Petite Cuisine Variety Pack (Yellowfin, Snapper, Tuna & Sole, Tuna & Shrimp) for Cats, 3-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)

Naturally this review is based upon my cat's intake of Petite Cuisine. She's not a particular picky eater, so I can't say much about that. However, she looks to really enjoy this brand of cat food. I have tried some brands of wet food in the past that have made her sick (I know cats seem to have digestive systems that are prone to upsetting!) Petite Cuisine did not have any effect there, and she really enjoyed all the flavors. I don't feed her wet food often, usually just some tuna fish now and then. So, although this food is expensive if you used it at every meal, it is priced about the same as tuna, so it fits my needs perfectly. I'm sure my cat will enjoy the rest of this case, and I can keep the canned tuna to myself for now :-)

With 12 cats (1 outdoor, 2 part-time outdoor, 9 full-time indoor), it didn't take me long to test this product!

What do you get in this package?

SIX FOUR-PACKS of cat food. Each serving comes in a small tin, (3 ounces each), 24 tins all total. EACH four-pack includes:

-- one Red Snapper Entrée
-- one Steamed Tuna and Shrimp Entrée
-- one Steamed Tuna and Sole Entrée
-- one Yellow Fin Tuna Entrée

As I said, each tin is a breakfast or supper-sized serving for your cat. These are the smaller-type tins, not the larger Friskies-sized ones (from which I get two servings).

I gave each of my cats a tin of this (I included an equal number of each flavor) and just let them go to whichever bowl that they wished, which is how I always feed them (They normally get Science Diet hard food twice daily and then canned catfood once every two days for a special treat). They went after the "gravy" first and, after licking that all up, they ate the chunks of seafood. All the cats ate all the food. These cats are all orphans (former strays) and some were really ferrel when we first took them in -- now they're all spoiled and calm. Most are pretty old (seven of them are over 10 years old). One cat is especially finicky about her food but she ate this product just fine.

This catfood (like most catfood) is sort of nasty looking when you open a tin but that's because all the good chunks of meat have settled to the bottom. The fairly clear gravy has some thickness, not watery.

I'll give you the ingredients list here from the Red Snapper Entrée: fish broth, Tuna filets, Red Snapper Fillets, soy bean oil, tricalcium phosphate, Guar gum, calcium sulfate, Carrageenan, vitamins and minerals (Vitamin E supplement, Vitamin A supplement, Vitamin D3 supplement), zinc sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, manganese sulfate, Menadione sodium bisulfate complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Riboflavin supplement, folic acid, Pryidoxine hydrochloride, copper amino acid complex, iron amino acid complex.

Guarantee analysis: crude protein (min) 13%, crude fat (min) 1.5%, crude fiber (max) 1%, moisture (max) 85%, ash (max) 3%, taurine (min) 0.1%. This catfood contains no Wheat Gluten.

The breakdown on all four flavors runs about the same. Two of my cats are diabetic (they each get two insulin injections per day) which means, in the real world, that they throw up quite often. This food did not make them throw up.

I can definitely recommend this catfood with these two caveats:

-- it's pricey.
-- they still like one type of Friskies brand slightly better (they fight over it): Salmon Dinner.

Given those two items, this catfood is a winner. Highly recommended.

Our cats usually get the "green can" Fancy Feast shredded varieties (they aren't interested in the green can souffle types, and the Florentine varieties give them gastric problems). The green can stuff is more elegant cat food, not amorphous brown blobs. Petite Cuisine cat food, while something they dove into, was much more watery than the meat-packed Fancy Feasts, and they have been suffering from loose bowels ever since we started them on the test cans. We're going to do one can every three days to see if they can handle that, with the green can stuff on the other two days. I'll report back.

I decided to try this food based on the simple fact that my cats really enjoy canned foods with a seafood theme. We have three cats in our household, all siblings, two males and a female, around one and half years of age. We typically feed them dry food and supplement the occasional can of wet stuff.

I have to say that they really appear to enjoy all four of the flavors included in this package. They devoured all of the cans with gusto, and licked their paws appreciatively afterwards. From their viewpoint, the food was certainly a hit.

This product is made in Thailand, just as an FYI for anyone who might be interested.

I'll recommend it, but I'd be out of line if I didn't mention that this is something of a "gourmet" brand. The marketing concept, the packaging, and the quality of the ingredients all point to a product that's clearly aimed at cat owners with a little disposable income. Truth is, there are a couple of less costly wet foods (Fancy Feast, for one) on the market that are just as good from a nutritional and taste standpoint, you just have to search carefully for them.

On the other hand, buying el cheapo pet foods is usually not a good idea, either, since the cheaper brands use a lot of filler and have much higher proportions of inert ingredients like ash. My advice is to read labels and understand what you're getting. This food is probably on a par with something like Science Diet. It's good, healthy pet food, much like the organic foods that people spend more money on for themselves. ("Empty" calories aren't just a problem in the dysfunctional human food chain, unfortunately. Note to Michael Pollan: take up that subject in your next book, but please be sure to give me a shout-out for the idea.)

All in all, not a bad product. My cats definitely enjoyed trying it.

My cats are real picky about trying new foods. I popped open 2 cans (1 yellowfin & 1 tuna and sole)and set down the dish. The first cat walked over took a little nibble and then went for the full chowdown. The second cat realized that she was missing out, pushed the older cat out of the way and set about to power eating. 2 happy cats over here.

Happy human notes: no BIG fishy smell, no strange looking formed bits, just some good looking, healthy cat food.