Addiction Grain-Free Duck Royale Dry Cat Food, 4-lb bag

As with all new foods, gradually introduce Addiction over 6 days to prevent stomach upsets. Feed 20% Addiction and 80% of the old food for first 2 days and gradually increase proportion of Addiction over the next 4 days. By the 6th day you can be confident of feeding Addiction for the rest of your pets' life.

It is critical that Addiction is slowly introduced to your pet over the 6 day period. Not following these guidelines may result in your pet experiencing gastrointestinal discomfort or related symptoms.

Ingredients (Do they source all their own ingredients? Can they provide full traceability on each ingredient used in their products? Are any of their products imported? Which ones and from where?)

Our Food Technologists oversee the sourcing and selection of raw ingredients. Most of our meats are obtained from New Zealand and Australia. We do not source raw materials from China. We select our raw materials suppliers based on stringent quality standards and reputation and conduct regular reviews to ensure that standards are continually met. We are the first company to champion using wild game meats as a superior protein source for dogs and cats. All animal protein sources are wild caught or free range, and are thus free from harmful GMOs and antibiotics. We are also a leader in championing environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes. Furthermore, traceability of all our ingredients is mandatory for our manufacturing plants.

QA processes (Does the plant have an on-site lab, and what can it test for? Is an outside lab used to confirm these findings and independent tests? How often are samples pulled for testing? How often do your own employees visit your co-packer?)

All our manufacturing plants have laboratories where in-house testing is carried out. Further testing is then carried out by independent, accredited laboratories. This stringent testing applies to every batch that we produce before exporting our foods. We are in contact with our manufacturing plants on a daily basis to ensure that manufacturing processes and Standard Operating Procedures are followed closely. All these means that our plants follow a HACCP program as required by the authorities. Third-party auditors visit our plants no less than once a month to ensure that set standards are met.

When I fed Addiction to my pet for the first time, I noticed that my pet passed loose stools. Does this mean that Addiction is not suitable for my pet?

Loose stools is a common occurrence if any new food, Addiction or otherwise, is introduced to a pet as it takes about 1 week for your pet to get accustomed to the new food. The feeding guidelines provided for the previous question are useful for those introducing Addiction to their pets for the first time.

Why is Canola Oil used in some of the formulations?

The choice of oil in our foods is one that we have spent a great deal of time researching. For every oil there are advantages and disadvantages. Of the vegetable oils, Canola oil provides a good balance between stability and good fat profile.While there are oils such as olive oil and walnut oils which are also considered healthy, they are extremely unstable and will oxidize very quickly at room temperature. We have done extensive trials with the different types of animal and vegetable oils. We have trialed sunflower oil, Salmon oil, flaxseed oil and many others. Once again, each of them presented different strengths and weaknesses in our trials. Overall we have found that Canola oil presents the best option for our foods.Canola oil is expensive compared to vegetable oils such as corn, soy, peanut or palm oils and animal fats such as tallow and chicken but we have chosen it because we feel that it is the healthiest option.We only use human-grade canola oil, the same product that you would find in your supermarket.