Customer Reviews

bought this food because it is low in phosphorus, as one of my cats has kidney disease! 2 of my cats love it, the third (diva) would rather eat the carpet! it will remain in my rotation!

I switched my cat to this product after researching wet foods for cats with IBD. None was perfect, but this one was the one we went with with reasonable calories, high protein, no guar gum or other "non-recommended" or common allergy ingredients. The newest formula for this removes the chicken liver (9/2020) which makes this more limited ingredient than before. The texture is good with a lot of liquid surrounding the pate, which can be mixed in for a softer texture. It is more oily than her past wet food. Cat likes it. She seems to have less stomach upset and her stool is firmer.

This is one of the few foods I can find that my cat can eat as he is allergic to chicken, artificial colors and gum fillers. I also appreciate that the phosphorus level is very low, as I lost a cat to kidney disease so try to feed low phosphorus foods. I just wish it came in the smaller 3 oz cans and more non-chicken varieties!

I've been feeding my 15 year old cat sensitive stomach prescription food for 2.5 years. During that time, I've been feeling guilty about feeding her this food as it has ingredients that cause me concern. Her condition worsened in spite of constant veterinary care and following textbook medical protocol for IBD. (I'm not blaming the prescription food.) The next step was exploratory surgery for biopsy. After consulting my vet, we decided to "go off the reservation" and try 2 non-prescription foods I had researched. FirstMate was one of these foods. We've been feeding this Turkey formula to Cricket for a over a month and are very happy with the results. The biopsy confirmed an I've been feeding my 15 year old cat sensitive stomach prescription food for 2.5 years. During that time, I've been feeling guilty about feeding her this food as it has ingredients that cause me concern. Her condition worsened in spite of constant veterinary care and following textbook medical protocol for IBD. (I'm not blaming the prescription food.) The next step was exploratory surgery for biopsy. After consulting my vet, we decided to "go off the reservation" and try 2 non-prescription foods I had researched. FirstMate was one of these foods. We've been feeding this Turkey formula to Cricket for a over a month and are very happy with the results. The biopsy confirmed an IBD diagnosis so unfortunately Cricket is on steroids. However, I'm hopeful the steroids combined with a high-quality pure food will give her gut a chance to heal a bit if that's possible. Her constant diarrhea and bi-weekly vomiting has stopped. Her incessant hunger remains but that is part of IBD. She was constantly anxious and potentially in pain when she was having an IBD flare-up. For the time being, all of that is no-longer present. As a result of feeding Cricket FirstMate, my cat food guilt has subsided and I no longer lose sleep over what I'm feeding my cats. … more

One of my cats loves this food! It even smells good.

On the search always for healthy ingredient food for my five cats. I thought for sure would be a go, but no. One who eats everything ate it, but not with gusto. The rest won’t touch it.

Ingredient list looked good to human, the food smelled good to human. But my cat refused to eat it, I needed to mixed it with other food, but she still didnt have much interest in eating it. Btw, the food was quiet oily when I touched it. I don't recall I had ever toughed a wet food this oily. (But the fat content wasn't that high in paper)

1 Can arrived slightly opened- almost imperceptible. However, the can had rotted out and turned to dry, dusty mold which spilled over all the other cans. Chewy refunded, of course, but the problem is the way the can is designed- the top is so delicate it could be opened easily in transport and you wouldn't know. Just a word of caution.

The first can that I opened surprised me because of all the liquid at the top. In the past other foods considered "pate" were very solid. Because FIRST MATE has no congealing GUMS, the broth collected at the top and needed to be STIRRED IN. Since becoming aware of the harmful GUMS added, some are even carcinogenic I carefully read the ingredients of ALL FOODS. All foods by FIRST MATE are on the very short list of healthy foods. I have a lot of kitties and all of them love it.

My cat has IBD. He is currently recovering from a very bad flair up, vomiting, poor appetite, some diarrhea. He was recently eating a prescription diet food (canned) from vet. Of course he was taken to the vet to rule out Pancreatitis which he also has had a couple of times over the past few years. In my quest to find a good quality food without wheat gluten, corn, rice, peas I ran across First Mate. It is also hard to find a cat food that does not include potential irritants to an already compromised cat's digestive track like carrageenan. Studies seem to show some evidence of carrageenan being an inflammatory ingredient as well as Guar Gum. Then you see powdered cellulose in some form in these My cat has IBD. He is currently recovering from a very bad flair up, vomiting, poor appetite, some diarrhea. He was recently eating a prescription diet food (canned) from vet. Of course he was taken to the vet to rule out Pancreatitis which he also has had a couple of times over the past few years. In my quest to find a good quality food without wheat gluten, corn, rice, peas I ran across First Mate. It is also hard to find a cat food that does not include potential irritants to an already compromised cat's digestive track like carrageenan. Studies seem to show some evidence of carrageenan being an inflammatory ingredient as well as Guar Gum. Then you see powdered cellulose in some form in these foods, basically a paper product, how good can that be? Well some of these products if not all sometimes are in our animal's canned foods. So, I had to jump start my cat by syringing him with this food B/C he really wasn't eating hardly anything I would offer him. This morning he is eating First Mate on his own and I hope this continues as the ingredients are of good quality and I am so impressed that it does not include these potential GI irritants like Guar Gum, Powdered Cellulose and Carrageenan. Thank you First Mate, finally someone "gets it"... … more