to tell me something...:headscratch:
One of my cats is a “grazer,” so it gets cold really fast when I moisten it. I’m going to keep trying.
 
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patti511

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Well, I just checked the price. With 5 cats it is financially impossible to feed just this food :-/. One 18 oz bag is $28 and would last 2 days. OMG.
I’m thinking of using it as a topper for high quality dry kibble. Suggestions??
 
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patti511

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Can someone recommend a low carb, high fat dry food??
 

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Well, I just checked the price. With 5 cats it is financially impossible to feed just this food :-/. One 18 oz bag is $28 and would last 2 days. OMG.
I’m thinking of using it as a topper for high quality dry kibble. Suggestions??
Have you tried the frozen? Freeze dried is always more expensive, but frozen would be less..although still pricey.

Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein is a low carb, high protein, moderate fat dry. High quality for a dry food.
 

kittyluv387

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Well, I just checked the price. With 5 cats it is financially impossible to feed just this food :-/. One 18 oz bag is $28 and would last 2 days. OMG.
I’m thinking of using it as a topper for high quality dry kibble. Suggestions??
I feel like your money would be better spent incorporating some wet food in their diet instead.
 

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S & C is one of my favorite things to use as a topper and treats. One big bag lasts my cat 8 months because she only eats one or two pieces a day. Feeding it as meals regularly would be financially impossible!

I agree that Dr. Elsey's is a very good dry food. It's expensive though and my cat hated it. Other brands that have good dry food (some flavors are better than others) are Wellness CORE, Nature's Variety Instinct, Petcurean Go!, Nulo, Only Natural Pet, Oven Baked Tradition, ZiwiPeak (super expensive), Young Again, Wysong, Tiki Cat.

There are also quite a few brands that carry freeze dried raw if you want to find a cheaper alternative to S & C.
 
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patti511

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S & C is one of my favorite things to use as a topper and treats. One big bag lasts my cat 8 months because she only eats one or two pieces a day. Feeding it as meals regularly would be financially impossible!

I agree that Dr. Elsey's is a very good dry food. It's expensive though and my cat hated it. Other brands that have good dry food (some flavors are better than others) are Wellness CORE, Nature's Variety Instinct, Petcurean Go!, Nulo, Only Natural Pet, Oven Baked Tradition, ZiwiPeak (super expensive), Young Again, Wysong, Tiki Cat.

There are also quite a few brands that carry freeze dried raw if you want to find a cheaper alternative to S & C.
T
Most brands I’ve seen only have freeze dried raw as an additive, such as Merrick,” and Instinct Raw Boost. What brands are solely freeze dried raw?
 
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patti511

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I feel like your money would be better spent incorporating some wet food in their diet instead.
They do eat wet... Instinct, Whole Earth, and Applaws. My vet put them on Royal Canin Calm because of aggression issues. I think it’s a horrible food - full of fillers and bi-products. I called RC and voiced my concerns and they assure me that the bi products were organ meat only. I’m still not thrilled with all the fillers. I’ve been mixing their wet food with it. I want to eliminate it all together. I can’t afford the canned food alone and need to mix it with a high quality kibble. Since Stella is so expensive, I thought I’d use it as a topper. I had used Instinct Raw Boost in the past. I was wondering how you determine the carb level by the label. Is Instinct low carb? Is there something better out there?
Thank you!
 

RajaNMizu

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Well, I just checked the price. With 5 cats it is financially impossible to feed just this food :-/. One 18 oz bag is $28 and would last 2 days. OMG.
I’m thinking of using it as a topper for high quality dry kibble. Suggestions??
I use it as part of my rotation for one cat (Mizu tried it once and tossed her kitty cookies right away) so Raja eats it a couple of times a week. My girls mainly eat Sheba twice a day (we have a few other brands in the rotation) and they still get a snack of dry Tiki chicken and fish luau. If you're looking for a really good dry food to add freeze dried to, I can recommend that one. It's listed 4th on catfooddb's "best" dry food recommendations CatfoodDB's Unbiased List Of The Best Dry Cat Foods but it's pricey at $17 for a 2.8 lb bag. A small bag lasts me more than a month with two cats eating about a tablespoon or two a day.
 

RajaNMizu

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Tobermory

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T
Most brands I’ve seen only have freeze dried raw as an additive, such as Merrick,” and Instinct Raw Boost. What brands are solely freeze dried raw?
Besides Stella & Chewy, two other complete meal freeze-dried raw brands that I’m familiar with are Primal and Northwest Naturals. They also have frozen raw complete meals.

I don’t have five cats, but I do have three and it’s too expensive to feed all freeze-dried raw for me. I make the girls’ food and rotate homemade occasionally with Rawz canned which has no fillers...although it’s expensive, too!
 

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I use it as part of my rotation for one cat (Mizu tried it once and tossed her kitty cookies right away) so Raja eats it a couple of times a week. My girls mainly eat Sheba twice a day (we have a few other brands in the rotation) and they still get a snack of dry Tiki chicken and fish luau. If you're looking for a really good dry food to add freeze dried to, I can recommend that one. It's listed 4th on catfooddb's "best" dry food recommendations CatfoodDB's Unbiased List Of The Best Dry Cat Foods but it's pricey at $17 for a 2.8 lb bag. A small bag lasts me more than a month with two cats eating about a tablespoon or two a day.
They do eat wet... Instinct, Whole Earth, and Applaws. My vet put them on Royal Canin Calm because of aggression issues. I think it’s a horrible food - full of fillers and bi-products. I called RC and voiced my concerns and they assure me that the bi products were organ meat only. I’m still not thrilled with all the fillers. I’ve been mixing their wet food with it. I want to eliminate it all together. I can’t afford the canned food alone and need to mix it with a high quality kibble. Since Stella is so expensive, I thought I’d use it as a topper. I had used Instinct Raw Boost in the past. I was wondering how you determine the carb level by the label. Is Instinct low carb? Is there something better out there?
Thank you!
I am horrible at math, so read this page +5 times or so and set up little Excel sheet :compsurfing: to calculate carb%!
 

kittyluv387

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They do eat wet... Instinct, Whole Earth, and Applaws. My vet put them on Royal Canin Calm because of aggression issues. I think it’s a horrible food - full of fillers and bi-products. I called RC and voiced my concerns and they assure me that the bi products were organ meat only. I’m still not thrilled with all the fillers. I’ve been mixing their wet food with it. I want to eliminate it all together. I can’t afford the canned food alone and need to mix it with a high quality kibble. Since Stella is so expensive, I thought I’d use it as a topper. I had used Instinct Raw Boost in the past. I was wondering how you determine the carb level by the label. Is Instinct low carb? Is there something better out there?
Thank you!
If you're still needing to feed any dry the money is still better spent for additional wet. The cats aren't really going to benefit from freeze dried raw if they're still eating dry. But they will definitely benefit from more wet!

Yeah there is a way to estimate the carbs. If you look at the back of the food you'll see the moisture content right? Well lets say a canned food has 78% moisture. You subtract the moisture content from 100% and you end up with a dry matter basis (dmb) percentage of 22%. Lets say that the same canned food in question has 10% protein. So then you divide 10 by 22 and you end up with 45% protein on a dmb. Let's also say the same canned food has 5% fat. You divide the 5 by 22 and you end up with about 23% fat on a dmb. 45% protein plus 23% fat is 68%. So if you subtract 68 from 100 you get 32% carbs on a dmb. So that canned food has 45% protein, 23% fat and 32% carbs. These are only estimates since manufacturers only provide min and max values and not actuals.
 
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