Instinct Original Kitten Wet Cat Food, Pate, Grain-Free - Real Chicken, 5.5 Ounce (Pack of 12)

A few of my cats don’t like this food, but others scarf it up. Since I don’t eat catfood, I can’t say it tastes delicious obviously, but I can judge by reading the ingredients list to know that it is one of the better wet food made. I will buy this brand as long as some of my cats love it!

I bought this brand of cat food for my kittens specifically for its nutritional value. It has an amazing ingredients list that puts most of the other brand cat foods to shame. All three of my cats ate it happily first time out of the can. We do however, have to mix some other brands of healthy cat food into the mix seeing as that even though this cat food is probably well worth it it's still pretty pricey. But what do we do for our loved ones right?

good stuff

Typical size and pretty good calorie content. Ingredients seem good, and Instinct is generally a high quality brand. However, my kitten simply doesn’t like eating it. He’ll take a couple bites and then just leave it…nothing I can do

My kitten loved it and, most importantly, it helped clear up his stomatitis! As a new cat mom I was blissfully unaware of the high percentage of cats that have some kind of mouth problem. Apparently, it's like 80% or something, yikes! During a vet visit my vet told me that my kitten had stomatitis (severe inflammation of the gums) and would likely need tooth extractions in the future. I certainly can't afford the thousands of dollars it would cost to do that, so I started researching and learned that some cats showed improvement after a diet change. I was currently feeding dry store-brand kibble, so I figured I'd give diet change a try. A bit of research on high quality cat foods led me to the Instinct brand which I purchased. Initially, I mixed the dry food with the canned food to see if I could stretch the food supply, but my kitten's gums remained inflamed even with daily tooth brushing. Eventually, I started feeding only canned and that combined with daily tooth brushing completely cleared the inflammation. I'd also like to add that I tried a store brand canned food for a few days when I ran out of Instinct and didn't order more ahead of time and the inflammation came back, so it's not just a canned vs dry food issue. It's my belief that my kitten was either allergic to the ingredients in the store-brand cat food or was experiencing a micro-nutrient deficiency leading to his inflammation. Whatever the issue was, it certainly wasn't a matter of simply brushing his teeth as that alone didn't help. I definitely recommend switching to a quality cat food if anyone's cat is experiencing gum inflammation to see if it helps before turning to more drastic measures like tooth extractions. I've now switched over to the Instinct brand freeze-dried nuggets because a month's supply of it costs me a bit less than a month's supply of the canned stuff. Whether freeze-dried nuggets or canned food, this brand has helped me keep my kitten's gum inflammation at bay. However, my kitten certainly misses the canned food and I may end up switching back because he likes it better.

I live in a small town with a terrible over-population of cats. People continuously bring in boxes and baskets of tiny kittens they have "found", or that they don't want. We didn't have ANY active group or organization willing or able to try and help, so I took it upon my self to begin a one-person effort to save some of the kittens. Over the past three years, I've found some other people to help with my "cause" and when funds are available, I won't be spending as much as I am now to save the baby kittens. But that hasn't happened, yet!! A 'few cans of cat food' helps, .......but kittens are terminally hungry! They can't be 'fed' only when food is available!! They eat continuously! But as of now, I am paying for all of the formulas, kitten foods, and related supplies I use to nurse the kittens back to health, and help find homes for them. At the moment, every cent I spend still comes out of my own pocket, even though our town has finally gotten a 501-C rescue, which is still (now at first) devoting most of their efforts to the feral (Trap, Neuter, Spay) effort to stop the over-breeding of homeless cats, but not all of the babies. I personally purchase / buy cases and cases of canned kitten foods out of my own pocket, .... all "stages", all "ages" and I try to buy all sizes of cans, and as many well-known brands as possible, to tend to each litter of kittens and their special needs. When a kitten is adopted, one of the biggest worries is that the new family won't feed something the kitten will eat, so I buy (and feed) an assortment of different foods to the kittens to help insure their success in their new home. I have no idea how many cases of this food I have purchased, some grain-free, some for weaning new kittens, small cans for tiny kittens, and larger cans for bigger litters. I recently noticed that the kittens weren't eating one specific food (( INSTINCT )), and were CONSISTENTLY leaving it in the dishes. Upon repeated inspection, I realized it was one specific food that the kittens weren't consuming. The food *looked different* from the other canned / wet foods because it had a 'grey-colored sheen' and the odor was not that of a typical canned food. I don't know what's different, but for some reason, my kittens are rejecting this food. I live in TX, where its been unusually cool this past week, but I have been unable to imagine why the kittens would reject / avoid one specific brand of food. I have even wondered if it has been previously accidentally frozen or undergone an unknown chemical change. When choosing which foods to buy, I tried to read the reviews and choose wisely to stretch each dollar. I so wish I could give this food a super 5-Star rating, ... but none of my babies of all backgrounds and all ages are willing to eat this food. I'm truly sorry that I can't honestly recommend this food !! I had ordered several cases of different sized cans, ...... and I would donate what I have left, ....but if my poor orphaned babies won't eat it, ... I don't think the ''high-brow'' kittens would eat it either. Please buy at least one or two cans from a pet store ...and try it out on your kitten before you order it by the case!!!