Have you seen the 1970s/early 80s sitcom “Bewitched”?
Or the Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell Bewitched movie back in 2005?
I find myself wondering if Tiki Pets stole their graphic designer:
How funny is that?
The Tiki Cat range is available at Petbarn and has proved popular since it’s release. Perhaps this is because they use words like “Carnivore Diet” and “Born Carnivore” in the branding, or perhaps because we secretly love Bewitched?
But are the Tiki Cat cat foods as pure carnivore as we may imagine?
Not entirely, but it has to be said the recipes are very good in comparison to other popular brands of cat food sold in Australia.
Let’s take a look…
What the marketing says
I found this really interesting marketing comparison between the dry and wet Tiki Cat foods:
I don’t usually include stuff like this in a review, but we can learn a lot about how we feed our cats from this.
Please don’t take this information as anything negative against Tiki Cat in general. It’s more good information you can use to benefit your cat’s health.
First off, wet cat food often has better ingredients than dry cat foods, usually with a much better meat content. This is good for our cats, but wet foods often cost more for what you get.
The moisture in wet foods is vital for our cats. Needless to say many cats suffer renal failure in their senior years, and I attribute this mostly to inappropriate dry cat foods. Your cat’s a desert animal, not a big drinker, and they depend on moisture in their diet for health.
I’m more skeptical of the claims made above for dry food, and you should take these with a pinch of salt.
Let’s start with dental benefits, of which further digging will find the use of the word “may“, as in your cat may benefit (or may not?)
Ask my dear friend Dr Tom Lonsdale, author of Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud, how many rotting teeth he’s extracted from cats fed dry food.
Believe me, I’ve been in Tom’s veterinary clinic and witnessed first hand the rotting teeth and gums of a cat, and not an old cat either.
Don’t go thinking dry cat food, or dental treats for that matter, have any real benefit for your cat’s dental health.
This of course applies to all dry cat foods, and soft cat foods won’t help your cat’s teeth either.
Tom would advise raw meaty bones, and I tend to agree. If you’re not keen on feeding your cat raw meaty bones, then dry meat chews to gnaw on are the next best thing. Or you can brush their teeth…!
Sorry, I’ve deviated here with important points which aren’t specific to Tiki Cat food but for cat food in general, so let’s get back on track and look at the wet and dry options.
Tiki Cat wet foods
You will find a range of textures available in the Tiki Cat wet food range – shreds, pate, mousse, and so forth. Your choice will likely depend on your cat’s preference. For some reason my picky cat prefers mousse, probably because it sounds posh.
What I like most about the Tiki Cat wet foods is the use of organ meats (heart and kidneys) as well as breast meats and fats.
We forget most nutrition comes from organ meats, and this is even more applicable to our cats than us.
We’ve given up traditional dishes like steak and kidney pie or liver and onions for more convenient options, haven’t we, but should we have done?
Sorry, I deviated again…
Tiki Cat holds up the “carnivore” bargain which is good to see, and good for your cat.
Although some ingredients aren’t animal, at least it’s not packed to the brim with cheap grains. Read the ingredients of well known brands like Whiskas and you’ll get the gist of what I mean.
Some cat owners may choose to avoid ingredients like xanthan gum due to potential digestive issues, so note this is found in the Tiki Cat wet food range. It’s a thickener to give the product texture, but usage doesn’t normally cause a problem. The same can apply to guar gum and cassia gum in other Tiki Cat wet foods, but these are usually fine in the doses they are used.
The last point I can make about the Tiki Cat wet foods is they’re made in Thailand, but I don’t think that should bother you. They tend to have a high standard of quality and safety for the simple reason they want our business.
Overall it must be said the Tiki Cat wet food formulations are very good in comparison to other brands, being mostly meat and organs – the stuff your cat should be eating.
Not a bad choice.
Now for the Tiki Cat dry food… scroll down.
Sample ingredients from Tiki Cat After Dark Velvet Mousse (wet food):
Chicken broth, chicken, chicken liver, chicken gizzard, chicken heart, dried egg product, sunflower oil, tricalcium phosphate, xanthan gum, potassium chloride, choline chloride, salt, magnesium sulfate, taurine, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, zinc oxide, vitamin A supplement, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, copper amino acid chelate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, potassium iodide, vitamin D3 supplement
Tiki Cat dry foods
It’s really good to see a dry cat food with such a high amount of protein and fat from animal ingredients.
I’ve used the Born Carnivore High Protein Deboned Chicken & Egg recipe as a benchmark which is 43% protein and 19% fat. I would estimate as little as 20% carbohydrates which is really good for a dry cat food.
The first four ingredients need little explaining – deboned chicken, chicken meal, dehydrated chicken, and dried egg product. It’s interesting to see three forms of chicken, the first being more “fresh”, the second a rendered form which means pre-cooked into a protein powder (common in pet foods), and dehydrated chicken is a better dried form than chicken meal.
I suppose we can’t complain at a variety of chicken, and even though the egg is also a dried product it’s a welcome addition to the formula. Eggs are such a fantastic source of nutrition it makes you wonder why we don’t feed them more often to our cats and dogs… (I do, by the way).
Tapioca as the 5th ingredient, likely amounting to most of the 20% (estimated) carbohydrates, isn’t something your cat needs in their diet, but would be necessary to bind the recipe into the old chestnut which is kibble.
Natural chicken flavour is a funny term, isn’t it?
Pet foods used to list “chicken digest” or “tallow” which is the fatty stuff created in the process of making meat meal, but it got a bad rap so the pet food industry conjured up more appealing names. Anyway, this will be the fat content, and this is standard.
Some of the smaller inclusions like chickpeas and peas I don’t consider overly beneficial for a cat, but there are worse choices.
It’s nice to see a little bit of salmon oil included for skin, coat, and heart health, and a little pumpkin for fibre (to help firm up your cat’s stools).
When it comes to dry cat foods I find the Tiki Cat range better formulated than many, so if you shop in Petbarn this isn’t a bad choice.
Sample ingredients from Tiki Cat Born Carnivore High Protein Deboned Chicken & Egg Recipe (dry food):
Deboned chicken, chicken meal, dehydrated chicken, dried egg product, tapioca, natural chicken flavor, ground whole flaxseed, chickpeas, peas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), brewers dried yeast, calcium sulfate, choline chloride, inulin (prebiotic), salmon oil, pumpkin, taurine, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement (vitamin B3), copper sulfate, vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), biotin, riboflavin supplement (vitamin B2), vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, calcium iodate, folic acid, sodium selenite, rosemary extract, ascorbic acid (preservative), citric acid, tannic acid.
Where to buy Tiki Cat
Tiki Cat wet and dry foods are available at Petbarn.
