Instinct Pate Kitten Entrees, Wet Canned Cat Food, Grain-Free - Real Chicken, 5.5 oz. Cans (Pack of 12)

A few of my cats don’t like this food, but others scarf it up. Since I don’t eat catfood, I can’t say it tastes delicious obviously, but I can judge by reading the ingredients list to know that it is one of the better wet food made. I will buy this brand as long as some of my cats love it!

I bought this brand of cat food for my kittens specifically for its nutritional value. It has an amazing ingredients list that puts most of the other brand cat foods to shame. All three of my cats ate it happily first time out of the can. We do however, have to mix some other brands of healthy cat food into the mix seeing as that even though this cat food is probably well worth it it's still pretty pricey. But what do we do for our loved ones right?

My kitten loved it and, most importantly, it helped clear up his stomatitis! As a new cat mom I was blissfully unaware of the high percentage of cats that have some kind of mouth problem. Apparently, it's like 80% or something, yikes! During a vet visit my vet told me that my kitten had stomatitis (severe inflammation of the gums) and would likely need tooth extractions in the future. I certainly can't afford the thousands of dollars it would cost to do that, so I started researching and learned that some cats showed improvement after a diet change. I was currently feeding dry store-brand kibble, so I figured I'd give diet change a try. A bit of research on high quality cat foods led me to the Instinct brand which I purchased. Initially, I mixed the dry food with the canned food to see if I could stretch the food supply, but my kitten's gums remained inflamed even with daily tooth brushing. Eventually, I started feeding only canned and that combined with daily tooth brushing completely cleared the inflammation. I'd also like to add that I tried a store brand canned food for a few days when I ran out of Instinct and didn't order more ahead of time and the inflammation came back, so it's not just a canned vs dry food issue. It's my belief that my kitten was either allergic to the ingredients in the store-brand cat food or was experiencing a micro-nutrient deficiency leading to his inflammation. Whatever the issue was, it certainly wasn't a matter of simply brushing his teeth as that alone didn't help. I definitely recommend switching to a quality cat food if anyone's cat is experiencing gum inflammation to see if it helps before turning to more drastic measures like tooth extractions. I've now switched over to the Instinct brand freeze-dried nuggets because a month's supply of it costs me a bit less than a month's supply of the canned stuff. Whether freeze-dried nuggets or canned food, this brand has helped me keep my kitten's gum inflammation at bay. However, my kitten certainly misses the canned food and I may end up switching back because he likes it better.

Typical size and pretty good calorie content. Ingredients seem good, and Instinct is generally a high quality brand. However, my kitten simply doesn’t like eating it. He’ll take a couple bites and then just leave it…nothing I can do

good stuff

Pros: Super clean ingredients, helps with digestive issues. Cons: Very inconsistent formula. One can would be crumbly swimming in broth, while another would be super firm with hardly any broth around it. When it is crumbly, you can see the filler ingredients (peas and carrots). There is also no variety to choose from. I wish i could have switched up the flavors and textures for my kitten to see if she would prefer one over the other. This is the cleanest brand of kitten food i could find with no carrageenan, guar gum or xantham gum, and having real food like eggs vs dry egg product like other brands so of course i had to try. My kitten seemed to like it at first, but after a month she would eat less and less of it. She was having minor tummy issues (due to worms) and my vet suggested i try a different well known brand/prescription diet to make sure it wasnt the food. My poor baby went from random not fully formed stools to explosive diarrhea. I switched her back to instinct after a week and like magic, her stools were back to normal. Ive even purchased small bags of instincts digestive health probiotic kibble add on to help and it sure has. But even then, my kitten would barely eat the wet food, but she enjoys the dry food very much. Kittens and cats need a predominantly wet food diet, so only giving her kibble wont work. Ive decided on wet food from another brand and sticking with instincts kibble on days where im not home to feed her. I like the brand so much though that i will try again in the future when she is ready for adult food since they have more variety to choose from.