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KatKin - Subscription cat food

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
This has been advertised to me a lot on Facebook...

KatKin - Our Recipes

Has anyone else seen it? It seems expensive (I went through a sign-up and it seems to be £52.00 per cat :eek: to feed exclusively on this. That would cost me an eye-watering amount). Most of the recipes seem to be 95% a specific meat/fish type, and then vegetables. They do seem to have a good variety of different meat types...
 
#2 ·
It looks good stuff from the list of ingredients - the protein content is higher than most manufactured wet foods e.g. 17%, 18% etc. I wouldn't mind giving it a try but not keen to sign up for a subscription without my cats trying it first. I'll have a read of the T & C's to see if they offer refunds of unused food if the cats won't eat it.
 
#5 ·
Hah, I have asked on Facebook how easy it is to split the portions between multiple cats as I wouldn't want to feed one food exclusively. Ive also asked what constitutes a portion - is it one meal or a days worth of meals.

I also asked for a breakdown of the veg content.

Just so I can try and figure out how much it would be of this was just part of the tonks diets.
 
#8 ·
Looking at some of the pics of cats eating it, it looks like a pate style. We always have mixed results with those. Jammy and Waffles will eat most pates, CK quite a few, Darcy pretty much only if it's lily's kitchen and Ted as far as I know has only ever eaten catz fine food fish flavours. Not that my lot are picky...

I'm constantly on the hunt for a better quality food Ted will eat... He likes Felix and gourmet and rarely entertains other food.
 
#10 ·
This is the response I got to my questions.

All of our recipes are 95% fresh meat, and the very minimal vegetables or fruits that are present (approximately 4%) provide phytonutrients rather than essential protein - exactly what you'd expect to find in the stomach of animals that cats would naturally hunt in the wild.

We perfectly portion our daily serve pouches to the daily calorie needs of each individual cat, splitting this over breakfast and dinner meal times. If you'll be feeding us as an accompaniment to your existing food, you would need to recalculate the portioning size to ensure your are not overfeeding your cats.

To cater for fussy eaters we have carefully designed a whole group of recipes so that there are plenty of options to choose from - empowering cats to choose their favourite flavours from their very first trial box. After a transition period of a week or two, where cats become accustomed to the texture and consistency of fresh food, they often will prefer fresh diets You are also able to change your recipe selection before each of your box deliveries.

After ordering your trial box, you can pause, skip or stop your plan at anytime - there are absolutely no obligations. We're busy adding this functionality to a user's account section to do themselves, but in the meantime you can simply email us your order number once you've signed up and we will do this for you.

Please let us know if you have any other questions <3

Nikki, Co-Founder
 
#13 ·
Hi all, and thank you for signing up Sandy!

Please also let us know who it goes as we love feedback!

So happy to see you speaking about KatKin here. I'm Brett and Nikki is my sister and co-founder. We're very excited to have finally launched KatKin after working on the recipes and also having to raise some funding to set up our own kitchen for production. it's been a very hard slog but very worth it to see KatKin appear on a forum like this - and to even be feeding our own cats Molly, Kiki and Columbus. If you want to learn more about our journey, why we started KatKin and a bit more about what we found when we looked into cat food please do read some of the notes we've written on Chatter on our website. We also share a bit out the incredible vet nutritionist we get to work with at KatKin and when we get a chance we will share some more articles in the coming weeks and months as well.

All the best and thanks very much for speaking about KatKin! Truly appreciate you spreading the word!

Brett
 
#15 ·
Found this forum after googling KatKin...

So I did a trial of the product while it was in development last year.

Generally speaking, my feedback was that *some* of the recipes seemed way too dry with the balance of Meat to Veg that they had - and my cat had a hard time getting through some of the dryer pouches without me adding some water.

I would have preferred them I think if they were consistent in texture across the range.

My cat generally enjoyed them, and wolfed them down, but would generally still act hungry after the half-pouch measure. I'm not particularly sure how they balance the pouches for different cats diets / daily calories, but I think they don't neccesarily trigger my cat to feel saited.

There were some flavours that she didn't like, so a trial is worth it to test them out, but broadly chicken/fish/duck/pork were highly rated!

At £52 a month, it's close to double the price of her existing food, but no doubt much higher quality, but for that price I'd want the recipes to be *spot on*.

I just tried the site for both my cats - I've got one chonky 8kg lad, and my 4kg cat who trialled them - they both get the same pricing and meals / box. So aside from having the right freezer space, they seem not to charge different prices for bigger diets, and have multiple pouch sizes?
 
#16 ·
Hi everyone,

Sandy's trial box arrived yesterday so I thought I'd share some initial thoughts.

Delivery by DPD was good. Food arrived well packaged and in an insulated bag with ice so it was still frozen when I came to open the box a few hours after delivery. Also received a freebie canvas bag, pot of sprinkles (which look like crumbled freeze dried treats) and a bulldog clip to close food packets.

The packets themselves are flat and fit very easily in the freezer. I'm a little surprised that one packet would be enough for one day's worth of food as Sandy tends to eat a lot more than that, so I'm not sure it would be sufficient, but that is something I will discuss with them. I wouldn't feed him on just this anyway as he needs variety in his diet to avoid food boredom.

The packets are dead easy to defrost in some hot water so I tried "Oink" on Sandy last night. The consistency wasn't at all pate like, I'd say it's more like mince. This is a good thing for Sandy as he isn't keen on pate! Sandy is also pretty good at trying new foods without needing a gradual intro, so I just gave him the whole pack

He was very interested in it from the start and tucked straight in before deciding he wasn't actually all that sure. When I added some of the sprinkles he went back in, though, and ate most of the pack.

Will see how he gets on with the other flavours and keep you all posted, but as a rotating meal option this might be a winner. It's clearly good quality, looks and smells fresh and is every convenient. However I wouldn't subscribe every month because I don't think he would eat it every day.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Hi everyone,

Sandy's trial box arrived yesterday so I thought I'd share some initial thoughts.

Delivery by DPD was good. Food arrived well packaged and in an insulated bag with ice so it was still frozen when I came to open the box a few hours after delivery. Also received a freebie canvas bag, pot of sprinkles (which look like crumbled freeze dried treats) and a bulldog clip to close food packets.

The packets themselves are flat and fit very easily in the freezer. I'm a little surprised that one packet would be enough for one day's worth of food as Sandy tends to eat a lot more than that, so I'm not sure it would be sufficient, but that is something I will discuss with them. I wouldn't feed him on just this anyway as he needs variety in his diet to avoid food boredom.

The packets are dead easy to defrost in some hot water so I tried "Oink" on Sandy last night. The consistency wasn't at all pate like, I'd say it's more like mince. This is a good thing for Sandy as he isn't keen on pate! Sandy is also pretty good at trying new foods without needing a gradual intro, so I just gave him the whole pack

He was very interested in it from the start and tucked straight in before deciding he wasn't actually all that sure. When I added some of the sprinkles he went back in, though, and ate most of the pack.

Will see how he gets on with the other flavours and keep you all posted, but as a rotating meal option this might be a winner. It's clearly good quality, looks and smells fresh and is every convenient. However I wouldn't subscribe every month because I don't think he would eat it every day.
View attachment 429488 View attachment 429489 View attachment 429490 View attachment 429491 View attachment 429492
Do you get 3x tins to feed daily or?
How does it work?
How many tins do you get in total?

Edit: just re-read your post.
- One packet for a day? That doesn't seem like a lot...
- Also, in terms of variety, don't they give you the option to have different flavours?

@Brett OFarrell maybe you can help :)

Thanks :)
 
#20 ·
Thx to Sandy's mum for the review!

Simms thank you also for sharing some of your experience when we ran our taste testing trials.

I'll try to answer all the questions in one go here -

Moisture

Across all our lab testing results the average moisture across all our recipes (and many tests on each) is 72%. They range is quite narrow: from 67% to 75% and we show the moisture of each on Our Recipes page. Lamb, Beef & Pork are in the 60s and all the rest in the 70s. We don't (and will never) add any water or "broth" to our recipes so all this natural moisture from the fresh, real meat we use. We portion the recipes into the pouches and then gently steam cook the food in the pouches - the same pouches you receive - so we don't lose any of the natural moisture or nutrients during the cooking process.

Size of pouch

Every cat gets perfectly portioned daily serve pouches * based on their personal profile, to meet their individual calorie needs. All our recipes are complete (something to watch our for with some other "premium" wet cat food brands) and balanced, so they are designed to be the only thing you need to feed your cat. You'll notice though that there is some variation across the weight of the pouches you receive - from recipe to recipe - and that's because we portion by calories rather than weight, as each recipe has a different calorie density. Because we are committed to feeding cats only what they need as obligate carnivores, and use only the best ingredients, our recipes are more more calorie dense than many other cat foods on the market because there are no fillers. Molly (my cat) has now gotten use to "physically" eating less (we no longer feed her dry kibble, which we used to leave down on the floor for her to munch on all day long) and we're very pleased that today she is getting exactly what she needs.

* 80% of our cap parents got daily-serve pouches and 20% got single-serve in our last deliveries. Starting from sometime in Feb this will be 100%. 2/3 of cat parents in our trial did not mind using the daily serve pouches which is great as it's also better for the environment.

Flavours and selection

There are 7 recipes currently (and we'll add more in 2020 :)) and when you order you can either get all the recipes in the 2-week trial box or you can pick only the recipes you want, right from the start. We suggest taking all 7 recipes though and letting your cat pick it's favourites. If you let us know these towards the end of the first 2-weeks, we will send only the ones they love in their next box. From the taste testing trials we did, 96% of cats loved our recipes - many loved them all but for some extra fussy eaters, you simply have to find the right ones! Cats also love variety and that's why we have developed so many recipes for them, and while the texture is "mince" there is some variation in texture between the birds and land animals and fish which they enjoy!

Refunds

Nikki and I have put everything we have into starting KatKin as we want cats to get the food they need as obligate carnivores! As a brand new business we can't afford to offer refunds right now but maybe as we grow it's something we will look at. Once you know your cats favourites though from the first box, there should be no food waste from the second box onwards. We do give all cat parents free delivery/shipping, which we pay to DPD for their next day, premium service so we ensure KatKin arrives fresh in our insulated boxes.

Hope I've answered all the questions. If not please let me know!

Brett, KatKin Co-Founder
Cat parent to Molly!
 
#21 ·
This has been advertised to me a lot on Facebook...

https://katkin.club/pages/our-recipes

Has anyone else seen it? It seems expensive (I went through a sign-up and it seems to be £52.00 per cat :eek: to feed exclusively on this. That would cost me an eye-watering amount). Most of the recipes seem to be 95% a specific meat/fish type, and then vegetables. They do seem to have a good variety of different meat types...
I am awaiting my order coming Tuesday delivery by DPD in special packaging can be left in a safe place. They are holding back my subscription because my cat has had serious infections in past which have left her a bit sensitive and extremely finicky I have ordered the variety pack.
 
#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
I just recently started my kitten Merlin on it, he was fed whiskas at the breeders so initially I kept him on that, he didn’t seem overly interested in it and tended to graze throughout the day rather than finish even a small amount in his dish and I wanted to feed him something more nutritious with a higher meat content and I found Katkin.

I was extremely impressed with the customer service, even shipping amid a pandemic and it all arrived still frozen. He tried it for the first time this morning and I noticed him licking his plate clean for the first time since I had got him.

yes it’s pricey but it’s 100% worth it and Merl agrees
 
#23 ·
I've also just started my two kittens on it and I'm really impressed. What I'm surprised about is people finding it expensive. I guess if you feed dry food or Felix then maybe but I feed only wet food and the pouches come in at around £1 a pack. Katkin for me is less than £2 a day per cat so I'm saving loads
 
#24 ·
I have five adults and currently 4 kittens, and so far today they have eaten 1 800g tin of wet food, and most of 1 400g tin, plus some biscuits. They will finish the 400g tin later and get through at least one more before tomorrow. At £1.5 per day per cat / kitten (the kittens eat as much as the adults) that would be £13.50 per day. Thankfully tins are quite a bit cheaper!
 
#28 ·
I have two cats, to feed them the appropriate calorific amount it costs me £3 per day per cat on thrive food. We are just about to try KatKin, and it works out at £1.75ish per cat per day so we are saving by half.
It would only be more expensive if you are getting food on a massive discount or you are feeding much lower quality food.
I think for the quality it is definetely a very good price.
I'm tempted to try katkin but it does seem expensive. I am confused by the people saying it's only expensive if you feed low quality food or buy in bulk. Good quality wet food for my cat eg wild freedom or simpsons costs £1 a day and this is double that. Is it worth the extra, members who have tried it? Also is it raw or cooked?
 
#30 ·
I ordered some wild freedom after the reviews on here, but sadly my eldest kitty wouldn't touch it (I didn't have my youngest at this point). I don't think she liked the chunkiness of it, and I found it a tad grissly in parts. Sadly it wasn't a winner, but i agree it is a very good food. I've heard mixed reviews on Simpsons, but cannot deny that it seems like a great food analytically.

Maybe I posted my first comment without really looking at other peoples experience. I was just thinking about how expensive the thrive was that I was buying mine and in comparison KatKin is a great deal.

I don't think KatKin is raw, they don't brand themselves as raw. I like their ethos very much, and the quality of the food I recieved today was really amazing, I would even go as far as saying it doesn't look like cat food, more like minced meat that you would find in a pie, and I suspect given the quality of human food grade ingredients they use, it would be safe for us to eat (it smells really good). You can tell it's the chicken breast and liver and not beaks and feet, so it's a winner.

I'd get a trial pack and give it a try, at least then you can see for yourself and weigh up the pros and cons with your current food.
 
#29 ·
The cats get good quality single protein food. These are at the top end for quality
I am aware of that, if anything I feel like when I mention I feed purely on thrive people seem a little confused as it's what they normally give to their cats as treats, but my eldest kitty is quite fussy, and thrive wet is the only thing that hasn't given our little one diarrhoea.

We have just started the KatKin today. It was delivered in a package with some ice blocks and the quality looks amazing. It doesn't smell like cat food, and if I'm honest when I warned a bit of the chicken one it smelt really nice! I was expecting my eldest to turn her nose up as it was more of a minced texture which she had not liked before, but she ignored the thrive and ate all of the KatKin on meal one! I think we have found a winner.

IMO if you have the money for food like katkin, I think it is money well spent. I totally get that not everyone can afford it though, and that's why it's fab that there are some great affordable options out there.
 
#32 ·
I first tried KatKin over a year ago and Sandy was initially keen but then unimpressed, so I stopped buying it.

Having had to source a single protein duck food for him and struggled as a result of Brexit, I turned back to Katkin about a month ago and have been feeding Sandy exclusively the Quack! menu. So far (touch wood!) he has been licking the bowl clean each day. It really is great quality food and he seems happy and healthy on it. Best of all, his poo has absolutely no odour whatsoever since he's moved to Katkin - big bonus as it was extremely honky before :Hilarious
 
#40 ·
First order arrives tomorrow & I have a referral link for £10 off - so if anybody would like to try it, let me know :)
Hi I'd be interested in trying this of you could pass the code along.

My only reservation is not being able to change the trial packs flavours to try them all.
Am I right in thinking this is a daily sachet so might need sharing put over the day?
 
#36 ·
Hope your cat enjoys it @pennycat! Unfortunately I had a call from Katkin this morning saying that due to a supplier quality problem they wouldn't be able to supply Sandy's Quack! this week. We'll try him on Oink! instead but it is a shame as he's been doing really well on the duck and really likes it. I have to say that his coat is looking beautiful and soft and shiny at the moment!