Bravo Pet Foods Feline Cafe Giveaway

Recently, we have said a lot about the benefits of feeding raw, but the truth is that we know feeding raw isn’t for everyone. It’s not even for all of the cats in our house! So I was pretty excited to find out that Bravo Pet Foods, one of the original names to make raw pet food available, was making a new Feline Cafe line of canned food for cats.

You’ve got to feed what’s right for you and your cat. For Pierre, that’s canned food. At 11 years old, Pierre is set in his ways and never met a raw food he would touch. But as a senior cat, he needs plenty of protein from species-appropriate sources.

What Pierre doesn’t need are all the crazy ingredients in some other cat foods. He eats around visible vegetable chunks in his food, and when vegetables were puréed into pate food, the food came back up no matter how good it tasted going down. Veggies weren’t going to be on the menu for him. Pierre needed what is sometimes referred to a limited ingredient diet.

Bravo Feline Cafe canned food is exactly what Pierre was looking for! It is made with the same quality muscle meats and poultry that is in Bravo’s raw foods. That means the food is full of the good stuff a cat’s body needs. What is missing from the ingredient panel are fillers, preservatives, artificial flavors, grains, and meals that Pierre’s system was never made to digest. Perfect for a cat’s fussy palate… and in Pierre’s case, his fussy stomach, too. It goes down and stays down.

We also love that Bravo is straightforward about where their ingredients come from. You can get a full list of the source of every ingredient in the food right on the Bravo web site. Most of it is from the US, but if it isn’t, they give you a full list of where each ingredient comes from. After some of the unhealthy ingredients from China that have ended up in pet food, the transparency of being able to look up exactly what is in Pierre’s diet and where it came from is really important.

Pierre: Check it out! This food has folic acid that’s from France, just like me. Oui! Oui!

Newton: You aren’t from France, Pierre. You’re from Florida. You don’t even have an accent.

It can be hard to find GMO free food for humans, much less for animals, but Bravo delivers GMO-free nutrition made of meats with no added antibiotics. No funny stuff, just the good nutrition your cat needs.

Did we mention that Bravo Pet Food is also making Canine Cafe? Yes, the same goodness, only in a recipe made specially for dogs. Our buddy Oz the Terrier is telling everyone about the recipe for dogs today.

Learn More about Bravo Feline Cafe and Canine Cafe… and Win!

Join in the fun #BravoPetFoods Twitter party April 21 at 8 – 9 pm to lean more about Bravo’s new Feline Cafe and Canine Cafe canned foods as well as their frozen and freeze-dried raw diets. Representatives from @BravoPetFoods will be chatting with us, and you will have chance to win Bravo food and treats for your cat or dog. Be sure to follow us, @catsherdyou, as well as our co-hosts, @Oz_theTerrier and @SugarTheGoldenR, as well as @BravoPetFoods so you don’t miss any of the fun!

Don’t forget to RSVP for the Twitter party using your Twitter handle so we know to expect you. Be sure you put your @handle on Twitter in the Name field so that we can be sure to follow you for the Twitter party!

Want to Try Bravo Feline Cafe or Canine Cafe at Your House?

Pierre loved trying Bravo’s new canned food so much, he wanted you to be able to try it, too. We’re co-hosting a giveaway with our friend, Oz the Terrier.

The giveaway is open through April 19th, and you can win a variety of Bravo Feline Cafe or Feline Canine Cafe dinners to try at your house! There will be one winner of Feline Cafe and another winner of Canine Cafe, so you aren’t in competition against your dog friends. Winners must be 18 years old and ship to a US address. Enter through the rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: We were compensated for this review, but this didn’t influence what we said. All opinions in this review are our own and not influenced by any outsider. We receive no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

Is Your Kitty a Feline Yogi?

Pierre: Kitties, are you feeling tired and out of shape after that 18 hours of sleep? It’s easy to forget you need to get your exercise, too. So I’m going to tell you about how I get my cat yoga on with Feline Yogi yoga mat.

Get your Cat Yoga On

Pierre: The first step is making sure all of your equipment is in good shape so you don’t injure yourself while performing your yoga. This mat is very soft under my elbows as I test the condition of the attached rope.

gray tabby cat bites rope

Pierre: I also need to make sure that the catnip inside the twine ball hasn’t lost any of its potency. Oh, yeah, that’s the good stuff right there! I could just sniff this all day.

gray tabby cat bites ball

Newton: Hey, Pierre, what’s up?

Pierre: I’m showing how I do my yoga exercises.

Newton: Funny, it looked like you were romancing that twine ball.

Pierre: No, I was just testing it while I verified the softness of this mat.

orange tabby cat and gray tabby cat play with feline yogi mat

Newton: It’s nice and squishy, all right, and it will be great to get my claws into.

Pierre: No clawing my yoga mat!

Newton: Then I guess you need to show me what to do with it, then.

orange tabby cat watches gray tabby cat play with rope

Pierre: All right, I can teach you a little bit. Watch carefully.

Newton: I’m watching!

Pierre: This pose is called waiting for the mouse.

Newton: But I don’t see a mouse anywhere.

Pierre: Shhh… I’m trying to focus over here!

orange tabby cat watches gray tabby cat play with rope

Pierre: This pose is called End of the Mouse.

Newton: But I still don’t see a mouse.

orange tabby cat watches gray tabby cat play with rope

Pierre: * SIGH * I’ll come back to this later when I can concentrate.

orange tabby cat and gray tabby cat play with feline yogi mat

Newton: I call this pose Grabbing the Catnip Twine Ball. Because I can see a catnip tine ball!

orange tabby cat plays on yoga mat

Newton: This is a really comfortable place to hang out. Pierre doesn’t know what he’s missing.

orange tabby cat plays with ball

Newton: I don’t understand this yoga thing, but I know what I like… and this kitty yoga mat is pawesome… especially when Pierre isn’t trying to make it all serious. It’s obviously a place for fun.

orange tabby cat rests on yoga mat

FTC Disclosure: We received yoga mat at no charge in exchange for our honest review. Receiving free product did not influence anything we say. All opinions expressed on this site are our own.

The Buster Examination Bag is a Better Kitty Burrito

Newton has a problem. He doesn’t think it’s a problem. He thinks it’s a human problem, but either way, he won’t take medicine. He is also too strong to wrap in a towel to make a “kitty burrito.” He escapes, and hurts me in his panic to get free.

Thankfully, he doesn’t need medication for anything ongoing, but the last time he needed to take pills and refused to take them hidden in pill pockets, the attempt to put him into a towel burrito took two people and ultimately failed. He’s stronger than a cat several times his size!

So instead of something like this:

gray cat wrapped in towel

The result was more like this:

orange tabby cat stands over towel on floor

I have been looking for another solution to this for years. Sooner or later, he will need medication again, and I worry about not being able to administer it.

When I heard about the Kruuse Buster vet examination bag, I was pretty excited. A strong nylon bag with wide velcro fasteners that holds itself shut, unlike a towel, seemed like an answer to my worries. Since it’s a veterinary product, it even has openings for injections and zippers for accessing any of the four paws while a kitty is safely inside. I couldn’t wait to try it.

kruuse buster cat bag interior

Newton wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as I was about the whole idea.

orange tabby cat looks at Buster Bag

I don’t have any photos of my first, overconfident attempt to get him into the bag because it was just me, and I still didn’t have enough hands to both get him inside the bag and secure the velcro before he slipped out. He is so strong that I couldn’t hold him still.

The second attempt, Newton wasn’t feeling any more cooperative, but I had a second pair of hands to help me keep Newton in the bag until I got him fastened in. Unlike the towel burrito, once he was in the bag, he was well contained. He tried hard to get back out, but the velcro held him safely and securely, must to his disgust.

orange tabby cat in buster bag

I now know that if I need to give Newton medication, I have a plan to get it into him. He won’t be able to put his paw between my hand with the pill and his mouth.

orange tabby cat in buster bag

Of course I don’t want the cat equivalent of the straitjacket to be necessary to medicate him. I hope it won’t be. But I can sleep a lot better knowing that I have a plan in case medication becomes necessary again.

FTC Disclosure: We received our Buster Exam Bag feeder at no charge from Buster in exchange for our honest review. Receiving free product did not influence anything we say. All opinions expressed on this site are always our own.

Photo credit: depositphotos, Kalcutta

A KatKabin is Your Castle

Newton: Hey, Pierre, whatcha doing?

Pierre: Trying to find a place to work on my 18 hours of daily beauty rest.

Newton: Do you want to chase a sparkle ball with me?

Pierre: No, thanks. And don’t smooch me. That’s embarrassing.

Newton: Why are you going in there?

Pierre: Because my KatKabin is my castle.

Newton: What do cats do in their castles?

Pierre: Sleep, of course. And dream of dinnertime.

Newton: But I don’t want to sleep.

Pierre: * sigh * You could claw on the carpeted outside of the KatKabin and leave me to nap. It’s meant for scratching. I asked for the indoor version, but there’s a KatKabin for outdoors that doesn’t have carpet on the outside.

Newton: Outdoor cats have castles, too?

Pierre: They have KatCabins. Theirs come in beautiful, bright colors, and the outdoor cats get a door on their KatKabin to help keep them warm and dry in bad weather. I’m kind of wishing I had that door right now, too. What does a mancat need to do to get a little privacy around here?

Pierre: Look, this isn’t working for me with the whole orange audience thing. Can you put down that camera for a few minutes and move my KatKabin into the living room so I can hang out in there while you have your computer on your lap in front of the TV instead of leaving lap room for me?

Pierre: That’s more like it. This is where our KatKabin lives, between our sofa and chair, keeping me cozy and sheltered from orange pests the way an outdoor KatKabin keeps cats sheltered from the elements. I’m king of my KatKabin!

If you want a KatKabin for your very own castle or for the feral cats in your life, you can get a 20% discount on one through http://www.katkabin.com/ with discount code REFTH7Z7, good through December 31, 2015.

FTC Disclosure: We received our KatKabin in exchange for our honest review. Receiving free product did not influence anything we say. All opinions expressed on this site are our own.