TCfeline Raw or Cooked Cat Food - A Premix/Completer/Supplement to Make Homemade Cat Food Diet. All Natural, Grain Free, Human Grade, Species Appropriate (w/Chicken Liver - Trial 4.2 oz)

When reading please keep in mind that I add fish oil to the food when I make it, which is not something the instructions direct you to do. I do not use eggs that the instructions mention as optional.I've switched a total of three cats (all rescues that were eating dry food at the shelter/foster home) from dry food to home made food with this mix. Wow, what a difference it makes. The first thing I noticed is increased energy levels, followed by their coats becoming incredibly soft. I have no idea how many times I have heard someone say "Wow her coat is so soft!" and not just friends that come over, but vets and groomers too.2/3 cats were kinda difficult to switch over to this food. It took several weeks of slowly mixing more and more in with their dry food. The third cat instantly took to it and now shuns any dry food. So if you do plan to make the switch be prepared for a few weeks of having to mix this in with their old food.I do not like the time it takes to prepare the food, but that's not the fault of the mix. Grinding up chicken and mixing it up takes time, no two ways around it. I tend to do batches of 10+lbs of meat and freeze a ton of it to mitigate this.My only complaint is price. By my calculations (my local meat prices might be higher than some areas) it's pretty close in price to buying high quality off the shelf food. I wish I felt like I was saving some money considering the time it takes to prepare this food, but in the end it's worth it for the cats. It clearly improves their health and I couldn't switch them off it in good conscience.P.S.: The Total Cat Store (who sells this product) are wonderful and have helped me out when one of my shipments was stolen from my mailbox. Income was tight and having to order another $63 packet was not as simple as "just buying it". Thanks!

Thoroughly and absolutely DISGUSTED. I trusted this product to be good for my cat through an "improved" way to eat...a more "species appropriate" way of eating.Since when in nature do cats eat XANTHAN GUM??That's a KNOWN gut irritant, contributing to inflammation. It deposits, over time, between the folds of the villi (the little finger-like projections in the gut that are responsible for breaking down and absorbing nutrients)...makes the villi swollen and unable to move. And IMPAIRS DIGESTION, even leads to IBD in cats -- if they don't already have it.It's a FILLER designed to reduce the costs of the manufacturer, that undoes all the good this product purports to do. Over the past 5 months that I used this, my cat developed an inflamed belly...she has now LICKED ALL THE HAIR OFF HER BELLY because she is in so much PAIN!! I started googling all the ingredients and discovered just how bad xanthan gum is. I have since thrown it away -- a $60 WASTE -- and will be TELLING EVERYONE I KNOW to go buy ANOTHER RAW PREMIX instead!!!Since this builds up in the gut over time, and my cat's belly gradually swelled up and became bald due to her INCESSANT LICKING of it there, I doubt her belly will show improvement as quick as I'd like. But in the past 3 days since I stopped feeding this to her, she has quit licking her belly non-stop.One other ingredient that causes problems -- and is NOT 'SPECIES APOROPRIATE' -- is 'Whey Protein Concentrate.' Cats don't drink the milk of cows in nature, and it can promote allergic reactions in cats as well.She has also developed HOT SPOTS on her face -- little bloody sores -- and rubbed the hair off her face too, from having itchy eyes. That's another symptom of a histamine response by the body to something her body has identified as harmful. Truly HORRIBLE to see her continually rubbing her little cat face, over and over again, in addition to her obsessively licking her belly...her whole body was itchy. :( And I felt completely helpless to help her....until I decided to take a better look at what I was giving her. And was horrified when I learned the truth of this product's ingredients.Shame on you, TC Feline!!!! Cats don't need EITHER of these ingredients! Other manufacturers use BETTER ones; hell, xanthan gum is a thickener....WHO NEEDS A THICKENER FOR RAW FOOD???? It's unnecessary and DAMAGING!!! Absolutely TERRIBLE that you would do that to cats!!I bought this product because I believed it was modeled nutritionally "on the physiology of the mouse, which is the cat's natural prey!!"...boy oh boy, was I ever wrong!! That's what I get for believing a company and taking its claims at face value. I'm deeply ashamed that I didn't google all of their ingredients sooner.IF I COULD GIVE IT 'NEGATIVE FIVE STARS'....I WOULD!!Please learn from my experience. Don't buy this "food" for your furbaby; it's detrimental to any cat's health to use it long-term. I just hope I can find a way to undo the past 5 months of damage inflicted on my cat through use of this horrible product.If you love your cat, and want only the best for them, do NOT buy this product. You'll regret it forever.---NOTE: I see the seller responded to my review....so let me be clear: I went through 3 bags in 5 months. That's 2 bags I purchased myself (under this username) from the seller, and 1 bag that someone else purchased for me. Again, I used **3 bags over 5 months,** with the last one not being used up entirely -- but mostly used -- and tossed in the trash. And I'm surprised the seller made that comment, saying they assumed I barely used one bag over 5 months...when my Amazon purchase record indicates I bought at least 2 bags from them. How odd.How would anyone assume I fed my cat TC Feline exclusively for 5 months on just a portion of one bag....? I went through multiple bags. Funny, though -- my cat would have to eat once a week, at that rate. She'd have been dead in a month. So NO. LOL...she did not eat a tiny portion of one bag over the course of 5 months. Dear God.And as far as handling proteins correctly goes, I used them from freshly killed sources and made sure to use gloves as I prepared this food. Then, I froze each meal into a 1.5 ounce portion, in its own air-tight, sealed, freezer-safe plastic bag. Each 1.5 ounce portion was used within 12-16 hours of being taken out of the freezer.How? Well! Here's how. All food was defrosted in my fridge. Then I gave the defrosted fresh raw food to my cat within 2 hours after it had been defrosted.This seller also needs to update their product ingredient list. In fact, this product....? It isn't even sold anymore by TC Feline, the way it is displayed here. There are no longer bags used. And there is no longer any xanthan gum used; looks like my review and the review of others mentioning the horrors of xanthan gum made a difference to the manufacturer. Good.Whey protein, though....that is still in the product. Which bothers me; whey protein is allergenic to cats. Doesn't matter if there's any residual lactose left in it or not (which there most likely still is). It is a dairy derivative, and that alone can cause problems.This product has changed since my review...and the review of others. In fact, this is not even the same product you would get if you bought it today..........unless you are going to receive an old version, still made in this bag. Which, well....I would definitely not recommend.From the TC Feline site, right now, under the section of, 'Ingredients' for the latest version of this product....which is now sold in a plastic container, this is what is stated:"Pure and simple ingredients:New Zealand freeze-dried bovine boneCanadian Gelatin made from pork skinGrass-fed whey protein from New Zealand (GMO free, rBGH free, BSE free)TaurineCanadian freeze-dried Arctic krillCalcium Carbonate from the desert in CaliforniaVitamin E, A and DAll premix varieties are used as addition to fresh raw meat without bone. Meat can be used ground or as small chunks or a combination of. A variety of meats can be used. Egg yolk should be a part of the food when fresh liver is not added. Water is added for texture and should be adjusted to best suit the meat used. There is no correct amount of water to add when preparing the cat food, and directions are intended as guidelines only. Add as much or as little water as is necessary to create a diet texture that pleases you and your cat."Because the manufacturer has taken out xanthan gum and apparently made other changes to the product, that gives me hope. Though I do doubt their line of thinking with using xanthan gum in the first place, when so much research on humans and animals mention the allergenic potential of it (moreso for cats, actually)....as well as the gut damage it inflicts over time, well....she took it out, regardless of what the hell she was thinking when she chose to put it in there in the beginning. Still makes me nervous, and wary of that manufacturer, but at least the new product version has no xanthan gum. Hopefullly they will find an alternative to whey protein in the future. Until they do, I likely will not be buying this product, even in its updated form as it stands....gotta take out whey protein to make me feel as though buying this product is a good choice.Still, it's a step in the right direction.This seller, though...needs to update this product's description, its pictures, and anything else associated with it. It's inaccurate, unless.....consumers are getting a really, really old version of this product. And old, expired products are never a good thing to give to cats. Let's hope that the product's description and product pictures are all just out of date. Go to the TC Feline site for the most current product information, then ask the seller if they are selling you the most current version, if you still want to buy this product after my review.

I'm giving a neutral 3 star rating as I am unable to truly rate the efficacy of the products. This is because after a couple of very small trial dosages, I have to stop using this product. My cats are sensitive to beef. I was aware of the beef bone ingredient--I know my cats cannot eat any beef ingredients in canned foods. I wasn't sure about bone though. Well, after each tiny inclusion of the supplement in my cats', they have vomited within minutes. So confirmation that even beef bone is a no go for my cats. So if you have cats with sensitivity to beef (and any red meat like my cats), think twice about using this supplement.

I have 2 new cats from the shelter and have decided to go raw. One really goes for this. The other, not so much, so I've tried a combination of things...adding cooked chicken, adding premium no grain cat food. This seems to be doing the trick. Right now, they eat half raw and half canned. If that's as far as we get, we can all live with it. I don't add the egg anymore, the texture bothered them.I tasted this product, in dry form, and it has a fishy taste. Just sayin. So if your cats don't go for fish, this may be a factor. Otherwise, it's a well made, whole food product.