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

Very high in protein as well as calories compared to most foods on the market. Food is high quality with no bad fillers. There's a few chunks of sweet potatoes you can see. My cat is extra picky but she will happily eat this. She's not a fan of the duck, but the Salmon is always a go to.

Update 3 January 2015: I had to downgrade my rating based on several factors. My older cat's diarrhea issues had cleared up upon reverting him to his old "cheaper" food with grains. I was quite pleased with his health. He happened to "help" the kitten finish some of the NV Instinct rabbit formula yesterday and lo and behold, the diarrhea is back. There must be something in the formula that really disagrees with my older one's GI tract.The kitten has seemingly lost his taste for the Instinct canned line as well. I am not sure if it was making him feel bad or it just a side effect of his developing tastes, but he went from craving it and bugging me for it every time I went to the kitchen to really not caring about it at all. He used to completely clean his plate and often I would give him a little extra. Now he barely nibbles it and walks away (which is why there was some left over for the older cat to sample). He is doing that to both rabbit and duck, so I really cannot blame it on a "bad batch."The kitten still loves the Nature's Variety frozen raw pellets, so I will continue using this brand, but I think I am done with the canned foods. Even thought I bought a few cases, I think I am just going to take a loss and donate them to the pet shelter. Hopefully it does not make any of those cats ill either!I have mixed feelings on the Instinct Line. My wife and I recently got a kitten to give our fat 17 lb cat a companion while we are at work. I wanted to "start the kitten eating right" and since Instinct is supposed to be an all-stages food, I figured it would be great. The kitten has only gotten Instinct and the older cat was transitioned over a month or so. While they both seem to like it, it just does not seem to agree with their stomachs. The older cat has rarely been sick in 6 years, but with Instinct (even with a slow transition), he gets diarrhea every 3-4 attempts. The kitten has never gotten diarrhea, but even at best both of them have very slick, messy stools. I use a Tidy Cats Breeze box, so the slick/wet stools can be very messy, with the pellets sticking to them. They also smell awful, something my older cat has never had an issue with. My veterinarian even commented on how rank it smelled when I brought him in for a check-up. The older one was deemed totally healthy, yet the food just gives him issues.I am sure this is a healthy product, so I would recommend anyone try it (maybe get a few cans before buying the case!) but it simply was not the right product for my cats' needsI tried several flavors: my cats liked duck and rabbit the most and venison the least. the venison is very firm, even at room temperature. After refrigeration, it is a solid block. Adding a splash of hot water and stirring helped a little. Microwaving did not- it will go from a cold block to a warm sludge in 7 sec in the microwave. Neither cat would touch it in the soupy condition.