Vital Essentials Raw

I'm currently feeding Vital Essentials and very happy with it. Just curious, is this what you feed?

I've been feeding Vital Essentials niblets to my pup. He used to love it. Now he's vomited it up a few times, won't go near it AND the last 2 bags have had an awful, chemical smell.

Tripe is cow belly. Just break it into pieces. :roll

An issue with these mom & pop dog food companies is they have no infrastructure. A couple major quality issues and the phones go unanswered....

IGNORE CATS!? FINICKY? IGNORE YOU!!!

To the initial comment...sorry but the ignorance you display is sad and quite shocking. Not trying to disrespect you..ignorance is not a bad thing...you just need to do some research and be a little more knowledgeable before make statements to the public.

Cats will not starve themselves...and...if you think mixing raw and kibble is going to "back up"the raw food in their system...i have to laugh at you... yes kibble and raw will digest at different rates...but feeding a quality meat based kibble and feeding biologically appropriate raw meat to a carnivore...you will not harm. If you eat some oatmeal for breakfast and then some eggs...does the oatmeal hold up the digestion of the eggs, back up your system, and cause serious bodily harm? Come on man...understand your topic before threatening one of the few.companies out there that are doing the right thing for our pet companions.

I commend you for switching to a rae diet. Best thing you could ever do for your animals. Don't get caught up in all of the BS and let it harm your pet...by boycotting a great company and the proper nutrition for your animal...by resorting back to an inappropriate dry grain based kibble for your animals.

Good luck. One love.

She (VE) shouldn't be offering advice to consumers if she knows nothing about transitioning or animals at all. As a pet owner, -unfortunately- some don't always knows what to do..

Trusting people that work in the pet industry -like VE- (assuming they would know their field) Pet owners would naturally ask them for instruction and inquiry on feeding their pets VE's product.

In no way was LisaJ wrong... This company VE should be educated and informative when selling a product and to the animals the are making food for. You are only making your company look bad..

With such terrible advice. :sigh

KNOW YOUR ***

From my experience, it is hard for me to believe that a pet won't eat the raw diet. Actually, I haven't tried to feed it to a cat, but I have a small dog who is very finicky about what she eats.

I have been trying for years to find a commercial dog food she would eat consistently. She will eat some brands for a few days and then she just stops eating them. I don't like to think how much money I have spent on things she wouldn't eat. I tried the strategy of giving her the same food each day until she decided to eat.

Sometimes she would not eat her food for as many as four days.

I was always afraid to feed her a raw diet, but I decided to try it. Since that time (four months now) she has devoured every bit of her food and then she licks the bowl until it is clean.

First of all, LisaJ, why are you asking someone other than your vet about such matters. The blame should be on you for seeking advise from someone who works for a distribution company.

Your own irresponsibility and laziness is to blame, not the person you are projecting all this anger off. I'd recommend any rational person stay clear from YOU, not any company. Justice....oh please. What a drama queen!

Good luck not embarrassing yourself further. Some people shouldn't own and be responsible for pets, you may be one of those people.

Always do your own research, consult with a Holistic Vet educated in raw diets. If you have questions on advice given, seek a second opinion. If the advice does not sit well with you, don't do it!!!!

While I do think that is advice that may work for dogs (coming from someone who has a very finicky eater) I do recall from previous research on fasting that you are NOT supposed to fast a cat the way you can a dog for reasons mentioned above.

I have transitioned my dog to a raw diet but saw immediately that she cannot tolerate a raw fresh diet, so we feed freeze dried like vital Essentials and air dried like ZiwiPeak.

Although I still VE as I do believe in their product, I have had a tremendous amount of success feeding ZiwiPeak. Also, unlike what I have found on VE ZiwiPeak does make formulations specifically for cats. It is the same as the dog formula with added taurine and cat-specific nutrients that they cannot product like canines can.

That may be one indicator for those researching which brands to feed their cats.

Just an FYI from another canine VE consumer. :)

Although I am an advocate for Raw food (my guy eats Primal Raw), I don't think that starving an animal is the right way to do it. When I tried to transition my guy to raw he pushed the transition and stopped eating his kibble all together.

So I think there are humane ways to get our pets to eat without hurning their health. (Yes, cats are WAY finicky, so sometimes that tranition just takes longer but in the end it's all worth it to have them on a healthier food)

wtf is wrong with some people. i feed my dogs and cats raw and I will be sure to advise my friends to stay far away from this company. thanks

Terrible, Awful, Disgusting of this person to starve their pet!