My issue seems much more trivial now after reading about Jana's hardship with her beautiful cat. Sending good vibes your way.
I came here today because of food drama. My boy had been eatting Wild Frontier uneventfully since Autumn of last year, but this summer they made some ownership changes. Originally they were part of Nutro, but were a higher quality, grain free edition sold as a special diet, packed full of nutrition formulated based on what the ancestors of our modern house cat would have eaten in the wild. They were also advertised as more eco-friendly, everything grown and raised on a renewable energy wind farm. However, Wild Frontier broke away from Nutro just before July of this year, and the are in the process of becoming independent. As I understand it they're developing new products and new packaging, and in the meantime there isn't any Wild Frontier for my cat to eat at most stores. I have been trying to find a new cat food during the interim, but it hasn't been easy.
My pet is a large cat who is approaching maturity between 6-9 years old, and my veterinarian would like him to lose a pound or two. So a very healthy cat food is essential, especially because he is an indoor cat and has a healthy appetite normally. Since he likes to eat at all hours I need to make sure that he is at least eatting something very nutritious so he doesn't develop a weight problem long term and any health complications that might arise from that like diabetes.
One reason I settled on Wild Frontier was because it was one of the few dry formulas that ranked very high quality at Cat Food Database. They take a very critical eye. If they give a brand a significantly above average score of 7 or higher, then it's near perfect. Wet food tends to be superior in quality to dry cat food more often, but unfortunately my cat will not eat anything out of a can, he won't even eat meat. It has to be kibble, he is for some reason very particular about that. My vet says some cats are like that. However, this provides me with some degree of challenge already because dry food normally has more carbohydrates.
There are some very good dry cat foods, but the balancing act is finding a top quality dry cat food that my cat also likes the taste of, and the two don't seem to go hand and hand usually. Often really good dry cat food comes in big cubical pieces or is even freeze dried raw meat, but my cat will not eat anything like that. He won't even eat table scraps like shrimp, fish or chicken. He's is adamant about eatting only pellets of dry cat food, and they can't look too exotic. Wild Frontier was discovered by me through some trial and error, after he wouldn't eat Crave or Tiki Cat, though both considered high end cat food.
Right now with Wild Frontier not around I tried to serve him Merrick Perfect Bistro complete care grain free weight control. It got really good ratings for nutrition and quality, but he is not thrilled to be eating it. I didn't want to switch him to a strange, new cat food abruptly, so for about a week I added small bits of Merrick to what's left of his Wild Frontier, gradually increasing the amount of Merrick little by little each day. I had hoped to transition him to Merrick, and initially he seemed to eat it like normal, but now that I am out of Wild Frontier and it's mostly Merrick he has caught on that's it's something different. He leaves most of his food throughout the day, yet clearly doesn't act like he is full. He acts hungry, and comes to me meowing regularly. I serve him Merrick, and he just looks at it and walks away, or reluctantly eats a few kernels.
These last few days have been really difficult. He's been meowing incessantly, especially during the night, trying to communicate that he's hungry, each time sounding more and more distressed as the Merrick cat food accumulates in his bowl. Obviously he can't understand that there are issues with the manufacturer, and just wants his old food back. I am not sleeping good because my poor cat cries every other hour.
This weekend I bought him a pet food dispenser maze, where kernels of food roll down on tracks like a gum ball machine if he interacts with it. I thought maybe the element of play would make the food enticing to him, and he would be more willing to try the new food. While he looks at the toy with curiosity, he will not touch the food when it falls down.
I feel bad for my cat. I want him to be in shape, but I don't want him to lose weight by starving himself. This has not been easy on him or me.
I saw a bag of Wild Frontier on eBay that was new, unopened and is not beyond the expiration date, and was considering purchasing it, hoping that by the time he finishes eatting this bag I would be able to buy Wild Frontier again at the normal outlets. I'm a little wary of buying pet food from an individual, even though they have been established on the site for awhile, have many products and all good feedback. But I can't help but worry, what if the bag has been tampered with?
Merrick is not going to work out though. There's another brand of cat food I'm also thinking of trying called Open Farm. I have heard good things about them before as especially nutritrous, packed full of meat and super foods, and also by pet food standards they are reportedly very ethical with turkey and chickens that are free-range, grass-fed, raised all naturally, no antibiotics and growth hormones. They also passed Cat Pet Food database's strict requirements with a high score, so if my cat were to eat it then this would be something very good for him.
However, there's always a risk when buying a new brand, and I have already spent a ton of money this month trying to make him happy. I'm worried it will be another bag of cat food that just sits there, and this is one of the more expensive brands on the market so I don't want it to go to waste. I'm wondering if I should just buy the Wild Frontier on eBay, knowing that at least it's food he likes, even though I also am worried about buying car food from a seller I'm starting to get desperate about what to do.
