the honest kitchen - grace. not going over well

stephanie42

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so i was a very bad cat mom.  earlier this month we went away and had a cat sitter in.  because jake is very, very afraid of other people, we decided to buy a small bag of kibble.  the sitter fed it to the three cats on time a day with the idea that jake would come out whenever he wanted and eat some kibble.  it seemed to work and then because i was planning my brother's wedding and starting school.... i was really lazy.  we kept feeding the kibble until last week.  the litter boxes were horrible.

we've put them back on their all canned diet and are still feeding merrick grain free, wellness core indoor (they love it), and a bit of nature's variety instinct.  (we stopped feeding pride after i realized how high the carb content was).  yesterday we went to buy a thousand more cans of cat food at our local independent pet store and my plan was to buy more stella & chewys - we used to feed it and they all liked it.  

of course, the pet store was out of all except duck duck goose, which one of cats was not thrilled with in the past.  they did, however, have the 2lb box of the honest kitchen grace in stock, which was recommended by the worker.  i read the ingredients and wasn't horrified so we got it - $29 for 2lb (we pay $18-20 for 12oz of stella & chewy's so this seemed like a decent deal).

i went to feed them last night, measuring it out and adding warm water and letting it sit.  samantha (who can't smell and seems to eat almost anything) dug in.  piglet and jake refused.  jake licked at it a couple of times and walked away, sitting down and staring at me like i insulted him.  piglet sniffed at it, went to see what the other cats had, and then sat where she usually sits when begging for food and just stared at me.  i gave them some canned turkey and they ate with gusto.

now, what am i supposed to do?  should i just try mixing it in with their canned food?  as nice as that sounds, it defeats the purpose of my not having to spend money on canned food for all three meals.  
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Honestly, I don't know of many cats who will eat The Honest Kitchen.  Can you return it even though it's been opened?  Most independent pet stores will let you return food if not much of it is gone. 

Otherwise, I guess you can try mixing it with canned and hope they will eat it.
 

LTS3

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Originally Posted by stephgas  

a bit of nature's variety instinct.  (we stopped feeding pride after i realized how high the carb content was). 
Carb content of canned food isn't really a problem unless your cat needs to be on a low carb diet for health reasons (like diabetes). For healthy cats, you can feed canned foods up to 20% carbs but of course, you decide how many carbs you want your cats to have
Under 10% carbs is great but the variety of food is pretty limited but if you go up to 20% carbs there's a wider variety of foods to choose from. There's a great chart here that lists the carb content of various brands of canned and raw food: http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf It hasn't been updated in some time but the info is still valuable.

The Honest Kitchen Grace is about 10% carbs per serving while Prowl is about 20% carbs.
 now, what am i supposed to do?  should i just try mixing it in with their canned food?  as nice as that sounds, it defeats the purpose of my not having to spend money on canned food for all three meals. 
You can try mixing the rehydrated Honest Kitchen into canned food.

Did the pet store have Nature's Variety Instinct freeze dried raw? You can try feeding that until you can get more of the Stella and Chewy's. Primal Pet is another brand of freeze dired raw you can try.
 
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stephanie42

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well, i tried mixing a bit of it in with their canned and that's kind of sort of working.  but it's an expensive habit.  i was trying to get away from feeding canned three times a day.  now i'm feeding canned three times a day with a really expensive mix in.

@mrsgreenjeens   i'm going to call or stop in tomorrow and see what they say.  i was thinking like i could try to slowly transition them over to all honest kitchen but i *know* they like three stella & chewys flavors so I'm kind of like, why bother?  @LTS3  they have one variety of the NV instinct freeze dried but it's actually pretty darn pricey compared to everything else.  

i think i might just suck it up and stick with cans until they get more in, or stop at a not-so-local independent pet store that also carries s&c.  and then hopefully after my life calms down i can start home cooking for them again.
 

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Honestly, I don't know of many cats who will eat The Honest Kitchen.
  I remember trying this a long time ago (before all my cats' issues) and they all hated it. Literally smelled it and ran away. Luckily it was only a trial size.
 
now i'm feeding canned three times a day with a really expensive mix in.
  That does seem to defeat the purpose, doesn't it? I'm sorry your life has been crazy and you've had to stop home cooking. It sounds like you may have to return The Honest Kitchen, or mix it in with their canned food until it's all used up.
 
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stephanie42

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i was able to return it to the pet store for store credit.  i was going to use that to get them back on stella & chewys, but there is a huge backorder apparently and most independent stores in our area are out of it :( so back on the canned merrick/core/nvi for now.
 

goholistic

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Glad you were able to return it. And sorry about S&C. It's so frustrating when a food that works is not available!
 

chromium blues

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I found I had to mix strained chicken into the Honest Kitchen to get them to eat it. I thought it smelled good, but the cats found it lacking unfortunately.
 
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