Laugh. Learn. Love cats.
Cupcake: Hi, Mr. Newton!
Newton: * rolls over *
Cupcake: That’s a really nice bag. Is there room to share?
Cupcake: Mr. Newton?
Newton: Watch the paw, kid. I’m busy with my bag here.
Cupcake: But Mr. Newton…
Newton: Where are you waving that thing?
Newton: You weren’t about to poke me with it, were you?
Cupcake: I… maybe.
Newton: No poking!
Cupcake: Whoa!
Will Cupcake stop poking Newton? Will She ever make it into the bag? We’ll be back on Wednesday with more…
Pierre: I’m so happy that the party barn is back! I haven’t had a nap this good since it was here this fall.
Cupcake: What’s a party barn, Pierre? Can I come in there with you?
Pierre: I need to be somewhere else for a little while.
Cupcake: This is a party barn? It’s pretty cool. I like these walls.
Cupcake: I can see you through the wall!
Pierre: It’s called a window, kid.
Cupcake: And my paw fits through it, too.
Pierre: Keep your paws and tail inside the party barn. Just like you do in the cat carrier. You have a lot to learn.
Pierre: Will you let me know when you’re done with the party barn? I need to get back to my nap.
Cupcake: Where are you going? Don’t you want to party in the barn with me?
I knew that I wanted Cupcake to be a raw fed kitten. I wanted her to have balanced, species-appropriate nutrition, so when the folks at Darwin’s Natural Pet Food gave us a chance to sample their premium raw cat food, I thought it was a great way to get Cupcake started on a raw diet.
Darwin’s is a mail-order company, and one of my concerns was making sure the food arrived still frozen. Everyone knows that Florida is hot in the summers. On top of that, when I’m not home, food is delivered to my porch, which gets the full afternoon sun.
So I was really pleased to find that the box was lined on all sides with thick Styrofoam to insulate it. I was even happier to discover that there was still dry ice left inside, working hard to keep the food cold. As a result, the food was still frozen. Win!
The cat food is packaged really conveniently. Four vacuum sealed 1/2 lb amounts are attached to a perforated plastic sheet. That means each one holds 2 lb. That makes it easy to tell at a glance how much food you have on hand.
What’s super convenient is that each 1/2 lb portion fits nicely into a 1 cup storage container. That allows me to thaw a portion overnight in the fridge in its original packaging. Once it’s thawed, it’s easy to store it safely while Cupcake eats it over the next couple days.
Starting Cupcake eating Darwin’s wasn’t hard. Kittens usually are happy to try new foods. She had a little bit of Darwin’s raw food on the side with her canned food meal, and slowly the amount of canned food became less at meals and the amount of raw became larger. Success! A healthy, happy, raw-fed kitten.
I don’t even like being in the kitchen to make my own meals, so having Cupcake eating raw cat food without my having to make it was great. I loved having my little obligate carnivore kitten eating a diet from a company I trusted to use the best ingredients to make a wholesome food for her. And the convenience of their grab-and-thaw packaging was just awesome. Happy, healthy Cupcake, and happy me, too.
Then something happened that is the reason this review didn’t happen months ago. We ran out of our sample of Darwin’s raw cat food. This would never have happened if we had been enrolled in the Drawin’s home delivery program, since it is set up to ship to you on a schedule. But since Cupcake ate eating large, growing-kitten portions, we ran out of our sample more quickly than I expected.
This was when we discovered Cupcake wouldn’t eat any other raw food. She rejected the homemade raw I prepare for Newton for his unusual urinary pH needs. Then she rejected raw made another cat food company. Since a growing kitten has to eat something, I let her go back to eating canned food.
I wasn’t quite ready to give up yet, though. I ordered some more Darwin’s food. The second transition didn’t go as easily as the first.
Cupcake would avoid the raw food paired with the canned food on her plate. When I put some raw food on top of the canned, she would eat through it, pushing it to the back of the bowl with her nose. She ended up wearing more on her face than she ate.
When Cupcake started eating some of the raw food again, we found she wasn’t keeping her meals down, which was puzzling. I finally tried giving her a full raw meal, and that stayed down. Her stomach apparently didn’t like meals mixing both raw and cooked ingredients! It turned out the biggest barrier to getting Cupcake eating raw food was her human being overcautious in transitioning her.
So Cupcake is a happy, rambunctious raw-fed kitten again, and she loves her Darwin’s raw cat food meals. She knows they come from the refrigerator, and she comes running when you open the fridge to see whether you’re bringing out food for her.
If you want to try Darwin’s Natural Pet Products premium raw cat food for your cat, they offer a great trial offer for their food. You can get 10 lbs of their premium raw cat food for the price of shipping. It’s a great way to try raw food for your cat with very little financial commitment.
FTC Disclosure: We received this product for free in exchange for our honest opinion. The opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by any outsider. Sponsored posts always reflect our honest opinions and feature products we use ourselves and love.
On the weekends, after she goes to the coffee shop to see her friends, Cupcake often does a little shopping. Sometimes she lets me carry her, but more often, she likes to ride on top of her carrier.
She asks to stop various places around the store so can can get a better look at things. She especially likes to test the floor model cat trees. This one even had a feather toy attached to it. Fancy!
There’s a lot to see in the pet store. Some of it is really exciting, like the hamsters and birds.
Some of it is exciting in a different way. While Cupcake is allowed out of her shopping basket whenever she wants, she isn’t allowed to visit the display of looose cat litter.
If the humans take too long shopping around inside the store, Cupcake even fits in a nap before the cash register. This is how you shop to you drop, isn’t it?
Cupcake: Are you done now? Can we go home?
