Basics Skin & Stomach Care Grain Free, Natural Indoor Adult Dry Cat Food, Duck & Potato 5-lb

I bought this food for my cat who was plagued with diarrhea and I thought a limited ingredient food might help her thinking she might have a food allergy. Since cats are more likely to have allergies to chicken I decided to buy the duck formula. The food didn't help her diarrhea, but the food doesn't claim that. After I took her to the vet I found out her problem was IBD and just food alone couldn't solve her problem. With medication we kept her on this food because she seemed to like it and she started doing very well. She got back to normal. During the winter we had trouble getting this food delivered and I had to switch to the vet recommended food for her condition, and she didn't do well on it at all. I went back to this food and she's back to doing better. It's expensive food but the ingredients are limited and seem to be of good quality. I'm confident this food has contributed to my cat's continued good health.

The backstory: We adopted a cat that had a rough early life with conjunctivitis and calicivirus, and has had a list of other issues constantly. She had pica (eats inedible things), was always itchy and overgroomed her tail, constantly runny eye, really stinky poos (like knockout stinky) etc. The vet wasn't able to give us many tips on things to try without running a long list of pricey tests. We'd tried Missing Link vitamins, probiotics, etc etc. Nothing worked. Then I was reading up on overgrooming one day and realized some of her problems might be attributed to a food allergy. We fed our cats Simply Nourish (PetSmart's brand) before, either salmon or chicken, always grain free. She was always itchy no matter the protein but her tail picking seemed to get worse with the chicken. I read a lot of cats are actually allergic to both salmon and chicken, and so your best bet if that seems to be the case is to try a food that uses an atypical protein, like duck, rabbit, or turkey. A bit wary of poultry in general, I decided to try Blue's limited ingredient food in duck & potato after doing some research and comparing ingredient lists. From my perspective, Blue had the best quality ingredient list when compared to Instinct and Nature's Balance limited ingredient diets. (Real duck first before duck meal, more animal protein than pea protein, etc). The cats LOVE THIS. I tried transitioning them slowly, but they actually stopped eating out of the bowls that were still mixing their new and old foods. My older cat loves it too, because the pieces are smaller and easier to chew for her. Here's the best part: Our "health problem kitty" isn't picking at her tail anymore. Her poos DON'T STINK!! (I thought the day would never come). And just the other day, she got a hold of a shoelace and chewed a piece of it off, but she DIDN'T EAT THE PIECE! We're so pleased with this food. I didn't know a diet change like this could make such a big difference. It's just a bummer that not many pet stores physically sell it near us. To address some issues others have reported in these reviews, I don't find this food to be overwhelmingly stinky. It smells like a typical cat food. Actually kinda smells better than the food we were buying. Additionally if you try this food in a certain protein and your cat's poos are stinkier than before, it's really just possible the food transition didn't happen slow enough, or the new protein you picked just doesn't agree with your cat either. Finding harmony when cats have food allergies and sensitive tummies takes experimentation and, unfortunately, surviving some litter box bombs and blowouts. Thankfully we found a protein their bodies are happy with on the first try. But if your cat is more miserable eating duck, try rabbit, or turkey. And so on.

My two tolerate this well! Smells a lot like potatoes. We have tried so many kibbles out there but every one had both cats having the most foul smelling poops since I got them at 6 months... like whole apartment smells, went to gag level. I suspected they have a food intolerance which is how they ended up on just all wet food. When on all wet food, the foul odor is not an issue. My cats regularly only eat wet food or freeze dried raw however if I'm going to be gone for one or more nights, neither of those are an option so their automatic feeder needs a kibble. The week before a trip I slowly transition them to mostly kibble (a brand that yes creates a horrible odor but doesn't create obvious GI issues) with a little wet food so they are adjusted by the time I leave. End of October I decided to try this food... little bites here and there went okay. So I started the transition process for a trip half expecting them to stink up the place... and it still went okay. Came back after 3 nights of them eating just the kibble and one wet meal (someone checked on them) and STILL no smell. Since my trip I've added a little kibble to their bowls each day to keep this in their rotation so their bellies are ready (since suddenly changes are bad) for the future. One thing to note is that they get SUPER thirsty on this. I don't blame the food since they usually get their moisture from wet food but maybe something for someone else to keep an eye on. We will keep buying!

My cats love this

I've had issues with my cat having soft stools on and off for awhile now. I tried using pumpkin for fiber, fortiflora for gut health but always the soft stools returned. Not to mention he always had itchy ears and reoccurring ear infections which my vet suggested could be food related. I finally looked into changing proteins and there was a recommendation for this brand and it has done wonders. My cats stool looks much healthier now and he doesn't seem to be as itchy as he used to be around his ears. Highly recommend this as a first step in moving toward a novel protein diet.