Kit N Kaboodle Cat Food

[Wellspotted]

Anyone feed this? My older kitty was raised on it. I just bought a bag a couple of days ago.

Kitties won’t touch it. They may be just holding out for treats and people chicken, but even when they seem seriously hungry they won’t touch the Kit N Kaboodle. Dishes are clean, roach-free, but they won’t eat this food from the bowls. If I put a little on the floor they will eat that.

I can’t keep going to the store to buy cat food! Even if I could afford it, I have no transportation to the store.

Right now we are doing treats for breakfast, and some Iams a neighbor gave us since their cat won’t eat that.

Do your kitties eat Kit N Kaboodle? Do they just hold out and go on hunger strike until you give in?

I wish cat food came in small sample bags. I would try different ones 'til I found which one my cats liked.

[Simkie]

If I were a cat, I wouldn’t eat it either. Have you looked at the ingredients?

Do you have a Tractor Supply near? Their 4 Health line is mucho better than what you’ve got there, and inexpensive.

Cat WILL hunger strike until they die, so don’t go that route.

[Mosey_2003]

It’s a much bigger deal for cats to go any period without eating than dogs. I’d see if you can swap someone.

[Wellspotted]

They ate Whiskas for years until the local stores stopped carrying it. They ate Friskies well. This is made by Purina so I would think it would be as good as any dry cat food is.

[wendy]

This is made by Purina so I would think it would be as good as any dry cat food is.

that’s a rather bizarre statement. Purina specializes in making extremely low-quality dog and cat food- if it’s made by Purina, you know it’s almost certainly not very good. And Kit n Kaboodle is their bottom-of-their-line cat food brand.
Read the ingredients- corn, corn gluten meal and soybean meal. No meat at all. Plus it comes with yummy food colorings.

here’s a review: http://www.petfoodratings.org/dry-cat-food/kit-n-kaboodle/

[AzulBlue]

I understand that transportation is an issue. But do you have a Petsmart nearby? You can purchase a higher grade kibble, and if the cats don’t like it, they will give you a FULL refund, and then you could try something different, until you find one they will eat.
Do they like meaty wet food? I would make sure they get something to eat on a daily basis asap though.

[Marshfield]

[QUOTE=Wellspotted;7786806]
They ate Whiskas for years until the local stores stopped carrying it. They ate Friskies well. This is made by Purina so I would think it would be as good as any dry cat food is.[/QUOTE]

Good gracious, no. This is probably about as bad as it comes nutrition wise for cats. They’re carnivores. If they won’t eat wet, then grain free dry such as Evo is an option, otherwise, inexpensive canned food such as Friskies is better than most dry foods.

Amazon can ship many suitable food options to you

[Snowflake]

Cats are obligate carnivores. Feeding them a grain filled food isn’t appropriate for any cat. My guys are on EVO Turkey and Chicken. I think you’d be better off buying grocery store canned cat food than any of the Meow Mix/Friskies/Kit & Kaboodle/Dad’s garbage sold at stores. It would be an upgrade if your grocery carried Rachel Ray grain free for cats. At the very least, real meat should be the first ingredient with a fat source from fish oil, chicken fat or canola oil. (No generic animal fat - this is rendered from chemically euthanized animals!) Also, limited filler grains. Cats need a whole lot more protien and less carbs.

[TBROCKS]

Mix it with some baby food chicken to get them to eat it. Then never buy it again, because it’s the crap of cat food.

[trubandloki]

OP, I will make you feel a little better.

My barn cats will only eat Purina One Hairball formula. I have tried much higher quality cat foods (right now I have a bag of some grain free food I bought, forgot brand) and they just will not touch it. So frustrating. They are also fussy about what flavor of wet food I buy. How dare I put a can of Ocean White Fish in front of them.

AzulBlue, I had not heard of that policy at Petsmart. I will have to check that out. I would like to get my cats on something better quality and I am tired of tossing out bag after bag of cat food that they simply will not touch.

[AzulBlue]

[QUOTE=trubandloki;7786948]
OP, I will make you feel a little better.

My barn cats will only eat Purina One Hairball formula. I have tried much higher quality cat foods (right now I have a bag of some grain free food I bought, forgot brand) and they just will not touch it. So frustrating. They are also fussy about what flavor of wet food I buy. How dare I put a can of Ocean White Fish in front of them.

AzulBlue, I had not heard of that policy at Petsmart. I will have to check that out. I would like to get my cats on something better quality and I am tired of tossing out bag after bag of cat food that they simply will not touch.[/QUOTE]

Yup. Any dog or cat food you purchase there, even opened and half used, they will take back with a full refund. It’s awesome when you are trying to find a food that fluffy or fido likes.

[Mosey_2003]

I imagine PetSmart does that because they have a pretty liberal donation policy to shelters/rescues. When I worked at the distribution center we’d send all the damaged food and litter about every other week to local places.

[Wellspotted]

Thanks, trubandloki.

[Wellspotted]

I am on food stamps. Cannot afford high-end cat food. That doesn’t make me a bad cat mom. My kitties will eat canned food the first day, not thereafter; they usually throw it right back up again after eating it the first day.

They don’t like Iams, which was given to us by a neighbor whose cat wouldn’t eat it either.

I have read the ingredients on high-end dry foods – same crap as the affordable grocery-store brands.

We just finished a picnic of people mackerel. Still licking our whiskers over that.

When I got home a little while ago both bowls of Kit N Kaboodle were empty. Yea!

Being advised to go buy high-end cat food is like reading about people who buy $999 lamps. I’m just on a different plane of existence.

Purina cat foods were recommended to me by local vet clinic.

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Wellspotted;7787145]
I have read the ingredients on high-end dry foods – same crap as the affordable grocery-store brands. [/QUOTE]

Uhhhh…what?

Here are the ingredients for the Kit N Kaboodle:

Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Meat and Bone Meal, Animal Fat Preserved with Mixed-Tocopherols (Form of Vitamin E), Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Liver Flavor, Salt, Phosphoric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Turkey By-Product Meal, Ocean Fish Meal, Taurine, Potassium Chloride, Added Color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Sodium Selenite, Biotin.

Here are the ingredients for a really top notch dry food–this is Orijen:

Boneless chicken,* chicken meal, chicken liver,* whole herring,* boneless turkey,* turkey meal, turkey liver,* whole eggs,* boneless walleye,* whole salmon,* chicken heart,* chicken cartilage,* herring meal, salmon meal, chicken liver oil, chicken fat, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, sun-cured alfalfa, kelp, pumpkin,* butternut squash,* spinach greens,* carrots,* apples,* pears,* cranberries,* mixed tocopherols (preservative), chicory root, dandelion root, chamomile, peppermint leaf, ginger root, caraway seeds, turmeric, rose hips, freeze-dried chicken liver, freeze-dried turkey liver, freeze-dried chicken, freeze-dried turkey, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product + vitamins and minerals

How can you POSSIBLY say that’s the “same crap”?

I’m not saying you should be feeding Orijen–I get that it’s well outside the scope of what some people can possible spend on their pets. But you can choose to feed something MUCH better for about the same price. Cats are obligate carnivores. They should ONLY eat meat. You’re feeding your cats corn and soy and very little else–which is incredibly unhealthy for them.

The better you CAN feed them, the fewer vet bills you’ll have.

This stuff from Tractor Supply is $22 for 18 pounds. Do you see how much better this is than what you’ve got now?

Chicken, chicken meal, egg product, cracked pearled barley, ground rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), salmon, potatoes, natural chicken flavor, flaxseed, sodium bisulfate, ocean fish meal, potassium chloride, DL-methionine, choline chloride, dried chicory root, taurine, dried kelp, carrots, peas, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberries, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

[Wellspotted]

All I know is that ground rice, potatoes, carrots, peas, alfalfa, and pumpkin are no more appropriate for obligate carnivores than are cornmeal and chicken by-products. So yes, I do think the high-end foods are just as full of crap as the grocery-store brands, it’s just different crap.

Anyway, my original question has been answered: the majority of COTHers who have replied to this thread so far do not feed Kit N Kaboodle. That’s all I wanted to know, really.

[Simkie]

THAT’S how you’re going to justify feeding your cats something that’s probably 95% corn and soy?

Ingredients are listed on the label by order of weight in the food. Something that is Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal is so vastly different from something that is Boneless Chicken, Chicken Meal, Chicken Liver that they’re not even in the same BALLPARK. Frankly, the Kit N Kaboodle is a lot more suitable as a horse or cattle feed than as a cat food.

You can do a lot better for your kitties here, Wellspotted. You don’t have to spend a fortune to do so. Instead you seem to be going for the crappiest crap you can find? All because you can’t afford to feed them something like this? There are a lot of shades of grey and incremental gains possible when feeding pets. It doesn’t have to be uber high end OR total trash. There is a middle ground.

[Wellspotted]

OK, where is the middle ground? Serious question.

[Simkie]

The middle ground is something like the 4Health food I keep posting about. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it a LOT better for a cat than Kit N Kaboodle? Absolutely. It’s got meat as the first two ingredients (and egg as the third, which I sort of file with meat.) That’s a huge step up.

Anything that has meat as the first couple ingredients is moving up the scale. Cat Chow would be a small improvement. I’d call the 4Health stuff a better improvement. If you wanted to do even better, you could go with the 4Health Grain-Free.

Wet food would also be a good middle ground. Even the uber cheap wet foods are usually better for kitties–more meat, more water! I saw this last weekend:

http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/sprout-ultra-country-chicken-dinner-cat-food-13-2-oz-case/0000000044311

So inexpensive. IIRC, meat is the first ingredient.

[wendy]

Even purina cat chow which is only $16 for 13 pounds is better than Kit n Kaboodle. At least the first ingredient in cat chow is chicken meal.

How much does Kit n Kaboodle cost, anyway? whatever they are charging for it is too much.

The cheapest wet food you can find is going to be far better for your cats than any of the cheap dry foods.