Friday, April 29, 2016

"See you later alligator" Alligator?? #catfood #chewyinfluencer


When Chewy's Blogger Outreach offerings email came to my email inbox this month I kept my foster cats in mind. Having a foster mother with six hungry babies I wanted to opt for canned food to help keep mom fed and the babies nourished. You saw my post about the Wellness food I received but I also asked for and was given a case of Wild Callings canned food.

Fleurp LOVES boxes from Chewy.com

The email offer was for the dog food of this brand, and I almost asked for the dog version of the food because they are generally very similar when you are talking limited ingredient canned diets. There are specifications for a few nutrients, that need to be in cat food, that are not regulated in dog food, taurine being one of them, but as something that I intended to be a once in a while treat I figured it wouldn't be an issue. Then the thought occurred to me that Chewy is very easy to work with and maybe if I asked I would be given the cat version of the food, and I was.

Alligator? really?Why would anyone want to feed their cat alligator? It isn't like you would ever see a cat hunting a wild alligator - well maybe wee baby just hatched alligators since they look a bit like lizards. But then again, you would rarely see a cat taking down a cow or fishing in the ocean either. Since we humans rely heavily on the hope that commercial pet food makers to understand feline nutrition and the cat's needs, it is not a bad idea to 'hedge your bets' and offer your cats a variety of different types of foods and protein sources to try to cover any nutritional deficiencies that might be in one brand. This is what is generally called a 'rotation diet'.

There are several nice things that I like about this line of foods. They are mostly animal products. In the case of the alligator, it is 96% alligator. It has no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives which is something I like because cats do not care about colors and artificial flavors bother me. It is grain free and gluten free and starch free (no potato or peas here) and only has guar gum as a binder. I can not say there is anything about this type of food I don't like - and that is saying something.

So why not alligator? Besides, isn't it fun to say your cat is eating alligator?


The first thing I noticed about this food was the texture. It is a fairly soft consistency, almost like a pudding. It also has a distinct aroma which wasn't unpleasant but was different from the other canned foods I feed my cats when I'm not feeding them raw. My first thought was Muffin would not eat this. I was quite curious who would.


Muffin took one sniff and walked away, which is pretty much what I expected her to do as she is very particular about the cat foods she eats - I say cat foods because this cat loves pop tarts, she is really odd. The rest of The Crew checked out the food and had a few bites with Fleurp eating the most, but no one really ate a lot of it. We ended up throwing about half of what we put down away.

But the reason I asked for the food was for the foster kittens. What would my foster mother think?


I love that she was willing to give the food a try, but unfortunately, she wouldn't eat it either. Don't make a single judgment from that because she will only eat the junkiest of junk foods right now and most of the time will shun healthy foods for kibble. The fact that she was willing to get up and go over and check it out was huge.

While I would have loved it if this food was adored by all and eaten with gusto by everyone, I am still not disappointed. I have another food in the house that is novel and being able to introduce kittens to a wide variety of foods is very important to me. I have found over the years that the more foods I can get them eating now the less likely they are to be picky eaters as adults. Cats are often called "picky" and "finicky" because they refuse new foods when they are adults, but that is because they are hard-wired to do so. Nature has taught them that if mom didn't bring the food home for them to eat, then the item being offered as food must not be actual food. In the wild it could save their lives. Their bodies haven't learned that their humans wouldn't feed them nonfood items to eat. You can overcome their biology if you are patient, but it is just easier for them if they experience different foods as kittens and now I get to offer this year's kittens alligator!!

Thank you, Chewy! I really appreciate the opportunity to help broaden the lives of the kittens in my care.  And Muffin thanks you for the packing paper. It is her favorite part of the whole program!


10 comments:

  1. Alligator sounds fascinating! I think it would be awesome if my human brought some home... not sure if we'd eat it either, though.

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  2. interesting cat food,it will be nice to see what the kittens will think of this food,xx Rachel

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  3. Alligator...wow! Never thought of serving it for kitties! Sorry it wasn't a hit there. I tried some when I lived in Florida. I thought it tasted like chicken, so some kitties might think the same :-)

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  4. that is interesting....not sure how that would go over here either

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  5. Art3mis's coat is so shiny! And her babes are adorbs. Had no idea alligator was available...we may try some!

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  6. We've tried this line of food...but not the alligator. So far, we like the duck one the best. Maybe we should try alligator.

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  7. Sorry it was not a hit. My hubby had alligator once . Many years ago at a restaurant at Disney, there were crackers and dip on the table- I am glad I passed it up- he gagged when he found out what it was.

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  8. That sounds a little to exotic for me...
    Have a super weekend.

    Noodle and crew

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  9. Alligator ? Really ? That sounds too exotic for us ! Purrs

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