With my first child still on the way (the Countdown is on . . . just four more weeks till he’s due!), I have already been a Mom for almost fifteen years now – to three adorable, and yes, spoiled furry little ones! My cats are all rescues, and range in age from about 16 to about 13 years old (exact ages are hard to know with rescues.) While they still love to play and frolic throughout the house, I have to frequently remind myself that they are in fact senior citizens and increasingly requite more careful attention and health care – especially when it comes to their diet.
For this reason, I was very excited when I was offered the opportunity to test out Petcurean brand of pet foods with my three fur-babies. The company has been around since 1999, and is an independent, Canadian-owned family business, so that alone stands out to me as an impressive reason to consider switching brands.
The company’s website is full of wonderful information and is incredibly detailed – with charming bios of the entire team (and of course, the cats and dogs who love them!) as well as a strong brand message and description of purpose which I found to be incredibly compelling:
“We make Petcurean pet foods with the same love and care that we put into preparing dinner for our own families; we’re epicureans. It’s what we do. We start thinking about food, and become inspired. We find ourselves creating recipes with passion and purpose, recipes that nobody has thought of making. We cook our recipes for a longer period of time, at slower temperatures, to preserve as much of the ingredients’ original nutritional value as possible.”
The website also covers a wide array of reasons why switching over to Petcurean premium pet foods is not only a healthier option for your pet, but can also be a better and more environmentally conscientious choice for you. You can also call Petcurean toll-free at1.866.864.6112 to speak to their full-time nutritionist.
Of course, if you are a pet owner, just as if you are a mom to a real baby, you know that you don’t always get to pick what baby eats – he will be very opinionated on his own tastes and preferences and there isn’t much you can do about it!
After carefully considering the variety of options available from Petcurean at my local Pet Value store, including NOW FRESH (nutritious , gluten-free natural food with “Zero grains, zero rendered meats, zero by-product meals, or artificial preservatives.”); GO! (a “complete, nutrient-packed food that puts more “life” into everyday dogs and cats”); and SUMMIT (the original recipe, which is marketed as “whole food for life” ), I selected the Senior NOW FRESH recipe for my kitties.
I was excited to try out such a natural product, and was impressed by its ingredients listing, which included nutritious ingredients like 100% market-fresh turkey, salmon and duck. 100% fresh Omega 3 and 6 oils from coconuts and canola. Wholesome berries, fruits and veggies such as peas, spinach, cranberries, pumpkin, blackberries, alfalfa sprouts, kelp, lentils and carrots. The recipe features a balance of proteins and fats to help with weight management, which can be an issue for senior cats, as well as Pre and Probiotics, to support healthy digestion. The Omega Oils are great for promoting skin and coat health, while the addition of Taurine to the recipe is beneficial to healthy vision and heart function and antioxidants help with increased immunity. Not to mention, that NOW FRESH contains no grains, gluten, wheat, beef, corn or soy as well as zero rendered meats, by-products or artificial preservatives! I have to say, reading the product packaging in the store, I was wowed and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of the brand sooner!
The cashier clearly approved of my purchase, sharing with me that he uses the same Petcurean NOW FRESH with his two dogs and they love it! (For those of you whose fur-babies are of the larger, more woof-prone variety, Petcurean makes all of the same products for dogs as well!)
I decided to begin to introduce the Petcurean brand of premium cat food to my three little darlings by offering up a bowl as a treat rather than directly replacing it for their typical food, just to see how they liked the taste of it. My plan was then to slowly introduce it more frequently into their diet, as cats – especially senior ones – can not only be finicky eaters but can also have very delicate systems so any changes to their diet should be made slowly in slight increments so as to allow their bodies to adjust to the changes.
Pouring the food out into a dish for them, my first thoughts were that it looked rather bland. Compared side by side with our normal cat food (which is an indoor cat formula and boasts “complete nutrition” and “fewer calories plus extra fiber to help control hairballs” as well as “accents of garden greens”), NOW FRESH looked boring and dry. Of course, thinking further on it, the vibrant colours of our normal cat food were certainly from artificial dyes, and the small, pellet shape of the Petcurean food would obviously be much easier for our senior cats to chew! At that point, I began to feel quite good about introducing my fur-babies to this new food, but I still was uncertain as to what their reaction would be.
Before I describe the results of my taste test, let me first say that my three cats each have very different personalities and very different eating habits/preferences.
Patches, my eldest cat, was a semi-feral rescue. He is a large Turkish Van cat, and in his younger days struggled with recurring health problems as well as weight management issues. He’s a big guy. That being said, he’s an incredibly picky eater and will only eat hard food. His picky tastes and sensitivities to certain brands/flavours have made selecting a brand which I considered healthy and he considered palatable to be a very challenging ordeal in the past!
Jezebel and Cleo are sisters. Cleo is a Black Tabby, and for the most part, is a gentle, well-behaved, easy-going cat. She will typically eat any kind of food offered to her, though she can be incredibly timid and nervous when eating, so will allow the others to push her out of the way until they are finished eating. She loves to have soft food occasionally as a treat, and has never once had an upset stomach from anything she has eaten.
Jezebel on the other hand was the runt of the litter. She has Mackerel Tabby markings and despite – or perhaps because of – her small stature, she has a huge personality! She is incredibly needy but also very bossy and will outright attack the other cats if they get in the way of something she wants, be it food or the attention of one of her adoring humans (of course, being so small, her attacks are more adorable than menacing, and neither her teeth nor her claws are capable of any real damage!) She will eat ANYTHING in sight, and begs us for table scraps – especially red meats or anything with cream in it. She also has the most sensitive stomach though, and so if she eats too quickly or indulges in too much soft cat food or treats, she will be ill.
So I was expecting some curiosity but also some hesitancy with my first introduction of the Petcurean brand of cat food to my kitties, and I was prepared to face stomach troubles, allergies or other negative reactions, as I have had to deal with numerous times in the past when I have attempted to upgrade their food to a brand more in line with my opinions on healthy eating or premium ingredients.
What I wasn’t really prepared for what how much they would love it! Here is Patches and Jezebel with the sealed bag – already salivating just at the thought of eating this new food . . .
. . . and here is the result of placing two bowls – one of their normal food and one of the new Petcurean food – side by side next to their water bowl for their first taste test:
These were the bowls by morning.
The kitties woke us up early that day, having refused to finish their normal food and begging instead for more of the Petcurean NOW FRESH food they had sampled the day before!
I still insisted on slowly introducing the new food in small increments mixed with their normal food, just to be sure that they wouldn’t experience any digestive issues, but they were pretty reluctant to eat their old brand at all, leaving crumbs of it in their bowl and eating around it just to get the Petcurean food! After two weeks, they have completely transitioned and for myself and the kitties, we can happily say we aren’t looking back now that we’ve found such a wonderful company with such a wonderful product!