Instinct Pate Entrees, Wet Canned Cat Food, Grain-Free - Real Duck, 5.5 oz. Cans (Pack of 12)

This is a great food and my cat loves it! The only thing that seems a bit strange to me is the difference in consistency between batches, and even the difference in consistency between the 3 ounce cans and the 5 ounce cans. Seriously, it looks like a different food, with the 3 ounce cans looking much smoother in texture, and the 5 ounce cans looking much more "grainy". I hope that the following review will help someone with a cat that has stomach issues similar to mine... I have tried many, many products aimed at helping with digestive upset for my cat. Her pain and suffering was so great that I thought I was going to have to put her to sleep. I went to multiple vets and had thousands of dollars worth of diagnostics done to try and find out why she was having acid reflux, crying and subsequently vomitting (endoscopy, xray, ultrasound, bloodwork, etc). One vet told me to just give her pepcid. This worked for a while, but then became completely ineffective after a while. The same vet then told me that she probably just has food allergies and would have to be on steroids for the rest of her life, and thats all that could be done, and prescribed different kinds of Science Diet (which we all know is actually a terrible food for cats with digestive problems). Well, what do you know, the steroids didn't help AT ALL. I tried probiotics of various brands for pets, I tried digestive enzymes, I tried many different natural products designed to help ease digestive / intestinal inflammation.... I tried a homiopathic vet (the only one in my area) and spent a few thousand more dollars rerunning tests and running other tests for pancreatitis, etc. I tried MAKING her food from raw meat to try and eliminate food allergies to commericial foods as a potential problem, etc. I TRIED EVERYTHING, but still my cat was constantly licking her lips, then crying in terrible pain and vomitting very consistently, and now was losing interest in her food and was losing weight and starting to look boney. I was determined to not give up on her though. I had just lost my wife to infection during a failed bone marrow transplant / cancer during all this, and was not about to give up on my girl. I stopped making her food and started getting her Natures Variety canned Rabbit formula and the duck formula. She loved the food but it did not seem to be helping her feel all that much better, even though a lot of other people were having great success. I then found a site called wellvet dot com that said that this Ulcinex was very effective at repairing ulcers and the stomach lining in pets. It also said that it was very effective at controlling vomitting that occurs a few hours after eating, which is EXACTLY what was consistently happening, and no other product that I had found so far claimed to do same thing. I was skeptical as soon as it started talking about chinese herbs and such, but I figured it was worth a shot. I started giving this as prescribed from wellvet ALONG WITH Georges Aloe Vera juice (the one without preservatives and no taste), which is said to help a lot for acid reflux sufferers (I found a few people that said it worked great for their cats), and continuing the rabbit / duck formula. All the while praying, within a few days I started noticing a drastic improvement. She was licking her lips less, and was able to relax for longer periods of time without jumping up in pain and crying. She vommitted once within a several day period. Several days later, NO MORE CRYING, and instead of hiding behind the bedroom door licking her lips the whole night, she started sleeping with me at night like she used to. Now, several weeks later, she is literally 90% better. NO MORE VOMITTING AT ALL, is in very little pain, VERY little lip licking and only very occasionally at that. She also gets much more rest, and has put on several pounds and is back above her normal weight and has a nice chubby belly. My cat suffered daily for 2 long years during this whole process before I found this and the other two mentioned products. The aloe vera juice on its own didn't seem to completely do the trick, so I think its the combination of the three things that is really effective. I only hope that no permanent damage has already been done, but now I have my cat back and don't have to suffer through losing a great wife and a great cat. If you have a cat with severe stomach issues, you owe it to yourself and your cat to try this along with the Georges Aloe Vera and Ulcinex. Metagenics - Ulcinex - 90 Tablets Warren Laboratories - George's Aloe Vera, 64 fl oz liquid

I have previously purchased Instinct Grain-Free Canned Cat Food from a pet store and was very happy with the product. My cats enjoyed it and I liked the limited, healthy ingredients. To try to save time and money, I decided to purchase the food from amazon. I ordered two flavors (duck and beef) and both turned out to be very disappointing. Every can that I opened from both cases had moldy spots, was discolored, and had a bad odor (more so than is expected from cat food) . I included an image for comparison. The can on the left is the one I purchased from the pet store. The two cans on the right came from the two cases of food purchased from Amazon, but every can I opened in the case was like that. It is obvious that the food must have gone bad but I could not find an expiration date on the can. I did not feel comfortable feeding the food to my cats (and I doubt they would have even eaten it) so I contacted customer service for a refund. In terms of customer service I would give 5 stars as the immediately credited my account the full purchase price. However, I would not order this food online again but will continue purchasing it locally. I ended up throwing out both cases of food.

Both my cats love this food! One is allergic to chicken so we feed them this mixed with a variety pack of a chunkier food to mix it up a little but this is their main food. It’s good! I’ve been getting it for over 2 years now.

We recently found that our cat has an allergy to chicken so we went on a search for a food that was equal in quality to the ones she was use to. Our first attempt at a replacement was lamb and brought catastrophic results. Her eyes even got red and swollen from just a few bites! Very sad. We had given her duck before so I felt it would be pretty safe to try this one. Being from the school of hesitation, first she sniffed her bowl at every point it seemed. I was beginning to wonder if she would grace me with consuming it at all. First she nibbled on some of her regular food that was mixed in, which tonight was the Newman's organic turkey. Then she started in on the duck and that was it! She finished her whole bowl and licked it clean in good time for her because she is my pokey one. It seems like a winner for her and I have to say I was very impressed with the food as well. The consistency is like a course grind which I think she liked better than a smooth pate. You could see the carrots and peas mixed in and it had a nice sauce around it. This seems like a regular for her. UPDATE 12-31-2011 : I do have to say that our allergy challenged kitty started having the same itchy, scaly skin with this duck as she did with her chicken. I still would give it 5 stars though, because it is an incredible food...just not for her. Turns out all she seems to be able to eat is rabbit. She loves it and there hasn't been anymore flaky skin or excessive shedding since she has been on only that protein. UPDATE 2-13-2012 : Our oldest cat has now developed a chicken allergy so I tried this for her and she still was flaky too. I think the turkey liver, which is the second ingredient, has been the culprit all along. We'll see as we go on with her testing. She is able to have rabbit and beef though so that is a huge peace of mind for me. Blue Buffalo makes a duck that is all duck and we are trying that for her as well. I did take a star away from my original review because I can't believe a company would mix proteins when people are obviously looking for single protein solutions.

BACKGROUND: When we got our cat from the Humane Society (which was a great place with great people), we were told to keep her on a prescription diet for the rest of her life because she had a surgical procedure that removed a portion of her intestine caused by Intussusception. She is perfectly healthy now other than having a slightly faster digestive cycle for obvious reasons. When we took her to the vet for a regular check-up, our vet recommended a web site [...] concerning litter box tips as well as cat food information. We learned on this web site how most pet food brands and even some that claim to be natural and healthy are actually very unhealthy and are the root cause of obesity, diabetes and other issues cats suffer that become quite costly to treat. We decided to seek out a healthier alternative and this web site had Instinct as one of the recommended raw food options for cats. We plan to transition our cat over to their raw meat option eventually (or at least incorporate it into her diet), but in the meantime, we found that their canned food options were healthier than the mainstream. PROS: Our cat's prescription diet was the d/d Duck and Pea and we were happy to find that Nature's Variety offered a Duck Formula as well. She had no bad side-effects transitioning over to this food and took to it immediately. She actually loves this food.The fact that it's 95% meat with only %5 vegetable and grain free is rare to find compared to other canned foods which pile on grains and fillers. We also only feed her canned food, since we read that most dry foods contain way too many carbs which leads to obesity and can dehydrate cats causing urinary tract infections, whereas canned foods with substantial moisture provide way more water to them naturally. Not to mention the addictive chemical most companies add to dry food to make cats crave it (Note: I have not purchased or looked into the dry food option from Nature's Variety, so I have no idea if it is as bad as other brands). We are happy to have found a healthier alternative and hopefully by paying a little bit more for this food now, we can save a little money later in her cat life from expensive bills related to health problems. CONS: I do wish they had a traditional 24 pack (less packaging than ordering 2 packs of 12). It is also slightly more expensive, but worth it in the long run, hopefully.

Since realizing my two cats are both very sensitive to chicken, I have bought a lot of this brand of wet catfood. For years I didn't really pay attnetion to whether the ingredients had changed. But I discovered a few months ago that Duck is stated as the number 1 ingredient, not realizing that I needed to read on into the list. Often the ingredients stated on the website listing are not the same as thos on the can wrappers, either. I have had to swear off "Duck." When the first 3 or 4 ingredients show Duck, Chicken broth, chicken, chicken lover ... , theyre telling you something. Some of the cans show the word "pate" on front, but then you open the can, and what you see isn't smooth like pate. And theres a lot of liquid on top. I don't mind the liquid, cats need that. But this is no longer "Duck." Its a whisper of Duck and at least as much chicken as duck. So I'm down to rabbit and lamb in this brand with the word "original" on the label. For "duck," i now go for freeze dried nuggets made by Chewy's. I wouldn't mind so much if turkey broth were used. But when one set of ingredients says "Duck, duck broth, ..." and on the can it says, "Duck, chicken groth, chichken ..." or "Duck, chiken, chicken broth ...", I think it's the end of an era. "Duck" is now not a reliable cat food label as a stand alone. Instinct has lost its standing with me. Igive it 1 start because there is no zero. THey'd get one star because they exist. THey should get zero for not being honest about the issue.

My cat has a lot of food sensitivities. This is one of the very few that she can eat without having negative side effects. She LOVES this food!

My cats will eat this food, but they pick around (and won't eat) the carrots & especially the peas. Don't know why cat food companies continue to put these vegetables in the food because cats don't like them and for good reason. Their bodies weren't made to be able to digest them well; they cannot absorb much benefit from them. This particular case of cat food was too watery and had way too many black flecks (assuming it's the flax seeds). I'm willing to pay more for better food, but I think the food is very overpriced, although the quality is actually better than the majority of the food available out there right now. I've been a cat owner for several decades and believe that many of the increasing number of health problems in cats (including mine) stem from commercial cat food; this is especially true of all the dry food, but also includes many of the wet food (which in general is much better for them because of the high moisture content, essential for healthy kidney functioning). On the positive side, I do not consider Instinct "bad" for my cats and will use it in a pinch. It is carrageenan and BPA-free which is important, i.e. research is pointing to the toxic effects these two additives have on our pets' health (e.g. inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, etc.). I have switched to a different carrageenan and BPA-free canned food that does not have the peas and carrots. After experiencing so many problems with the different cat foods out there (even the most expensive), and getting tired of the lack of responsiveness from the cat food companies, I researched and have started making my own cat food; it takes time but my cats love it, are doing so much better on it and I don't have to worry about toxins or recalls, so it's well worth the research and effort. To sum it up, Instinct canned cat food is better than most, does not pose a health risk as far as I know and it is a good alternative if you cannot make your own.