[Nicki85]

Hi,
I'm switching my dog over to DAF minces and was wondering if the kittens could also have them? They currently love the Natural Instinct range (well apart from the Game Bird one!)

Obviously it is easy to give them a little bit of the dogs dinner to see if they will eat it but just wanted to make sure the quality etc. would be ok for them...

I want what ever is best for them so happy to continue with NI (and I work right next to their store so easy to get hold of...) but DAF is so much cheaper!

 

[Alessa]

I am not an expert at all, but to my knowledge, cats shouldn't eat food meant for dogs, as they often contain ingredients that the cats aren't able to digest properly such as vegetables and grains.

Also, hobbs2004, who dedicated a lot of their time and research on the best cat food around did mention recently that they would not touch DAF minces with a bargepole. Presumably it's because they don't even have a cat food range. It seems Natural Instinct raw CAT food should be good for them though!

 

[Paddypaws]

There have been various issues noted with the DAF minces....most notably that cats wont touch them as they smell so 'high'
I would be interested if anyone replies to this thread who has used them with success for their cats, even if only as an occasional meal.

 

[Nicki85]

Well I've got some coming for the dog and it is just 100% meat so no worries about grain or veg etc. I will try them on a little bit of the dog's dinner and see what happens... I suspect the fussy one will turn her nose up at it and the greedy one will still eat it all!! I wondered if it was down to quality (all though I feel bad now moving the dog over to a lower quality food!!)....

 

[Sussexplumber]

Well I've got some coming for the dog and it is just 100% meat so no worries about grain or veg etc. I will try them on a little bit of the dog's dinner and see what happens... I suspect the fussy one will turn her nose up at it and the greedy one will still eat it all!! I wondered if it was down to quality (all though I feel bad now moving the dog over to a lower quality food!!)....

It might be stating the obvious I know, but don`t ever give them dog crunchies. I know of a cat (not mine) who broke a canine (in half) trying to eat crunchy dog biscuits.

 

[cookiemom]

Well I've got some coming for the dog and it is just 100% meat so no worries about grain or veg etc. I will try them on a little bit of the dog's dinner and see what happens... I suspect the fussy one will turn her nose up at it and the greedy one will still eat it all!! I wondered if it was down to quality (all though I feel bad now moving the dog over to a lower quality food!!)....

it's not so much to do with quaility its the proportions of body parts,there is a lot more leeway with dogs due to pack ancestry and sharing a kill, cats on the most part eat all of a single kill, so any prepped food wants to emulate that, some of the minces may contain more or less bone and or offals than is needed for a cat. You would also want to add taurine as I believe that only NI do this.

 

[Nicki85]

Yes, I did see that about the tuarine so will pick some up if they do like it! and think of the long term- if I want to add extra offal etc.

They also have dry at the moment (what they were fed on at the breeders) with the view to move them over to 100% raw when the dry is used up. It's 50/50 at the moment.

 

[anotheruser]

I've used them with success.

The downside I see is there are varying answers with ratios of meat, bone and offal. They probably won't be as close to the 80/10/10 as Natural Instinct. The meat is very bloody which my kitties don't really like, but wash that off a bit and we're all good to go. The bone is also questionable as it doesn't seem as finely ground as Natural Instinct's offering. Perhaps this is a good thing to get their jaws in good condition although it is a little chilling hearing the kitties crunching.

My two didn't like many of the flavours at all. In fact they only liked the pheasant. The beef was eaten eventually and I think the chicken and lamb flavours too, but nothing else (I should add I didn't try the rabbit... I don't think). I add a bit of taurine to mine.

For the price and considering I am not feeding them wholly on raw then it fits our lives. I'm probably going to settle on 3 times a week at a max as they don't eat less food like others suggest, the 454g is gone in a day if I allow it!

The beauty of the Natural Instinct minces is that you don't have to add anything to them, they're red but not bloody and the packaging is nice (easy to store in the freezer). It makes me wonder what they would charge if they took all that rubbish away (you're just going to throw it away anyway!).

When I order some more DAF meats in the next couple of weeks, I'll do a review of them both.

 

[Nicki85]

Just a quick update... kittens look like they want to lick the DAF minces but when it comes to eating them they are not so sure! They are also a bit to coarse for my two- they prefer the pate texture of NI.

 

[anotheruser]

What flavour did you get?
Mine didn't like anything with tripe. They liked the pheasant one though. They were a bit cautious which is what puts me off getting loads again, especially as I treated them to NI's minces. No local supplier unfortunately.