I believe that grains are not good for cats and so decided to eliminate dry food from my cat’s diet. In reading the labels of canned cat foods I noticed that most have wheat gluten in them, a substance that is not only from grain but a major allergen for many people and pets. It’s not a healthy or wholesome substance. After a bit of research I found that with Fancy Feast, if you stick to the “classic” or original recipes (generally of a pate consistency) there is no wheat gluten. Any recipe that has an extra descriptive such as grilled, flaked, shredded, etc. has the gluten so I’m thinking it must be the gravy that requires wheat gluten. Anyway, my cat has two issues – she is overweight and has a tendency for diarrhea. I’m on a mission now to figure out how to deal with both. I think seafood is the main cause of her diarrhea episodes and I’m betting grains are contributing to her weight problem. Mainly I’m letting people know by writing this review that this particular collection of Fancy Feast does not have wheat gluten in it. And even though it does have animal by-products at least they are not right up at the top of the list of ingredients. I’ve gone through trying all the expensive specialty foods only to see them summarily rejected one after another and I know my cat likes Fancy Feast so I feel like we have found a happy medium. Update – since writing this review I have figured out that wheat gluten was causing my cat’s messy poops and obesity and seafood was causing the skin eruptions. I’ve experimented enough to know this for certain. So she’s eating nothing but chicken, even her treats are freeze dried chicken breast. the three foods she gets are the Wellness chicken and turkey in pouches, Weruva shredded chicken breast, and Natural Balance chicken and chicken liver. None have by-products, gluten, or seafood, and none of them smell bad. My cat is as clean as it gets “back there” and she’s trim and silky. I know she has got to be enjoying her greatly improved condition even more than I am.

Short version: cat diagnosed with diabetes, insulin & Hill’s prescription food not stabilizing glucose levels despite increasing insulin weekly over 4 weeks, switched food to Fancy Feast Classic Turkey and Giblets Feast, glucose levels normal after 1 week, decreased insulin dose dramatically, glucose still stable. May go off insulin completely soon. Thank you Fancy Feast. Please read full review below to learn why you should start feeding your cat (even if healthy) only Fancy Feast Classic Turkey, Chicken, Beef, or another WET food that has practically no plant based ingredients and has less than 10{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} of the calories from carbohydrates.

Even if your cat isn’t diabetic please read this review and the wealth of information by a vet at catinfo.org. My 12 year old cat was diagnosed with diabetes about 2 months ago. He is a big cat and about a year ago he weighed 22 pounds. Two months ago we noticed that he looked thin, so we took him to the vet. They discovered that he had lost 7 pounds (a third of his body weight in one year), was walking on his forepaws, and based on this checked his blood glucose. It was around 450, which is more than 400{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} higher than the normal level of less than 100.

The vet followed the normal procedure for treating diabetic cats: insulin and “prescription” cat food (Hill’s MD, dry). She did talk me into Lantus insulin, which is new (and more expensive), but has a chance of stimulating your cat’s beta cells to start producing insulin again.

We started my cat on 3 units of insulin, twice daily. I fed him the exact amount of Hill’s I was supposed to. Came back for checkup a week later, glucose still off the charts. Up’d insulin to 4 units twice daily. Recheck: still through the roof. Up’d insulin to 5 units. At this point wife and I started reading online and found wealth of info at catinfo.org by a vet who specializes in treating diabetic cats. This vet is a crusader of sorts against the horrible diet we feed our cats. Cats are obligate (strict) carnivores. This means there diet should be almost 100{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} protein and fat, from animal ingredients. Your cat should have no more than 10{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} of there calories from carbohydrates. DRY FOOD, OF EVEN THE BEST QUALITY, CONTAINS MUCH MORE CARBS THAN YOUR CAT SHOULD HAVE. We discovered the Hill’s food we were feeding had about 17{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} carbs (the canned version is about the same, so don’t be fooled).

After doing much comparison, we settled on Fancy Feast Classic Turkey & Giblets, because: (1) has only about 6{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10} calories from carbs (2) first ingredient is turkey, other ingredients are liver, by-products, that is, proteins & fat (3) it is sold everywhere, unlike high end canned foods (4) it is less expensive than high end canned foods (5) unlike the Fancy Feast Classic chicken or beef, it has no fish. Looking at (2) you may think “eww…by-products,” but for a cat, animal by-products, which are protein and fat from an animal, are better than plant based proteins and much better than carbs. Looking at (5), cats should not be fed fish very often, because the trace amounts of mercury in fish will build up in your cats body over time. But if your cat won’t eat the Turkey, the chicken or beef would be the next best options. Make sure it is the CLASSIC style, as the other Fancy Feast brands have too many carbs.

Back to my cat. So now we were up to 5 units of insulin, twice a day. Recheck: glucose still above 400. I tell my vet that we are switching to Fancy Feast and she agrees to keep insulin at 5 units. Recheck a week later: GLUCOSE LEVELS COMPLETELY NORMAL! Go down to 4 units, twice daily. Recheck: still normal. Down to 3 units, twice daily. Still normal.

We are now down to 3 units of insulin, once a day. There is a good chance he will be off the insulin completely in the next few weeks. My cat has gained 2 pounds, has stopped drinking water and urinating constantly, and acts four years younger. Another bonus, on the expensive dry food we used to feed him he would throw up almost every single day. Now he only throws up occasionally when he has a hair ball. We also now feed are 18 year old cat this food only. She seems much more spry and happy.

I know this is just one anecdote (although there are more on the web) and that the Lantus insulin may be the real reason for this turn of events, but I do believe personally that it was Fancy Feast that saved my cat.

Although one can’t really tell for sure which of the varieties this is (‘classic,” ‘flaked,’ or ‘grilled’) from the ambiguous packaging or description, this is all classic pate, which was what I was looking for (and what my cats will eat).