InstinctOriginal Grain Free Recipe Variety Pack Natural Wet Canned Cat Food by Nature's Variety, 3 Ounce (Pack of 12)

This is a great food and my cat loves it! The only thing that seems a bit strange to me is the difference in consistency between batches, and even the difference in consistency between the 3 ounce cans and the 5 ounce cans. Seriously, it looks like a different food, with the 3 ounce cans looking much smoother in texture, and the 5 ounce cans looking much more "grainy". I hope that the following review will help someone with a cat that has stomach issues similar to mine...I have tried many, many products aimed at helping with digestive upset for my cat. Her pain and suffering was so great that I thought I was going to have to put her to sleep. I went to multiple vets and had thousands of dollars worth of diagnostics done to try and find out why she was having acid reflux, crying and subsequently vomitting (endoscopy, xray, ultrasound, bloodwork, etc). One vet told me to just give her pepcid. This worked for a while, but then became completely ineffective after a while. The same vet then told me that she probably just has food allergies and would have to be on steroids for the rest of her life, and thats all that could be done, and prescribed different kinds of Science Diet (which we all know is actually a terrible food for cats with digestive problems).Well, what do you know, the steroids didn't help AT ALL. I tried probiotics of various brands for pets, I tried digestive enzymes, I tried many different natural products designed to help ease digestive / intestinal inflammation.... I tried a homiopathic vet (the only one in my area) and spent a few thousand more dollars rerunning tests and running other tests for pancreatitis, etc. I tried MAKING her food from raw meat to try and eliminate food allergies to commericial foods as a potential problem, etc. I TRIED EVERYTHING, but still my cat was constantly licking her lips, then crying in terrible pain and vomitting very consistently, and now was losing interest in her food and was losing weight and starting to look boney. I was determined to not give up on her though. I had just lost my wife to infection during a failed bone marrow transplant / cancer during all this, and was not about to give up on my girl.I stopped making her food and started getting her Natures Variety canned Rabbit formula and the duck formula. She loved the food but it did not seem to be helping her feel all that much better, even though a lot of other people were having great success. I then found a site called wellvet dot com that said that this Ulcinex was very effective at repairing ulcers and the stomach lining in pets. It also said that it was very effective at controlling vomitting that occurs a few hours after eating, which is EXACTLY what was consistently happening, and no other product that I had found so far claimed to do same thing. I was skeptical as soon as it started talking about chinese herbs and such, but I figured it was worth a shot.I started giving this as prescribed from wellvet ALONG WITH Georges Aloe Vera juice (the one without preservatives and no taste), which is said to help a lot for acid reflux sufferers (I found a few people that said it worked great for their cats), and continuing the rabbit / duck formula. All the while praying, within a few days I started noticing a drastic improvement. She was licking her lips less, and was able to relax for longer periods of time without jumping up in pain and crying. She vommitted once within a several day period. Several days later, NO MORE CRYING, and instead of hiding behind the bedroom door licking her lips the whole night, she started sleeping with me at night like she used to. Now, several weeks later, she is literally 90% better. NO MORE VOMITTING AT ALL, is in very little pain, VERY little lip licking and only very occasionally at that. She also gets much more rest, and has put on several pounds and is back above her normal weight and has a nice chubby belly. My cat suffered daily for 2 long years during this whole process before I found this and the other two mentioned products. The aloe vera juice on its own didn't seem to completely do the trick, so I think its the combination of the three things that is really effective. I only hope that no permanent damage has already been done, but now I have my cat back and don't have to suffer through losing a great wife and a great cat. If you have a cat with severe stomach issues, you owe it to yourself and your cat to try this along with the Georges Aloe Vera and Ulcinex.Metagenics - Ulcinex - 90 TabletsWarren Laboratories - George's Aloe Vera, 64 fl oz liquid

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give some context about how I started feeding Instinct and where I am now. I started feeding Instinct Grain Fee after my CRF cat spent several days in-patient at the vet after she had so much vomiting that she stopped eating altogether. First a little background, I have three cats. One, Steve, is CRF and gets subcutaneous fluids daily. The second, Zipper, has bowel issues and as a kitten was constantly underweight and dehydrated from terrible diarrhea. The third, Biscuit, is just fine *knock on wood.*When I adopted Zipper, I tried different foods to help her with her digestive issues. Finally I found a grain-free food, Wellness Grain-Free Canned Cat Food, CORE Chicken/Turkey/Chicken Liver Recipe, 24-Pack of 5-1/2-Ounce Cans, that addressed Zipper's diarrhea - however her stool was still very large and smelly. To stay grain free, I supplemented the Wellness CORE with Merrick Before Grain #1 Chicken Dry Cat Food, 11.1 Pound Bag. All three cats when on this diet and things seemed to be going along fine. Steve (the CRF cat) was most prone to throwing up (every two to three days) but I attributed that to her being sick and being on fluid.Earlier this summer, however, Steve started vomiting every time she ate and eventually stopped eating. She went from 7.5 lbs (down from over 9 lbs before she got sick) to under 6 lbs. I thought her kidney disease had advanced to a point that fluid wasn't helping and that she was a goner. Two overnight stays at the vet didn't get us any closer to a diagnosis - it turns out that all her labs were fine and xrays/sonograms didn't show any obstructions. So we put her on an anti-emetic to stop the vomiting and an appetite stimulant to try to get her to eat. I had been reading the reviews on the Wellness Core and it gave me serious concerns about the product. I started thinking about putting her on a raw diet, but I just don't have the time to do that. So I decided to find the closest thing to raw I could buy and changing proteins in case she had developed an allergy to chicken, I ended up feeding her Instinct Grain-Free Rabbit Formula Canned Cat Food by Nature's Variety, 5.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12) in rabbit, lamb, venison and beef. It worked! She started eating again. After researching food, I learned that the Before Grain is one of the highest dry foods in carbohydrates, so I switched to the Instinct Raw Boost dry. Steve gets the Instinct wet in the morning when I am in a hurry, the Instinct Raw Boost is out all day (though I don't think Steve eats much of that) and then at night she gets Stella & Chewy's Chick Chick Chicken Dinner Freeze Dried Cat Food, 12 oz which has a 5+ rating from me.Steve is eating enthusiastically, has regained all the weight she lost (and more) PLUS SHE HAS STOPPED VOMITING!! One time, I thought I would "use up" the Wellness CORE I had on hand and fed it to her. She immediately threw it up so the rest went in the trash. So it has been over three months and the only time she threw up was when I fed her the Wellness CORE. She's been eating the dry Instinct Raw Chicken and the Stella and Chewy Chick Chick Chicken, so it ain't the chicken it's the Wellness CORE.Update on Zipper - since switching to the Instinct Raw Boost dry and the Instinct canned, her stool is compact and doesn't smell anymore. All three of my cats have very small ashy stools now with very low, if any, odor. Whatever Zipper's allergy is - grain, potatoes, gluten??? - this food has addressed that. Zipper and Biscuit have both lost weight putting them back into a good weight range and all three of my cats have better breath and very shiny coats.So if your cat has digestive issues - chronic vomiting of food (rather than hair - if your cat is vomiting a lot of hair, brush the poor thing) or poor digestion with loose, large or smelly stool - you should try this food. It took my cats a couple of feedings to eat the lamb and venison. See if you can get a couple of cans of each flavor at a local pet food store before ordering a case. You and your cats will be glad you did.