The nice couple who own the Weruva company and make Soulistic exclusively for PETCO shared this nice note from Nancy in Napa, California. It’s so touching when people take the time from their busy days to drop a line of thanks and good cheer. It means so much to all of us doing the very best job we can to keep dogs and cats healthy and happy:
I am very happy that you are making Soulistic and distributing it through PETCO. I have just adopted a ten month old Manx kitty who loves the Soulistic entrees in gelee.
I give Tracie Hotchner all of the credit for making me aware of your new product. Keep up the good ingredients in your cat foods — both with Weruva and Soulistic.
Thanks,
Nancy
here is my problem with weruva. Calcium pantothenate is the only source of calcium in the product. Cats living in the wild are used to consuming high amounts of calcium from the bones they eat in the whole carcus of the animal…while I understand that some animal bones in the us contain toxins such as lead and other toxins, there are some bone meal companies that are safe to use that check for the toxins before distribution.. And weruva uses potato starch…Add another source of calcium and take out the potato starch then you have a perfect cat food…cats in the wild do not eat boneless skinless chicken breast, that is another marketing scheme to get us to buy it. I agree that its a high quality cat food, but it is not flawless either.
I’m sorry to hear you sounding so cynical and bitter about a company that is owned and run entirely by a nice young couple who wanted to make cat food that was so much better than any product out there. And they did it – against great odds – and have become really successful because individual cat owners could see the difference and chose Weruva over the well known brands with huge advertising budgets. I am truly saddened by the antagonistic tone of your comment when you are talking about an owner who is extremely kind, smart, well-educated (from personal research) and honestly cares. If you want to see how MUCH he cares, here’s the reply that David Forman gave me in response to your comments:
I am not sure if there is such thing as a “flawless” food, “flawless”
being a word of choice of this critic. The perfect food for thousands of
cats will be the imperfect food for thousands of cats. While designing an
ideal formula would be great, we have to take into account the realities
of processing capabilities, the availability of raw materials and the cost
of raw materials.
The primary reason we got into the pet food industry was disatisfaction
with the choices on the market. There were many “hollow” claims made by manufacturers. These manufacturers could “hide” behind the minimums and maximums of the guaranteed analysis as well as their loaf style pates. There was never a way to know or identify the quality of ingredients used or the cuts used when ingredients were blended. When we designed Weruva, one of the first mottos we developed was the old cliche, “what you see is what you get.” We wanted our customers to have the ability to purchase pet food that they could identify and understand without the mystery, just as we wanted to do. In that regard, we use raw materials that can easily be eaten and chewed and that do not have to be blended. While there is of course natural calcium and phosphorus in bones, we cannot make a formula in our style that includes bones. The bones would have to be chunky, and this is not a viable option in canned cat food for many reasons. As we add calcium back in to meet AAFCO standards, we feel it is more than a great
tradeoff…real identifiable food and controlled amount of calcium.
As for the potato starch, it is used at around 1% of the formula. It is
for thickening purposes only. Would it be better to eliminate the potato
starch from a nutritional standpoint? Perhaps, but again, we have to deal
with the reality of processing. Without the thickener (and the same would
hold true in many human food products such as ice cream and yogurt), the ingredients would sink to the bottom and the gravy would essentially be water. There would be complaints from customers that the cans were not full. The only option would be to add in more meat. It would be very
beneficial to have more meat, but it would be by far the most meat packed food on the market. This would make an already expensive food even more expensive. It would be worth it ounce per ounce, but 99% of customers would only see the higher price point and not understand they are actually getting more food.
We also process our foods in Thailand, so we are limited in the raw
materials that we can choose. There are likely thousands of chicken
producers in the US which means there are loads of raw material sourcing options. We manufacture our foods in Thailand and do not have all of the options. I doubt there can be better bone sourcing. Also, unlike in the US, I know that bones, skin and offal are in high demand in the human food industry. This makes sourcing those materials even more difficult.
This person is calling it a “marketing scheme” to point out that we use chicken breast? That is “interesting.” Do cats eat the skin and bones and leave the breast behind? We all know that besides moisture, high quality protein is the number one nutrient that should go into a cat’s body. Never mind that other manufacturers do not identify the cuts of chicken they use, they probably don’t even know. When chicken on a pet food label can mean the “combination of flesh and skin without accompanying bone”, that means manufacturers can pump up the bone content to increase the weight of the “chicken” they use to get “chicken” listed first on the ingredient statement. Getting chicken listed first is great for marketing and human appeal, but how misleading would it be if the chicken that was first on the ingredient statement was all skin and bones and no flesh?! By pointing out that we use the breast meat only, we are providing specific information that we feel is important to the customer. I can’t think of any rational pet parent that would prefer any “combination of flesh and skin with or without bone”. Who wouldn’t prefer to know what they are feeding their pet?
I am glad that choices are available for premium processed pet foods, and agree with Tracie that a mixture of premium food and home cooked is a great way to feed. I am however, disappointed with the pricing of the new Proportions dog food that Tracie is recommending. It would cost $148 to feed my 49 lb Border Collie the Proportions diet, as compared to $25 for the premium kibble I currently feed. I was afraid to even calculate the cost for my 90 lb Shep mix ! I feed him for $60 a month now. What I did instead is started cooking for my dogs. Vegetables, complex grains, free range organic eggs from my own chickens now comprise half my dogs’ meals. Thanks for the great lecture at Camp Unleashed, and I love my Dog Bible!
I salute you for the efforts you are making on behalf of your own dogs meals – something that unfortunately the majority of people cannot do. While I certainly understand price sensitivity to the Proportions feeding plan, but I would argue that maybe you need to be aware that barely anybody else has access to their own free range, chemical free chickens as you do! And that is what is used in Proportions – and only the breast of the chicken – so it is a super quality and therefore costly protein source. The same goes for the freeze dried fruits and vegetables – have you ever priced freeze-dried blueberries? These are human edible, and therefore tip-top quality – again, you get what you pay for. You can lower the price of Proportions by electing to use your own kibble – which I do because I prefer Halo since I know for a fact they use only top quality ingredients, even in their dry food. By electing to use you own, you reduce the size of the Proportions boxes and the cost. I have switched my dogs to Proportions because I have no affordable access to chemical- [free, humanely raised chicken- bravo for you that you do! And so glad THE DOG BIBLE is pleasing you.