Wild Calling! Cat Food Review

There is a fairly new (2012) pet food company with a new line of dry cat foods called Wild Calling. I requested some samples since it is (currently) not sold in my area. I just received them today. I like the makeup of these foods and how the company is a family-owned one. They have good customer service and I got a response to my request for samples within the same day (of asking). They are currently making three different dry cat foods right now: turkey & sweet potato, salmon & sweet potato, and rabbit & sweet potato. They sent me all three types to let my cats try!

The ingredients are (I'm choosing to include ingredients from the rabbit one since the turkey one is in the cat food review page already but the others are almost the same with only a different source of protein, since they are made for rotation):
Rabbit Meal, Rabbit, Sweet Potato, Lentils, Turkey Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Tapioca, Dried Peas, Natural Flavor, Coconut Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Seaweed Meal, Bacillus coagulans Fermentation Product, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Taurine, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sodium Selenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid

This is a solid ingredient list for a food. The rabbit (and rabbit meal) is NOT sourced from China (a big plus since many brands DO source rabbit from China). In fact, this company does not source ANYTHING from China! The probiotics are a guaranteed minimum in the food too (which is not very common but great to see!)!
They also make dry dog foods (three single-protein source foods like the cat foods and three multi-source foods), canned dog foods and canned cat foods (including some interesting proteins like pheasant, rabbit, and buffalo).
Update: they both like all the flavors! They eat it up eagerly and seem to really like the taste. This will likely get added to my "rotation" of foods (I like to feed different types and brands of foods because it provides many different ingredients and provides less chance of a food allergy or nutrient deficiency).

Terrific Tuesday!

It has been a while since I last posted (though I have updated the food review page with some new foods and will be adding/updating more today as well). Smokey and Sunny are both doing well though Sunny still needs to lose weight (she has not gained any though, so that's good). To be honest though, I've not been sticking with her diet as much as I should because I've been gone a lot this summer. However, I'm going to get back on track with her diet and here's the plan. All the "weight loss" foods just seriously limit calories (they are less calorie dense) and often add fiber instead of protein, carbs or fat to "fill" the cat up with fewer calories. My plan (and one many vets recommend) is to limit calories to about 180-190 a day and get her to SLOWLY lose the weight. If she doesn't lose weight, I'll lower the daily calories to 170 and so on. This will allow her to stay on the same food (and will be easier for Smokey too).

Lilly is also doing well though she has probably lost most/all of the vision in her right eye (the cataract has gotten worse since she saw the vet). It doesn't seem to bother her though and she has NO problems finding food, water or anything else. There is nothing a vet can do for her (I talked to a specialist) to help the cataract, unfortunately.

The cats have never had any type of canned food except for the pate style (smooth ground) canned foods. However, I decided to let them try the Taste of the Wild canned cat foods since they are picky about canned foods and only like the Whitefish flavor of the Sheba food I feed them (they used to like others and I would prefer more variety in their diet). I've tried the Blue Buffalo Wilderness canned foods (they eat the dry food of this brand as their main food and love it) but they HATE them (I've tried duck, chicken, and salmon). They seem to like fish flavors best. I don't like feeding them fish flavors because of the risks associated with feeding fish frequently (some types are more acceptable to me though). I wanted to try trout because it's freshwater and is lower in iodine than many marine fish. There are few foods that have trout as the main ingredient though. This is why I let them try the Taste of the Wild food. The Canyon River Feline is trout based. The cats don't like it though (they took a couple bites and then went away from their dishes). I think the TOTW canned foods are great for cats because they have great ingredients, and are grain-free, but so far, my cats don't like them. However, if you're looking for a good canned food, try them (your cats might be different). I think that I have kibble addicts on my hands though so I will likely be trying to find more canned foods that they WILL eat (I want to get more water in their diets). I'll probably be doing another food review soon (on a newer brand), so keep an eye out for another post!