cat food Archives - Oh My Dog!

On priorities, passions, and pet food #HealthyMeetsHappy

06•09•17

At the start of 2017, I wrote out a handful of goals for myself. One of the biggest?

Simplify.

I’ve come to realize, though, that simplifying isn’t just a matter of clearing out the clutter, creating routines, and so on. It’s a matter of defining your priorities, then shifting time/effort to focus on what matters most.

For me, it starts with a fundamental priority: my herd’s (John, Violet, Cooper, Newt) health and happiness. But, I believe that includes values and passions like kindness and compassion, and lessening our impact on the world around us… and improving it when and where possible.

No one can do it all, though, and that’s where the priority-balancing piece comes in.

For example, it’s incredibly important to me to feed Cooper and Newt the best food possible, and that can mean cutting other budget areas to accommodate the food I think they deserve.

This post is sponsored by Wellness® and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™. I am being compensated to help share the availability of Wellness Complete Health and NEW Complete Health Grain Free Cat Food available at PetSmart, but OhMyDogBlog.com only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Neither Wellness nor PetSmart is not responsible for the content of this article.

In April, I wrote about how Wellness Pet Food named 2017 as the year of the cat. That theme continues, of course, and it aligns perfectly with my goals and priorities!

How?

Some of the specs:

All Wellness Complete Health products are carrageenan-free (a food additive linked to cancer).
The formulas are nothing but simple, pure, authentic ingredients that help Newt thrive.
Wellness® Complete Health™ and Wellness® Complete Health™ Grain Free dry food packaging can be RECYCLED through their partnership with Terracycle!!!! <—- This is huge, you guys! You can sign up for their recycling program, and you totally need to because not only do they recycle or upcycle the food bags, the packaging you send in generates donations to other nonprofits. It’s a full-circle cycle of giving. Seriously, this is the kind of thing that makes my heart swell!

But–more importantly in Newt’s opinion–is that the food makes her happy! Check it out:

Here’s what she was eating in the video: Wellness ® Complete Health® Morsels wet food: Wellness Complete Health Morsels feature cubes of tender meat in rich gravy. She was devouring the chicken formula, but I’m telling you… that “rich gravy” does her in!! Recently my mom cat sat for us, and she even commented that clearly we’d found Newt her favorite food!

Truly, this food is the cat’s pajamas. 🙂 It totally nails the things that are the most important to me and my herd, and for that… I’m a loyal Wellness customer.

Here’s what I’m wondering: Do any of YOUR cats sing and dance like Newt does to get food? Any other kitty members of the Clean Plate Club? I’d love to learn about your cat-feeding experience in the comments!

Please visit and support our sponsor on Facebook or purchase products here! They make this site possible, and for that I’m forever grateful!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Wellness®. The opinions and text are all mine.

It’s the Year of the Cat… and #HealthyMeetsHappy

04•23•17

Over the years, people have told us that we treat Newt like a dog. Even a vet said that to us once… to our surprise.

What does that mean?

Well, the first thing is that we had her microchipped! That’s what elicited that vet’s comment. Apparently it’s rare for a cat to be chipped. (But… what if she gets out????)

Another thing: She wears a collar. With an ID tag. (Seriously, you guys… what if she gets out????)

We also have her trained to be on a harness and line. That one, I’ll grant, isn’t super cat-like, but we want her to be able to experience the great outdoors–which is a very cat-like thing–but safely.

I don’t think any of those things are profoundly dog in nature. Rather, I think cats sometimes miss out on stuff like that because some cat folks think those things are profoundly un-cat in nature.

Same goes for routine vet visits. In three minutes of Googling, I found this from the JAVMA from 2013: nearly 45 percent of cat owners don’t take their cats for an annual check up. Say whaaa? I guess it’s because they can be hard to coerce into a carrier, but that care is just as important for a cat as it is for a dog!

The last piece of this “dog-centric” cat treatment comes in with her afternoon food puzzle.

This post is sponsored by Wellness® and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™. I am being compensated to help share the availability of Wellness Complete Health and NEW Complete Health Grain Free Cat Food available at PetSmart, but we only share information we feel is relevant to our readers. Neither Wellness or PetSmart is not responsible for the content of this article.

Newt eats wet food for breakfast and dinner. From what I understand, this is a fairly un-cat-like behavior, but we had nothing to do with it. It’s all her. She INSISTS on eating her meals when the dogs eat theirs. It makes things pretty convenient. We fix up a stack of bowls twice a day, pills and supplements included, and everyone chows down. Piece of, well, not cake… piece of kibble for the dogs and tuna in ample gravy for Newt…

If we don’t make with her bowl pretty quickly, she’ll shove her face in the dogs’ bowls and eat theirs.

Anyways, back to the afternoon food puzzle.

We’ve always given the dogs food toys, from simple Kongs to elaborate Nina Ottosson puzzles. Years ago, it occurred to me: Why don’t we give one to Newt? Do cats benefit from food puzzles?

Again, a few minutes of Googling, and the answer was a resounding YES!

It’s super stimulating for cats to work for their food. They like to use their brains, paws, noses, and manipulate objects to fish out or sniff out or dig out their food, just as the dogs do. So, we started her on a couple small food puzzles… easy ones, at first, like a kitty Kong and the Snacky Mouse (her fave), and have upgraded her to more elaborate ones that we originally purchased or were given for the dogs.

Afternoon puzzle time has become a non-negotiable part of her day. Around 10 am she starts meowing for it (even though we don’t give it to her until noon).

All that said, with wet food for breakfast and dinner, and kibble in the afternoon, it was on us to keep a super close eye on her weight.

A big part of that is choosing the healthiest food we can for her.

We’ve done a pretty good job so far, but I felt like the food we were giving her was pretty good. And, as tends to happen, right when I started to research other options, the chance to try out Wellness® Complete Health™ came up, and I thought… DUH! We already are a Wellness household. If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, you know that it’s been Emmett’s food since 2009. So, why didn’t it occur to me to try Newt on Wellness?

Lightbulb!

So, we went shopping, and yes, this is the face I make when I have like 400 things to choose from at PetSmart… Thanks, John, for catching this one! 😉

I picked a variety because cats are generally known to be pretty fussy, although that hasn’t really ever been Newt’s story… you just never know. So, the assortment I ended up with:

And, for full disclosure, I did not taper her existing food or transition gradually in any ~~responsible~~ way.

Luckily, it worked out!

She’s done just fine on this food. In fact, today we were commenting on how sleek and shiny her coat looks… almost thicker than usual. She’s actually going a smidge bonkers over the chunky meats and the gravy. Her previous food was more like a pate style, and this is really adding some excitement to her day!

As for the dry food, I really, really, really want a grain-free kibble for her afternoon puzzle. The Wellness Complete Health line is that, and there are some choices in formula and flavor, too. I picked up two options, and so far, so good. (Aside: One of the things in their reinvention of these formulas was changing the kibble size and shape, so it’s smaller and rounder. That’s a big deal for a teeny, tiny cat like Newt. So we’re pretty happy about that change!)

OK, so what does all this have to do with the headline, the year of the cat? Wellness declared 2017 The Year of the Cat, and Newtie told me to tell everyone, “It’s about damn time!!!” Cats deserve love, attention, health, happiness, and a fulfilled life, of course. Healthy food is one sliver of that, so we’re pretty thrilled to be trying out all this food.

BTW, go check out all the Wellness options here!

Anyway, we’re still new to this food. I’m going to give it a few weeks, and I’ll report back on how it’s going. If you have any specific Qs, let me know, and I’ll try to address them next month!

In the meantime, I better go fill her puzzle toy before she gets too irritated with me… it is her year, after all!

Please visit and support our sponsor on Facebook or purchase products here! They make this site possible, and for that I’m forever grateful!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Wellness®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Keeping Newt happy and healthy through the chaos #AvoDermNatural

11•12•15

No question: Newt’s been a bit ignored these past couple intensely-stressful weeks. We’ve been hyper-focused on the dogs, and we sometimes take it for granted that she’s as self-sufficient as she is. But, the truth is, since we lost Lucas and throughout our whole move, she’s been staying very close to us and very close to Emmett and Cooper.

The one thing I’ve focused on for her has been keeping her routine the same, which means her daily puzzle toy filled with the AvoDerm® Natural grain-free turkey formula.

This post is sponsored by AvoDerm® and the BlogPaws Professional Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Avoderm Grain-Free but OhMyDog only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. AvoDerm is not responsible for the content of this article.

So, in my previous post about this trial I mentioned that Newt is a big eater. She’s a tiny cat–a bit over 8 pounds at her annual last month–but she wishes she were a humongous cat. She wants to eat everything. When we started this six-week trial, I knew that her opinion… well… it just wouldn’t count.

I’m all about natural foods to keep them healthy from the inside out. I’d much rather feed them well to give them a healthy foundation than wait for symptoms that need pills to treat. This food achieves that end. I’m all about avocado superfood goodness, of course, and I think grain-free and made in the USA are extra important. I’m ingredient-obsessed for us and for the herd, and after six weeks of getting AvoDerm in her puzzle, I can safely say that Newt is doing well on this food. She hasn’t chunked up. She’s shiny and soft, and she’s FULL of energy.

Here, the good girl sits ever-so-nicely for her afternoon puzzle. {Confession: She NEVER sits ever-so-nicely for her afternoon puzzle. She’s normally meowing and yelling at me to hurry up! But, I think John with the camera and the boys watching from behind a gate threw her off…}

Please ignore the boxes and sweat pants. Moving sucks.

She was also working on another puzzle–we mix them up every couple days to keep it interesting–while I tried to snap some pics, but the smarty pants quickly realized that she could just dive headfirst into the bag and help herself since I was distracted! (see the pic at the top of this post… sigh…)

Newt loves the food, and I love the healthy, natural ingredients that go into it. If you’re interested in trying it out, you can click here to purchase or follow AvoDerm on Facebook to get regular updates.

All of this is extra important to me with all the chaos and stress and upheavals that have been going on around here. I want her immune system in tip-top shape, and I really believe a healthy food is the cornerstone to achieving that. I really think these guys all seem to perform and function better when they’re eating well (just like us!). Do you notice a connection between healthy, natural foods and the overall wellness of your pet?

Newt gets her avocado on with #AvoDermNatural

10•22•15

A couple weeks ago I professed my love for avocados. Lucas even balanced one on his head in that post. Well, I decided to spread that love to Newt, too!

This post is sponsored by Avoderm® and the BlogPaws Professional Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Avoderm Grain-Free but OhMyDog only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Avoderm is not responsible for the content of this article.

Newt eats three times a day. She gets wet food for breakfast and dinner with the dogs (she HAS to… if we didn’t give her a bowl at the same time, she pushes them out of the way and starts eating their food), and she gets a puzzle toy every afternoon with kibble.

So, after dispelling those myths about avocados and dogs and cats, I decided to give AvoDerm’s grain-free turkey formula a whirl with her for her afternoon puzzle.

Here’s the thing: It’s not readily available in stores across the country (yet). If you have a local retailer you love, you can always ask to order some if they don’t already carry it. You can use AvoDerm’s product locator to see if there’s a store near you. Or, order online!

We got two bags sent to us, but the box was delivered when I was heading out the door, so I stuck it on the top shelf of our coat closet. John got home later than I did that day. As soon as he got home, I got this:

Oops.

So, if you’re going to keep it in a closet, be sure to shut the door…

Anyway, I mentioned this last time, but it’s worth emphasizing: This food is made in the USA and chock full of my favorite avocado superfood! Newt is going to do a six-week trial to see how it helps her skin and coat. It’s perfect timing, too, because we’re at the point where the Indiana weather is turning dry and the heat is turned on, so everyone gets really dry skin.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you’re interested in trying this out with your cat, check your local retailer. If they don’t have it, you can always ask–most retailers like to learn about new brands that their customers would like to see–or, my favorite method, you can order online! And don’t forget to check them out on Facebook !

I think that’s everything. I hope I covered it all anyway, but if you have any questions about the food, about avocados for pets, or how we feed Newt, please leave ’em in the comments!

Have a great day, everyone!

Newt loves trying natural cat food! Well, she loves to eat. This week? #InstinctRaw

09•30•15

You guys, my cat is weird.

I know this to be true because every time I find myself talking to other people with cats, my experiences are vastly different. We were in the pet store the other day chatting with this woman who said her cats are so picky that she buys all this food but ends up cooking for them. I have friends who tell me that their cat will only eat one food for a while, then refuses, then another food for a while, then refuses… and I’ve heard people say that their cat skips meals altogether.

Not Newt.

Newt eats anything. If I don’t put her bowl on the counter before I put down the dogs’ bowls, she shoves them out of the way to start eating their kibble. (Please note that she weighs 8.08 pounds.) She attempts to eat everything I’m eating. Leave a plate out? She licks it clean. Eating a bowl of oatmeal? She’ll stick her paw in it to claim it as hers.

It’s up to me to make sure she doesn’t eat what she’s not supposed to… and that she gets the healthiest food out there. Because she’s open to anything and because I’m committed to feeding her high-quality natural cat food, we thought we’d give Instinct® Raw a whirl!

It’s an all-natural, grain-free, raw cat food frozen into little bites. I always thought that feeding her raw would be gross or cumbersome, but you just stick the bags in your freezer and pull out the amount of bites you need per meal. It said that it would thaw in minutes. I think it took a bit longer than a few minutes, but it takes ages to measure out everyone’s pills and supplements, so for us anyway, filling her dish before I start that process would ensure they were thawed in time for her to NOT shove her brothers out of the way…

In truth, I think she would’ve eaten them raw. As soon as I opened the bag, she was trying that cat-paw-fishing maneuver, sticking her arm into the bag and attempting to snag a bite. Since they were all frozen together, she was unsuccessful. (I chalk that up as a win for me. I gotta take what I can get.)

That said, I probably wouldn’t feed this to her for every meal every day. I like to rotate things for the herd, so I’d probably alternate this with typical canned food for her breakfast and dinner, or switch things up and give her some of this in her puzzle toy rather than regular kibble. Actually, I switched back to her regular canned food for dinner tonight, and I got a distinct “disappointed” vibe from her!

If you’re interested in learning more, you can visit Instinct’s website or Facebook page, or if you’re ready to take the plunge and give it a try, you can sign up for a $3 off coupon for Instinct Raw and do a trial for $3.99.

Have you tried raw for your pets? Please tell me someone else has a cat like Newt? Or are yours super picky when it comes to food?