Mikita and Dahlia typically eat a fresh, raw, prepared diet. Anyone looking to switch, visit my transition guide! These are some brands we've tried and foods we think are better quality than most.

    RAW, FREEZE DRIED & DEHYDRATED

1. Darwin's Pet Food: Top Fave! We buy this directly from them, online and feed to Mikita and Dahlia most of the time. It's a fully formulated frozen raw food for cats made with muscle meat, organs and bones. Available in 3 different proteins. Their packaging seals the food into 8 oz bricks which keeps it super fresh. Eat your heart out, carnivores! Use code: Chicago 2020 for free jerky treats!

2. Hare-Today: This website has whole animal grinds, meat chunks, raw meaty bones and more. Everything comes in frozen. Lots of great food for cats here. We sometimes buy their ground rabbit as a full meal for Mikita and Dahlia. This provides extra variety since rabbit is harder to come by. Mikita and Dahlia love their venison chunks. This website is also great if you're looking to make your own food. They have tons of proteins and organs.  Everything is delivered to your door.

3. Steve's Real Food: Frozen raw found in boutique pet supply stores. This is a high quality raw balanced cat food. They have some less common proteins, like Emu. Great for adding some unusual variety. Despite the meat being in the form of nuggets loose in a bag, the freshness is better than comparable brands.

4. Small Batch: This is a good quality raw food with organically-raised meat. Defrost and serve! They have rabbit which is harder to come by. Again, their individual medallion style food in bags allows for some oxidation to occur. I'd love to see them seal their food a little differently. But they do use great ingredients and a lot of people like it.

5. Tucker's Raw: Sold at some boutique pet supply stores. I like their packaging as each puck is sealed for freshness.  It's a fully formulated frozen RAW food made with muscle meat, organs and bones! They add pumpkin to all their foods which is interesting. Pumpkin can be good for GI issues so if your cat has any, this might be a good one to try. The only downside is it uses High Pressure Processing (HPP), which is a pasteurization process. This process does change the texture a bit. People have mixed feelings on HPP, so if you're considering raw, this is something to keep in mind. The more processing, the less it is in it's natural state.

6. Primal Pet Foods: They make fully formulated frozen raw and freeze dried meals. They also make treats, bone broths and more. Mikita likes some of their products more than others. We've noticed that their raw nuggets tend to oxidize which changes the taste a little. Mikita and Dahlia want their meat as fresh as possible! Overall, they have a good product line, but I wish they'd package their raw food differently.

7. Stella & Chewy's: We occasionally buy this brand when we want to provide a little extra variety. They really bend to the consumer which is good and bad. They offer a great variety, including frozen raw, freeze dried and human grade cooked diets. But it gets confusing because they sell a kibble/freeze-dried blend. This is a slippery slope. Their kibble/freeze-dried blend might be good for transitioning, but, if you're really trying to improve your cat or dog's diet, it's not a species appropriate choice. Like Primal, their raw nuggets tend to oxidize which changes the taste a little. Mikita and Dahlia want their meat as fresh as possible! Overall, they have a good product line, but I wish they'd package their raw food differently and discontinue selling all kibble.

8. Answer's Pet Food: This is a good quality raw food with organically-raised meat. Defrost and serve! We've tried this before and like Primal and Stella's, it does oxidize a bit. I know several people who like this brand. It's definitely one of the good ones, but it isn't sealed as tightly as I'd like, to hold in all the raw freshness while it's stored in the feezer.

9. Honest Kitchen: This is a human grade dehydrated food. Great for transitioning, traveling or in a pinch. It has more carbs than I think is necessary, but the meat ingredients are great quality. We used this to transition Mikita to raw.

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     CANNED FOODS (cooked)

1. Caru: This is a fully cooked, human grade cat food. It comes in a carton but is similar to canned. They use high quality ingredients from the human food supply.

2. RAWZ: This is a canned food that is high in meat content and is made without rendered ingredients or gums. They have a variety of harder to find proteins which is great for variety. They also donate their profits!

3. Ziwi Peak - This is a canned food that is high in meat content. They focus on less typical proteins like lamb and venison.

4. Weruva -  This is a canned food that uses mostly human edible ingredients. They focus on low carb foods which is important for cats.  They use too much fish in their line, in my opinion. But for a mid priced brand, there are some good options that use a lot of animal protein.

5. Tiki Cat - Their canned foods are typically low in carbs. The After Dark line has more organ meats which is great for carnivores. They do have a line of raw foods but I haven't tried it.

6. Canned diets:  In general, we don't feed canned cat food, but I do keep some on hand to help with transitioning cats to raw. I am not as well versed in canned foods, but the better quality canned foods will have fewer carbs and whole meat ingredients.     

OTHER OPTIONS 

1. Locally made cat food: This is a hard find, but some butcher shops and small boutique shops are starting to make their own foods. The west coast seems to have some great local options. Keep your eye out!

2. Homemade: We have yet to make homemade raw food but we have chopped up chicken hearts, gizzards and liver which we've occasionally mixed into some meals. We regularly give them snacks like raw chicken gizzards, hearts and venison cubes. On occasion we'll give them a chicken neck to gnaw apart. Yum! Always do some research before giving any raw meat chunks or bones. And always supervise when you give a cat or dog a raw meaty bone. There's a great article about raw bone safety tips here!

3. Variety: This isn't a brand, it's a reminder to feed a VARIETY OF FOODS! Don't stick with the same food or same protein. No matter what you feed your cat or dog, make sure they're introduced to different proteins. Their body will be strong and happy!