[hobbs2004]

Gosh, I cannot believe there are cats who actually eat this lol.

I got a tub of the rabbit one as I thought it might be a good one for when I feel lazy but my cats didn't even finish a quarter of their normal portion. Bears little resemblance to actual meat, gloopy texture that seemed to be way too dry but adding water just made the consistency even weirder, didn't smell meaty and personally I don't think I would have eaten it either.

Might have been a tub from an iffy batch but will not be trying it again.

Big thumbs down from my otherwise greedy lot. So if there is someone who wants a tub of rabbit and who lives in Surrey let me know.

 

[Peter Galbavy]

I was looking at them today. Is it, basically, mechanically recovered meat?

 

[hobbs2004]

I was looking at them today. Is it, basically, mechanically recovered meat?

Oh no, nothing of the sort. It is just so finely minced (well my tub was) that it is just a gloopy mush. In all fairness, my cats are used to meat they need to chew but they eat pate food and this is more like a pate but for one reason or another they didn't find this palatable at all. Tbh, it could be minced more coarsely.

Give it a go. At the end of the day, the sad fact is - that unless you want to make your own raw food where you can play around with texture etc - this is one of the few minces that are ingredients-wise conceptualised with cats in mind. It is not as though consumers have much of a choice - unfortunately.

 

[carly87]

The rabbit seems to be a love or hate thing. None of mine would eat it this time, whereas before, they were literally fighting each other to lick the bowl! I find the chicken batches much more consistent.

 

[DDaisy]

I am thinking of ordering NI for my 5 cats. I'm slightly apprehensive about the cost though, cause I was recently made redundant. Would you say it's cost effective compared to wet foods such as Bozita, because they, allegedly, need to eat much less raw food compared to canned food? Do you find that to be the case in real life?

(I am currently feeding them half Bozita/half Porta 21 grain free dry food).

 

[anotheruser]

What puts me off is the extra additives you have to put in.
I wouldn't know where to buy seaweed for this vitamin or that vitamin or whatever. I wonder if there are things that are "usual" to buy like a raw egg which would cover it?

If I found out where to buy the extra bits, I would probably jump straight in.

 

[hobbs2004]

What puts me off is the extra additives you have to put in.
I wouldn't know where to buy seaweed for this vitamin or that vitamin or whatever. I wonder if there are things that are "usual" to buy like a raw egg which would cover it?

If I found out where to buy the extra bits, I would probably jump straight in.

Well, don't let that put you off. You don't need to add anything; whether you do use supplements or not really depends on your raw feeding ideology (and to a large extent, your cultural background - Anglo-Americans tend to not use supplements; mainland Europe does). If I were you I would read around the subject and decide what makes sense.

If you do decide to use supplements then there are some to be had from zooplus; though there are also whole online barf sites on the continent.

 

[Paddypaws]

I was not at all impressed with the rabbit either, Hobbs...and I do feed a lot of rabbit in general. The NI mince was really strange, pale dry and pappy whereas the normal rabbit I use is very dark red and bloody. Luckily the foster cats were not so fussy and it got eaten easily enough but I wont order that flavour again.

 

[carly87]

I would say it does work out cost effective, yes I am saving a fortune feeding 8 at the moment!

 

[Cookieandme]

I bought my suppliments including seaweed powder from https://ssl.kundenserver.de/www.s141656154.einsundeinsshop.de/indexeu.html

 

[jo-pop]

My Thomas ADORES all flavours. We were lucky enough to do taste trials for them and they all went down well.
As Hobbs says, the best way is to prepare your own but if you don't want to do this then NI is pretty much your best option. My cat looks fab on it and it is very cost effective.

 

[hobbs2004]

On a different note - taurine. I know when they first brought out the cat minces (beef and chicken I think the first flavour was) they tested the taurine level and found it to be good even after mincing. Now, I had a look at the rabbit and game bird sleeves and though they list info re macronutrients (as well as p and ca) there is no mention of taurine. Anyone know what the story is?

 

[Paddypaws]

Oh Hobbs! You know we rely on YOU to ask all those tricky questions!
Actually the taurine question did bother me somewhat....they used a load of beef heart in the chicken flavour to bump the taurine and because presumably beef heart is cheaper than extra chicken hearts.
With the new flavours it seems they have tried to stick to a single protein source, which is good....but does raise an issue with the taurine, especially with rabbit.

 

[hobbs2004]

Oh Hobbs! You know we rely on YOU to ask all those tricky questions!
Actually the taurine question did bother me somewhat....they used a load of beef heart in the chicken flavour to bump the taurine and because presumably beef heart is cheaper than extra chicken hearts.
With the new flavours it seems they have tried to stick to a single protein source, which is good....but does raise an issue with the taurine, especially with rabbit.

It does - and yes if I remember rightly about half of the meat they used in the beef and chicken flavour was beef heart. Tbh, I still wonder about the venison. I find it really hard to believe that they mince venison bones. I know they have commercial mincers but I don't want to know how much the blades suffer when you mince heavy bones such as venison.

 

[Space Chick]

On a different note - taurine. I know when they first brought out the cat minces (beef and chicken I think the first flavour was) they tested the taurine level and found it to be good even after mincing. Now, I had a look at the rabbit and game bird sleeves and though they list info re macronutrients (as well as p and ca) there is no mention of taurine. Anyone know what the story is?

I noticed this, and emailed they and they informed me that it does have added taurine.

In fairness though, whilst the cats did like it, I didn't like that it was in the fridge for 2 days and didn't have anything for them to chew. So I'm sticking with making my own where I know exactly what's gone in, and I can just defrost what is needed every day.

 

[hobbs2004]

I noticed this, and emailed they and they informed me that it does have added taurine.

Then they should put in the composition section that they add taurine and perhaps also have it as part of the analysis (as they used to do initially).

 

[havoc]

On a different note - taurine. I know when they first brought out the cat minces (beef and chicken I think the first flavour was) they tested the taurine level and found it to be good even after mincing. Now, I had a look at the rabbit and game bird sleeves and though they list info re macronutrients (as well as p and ca) there is no mention of taurine. Anyone know what the story is?

I could have this terribly wrong Hobbs but for some reason I have in mind that 'way back' the original tests on taurine and mincing were done on rabbit. This led to the idea that mincing any meat caused a loss of taurine which wasn't exactly the whole story but led to one of those urban myths in raw feeding - it isn't the only one

 

[hobbs2004]

I could have this terribly wrong Hobbs but for some reason I have in mind that 'way back' the original tests on taurine and mincing were done on rabbit. This led to the idea that mincing any meat caused a loss of taurine which wasn't exactly the whole story but led to one of those urban myths in raw feeding - it isn't the only one

Havoc, I was talking about the NI minces and the analysis they did on their first commercially available cat minces, in which they also tested for taurine and because they had got a good quantity (because they were/are using a lot of heart in that flavour) they then (rightly) said that the consumer of that flavour mince doesn't need to add any taurine. However, no mention (I think) is made of taurine re their "new" flavours. So, I was just wondering whether anyone knew what was going on with the new flavours of NI minces specifically.

I think it is fairly well accepted now that processing, such as mincing, does denature taurine but the question as to whether freezing does too is a tad more circumstantial (if I remember rightly).

Sorry Havoc, I think I completely misunderstood your post - sorry.