Caturday: Aikiou Stimulo Feeder, Cats Incredible Litter, and Solid Gold Purrfect Pairings

It's Caturday, and Solstice and James have finally figured out how to use their Aikiou Stimulo puzzle feeder! We just tried out Solid Gold's new mousse wet food, and a bag of Cats Incredible litter from Lucy Pet Products. The puzzle feeder has worked miracles, I cannot believe how quickly the cats went from bored and obnoxious to happily amused.

The Aikiou Stimulo Feeder

This amazing bowl has a base with a bunch of little wells, and a set of plastic tubes that slide into those wells. Food goes in the tubes, and the cats have to reach down with their little cat hands and snag one kibble at a time. This makes eating take a lot longer, and actually engages some problem-solving braincells. Prior to learning how to use the Stimulo feeder, James and Solstice were actively restless. Their yowled all night, tried frantically to bolt through any door, and randomly fought with each other. 

There is a learning curve to using the Stimulo bowl. I started with no tubes attached, and just put food in the little wells so Solstice could reach it and not starve. James was already an accomplished paw-grabber before I introduced the bowl. After a couple of days I added some of the shorter tubes, and I waited until I saw Solstice pulling food out of them before adding the rest. Now we have all the tubes in place, I load the bowl up every night, and they spend many hours a day fishing for kibbles. They are getting along again, less obsessed with the doors, and they let me sleep. I bought this bowl out of the clearance bin at my local Petco.

Cats Incredible Litter

I met the people behind Lucy Pet Products at SuperZoo. They make a variety of grooming products, and also Cats Incredible litter. This litter has a proprietary ingredient called "Smell Squasher" that is supposed to keep ammonia from forming. It's a clay-based clumping litter that is not flushable. I'm a little worried about James and his Cat Asthma, but Cats Incredible is 99.9% dust-free so I'm hoping it doesn't bother him. I'm usually good about scooping the litterbox on at least a daily basis, and I am extremely lucky to have cats that use the box every time no matter how bad it gets. I'm told the Smell Squasher requires an ammonia-free environment to work, so I dutifully scrubbed out the box this afternoon and filled it up. I'll let you know how it works. Lucy Pet Products uses all of their profits to help homeless pets, and they are very local to me. I paid full retail price for this cat litter at my local pet store because I want to support this company.

Solid Gold Purrfect Pairings

Solid Gold's representatives were super excited to show me their new mousse cat food at SuperZoo. They said it was the only wet cat food that was a mousse. I didn't have the heart to tell them about Tiki Cat's Velvet mousse. Purrfect Pairings has a bit more structural integrity than Velvet, it's slightly thicker but still velvety smooth. I like that it comes in a cup that's just the right size for one kitty meal. It's a lot easier to get all the fluffy mousse out of than a pouch. Solid Gold did give me one of each flavor to try, so I was compensated for this review. My bottomless pits really like this stuff though, so I'll probably end up buying them more.

So there's our Caturday. Those of you that have cats, what litter do you use?

Food Friday: Solid Gold Green Cow Beef Tripe Dog Food

I have officially found the stinkiest canned dog food ever, and it is Solid Gold's Green Cow Beef Tripe Recipe. Seriously, ew. Green tripe is the inner lining of a cow stomach, and it is notoriously stinky. It is also difficult to find without knowing someone who actually slaughters cows. Solid Gold has somehow managed to package a small part of that incredible stench in this can.

The Company

As I've mentioned before, the Solid Gold company has been making dog food since 1974. They've only had one recall and it was voluntary, but they do use a co packer. Diamond Pet Foods actually produces their foods. For this reason I consider them to be a pet food marketing company, but they do seem to have a lot of heart. I love when a company has pictures of their employees and their pets, it's a lot less like a faceless corporation that way.

The Food

This food stinks. A lot. Probably not as much as fresh raw green tripe, but if you've smelled that then this will definitely give you flashbacks. 

The ingredients are nice and simple, it's just made out of green beef tripe, beef broth, potatoes, canola oil, and vitamins. No chicken fat, no turkey meal, no eggs, and no sweet potatoes. I think it's the only Solid Gold product Brisbane can eat now that barley and sweet potatoes have been added to his list of allergens.

Dogs like stinky stuff, and this is easily the most stinky dog food I've ever personally experienced. This makes it way tastier than everything else, and it was the only thing Brisbane would eat right after his surgery. I cannot recommend it enough for picky eaters, and unlike some specially formulated foods for non-eating dogs, you don't need a prescription for this one. It is worth noting that this is an adult dog food, not for puppies, pregnant dogs, or nursing mums.

The Verdict

This is seriously the only thing Brisbane would eat for several days following his tumor debulking surgery. He needed food in his stomach to keep down his many medications, and would only have a couple of bites at a time. For a dog that had never before refused a meal, it was pretty unnerving. 

I would happily recommend this as an alternative to Hill's A/D for picky eaters. It scores five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor site, and is a complete and balanced diet suitable for long term feeding.

Food Friday: Solid Gold SeaMeal Nutritional Supplement

I don't normally use Solid Gold's dog foods because the vast majority of them contain eggs, but I do use their SeaMeal nutritional supplement from time to time. Poor Brisbane is allergic to eggs, as well as chicken, turkey, and duck. Probably pollen, too. SeaMeal is a kelp-based vitamin and mineral supplement with digestive enzymes. It claims to be a good source of chlorophyll and iodine.

This is an interesting dietary supplement that has been around since 1982 and is a favorite of many dog people. I came across it while looking for anything that would help Brisbane grow some hair. Even before the embarrassing shavedown, he had issues with hair loss and taking months to regrow lost fur.

I am skeptical of dietary supplements as I am skeptical of pretty much everything. I like well-constructed studies and trials that show statistically significant effectiveness of things. This is why I don't give my dogs joint supplements like glucosamine, chondroitin, or MSM. Though tons of people swear by them, study after study has failed to show that they actually do anything more than a placebo. The most optimistic studies are usually small and poorly designed.

Studies on kelp as a dietary supplement focus almost exclusively on iodine. Other studies tend to be on the levels of arsenic found in many kelp supplements, and the effects of that arsenic. There have been some case studies on people developing hypothyroidism after ingesting large amounts of iodine via kelp supplements. Basically the thyroid gland shuts itself off for a while if there is too much iodine in the body.

I suspect that Brisbane may have low thyroid function based on his difficulty growing hair and inability to lose weight even on a very low-calorie diet with lots of exercise. Additional iodine in his diet could help with this, make it worse, or have no obvious effect. I've given him SeaMeal for several months at a time in the past with no obvious effect, but we're trying it again as he attempts to regrow his entire coat. I'm also trying to convince Ru to eat it as he is missing all the hair at the front of his neck from wearing a collar. Sisci is apparently getting everything she needs from her current diet, as her coat is so shiny it actually sparkles in the sun.

Solid Gold SeaMeal has a lot of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. I can see it being particularly useful for dogs that eat the same food every day, as it could help address unknown nutritional gaps. My dogs eat tons of different foods, both commercial and fresh, so they are less likely to have that particular issue. It's probably like multivitamins for humans, with no particular effect on anything. Somehow this has not stopped me from purchasing a 1 lb canister of it and sprinkling it on everyone's food.

Food Friday: Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken with Lamb

Way back when I first became interested in dog food, around 15 year ago, Solid Gold was just about the best food on the market. It was hard to find, nobody in my area sold it, but I was told by multiple sources that this was the stuff to feed if you could get your hands on it. The dog food landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade and a half, and Solid Gold no longer fills me with awe at the sight of its shiny metallic packaging. It still occupies a special spot in my heart though, and is definitely a food I would use if I could.

Why can't I feed Solid Gold on a regular basis? It's because they insist on cramming poultry and/or eggs into nearly every damned recipe. Admittedly I'm a bit angsty because Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. There aren't a ton of dogs with egg allergies, so obviously food companies should go ahead and include them in every single product they make, right?

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes, Hund-N-Flocken. The dry kibble version of this food was Solid Gold's original flagship product. It first hit the market in 1974, two years before the founder of the company won Best of Breed with her gorgeous Great Dane. Their SeaMeal, a vitamin supplement I've used in the past, has been around since 1982. I had no idea.

I truly appreciate this company. Apparently the original founder is still around and working. Since I first heard about them, their food has become infinitely easier to find in my local stores.

Solid Gold has been making grain-free dog food since 2006. Their only recall was a voluntary one in 2012. However, they do not own their own facility. Solid Gold uses a co packer, their products are mostly manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. To me, this makes them a bit more of a marketing company and a little less trustworthy than those with dedicated facilities.

Some Solid Gold foods merit five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website. This one only rates three out of five stars, probably due to its equal percentages of protein and fat. Sisci liked this food, Ru was unimpressed, and Brisbane loved it because he loves all food all the time.

If Brisbane could eat it, Solid Gold's foods would probably a part of our regular food rotation. They've done a pretty decent job of keeping up with the changing pet food market. Their devotion to eggs as the most perfect protein, worthy of inclusion in all but one or two formulas, reminds me a lot  of Fromm. Solid Gold's rank in my mental list of quality dog foods has been gradually falling for a decade now, as brands like Acana and Orijen surpass them in sheer quality. I still think they make good food, but no longer believe they make the very best things I can feed my dogs.

When did you first hear about Solid Gold dog food?

Qunioa Isn't a Grain?

I am currently working on a dog food project to help narrow down possible foods for dogs with allergies. I only feed my dogs grain-free foods, and so I was surprised to find quinoa on the ingredients list for Solid Gold's Sun Dancer food. I've eaten quinoa, I've even cooked it myself, and I was pretty sure it was in the grain family. Can Solid Gold really claim that this food is grain-free?

My approach to pretty much any question in life is to look it up on the internet and find an answer. According to Wikipedia, quinoa is a pseudocereal crop. True cereals come from plants in the true grass family, and quinoa is actually a chenopod. It is more closely related to beets and tumbleweeds than to wheat. Who knew?

The name "quinoa" is derived from Quechuan, a native South American language. The Quechuan word for it is "kinwa", and I think we should all start using that spelling instead because it would be a lot easier to pronounce. I spent well over a year pronouncing it "kwi-no-ah" before learning the error of my ways.

So is Sun Dancer really grain-free if it contains quinoa, or is Solid Gold cheating? Technically it's a pseudocereal, along with amaranth and buckwheat. It also falls into the "grain crop" category, but so do legumes like beans and peas. Quinoa is actually a seed, but it has a high glycemic value like a lot of real cereal grains. It's also high in protein. Technically Sun Dancer is a grain-free food, but it's a lot closer to having grain than foods that use peas and potatoes.