Here’s a great question about whether Weruva makes private label food for a big supermarket chain – so I learned something in the process.

I am writing in hopes you can help me feed my 13 cats as healthy as possible on a small budget.

My cat adventure began almost three years ago. A feral cat started coming on the property, and she was so small and skinny that we felt sorry for her. We began to feed her. Well, she started having kittens. Litter after litter. We now have thirteen cats, thanks to “Mama Kitty”.

After much effort, I am happy and somewhat proud to report that we have gotten 12 of our cats spayed/neutered and intend to get the last one done very soon! As you might imagine, this has been a very expensive process. We got the Humane Society rate at our local vet, but it is still close to $250 for each cat, with shots/tests included.

We love each of our cats very much and want to give them good healthy food. Unfortunately, the name brand premium foods that are recommended are very expensive. I noticed in your blog you mentioned that Petco’s Soulistic food is made by Weruva. We don’t have a Petco very close by, but we do have PetSmart. Do you have any idea who makes their Authority brand food? The ingredients look OK, but I have no idea if the meat is human grade or if the food is very high quality. I also have gotten Giant brand Naturals, and my cats love it. When I look at it and smell it, it appears to be very much like Weruva’s Best Feline Friend food. The ingredients are almost identical. Could it be that Weruva supplies Giant with their Naturals brand, too?

If you have any information on these or other “cheaper” store brands, I would really appreciate it. I am desperate to do right by my kitties, but I can only afford so much.

Thank you for all you do for pet owners and our furry friends!

-Lori in Virginia

Hey Lori,

Thanks for asking because you taught me something I did not know! Weruva DOES make “Companion Naturals” for Giant brand markets – they make the 3.0oz tuna based cat foods. There may be more Companion products from other producers — but Weruva makes the tuna ones. Remember that Weruva uses the smaller bodied Skip Jack tuna — that does not have the same health risks as the large tuna – but still fish should only be part of your cats’ meals about three days a week.

In reply to your other question, you can get Soulistic from Petco.com and on my website there should be a discount code you can use which the offered because I have been a spokesperson for their Natural section of the stores.

–Tracie Hotchner

Hi, Tracie -

I have recently adopted a 4-year-old Italian Greyhound and I started him on the right foods from day one. He gets Halo dry food mixed with Innova Evo canned twice a day. I am sending pictures of the dog, Guido and my cat, Monk.

I love your shows! I download the podcasts and listen to them on my long road trips. Since listening to you I have gotten my cat off of the “kitty crack” and onto Soulistic cat food. He was not overweight but I have seen a real change in his energy level. I am also seeing a lot less hair on my clothes and furniture.

I have learned a lot from your shows and your books. I pass along the things that I have learned to everyone who will listen. Thanks for all you do and please keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Gina

I told Gina I was so glad she was following all my advice but as a real treat I wanted her to get a free sample of food for Gorgeous Guido — she’s been feeding him so well but I waned to surprise Guido with the exquisite taste of the real cage free chicken breast in pumpkin soup that it the centerpiece of my 3-course meal plan from www.Proportions.com and try a free trial (put TRACIE in the code box) — it’s a whole new level of excellence and based on my nutritional theories.

–Tracie Hotchner

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

I got this heartening note from Kristin, a new listener to my new show DOG TALK & CAT CHAT at 10 PM (EST) Saturday nights on WOR 710 AM from NYC (but anybody can listen live online at www.WOR710.com) I was so thrilled to know that smart New Yorkers are getting my “Kitty Crack” message loud and clear!

Dear Tracie – I listen to your show on WOR in NYC. You are an angel!

I have a questions regarding kitty food. You mentioned that you recommend a wet diet and spoke about several brands. I looked at your website but I could not find the information that you said is there. [Webmaster's note: Tracie's Approved Cat Food List here.] I specifically wanted to know which flavors of food that are made by Friskies brand was the best. Right now my budget does not allow me to purchase the premium brands.
My cat is addicted to dry food, which you call “Kitty Crack”. I want to wean her off of this.

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful work!!

Thank you so much for writing and for your enthusiasm. I am really psyched to have passionate NYC listeners like you. The list of Cat Chat Approved foods is on my main website, TracieHotchner.com but I apologize because that list should be easy to find on the website for my WOR show, www.DogTalkandCatChat.com. I am going to get that fixed ASAP — I want the experience of coming to my website to be rewarding and satisfying once you’ve gone to the trouble of finding it and looking for advice and information. I have GREAT NEWS for you about an affordable canned cat food that is also premium quality. AND you’ll get a discount as my listener! Weruva, my favorite cat food, is now making a special affordable brand just for PETCO called Soulistic. It comes in many flavors and uses the same high quality ingredients as fancy expensive Weruva! So go to a Petco near you, or go to Petco.com and put in the discount code mydogtalk or mycatchat in the coupon code box at checkout. I hope you’ll call into the show one of these Saturday nights! I’d love to meet you on the air. And if you get THE CAT BIBLE do tell me because I’ll send you an autographed bookplate to put inside the book and lots of surprises!

Tracie

The Cat Bible

You can see the photo of Leo on the Fat Cat contest page of www.dogtalkandcatchat.com but here is the sweet letter that came with it:

I just heard your show for the first time a few nights ago on Radio 710 WOR, and I Loved it! I was particularly interested when you started talking about dry vs. wet cat food, as I have wondered about this issue for a very long time…  Everywhere I look, I see / hear conflicting opinions, and it seems nobody can seem to agree; the one thing everyone does agree with (especially my VET ) is that my Maine Coon LEO is too fat!

He weighs 17.5 lbs!  After hearing your show and then visiting your website on Saturday 11-7, I decided to put Leo on a wet food only diet. (Leo also has a brother and a sister at home, but they aren’t fat BUT I don’t want them to get that way, so they will be eating wet food only as well)

I know that Maine Coons are supposed to be big boned, long, etc, but they are not supposed to be fat, and Leo definitely has a big belly. While he certainly is big boned, he is also overweight. When you view him from above, he is shaped like a bowling ball! Leo also seems to have some allergy issues: he has tiny little itchy spots on his skin, he sneezes, etc. and I have taken him to the vet several times regarding this, and the Vet definitely feels its allergies. Hopefully, the diet change will help this issue as well.

He is approximately 3 years old. I rescued him from a shelter a year and a half ago… he is a very wonderful, intelligent, sweet and funny boy, and I want him to be with me for a long, long time! Please add him as a contestant in your Fat Cat contest! I look forward to sending you updates on his progress every couple of weeks

At this time, I can’t financially afford Weruva, although it seems like a FANTASTIC product, and I hope to be able to switch them over to it by the middle of 2010 when things improve for me financially. For now, they love Fancy Feast Gourmet.

Thanks!
Connie, Leo’s Mom

Hi Connie! I am so excited to hear from you and see Fat Leo, who will be Slim Leo soon.  His photo is going right up on the website and you are going to get a special coupon for Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat long haired litter!!

Thanks for joining the contest. It’s just wonderful to learn of your decision to get him off the “Kitty Crack” and save his beautiful life!

Tracie

P.S.
Petco has a food made just for them by Weruva called Soulistic — really high quality, only 89 cents a can — you can use that, too. On Petco.com they give my listeners a discount by putting in MYCATCHAT. Stay in touch with Leo’s progress!

The good people at Weruva kindly forwarded this email they got about their new line of food made just for PETCO called Soulistic. I was really gratified to know people are learning about the less expensive alternative to Weruva. I love the ingredients of Weruva (and I deeply respect a company that has resisted making any dry food because they know it is bad for cats and have heard me call it “Kitty Crack” so many times) but many times I have felt conflicted recommending it because it is pricey and out of many peoples’ comfort zone for their budgets. So here is what Amy wrote:

Thank you for the SOULISTIC version of your food offered at Petco at an affordable price! I have purchased WERUVA for my cat, and heard about your SOULISTIC product offered at Petco by Tracie Hotchner on CAT CHAT® on MARTHA STEWART RADIO.  Thank you!  But I have only one wish: I use the small cans for my cat (1/2 can per meal) but my plastic can covers don’t fit your cans!  Do you know of a can cover available to fit your cans? I know it sounds petty… but the can covers are so much more convenient!

And David Forman, who owns Weruva, wrote her back:

Thank you for the email to Weruva/Soulistic and support of our products. You live in Natick, Massachusetts, home of our corporate headquarters! We love Tracie, and we are pleased to hear that you are a listener to her show. Yes, there is a cap that fits our 3.0 oz cans. It is called Kitty Kap, and it is available at one of Tracie’s favorite places to shop… Pet Food Direct. Here is a link to Kitty Kap, and if you use MYCATCHAT (thanks to Tracie) as a coupon code at checkout, you can get 20% off.

I received this from a listener I was able to help emotionally after a tragic accident in which her little kitten Emma got stuck inside a litter pail and died. Then I heard from her with concerns about the manufacture of Weruva cat food. I am blogging this so that it can educate all of us about the folly of thinking that we can each become plant inspectors, or that we even know what we are looking for. It is also another example of an uneducated assumption by some people in the United States that because there are serious health and safety issues with many food and products made in China, that somehow this extends to all of Asia. It is really lamentable and foolish assumption to make.

I have moved from Montana to Portland Oregon and I was looking for the pet store I buy Weruva from but could not locate it and stopped at a different one which sells only premium foods but no Weruva. He told me he only sells foods that he has personally been able to tour the processing plant. If he sees any trace of mice, workers don’t wear proper head and foot protection, etc. he will not carry their products. He said that in December he will be going to Thailand to tour the Tiki Cat plant. He has contacted the people at Weruva, but was turned down! I am very impressed that he goes to this extreme to insure that our animals have the best foods. I told him I would contact you and see if there was anything you could do to help him. My 3 babies and I love the Weruva. I think this owner is great to care so much. I am considering going to a food that he can attest to.

When I read this I thought that while the store owner might sound like a serious vendor, his claims were laughable of his having toured every facility whose foods he carried. Pet food plants let nobody in for a long list of reasons — and a fellow with a small specialty store would have no access whatsoever. Weruva (and Newman’s Own, and many top premium pet foods) are careful to keep the identity and location of their plants guarded not because they have anything to hide from consumers, but at least in part because the competition would make attempts to move in on their resources). Also, the very idea that this shopkeeper would know what to inspect for in a plant — anymore than average people could do a credible restaurant inspection — is blowing smoke. So I asked David Forman, the owner of Weruva, to comment on this shop owner’s claim:

I do appreciate a vendor going the extra mile (literally) to differentiate himself from his competitors by claiming to tour factories to see what is going on. However, I am not sure of this guy’s production/inspection background, so unless he really knows what he is doing, he really is not qualified to give anything more than an opinion. If he is an expert and can comment up and down, left and right, great — but highly unlikely. There is so much beyond a cursory review or tour of the plant.

Canada, for instance, recently inspected our factory in Thailand. They stopped ALL foreign importation of pet food into Canada until all facilities were inspected. Their shift was to eliminate any potential of BSE entering Canada. The inspection of our factory was to be a 2-day inspection and Canada passed it in one day because of its superior QC. The head inspector has seen hundreds of factories over 30 years of doing this. Cook and Thurber, one of the leaders in independent third party audits, often inspects the factory rigorously on behalf of Subway (David’s father’s business supplies all the tuna to the Subway chain in the United States). Subway sends members from its own team to inspect. The absolute strict BRC inspections, on human food standards, are conducted. There are qualified entities regularly going through our factory and inspecting on extremely sophisticated human food standards, of which the pet food side must pass. It goes way beyond “traces of mice and proper hats.” If you have to pass the barrage of human food inspections we do, questions like that aren’t even remotely considered. It goes without saying that the rudimentary sanitary and hygiene stuff is done. Like good pet foods these days, it is a very 101 question to ask if they contain by-products, wheat or soy. Customers are more advanced and get into the nitty gritty.

So Kim, I did some investigating of my own and can tell you two things: The Tiki plant in Thailand has no visits of any kind expected in December. And my personal opinion is that this shopkeeper wants to go to Thailand and is looking for a way to write it off as a business expense. Sorry, but that’s how I see it. Anybody who would disparage a company — and not carry their products — on the absurd assumption that he should have been allowed to tour their facility — is not a proper person, as the English would say. A friend in the movie business used to call people like that “14 carat phonies.”

UPDATE: Weruva Wins the Day!

Kim wrote back:

Tracie,

Thank you once again! The more I thought about it I decided that I felt Weruva was the best for my furry family! I have already found the original store I was looking for and am 100% committed to Weruva varieties. I knew you were the person to contact! My goal is to be able to meet you in person. Congrats on the new show. I hope to listen to it also.

Well, that is great news. They also have a less expensive brand they now make called BFF (Best Feline Friend) which saves money by alternating it with the other flavors. But it is fish-based so three times a week is about right for that.  Also PETCO now has a new well-priced canned food called Soulistic made just for them by Weruva – same high quality and a big bargain! You can order at Petco.com online and get a discount by putting MYCATCHAT in the coupon code box.

I hope we meet some day, too!

Tracie