I want to share some amazing, and important, changes since switching to Newman's Own canned cat food.
I decided to switch my 2 indoor adult kitties from the convenient (for me) "dry-food-always-available" to (I first thought) a raw meat diet, and chose Newman's Own canned food for the transition. I'm so happy with this, and so are the boyz, that I'm staying with it.
The first 2 days they whined and nagged for their old dry food. I crumbled a few bits of dry into the canned for a couple of meals and that did the trick. If you're transition from dry to canned, don't be discouraged if they don't go for it immediately! Now they're settled into a 3 times daily 1/4 can, which I may try to transition into 2 feedings. I found the chicken and turkey versions at WalMart for $1.36/can, it's the only place in my town to get it, so will look at ordering online.
Here are the immediate benefits:
1) My older kitty, Skidmore, used to have chronic hairball and constipation problems. The younger cat, Dewey, is more dominant, and seems to make Skidmore groom him, so Skidmore spent about half his life not being able to eat or keep it down, then yarks up a hairball, then eats so voraciously that he barfed that, so I had to constantly monitor what he was doing and take food away for part of the day after he had just a little. He was miserable. Since I had to remove ALL the food, they both would be upset and constantly after me. However, since starting the Newman's Own canned food, Skidmore only barfed once the 2nd day, and since then I see no evidence of hairballs! He eats and keeps down the 1/4 can portions with no vomiting! They both leave for half an hour or so and come back to finish each meal, but it isn't sitting in their dishes very long.
2) Dewey (sorry if this is gross) always came running at the sound of wretching so he would get an extra warm meal. So he became somewhat overweight, with a fat pad around the tail. I see he had no interest in scarfing up the canned food, the one time Skidmore barfed it up.
3) I noticed the fat pad around Dewey's tail is gone! But since rapid weight loss puts cats at risk for fatty liver or pancreatitis, I started feeding him a little bigger portion to slow that down. Basically now, both of them now let me know when they need to eat, and I try to accommodate that since I'm home much of the day. It's worked into a 3x/day pattern mostly.
4) LITTERBOX! Poop quantity has decreased dramatically, because they're absorbing the nutrients and not passing all the fillers and animal by-products. Skidmore is no longer constipated, no more straining to go. Dewey used to have the most rank-smelling stools, and now there's basically NO ODOR! Also, Dewey used to have what I called "dead-rat-breath" but that's gone now, too. I had even taken him to the vet a couple years ago to see if there was some stomach problem, but there was none. It was just the crappy food. So there's an example of how I COULD have saved a vet bill with higher quality food. (They did suggest (and sell me) the Science Diet stuff but it made no difference.)
5) My biggest joy is knowing Skidmore is getting the nutrition he needs, and seeing him relaxed and playful all the time, not just in the periods between hairballs.
This stuff is definitely worth the price, and I thank the Newman's for their commitment to quality nutrition for all of us!