Calling all Fancy Feast ...ers - which flavors do you eat?

OK here's the deal, I've noticed in several places some question about the age of the Fancy Feast info in J&B's list. That and some wonky numbers here [Meatball & Buddha] in PZI is just making me have an itch to call Purina and try to see if I can't get the latest info from them. SO here's your chance! List your flavors you feed and I'll try to get the info one them OK? Let's set the deadline for like two days maybe so by the end of Tuesday and maybe I can start a lick on it on Wed morning? It might take me a while to get some results from Purina depending on who cooperative they will be and how intelligent the initial people I talk to are. For instance, Natural Balance took me weeks if not months to get down to the bottom of between all the back and forth. cat(2)_steam Wellness on the other hand takes one quick telephone call or email. And some companies *cat*egorically will not furnish the info.

These are the flavors so far:
Classic Chicken Feast
Classic Chopped Grill Feast
Classic Tender Beef & Chicken Feast
Classic Tender Beef & Liver Feast
Classic Tender Beef Feast
Classic Tender Liver & Chicken Feast
Classic Turkey & Giblets Feast
Chunky Turkey Feast
Flaked Fish & Shrimp Feast
Flaked Ocean Fish Feast

Any help you guys [gals] can provide to make sure I got everything in in the right category is appreciated. Is chicken feast the same as gourmet chicken feast? It seems everyone calls them something a little different?

 

I replied once, where did it go?

Buddha has been fed: Tender Beef Feast, Tender Beef & Liver Feast, Tender Beef & Chicken Feast, Gourmet Chicken Feast, Turkey & Giblets Feast, Tender Liver & Chicken Feast, and Chopped Grill Feast. They have all been relabeled recently as "classic" flavors.

While I have tried dry dog food and dog biscuits, I have never sampled canned pet food. (Or am I confusing this with a "would you rather?" :mrgreen:

Just noticed that the Ace Hardware in a nearby town sells EVO food. And they have a great plant selection. Might be making a road trip soon.

 

My goodness Donna - that's quite a few flavors! Do you just bring him home the whole store? LOL. I'm just poking some fun, sounds like you like to spoil your Buddha. H gets 2 flavors now and that's 100% more flavors than he used to in the past.

Hope just had a post in Health where I ran the numbers on one of the EVO 95% foods - Turkey & something. It had pretty high fat [70 something % Kcal] and a Ca ratio that was 1.39 [it should be 1.0-1.3]. Not to say that all their foods are like that but...

 

Chopped Grill Feast Classic and Chicken Feast Classic are the standards... although I have literally come home with one of every can they have to see if Ari will just eat any of them - including the kitten formulas

 

I feed 2 FF flavors, along with Wellness (and just recently added Cowboy Cookout, which has been a hit). I picked those flavors because they are on the gluten-free list AND do not contain fish (Buzz is allergic). They are: Turkey and Giblets, and Tender Liver and Chicken Feast. There was a 3rd one but I can never remember if it's Beef and Chicken Feast or Beef Feast. One of those has fish in it even though it's not a fish flavor so I always have to look at the ingredient list at the store.

Good luck, Gator, and thanks again for all you do for us.

 

Chopped Grill is the Fancy Feast of Choice these days. The 24 pack comes with Chicken, Beef, and ... something else, I forget. I've been known to buy the box or a flat of another variety, in order to save a ... well a buck. Feeling a bit foolish, but hey, every little bit helps.

My civvie cat, Lemur, formerly the stinkiest cat in the world, is prone to the squirts. Most of the stinkies cleared up after a wormer followed by an antibiotic to get rid of any internal parasites/giardia. He eats a dry "sensitive stomach" variety food. But now that he's not squirting so much, he's gotten so fat. I noticed that EVO makes a venison and a duck canned food. From what I've read unique proteins seem to help. Hence, the potential road trip for EVO.

 

Have you tried grain free food for the intentional problems? The novel protein foods are of questionable utility and I've hear that good effect tend to wear off. H is a 100% grain free kitty now and I *think* it has helped a lot with his IBD etc.

 

tom eats gourmet classic gourmet chicken, chunky turkey, tender beef and chicken, flaked fish and shrimp and flaked ocean fish feast. all under 7 carbs, with the 2 fish dishes at 0 carbs. i thought those grilled dishes were pretty high carb?
also tom closes the day with an ounce of raw rabbit---by far his favorite meal of the day judging by all the purring that goes on.

 

Gator--
Thanks for doing this! I too have been wondering about this issue Sorry my reply is so late, I really couldn't see straight the last few days and was only online for about 5 min last night. Feeling better today and I am getting a little 'stir crazy' being stuck inside so long!

I 'think' the chicken feast & gourmet chicken feast are the same thing--I have only ever seen the gourmet chick in the stores. It seems to be one of the more popular varieties, and the one we are feeding. But not as much lately, per our discussion last week of high phosp content. They changed the packaging recently, and I seem to remember seeing a few people remarking their kitties not liking the new 'flavor'. Someone posted that they contacted the manufacturer about this and was told the carb content wasn't changed--but who knows!
We also occasionally feed the turkey & giblets, but they don't like to get it too often.
I am really curious to see an updated count on the calhosp ratio.

 

Lemur's really packed on the pounds since mid-November after a round of Flagyl. The vet "made me" buy a small bag of I/D. When that bag was gone, I fed him Pro Plan Sensitive. So that's what made him balloon. I do control how much he gets, just a scant 1/2c/day. He also licks all the dried up stuff off Buddha's plates of fancy feast. On the rare occasion when Lemur manages to steal a larger portion of the fancy feast (which I believe is grain free) he has problems. I've recently bought a bag of Authority Sensitive, that doesn't have corn or soy, but still has rice and oatmeal. I haven't seen any canned food billed as Sensitive. Don't know what that means.

 

"Sensitive" is subjective. "Grain Free" is objective. :smile:

 

I finally heard back from Purina this week - above is the reply. Basically without fat and protein the numbers are useless [to folks concerned about carbs] because one needs to verify the carbs by adding fat, protein, ash, carbs and maybe moisture if AF. I haven't decided how I want to handle this. I can't be the only one who has ever asked for this for these flavors especially. And thus the idea that they would have to take all this special time to do something custom for me is doubtful. So I think I'll have to call in and maybe just ask to speak with their nutritionist to flush this out.

BTW the email address to contact Purina directly at is oteam@purina.nestle.com . I had difficulties reaching anyone though their webform. The phone number is 800.7PURINA .

Thought I would include the email I generally send requesting info in case anyone would like to use it for their own purposes:

 

Pretty lame, though nicely worded, lol. Did you tell them there are a ton of people who buy their products and are really happy they have diabetes-friendly food, and that publishing this information (for lower-carb flavors) can help them SELL more product?

I talked to a cousin the other day who has a FD kitty it turns out. I asked her what she feeds (OF COURSE!!! ) and she said her vet recommended FF and gave her a list of 4 or 5 flavors to use!!!! I thought that was pretty cool!

If I were Purina, I would be jumping on making special labels and having a special line of "low-carb" foods. I think they would really sell if they pushed it, not just for diabetic cats but for all cats - who wants to end up with a cat who is diabetic down the line?

The cynical side of me says that then their other food sales (dry food? gravy flavors?) would go down, so they don't want to advertise it. The other cynical side of me says they are too d*mb to realize what they've got. Can't find a non-cynical side right now to give them the benefit of the doubt. :lol:

Good for you for trying Gator. Keep us posted!

 

I just got this email from them this week:

Thank you for contacting Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.

We appreciate your patience while we researched your inquiry. Please find the information you requested listed below.

Fancy Feast(r) Gourmet Cat Food - Classic Tender Beef Feast(tm) contains the nutrients below in dry matter %:

Protein Fat Carbohydrate Fiber Phosphorus
53.3 30.7 4.7 0.4 2.05

Fancy Feast(r) Gourmet Cat Food - Classic Chicken Feast(tm) contains the nutrients below in dry matter %:

Protein Fat Carbohydrate Fiber Phosphorus
53.1 31.2 4.0 0.7 1.97

Fancy Feast(r) Gourmet Cat Food - Classic Turkey & Giblets Feast(tm) contains the nutrients below in dry matter %:

Protein Fat Carbohydrate Fiber Phosphorus
53.3 32.7 3.9 0.5 1.69

We hope you find this information helpful and will contact us with any additional questions.

Again, thank you for visiting our website.

Is this the right kind of information?

 

Molly,

Yes, pretty much, thank you. Ideally one needs the ash too [since they gave you DM and not AF you don't need moisture]. Since they are using DM the sum of Protein, fat, CHO[carbs], ash and fiber should equal 100. I did give them my address which they will supposedly send me the analysis minus the protein, fat and taurine so I should be able to grab the ash from whatever they send.

I also like to have the calcium because I have started calculating the Ca ratios.

Anyway, this just proves to me that they were being difficult in their response to me. So.... the battle continues. It is very upsetting to me that the companies make this so difficult. I'm not sure who they think it benefits to be difficult. At a minimum you have gotten three and I'll try to get three more that you did not get.

I don't want to do all of them right now since they may not even be correct BUT I thought I would do/convert one to see how things look. Below is the Classic Chicken Feast one:

%Kcal
Pro Fat CHO
40 57.0 3.0 - NEW numbers
39 57 4 - J&B's old Gourmet Chicken Feast

Also for the new Classic Chicken Feast
per 100 Kcal
Fiber = 0.15g
Phos = 424mg

If anyone cares you can see how the conversion is done with my slightly modified version of J&B SS here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... mF0NkE1VXc

I think the old Gourmet Chicken Feast is the new Classic Chicken Feast?? SO with all of the crazy assumptions, the numbers in J&B's list seem very close for the Classic Chicken Feast at least. I'll keep working on this - I had a feeling nothing in this case was going to come easy.

 

Thought I would give the update that I FINALLY did receive something in the mail from Purina. I have about 20 sheets of nutritional breakdowns of a ton of flavors but the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash are all guaranteed analysis [which as we know is worthless]. This is contrary to what they wrote in their email to me. So I'm WAY frustrated at this point. It looks like I'm just going to have to call them and have it out. cat(2)_steam This is so silly.

I'm still working on it though. grr_red

What I can say is that there are revision dates on some of the documents from '07, '08 & '09, so it might be a good assumption that some of their flavors have changed their makeups within the past few years.

If anybody wants I'd be happy to scan and send/post the docs.

 

Thanks, Gator, for going to all this trouble, specially since H doesn't eat the stuff! I have mostly switched to the ff Chicken which Molly did get dry matter data on (and what happened to Molly and Meatball? She was going to try ... humulin N? ... the quick action insulin ... Molly, are you out there?)

I know it would help me and a lot of other people to have correct info on the fancy feast flavors. I've meant to send my own email to them, but haven't yet.

I bet what Purina has sent you is identical to what they have on their website. So no need to scan on my account.

Thanks again.

 

Are the FF flavors with gravy (turkey, beef, chicken flavors that says 'grilled' on the box) a definite no-no? I've read conflicting info as to whether they have gluten and/or unreasonably high carbs. I have a 24 can box sitting there waiting to be given away or fed.

 

Every single FF flavor with "gravy" of the ones I received also have wheat gluten in the top 5 ingredients. There are at least 20 flavors - probably more that I have here that say "gravy."

As for the carbs you can check J&B's tables for now.

I would just return it. If the store will not take it back then call Purina and they will make it right for you. They have a satisfaction guarantee.

Guess I'll scan what I got, seems like it might help.

 

Flaked Ocean Fish Feast

is being discontinued this June! Already expressed my displeasure to the company but
it would not - could not hurt for others to also.

 

Thanks G&H! As much as a PITA it would be to scan and post all that, I'm sure it would be useful to many of us.

 

Ask and thou shalt receive:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7 ... IzNjlhMTNh

Their order is the order I received them in, I did not try to make much sense of them since they are pretty useless IMHO anyway.

VERY IMPORTANT:
Please keep in mind that one cannot use the numbers in these documents to accurately predict the carb values since the critical ingredients pro, fat, carbs & others [all noted with "(max)" or "(min)" are in the pretty much useless guaranteed analysis form].

I have no idea what "Typical nutrient composition" or "Values are typical as produced" is supposed to mean. If that is in DM, AF or something else completely?? Anyway...

I was at least hoping that these documents would have the ash in DM so I could do some confirming of the numbers Molly got and any I might get in the future but obviously this is going to take some more work.

 

Nice job and fast too. Appreciated! :smile:

At least we can tell which varieties have the wheat gluten with reasonable certainty. This will def help narrow down Blue's menu. Looks like the one's I feed Blue are all good to go and glad I haven't fed any of the gravy varieties.

 

As you are aware, the documents only illuminate the 5 top ingredients. It seems wheat gluten is in most of those top 5 - sometimes as the fifth. I would be more inclined to say that if a particular flavor you are interested in does not have wheat gluten in the top 5 then one could add that to their "potential" list and would then have to verify against the can/container or perhaps the Fancy Feast web site if it show each flavors complete ingredient listing. But the documents are good for categorically eliminating the vast majority of the flavors if one is concerned about grains/wheat gluten.

 

This is what I just received from Purina. I do not have the time to work on this right now [or make it look pretty] but wanted to post it at least. I really haven't looked at this to do any sort of sanity check so use at your own discretion. These are not all the flavors I asked for either [more communication with Purina is going to be necessary, uggg]. They all look to be in As Fed since moisture is included:

Dry Matter %
Product
Fiber
Ash
Phosphorus
Calcium
Protein
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Moisture (N/A)

Chunky Turkey Feast
0.8
12.7
2.03
2.18
56.3
87
24.6
6.2
76.0
(as fed)

Classic Chicken Feast
0.7
11.5
1.97
2.16
53.1
94
31.2
4.0
77.0
(as fed)

Classic Chopped Grill
0.7
12.0
2.14
2.37
52.9
91
30.0
4.7
76.5
(as fed)

Classic Tender Beef & Chicken Feast
0.6
11.2
1.96
2.22
50.8
94
32.2
5.6
76.5
(as fed)

Classic Beef & Liver Feast
0.6
10.8
1.93
2.22
51.0
94
33.4
4.6
76.8
(as fed)

Classic Tender Beef Feast
0.4
11.1
2.05
2.36
53.3
93
30.7
4.7
76.5
(as fed)

Classic Tender Liver & Chicken Feast
0.7
11.0
1.98
2.04
53.5
90
30.4
0.7
77.0
(as fed)

 

Hey, does this help:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... utput=html

I tried to line up all the data ... someone might want to proofread it.

Did I get it lined up right, Gator?

 

Yea, as far as I see, it looks great! :smile:

Since you have it in a table you can easily add a column that will do the J&B "Cross/Sanity Check": "if you also have values for water and ash, the values of protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, ash, and water should add up to 100%. None of them should be negative."
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/foodfaq.html
If you want to be really tricky you can set some conditional formatting to set the background color of the cell if it = 100...

Then another "hard" [time consuming] part - feeding them into the Excel Spreadsheet linked in that page to convert to %Kcal [the way the data in J&B's carts is presented]. I have a slightly modified version here too:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... mF0NkE1VXc

 

100% ... close, but no cigar.

Looks like the carb content of that last one, Classic Tender Liver & Chicken Feast, is pretty suspect. Typo?

 

Wow, these numbers are VERY different from the old food charts .... I think we have proof the formula changed :lol:

Glad to see the flavors are lower in fat than they used to be though.

 

Working with other foods I've had instances of things not quite adding up but being very close. It could just be a rounding issue [maybe]. I'd figure all the ones except Classic Tender Liver & Chicken Feast are probably fine. I'll write Purina later to confirm the numbers for the Classic Tender Liver & Chicken Feast, I'm sure it will take a while to hear back.

Keep in mind the numbers in Donna's chart are represented as AS FED and DRY MATTER- the numbers in J&B are %Kcal. They numbers must first be converted from as fed or dry matter into %Kcal before any comparison to J&B's old can be done. Not sure if you have done this already - if you have then scratch my warning. :smile:

Anyone who wants to do the conversion can use one of the conversion spreadsheets I referenced earlier. And if you do it then please put back into a sheet and post. :smile:

 

ah, thank you. I didn't realize the values would be that different without the conversion.

 

Converted in same spreadsheet. I built the formulas into the sheet I started. Fudged with that last carb count. Trying to get my numbers to display as percentages, instead of decimals. My formulas don't look different from Gator's or J&B's. I'll get it ...

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... utput=html

 

hey I heard this was being done and had to come and see - thank you everyone for getting this information

one question - I'm trying to understand how to figure out the phosphorus levels - I don't understand how to translate say 2.1 into a JB style - can you advise - what I'm trying to figure out is if these are still considered high phosphorus (above 250) or if they've come down any.

 

Hillary,

It appears Donna did not include the P in the conversion columns. But if you want to figure the P use one of the conversion spreadsheets I linked to earlier [ viewtopic.php?p=167239&sid=f7ba21373bb8bb3e459f9daa0aaf3020#p167239 ]and feed your desired flavor's AS FED into into it to get the %Kcal [or in the case of P the per 100Kcal].

 

I don't pay attention to phosphorus, so I didn't add it. Put it in now. I found and fixed an error -- I just dragged/dropped the formulas for the rows yesterday, and determined today that the formula didn't copy correctly. So got that fixed. Someone with an eye for proofing might give it a look over.

There was someone who mentioned elsewhere on fdmb that she'd received full nutrition info from Purina, and I sent her a pm, but haven't heard back.

 

Thanks I was trying to figure out and wow! Over 400 still. For cats with kidney issues that's too high a phosphorus level.

 

I just want to thank everyone for doing this. I am so not good with numbers and Morgaine has decided that she will only eat Tender Beef for now so I am looking for a few other flavors to tempt her in case she rejects the one she currently likes. She was rotating with Tender Liver and Chicken but will not go near that anymore.

BTW, Morgaine is doing very well on diet alone but I am staying connected here as I love this board and the way everyone pitches in to help one another. Great group of cat lovers here.

 

I'm also feeding my newly diagnosed baby Fancy Feast Classic chicken flavor. She's been on this since Saturday night. I wonder if I can add Turkey & Giblets Feast at 3.9 for carbs as an extra flavor, or do I need to stick to 1 flavor only?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

Angela, I haven't had the issues that you have with Blackie's diarrhea, so I really can't give you much help on this. Is she still having diarrhea? There is one SK flavor that seems to give Tinkles diarrhea, so I just stopped giving that one flavor and he has been fine. Maybe if she's still having trouble, try a different flavor (maybe switch to turkey & giblets?) or try a different brand, but stick to one flavor for a few days? Hopefully someone else will chime in, this is not an area where I have much experience.

Some people stick to one or two flavors/brands for a while to try to eliminate variables while they work on getting the BG #s down.

 

I may have to get her the Turkey & Giblets flavor too, then, and see what's up. I know that it's a bit lower in carbs than the chicken... I think T&G is 3.9 in carbs whereas the chicken is 4. I think I'm at the "trial and error" stage of trying to find the right combo of food and insulin dosage without going over or underboard. This is a very fine science for sure. LOL