My Second Open Letter To The Pet Food Companies:

After exhaustive research & testing, the only commercial food I can find that my kitty tolerates well & likes is California Natural Chicken & Rice. From what I can tell, their food is the only one that has not been recalled & has no seafood, & no fruits & vegetables that don't agree with kitties with allergy problems like mine.

Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that Natura's quality control has become much less then it used to be.

If someone would start a new company making a formula(s) similar to Cal Nat, while making QUALITY CONTROL. HONESTY, & INTEGRITY your #1 priorities, I would gladly pay double what I pay for Cal Nat. I suspect many other pet food parents would do the same.

We just want quality food that our furr friends will thrive on. It shouldn't require revolutionary techniques to make safe healthy cat food!

The food I wish to buy will have no ingredients from China. No Menadione. No Garlic. No Onion. No Avocado. No Glutens. No out of date inaccurate labels, & no lies about a 6 month accuracy law that doesn't exist. I also require food not manufactured by Menu or Diamond, & my kitty really prefers dry.

For my kitty specifically  (& others like him) their needs to be a flavor with no seafood of any kind & no fruits/veggies that a cat won't eat on their own in the wild. PFC's, Cats aren't people. Cats don't need or want the health food veggies that people do.

PFC's, if anyone reading this wants to honor my request, I suspect you'll get a ton of business.

I've been living in a fantasy that Natura is going to fix their problems. That doesn't appear to be happening. With my cat I feel like I may still have to either feed Natura & hope the salty, greasy "grit" doesn't harm him or home cook. I AM NOT HAPPY.

Jenny, isn't by Nature Organics USDA certified? That ups the bar on asking for better wet foods too from these indies. Right now, from the indies, I'm doing ok with kibble selection.

However, since the nutrition recommendations are to feed wet. And, that's where I'm not happy with indies (or my cats aren't lol), it's byNature organic wet and back to the big3 for no wheat gluten wets.

I agree totally with Geff about the veggies, berries,potatoes in cat foods. (For the sake of clarity - my objections are that the GRAS for most of that is for use as flavorings, not as anti-oxidents or Antimicrobials- My cats, on the other hand, simply insist that isn't cat food.)

The Consistency/lack of it in indie wet products and the production issues in wet & dry have driven me over the edge- and on that shelf is the Big 3.

Jenny, I have had that same problem with many wet foods.

This ByNature is one of the very few that after "jump starting" the meal , by putting a tiny bite or 2 in their mouths as suggested by somebody here in Itchmo, they ate the food in their dish. Now, they'll eat it (except the fish one) without "jump starting".

Kitty crax is still what they'd like to have instead of any wet choices 

Some mornings , when it seems that they're holding out hoping for the Fancy Feast (no gluten), I just ignore them and they'll eat what is in their dishes. They only get FF for nighttime meals now. FF is the only one they'll eat 2 meals in a row.  I've had to untrain them from expecting the buffet that I used to have to offer to get Geneva (rb) to eat on her own- it seems multiple choices made these even pickier.

Someday, maybe soon, I'll even get them off the FF to, IMO, healthier choice with no byproducts. I'm trying to get them back onto Instinctive Choice that that they ate 1 case of & then stopped- or something else. Then, maybe, I'll rest easier...

I can't imagine the stress Geff has from the additional worry about allergic reactions to some of these foods..

Some days I remember life before the recall and my awareness of toxins in the pet food....and wonder "How the heck did the pet food industry come to this?? When the heck will they fix it?"  Sigh, while we "slept" & trusted. Now, we're awake and majorly stressed..

ps. YMMV on jump starting & brands...

kittymom, perhaps if enough of us do that they will take notice.  Before my letter to Wellness asking them to make a 95% meat formula, I asked them to make a limited ingredient diet - they responded that they make Wellness Core. So, they really didn't get my request.  Hopefully they start understanding better.  I would really love if they made something with fewer ingredients, and even better if it is similar to ByNature with meat and nutrients only.

I hope you don't mind that I jump in here because I don't have a cat, I have a dog.  However, I feel the same as you do about all the fluff that comes in dog food.  I want a food that has protein, I don't mind a veggie or two (dogs seem to like those more than cats do) & vitamins/minerals.

So far, I have used Wellness Core & Natures Variety Instinct with good results (both are dry).  Because of Hannah's yeast infection, I am working to build up her immune system & try to get her nutrition back into balance so (for now) I stopped home cooking completely & I'm doing a combo of wet, dry & home cooking.  I use Evangers Super Premium canned because, depending on the flavor, it has meat, water & vitamins......some flavors do have veggies but there are others that do not.  I honestly haven't checked out the cat food but it's worth a try to check it out.  They do can their own in a kosher facility......only mention that because so many wet foods are made at Menu that I was freaking out trying to find a decent wet food that wasn't made there.

I'm sure there are other good cat foods but I just wanted to share what I have found so far in my quest for a dog food without a lot of fluff.  Right now we can only pray a lot that the premium food we are giving our babies isn't the next recall.

And, no, I don't work for any pf company.  NOT!

I had two cats years ago & I remember how much cat food I had to throw out so I know all about how fussy they can be.  Thankfully, my Lab will eat anything which is a real blessing when you have to restrict certain foods.

How about mixing dry with wet.....would that work?  How about a little tuna, sardines or clams & their juice on the top?  I know it's awful when you can't find something that your cat will eat but I'd try any kind of "bribe" that'll work.

It's even worse when you're afraid to feed any canned from Menu.....sadly, they do make the food for many of the companies (it appears that some of them are pulling out which I think is wonderful).  If all else fails, go to the pet food list & do some research there.....a lot of the companies won't tell you where their canned or pouched food is made but the pet food list does have a lot of good info all in one place.

If you need a link, I'll be happy to post it.......