Day 93: Blue Wilderness Cat Food

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 93: Blue Wilderness cat food

Are your cats finicky eaters? Mine certainly are. While Halley, at 5,5 months, eats pretty much anything I put in front of her, Gabriel, Charlotte, and Holly are super picky where cat food is concerned.

When Holly was recently at the vet with a rear end problem, and the vet diagnosed her with food allergies, he suggested that we switch her from whatever food she was on and feed her better-quality food. We took home a few cans from the clinic, one of the top brands, but when I presented Holly and the others with the food they turned their backs on it.

Alright, then I would try something different. I went to the pet food store and enlisted the help of the shop assistant to help me determine which brands were considered good. Not that that was of much help because she stated that all the brands on the shelf were considered high-quality cat food. So, I took a few cans of every brand available.

Laden with two heavy plastic bags I dragged myself home and for the next few days, when supper time came around, I presented Gabriel, Charlotte, Holly and Halley with one brand after another. With some brands, they took one whiff and walked away, with others they nibbled, but I could see that they didn’t really like it.

Damn, not only had I spent a small fortune on this cat food, but if they didn’t like it, what was I supposed to do now?

According to a friend I had approached this switching of cat food all wrong. To switch them successfully I was supposed to mix 1/4 of the new food with 3/4 of their regular food and gradually increase the ratio. I did that and I could hardly believe the cats’ reaction … the nibbled away their regular good and left the quality food virtually untouched. To say that I was getting desperate is putting it mildly.

That’s when another friend suggested Blue Wilderness. Since she is a former Ragdoll breeder who loves her cats like parents love their kids and I trusted her completely. So off I went to the pet store again in search of Blue Wilderness.

Still, I was a little hesitant about the brand because recently there had been a number of pet food recalls. I’d never heard of a Whiskas or Friskies recall, it was always the specialty brands. So, I wrote to Blue Wilderness and this is the answer I received …

Thank you for taking your time to contact BLUE. In response to your email, product quality is our #1 priority. We have strict controls in place to make sure that our ingredients meet the highest quality standards.

These controls include the following:

Certificate of origin for all ingredients

COA's (certificates of analysis) on all our ingredients prior to accepting

Testing of each ingredient for known toxins prior to accepting

Testing during production to ensure that our formulas meet our nutritional specifications.

Testing after production to ensure product stability and freshness.

Testing after production for salmonella.

Our foods all are manufactured in factories located here in the USA.  Many of our ingredients, such as most of our grains and meats, come from the USA. Our lamb and venison can be free range from the USA or New Zealand. Our rabbit is sourced from Europe, and our trout can come from the USA or Canada.  Where possible our suppliers are instructed to source their ingredients from the US. Where the ingredients are not readily available in the US, such as many vitamins and minerals, our suppliers will only work with reliable foreign companies, and subject all ingredients to rigorous quality testing.

Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.

When I got home, I saw to my consternation that there was no regular cat food left in the house. Now I wouldn’t be able to mix Blue Wilderness with their regular food. If they didn’t like it, they would have nothing to eat.

With more than a little trepidation, I placed their plate of Blue Wilderness on the floor and fervently hoped they would eat it. Not only did they eat it, they devoured it. Holly, who is the champion of picky eaters went for four helpings and in the end, the plate was licked clean. When I saw them returning to an empty plate, again and again, I decided to open another tin, which they also finished.

Safe to say, the food switch has been successfully made and Blue Wilderness is a hit!

 https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/toronto-cat-rescue-bowl-a-thon-9/