Hi! My name is Olivia and I have been an employee at Healthy Pet Products for a year now. However, prior to my employment here, feeding my cat a healthy and quality diet was my top priority. We have two cats at home, my cat Stella, and my brother’s cat Sammy, and they both are on high quality diets found right here at Healthy Pet Products.
Stella, my ragdoll, is on a predominantly raw diet (she gets the Rawz dehydrated chicken kibble when I’m out of town). She is currently on Vital Essentials chicken. For about the first 4 months of having Stella she was on the Victor kibble. While Victor is a high-quality kibble we carry, it can’t offer the same benefits one finds when their cat is on a raw or mostly raw diet. Within a few weeks of switching Stella to raw, I noticed differences; her fur became shinier, way softer than it already was, her stool became drastically smaller, and she began urinating less as she was drinking less water (raw fed animals tend to drink less water because they’re getting the necessary moisture from their diet alone).
When Stella was on just kibble, she often threw up her food minutes after eating. She’s a fast eater and cats don’t break down all of their food before swallowing. For them, digestion starts in the stomach, not the mouth, so she was swallowing whole pieces of kibble. Being on a raw diet, her digestive system can process the raw meat properly (the way cats are meant to) and she has never thrown up on raw, and it’s been almost four years.
Stella also would throw up hairballs when she was an all kibble diet. Being a ragdoll, she’s very fluffy. Once I switched her over to raw, she stopped throwing up hairballs almost immediately. She also hasn’t thrown up a single hairball on raw in almost four years.
Stella will be four in September, and she’s as healthy and happy as can be. She absolutely loves her raw and she gets so excited for breakfast and dinner. Her fur is incredibly soft and shiny, and her teeth and gums are healthy, too. You can also see clear
Sammy is about 9 years old. We rescued him a little over a year ago after he was in the shelter for only two days. For 9 years he was fed Purina kibble, and it showed when we first brought him home. His fur felt greasy and coarse, his breath was awful, and he had a little bit of dry/flaky skin.
Cats, unlike dogs, will starve themselves if they don’t like the food they’re given. That being said, for the first two days, Sammy did not eat. He refused the different foods I continued to try with him. He was dehydrated as well. Worried, we took him to the vet. On the counter was a container of Purina. Sammy went right up to it, knocked it over, and started eating it.
I wanted Sammy off the Purina as soon as possible. So, after many trial and errors, I was able to transition him to a predominantly wet diet. He currently goes back and forth between the B.F.F. line from Weruva and Lotus pates.
Sammy no longer has bad breath, his fur is so soft and shiny, and his dry skin healed! He absolutely loves his food. He also gets quite excited (and vocal!) when it’s time to eat. Once his food is in his bowl, he lays on the ground, puts his paw in his bowl, and pulls it towards him to chow down.
I am very thankful to have two not only healthy cats but two thriving cats. Their health is at the top of my priority list, and it’s refreshing to know that literally all of their health issues were solved by getting them on the right diet. They’re healthy and happy and that’s all we could ever ask for!