Food and Litter Report

As return visitors to The Kitty Krew may recall, a few weeks ago The Mommy mentioned that she was wanting to try to change our food to a more natural/healthy dry food from our regular kibble. Part of this in response to Bugsy's recent bladder stone surgery (yes, for you new readers, that's in addition to the eye removal surgery 10 days ago - it's been a rough summer for the Bugster!), and partly because she started reading about such things and thought a more healthy food would benefit us all.

So she received many suggestions (thank you all!) as well as some actual food from Angel and Kirby's mom that they weren't eating (thank you!), and has been trying out some different varieties on us the past few weeks. On top of that -- and this was a question from several of you in response to that original post, which The Mommy didn't have the answer for at the time -- it did turn out that Bugsy's bladder stone was a struvite stone, so the v-e-t wants to put Bugsy on that big-name prescription c/d stuff...which still doesn't have very healthy ingredients. More about that in a minute.

As it turns out, Pixie is our easy-to-please kitty. He'll eat pretty much anything, at least so far. On the other end of the spectrum, Callie is extremely picky and has been reluctant to even try anything but our old brand, Kit 'n Kaboodle. In between, Bugsy, Sassy and Roxy each have liked some of the varieties we've tried, and not others.

Just to give you a quick summary of the ones we tried: other than Pixie, Bugsy was the only one to eat the Addiction Venison flavor. But all of them except Callie liked the Addiction Salmon Bleu flavor. Angel and Kirby gave us food from By Nature, and Sassy really liked it, Bugsy and Pixie both ate it, but not Roxy or Callie. All except Callie and maybe Roxy (not sure if we've seen her eat it) like the Wellness Core flavor.

But even before hearing for sure that Bugsy's stone was a struvite stone, The Mommy had run across one of Wysong's products called Uretic, that's supposed to be specially formulated "for cats prone to urolithiasis" -- a fancy way of saying bladder stones (and similar conditions) when it comes to cats. So she ordered some of that, figuring she could at least see if Bugsy specifically, and any of the rest of us, liked it, in case it was necessary to eat that kind of food.

Whoa nelly. Hands down, it's been the most popular food we've tried. We all eat it -- and we do mean ALL, she's even seen Miss Persnickety CALLIE eat it. Thing is, the v-e-t doesn't really want Bugsy eating it, or at least relying on it to do what it needs to do, since it doesn't have "clinical studies" and so forth standing behind it, like the big-name stuff does. (Although they do have a prescription version, too.) But he has an open mind, and is willing to let us try it for awhile and monitor Bugsy closely to see if it looks like he still has a problem with struvite crystals as a precursor to any recurring stones.

Now, we haven't given up on our old standby KnK, either. Depends on what we're in the mood for. But what The Mommy would like to do is get rid of the KnK altogether, and have another healthy food to use as a second food alternative instead. So there are still a couple of other samples or small bags of food that she has yet to test us on, as she's reluctant to take away the KnK until she finds something else Miss Picky Callie will eat too.

The Mommy also got a few cans of healthy stinky goodness for us as a test to see if we'd like it -- we've never much been into that before -- and once again, all but Miss Picky have been enjoying a spoonful or so as a treat on the weekends. She got two different flavors of Wellness Core, one is chicken/turkey/liver and the other is salmon/whitefish/herring. Miss Picky doesn't know what she's missing! She'll lick a little off The Mommy's finger, but won't eat it out of the bowl herself. Silly goose.

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We've also been among many kitty bloggers trying out The World's Best Cat Litter since early last month. The Mommy first did a split-box thing, where one box had the free sample (thanks, Drew!) of WBCL and the other box had our old litter. While there was a clear preference shown for the old litter, the WBCL was definitely being used. After a couple-three weeks of that, The Mommy decided it was time to get some more WBCL and switch out both boxes, to give it a real test.

There was some initial resistance by someone, we're not sure who but there's a good chance it was once again Miss Picky Callie (although possibly Roxy). Whoever it was, was only peeing outside the boxes, they were still using them to poop at least. But now, after a couple of weeks, either resistance is gone, or another not-as-obvious peeing place has been found...

The Mommy definitely likes WBCL much better than the old stuff. Better odor control, doesn't get tracked through the house as much, little/no dust, clumps better. It's denser, which probably helps it clump better, but it also makes sifting it a little harder so it takes a bit longer to clean the boxes -- but that's such a small trade-off compared to the good points. She doesn't try flushing it since we have a septic system and don't want to risk adding too much to the tank (hey, with 5 cats, we have a lot of waste!), so can't say how well that works.

It's made of corn, and it seems to have almost a sawdust/barn smell to it - pleasant, not harsh. Definitely no perfume-y or chemical smell. It's more expensive initially, but intended to last longer so the cost benefit should be somewhat equal over time.

Right now, they're celebrating the grand opening of their re-designed website and re-designed product packaging, and all bloggers can get a $4.00 off coupon on their site through August 29 - Get $4.00 off WBCL!. WBCL is available generally at Petsmart and Petco, as well as other retailers and some online stores as well. There's a store locater on their website.

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That's a lot of info for one post, maybe useful maybe useless. But we thought we'd share it anyway! Now we need to go nap through the rest of this Easy Sunday. You cats take it easy, too!