# Weruva?



## yellowdaisies (Jan 25, 2011)

Is Weruva an ok food? I've read that the calorie count is too low, like 80something calories in a 5.5 oz can as opposed to 200 or so in a can of Wellness. My cats are still kittens - 8 months old - so the calorie count is an important issue to me, since I know they need more calories than adults. 

The problem is that Lily has recently decided that pate food (Merrick BG and Wellness) doesn't excite her anymore - she only eats a few bites at mealtimes, and is getting most of her sustenance from Merrick BG dry. However, she LOOOOVES Weruva (especially Paw Lickin' Chicken and Peking Ducken) and will gobble that up in moments. 

I've tried putting Weruva on top of pate food, but that really makes her only eat the Weruva and barely skim the top of the pate food (haha) - she's apparently too smart for that.  

She hasn't gained any weight in over a month (she's 7.8 lbs, 3 lbs lighter than her brother!) which also worries me...kittens are supposed to still grow until they're at least a year old, right? 

Thanks in advance.


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## yellowdaisies (Jan 25, 2011)

To add: She is apparently a big fan of Wellness pouch food as well. 

So along with my original Weruva question - anyone have recommendations for other non-pate foods, preferably grain free? Thanks!


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## littlebee (Mar 1, 2011)

Oh boy. Another pate hater. Sabine thinks they're gross, too.

But, that said...I learned a helpful trick here on the forum: sprinkling parmesan cheese on top. If I give her enough time, Sabine will finish a decent serving of almost anything once it's got some parmesan on top. Now, I have to leave it out pretty much all night...but I find a clean plate in the morning.

You may have tried it already, though...sounds like Lily is pretty crafty.  

I've heard nothing but praise for Weruva (wish I could get it locally!). There are a couple of cheap grocery store brands that have one or two grain-free, non-pate flavors (Sabine's favorite is Fancy Feast Flaked Fish & Shrimp), so if you have time to read labels, you might browse that aisle sometime. I think many (most?) of them are fish flavors, though. I'll be curious to see what the others post! 

Sabine thanks you for starting this thread.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

I think what needs to be looked at here is the quality of the meat. Weruva is almost all chicken protein. It's an extremely low fat, low carb food. And the chicken that is used is boneless, skinless breast meat. All very digestible and a cat is able to utilize a significant portion of it to meet it's nutritional requirements.

On the other hand, "chicken" as defined by AAFCO includes skin, muscle meat, bone and connecting tissues. The quality food companies are using high quality "chicken", but you can be pretty sure it includes all of the above if they don't say otherwise (and that's not necessarily a bad thing). Some of those components do not have the same digestibility that pure breast meat has. So it's necessary to consume more calories to gain the same amount of nutrition.

In addition, Weruva has a very low fat content...on a dry matter basis Weruva is 9.3% while Wellness chicken is about 22%. Fat has more calories than protein (9 vs 4), so by having lower fat it naturally lowers the calories. Weruva does meet the AAFCO requirements for fat content, so not worries about that.

Other choices for chunky/shredded foods: Tiki Cat, Avoderm has some chucks and flakes, as does Blue Buffalo. 

Wellness will be coming out with a line of chunky/flaky foods sometime in the near future. I had heard by June, but it's gone kind of quiet, so it may be postponed.


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## yellowdaisies (Jan 25, 2011)

littlebee - I've read about that parmesan thing on here, but I forgot about it! I will try that, because I know she likes parmesan. Most likely, though, she will just lick it off the top LOL. Oh, Lily. Haha I'm glad Lily is not the only pate hater out there. I've got a boy who thinks that NOTHING is food if it's NOT in pate form - including pieces of plain chicken breast, tuna, and cat treats, and a girl who has now apparently decided that NOTHING is food if it IS in pate form! Cats... Although personally, I think Lily has the right idea - Weruva just looks so much more appetizing than pate food! 

Doodlebug - Thank you SO much for that information! That definitely makes more sense. Weruva is the priciest food I buy, but it's worth it if Lily likes it and is getting proper nutrition from it! I hope Wellness comes out with their new line soon - Wellness is the cheapest premium canned food at my local pet store, because they only charge $1.89 for the 12 oz cans. (and $1.19 for 5.5 oz - doesn't make sense haha)


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

My girls also hate pate. Weruva is their favorite and that's what they get most of the time. They also like Wellness pouches (meat with gravy), but most of the time they only lick up the gravy and leave the meat. At least with Weruva, they eat the meat too...picky, picky, picky!


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

I also have heard lots of praise for Weruva.
Here's a link where I guess someone from the company talks about what goes into their food and such. Is Weruva Low Calorie? Tracie Hotchner Blog

And even if it was lower calorie, that can be fixed by just giving her another can.

(Also both of your cats look to be healthy and at a really good weight, so I wouldnt worry, they'll LET you know if you aren't feeding them enough. xD)


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## furryfriends251 (Jan 1, 2009)

I've tried feeding Weruva before to three of my cats and every one of them hated it...but they all like the texture of chunks/shreds. I think I may have the only three cats in the world that won't eat Weruva

Here is a list of wet food that is in chunks/shreds (vs. pate) though I'm not sure which of them are grain free: 

-Innova Flex 
-Nature's Variety Homestyle 
-Weruva 
-SOME Merrick flavors (some are pate and some are chunks, check labels or experiment) 
-Wellness POUCHES 
-Blue Buffalo healthy Gourmet 
-By Nature Goldleaf selects 
-Soulistic (Petco "brand" which is I think actually made for them by Weruva)


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## yellowdaisies (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks everyone! 



MinkaMuffin said:


> And even if it was lower calorie, that can be fixed by just giving her another can.


See, that's what I'm afraid of! This stuff is WAY too expensive to feed twice as much! :? I guess I'll just supplement with the Wellness pouch food and whatever of the pate food she'll decide to eat haha. 



MinkaMuffin said:


> (Also both of your cats look to be healthy and at a really good weight, so I wouldnt worry, they'll LET you know if you aren't feeding them enough. xD)


Haha, this is true! They definitely let me know...especially Spencer! However, those pictures were taken when they were 4 months old - they're 8 months old now and look quite a bit older, and QUITE a bit different in size. (from each other, that is). Spencer is 3 lbs heavier and much bigger than Lily is. I think he is just going to be a big boy! I was looking at old pictures of them, and they looked like kittens then! They look like cats now. Sorry, totally off topic - just me thinking about how my kittens are growing up...


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

yellowdaisies said:


> See, that's what I'm afraid of! This stuff is WAY too expensive to feed twice as much! :? I guess I'll just supplement with the Wellness pouch food and whatever of the pate food she'll decide to eat haha.
> 
> 
> 
> Haha, this is true! They definitely let me know...especially Spencer! However, those pictures were taken when they were 4 months old - they're 8 months old now and look quite a bit older, and QUITE a bit different in size. (from each other, that is). Spencer is 3 lbs heavier and much bigger than Lily is. I think he is just going to be a big boy! I was looking at old pictures of them, and they looked like kittens then! They look like cats now. Sorry, totally off topic - just me thinking about how my kittens are growing up...


1. Oh, oops xD
2. Maybe it's time to update the siggy then


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## yellowdaisies (Jan 25, 2011)

Minka - probably! Or I might wait a few months, since they're bound to keep growing... 

furryfriends - I didn't even see your post when I last posted. Thank you so much for the info!  Oh, and you don't have the ONLY cats who hate Weruva - my boy, Spencer, hates it too. He refuses to acknowledge that it's even food.  hahaha.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

> Wellness will be coming out with a line of chunky/flaky foods sometime in the near future. I had heard by June, but it's gone kind of quiet, so it may be postponed.


Please keep us posted - I may try some for my picky bratz.


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## Abbie (Jan 13, 2011)

Ahh I wish all this food was available in the UK! You guys are all so lucky 

My cats are touch and go on pate foods... Usually they just look at me, turn on their heels, run into the kitchen and sit infront of their food cupboard- they like to make the message clear, "this is not appropriate food"... Then, sometimes they gobble it up. Unpredictable.

I'm going round in circles with my girls at the moment. Evie is now turning her nose up at boiled chicken breast, she'll only eat it if I sprinkle freeze-dried chicken on top, go figure!


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## Nora B (Nov 6, 2010)

For the pate haters - try changing temperature and consistency.

I get that some cats really do hate it, at the same time I do a lot of rescue work/feeing and most of those poor kitties just get donated Purina dry 

My own kitties do get a bit stubborn at times, what has helped is adding warm or hot water, somehow in my house 'soup' is better than pate - and temperature can be everything. I buy the 13 oz cans whenever possible, so some goes in the fridge - and my girls really won't even taste cold foods - adding some hot water and changing up consistency makes a difference here.


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## Val622 (6 d ago)

I’m having the same problem with my 5 month old. Just stopped eating wellness core canned kitten food. So I’m trying different foods and seems to love weruva. I don’t want to experiment too much because I don’t think that’s good for a kitten. Right? Anyway can we give them the adult version. I read you can feed a cat tiki adult food. Those tiny cans are expensive. Any advice would be grateful.


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