Viva Raw Cat Food Review
If you have been curious about Viva Raw cat food I am here to tell you about my experience. I ordered all 5 of their basic flavors and let The Boys (Zeus and Iz) give their opinion on the matter. What originally drew me to Viva Raw was that they are, at the time of writing this, the only fully human grade cat food available. I personally feed a mixture of lightly cooked homemade cat food and dry food. Yep, both sides of the spectrum. It’s a personal choice and a privilege to feed my cats fresh food, whatever you choose to do is your choice. If you sense a bit of hesitancy it’s because I have been scolded for feeding fresh and dry alike. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s okay even if it does get a little uncomfortable at times.
About once a month I break out the meat grinder and grind whole chicken thighs, chicken livers, and more recently some turkey, all that along with a slew of supplements. The recipe I have used for many years is based on a recipe from Catinfo.org, but I add in a few different supplements to address my cat’s needs. I have consulted with a few different holistic veterinarians to check that my recipe is adequate in nutrition and have gotten a green flag. That said, sometimes as the end of the month comes along and the thought of breaking out the meat grinder for an hour looms, I often wish for an less involved method to feed my cats fresh food.
That’s where Viva Raw came in. I am well aware that human grade is not necessary for cats, mine will happily swallow a lizard whole while on a supervised outing, but when serving food that is not completely cooked I become concerned about potential contaminants. Viva Raw is handled in a facility that also processes human food, so I felt confident that I would be minimizing risk.
Peek-a-boo!
Well packed and insulated. All the food arrived frozen.
The huge box of food that I ordered came in as scheduled and accompanied by lots of notification emails just in case I happened to forget that it was going to arrive. While I normally dislike so many emails and text messages from a company I appreciated knowing when my frozen box of meat was going to show up. When the box arrived I found all of the packs to still be completely frozen and no leaks occurred. The weather here at the time wasn’t particularly hot, it wasn’t cool by any means. Florida in Fall isn’t what anyone would call cool. Nonetheless, all arrived safely. For those of you who are as type-A as I am I weighed several of the packages and all of them came in at just over a pound, so you can feel confident that you are getting at least the amount you paid for. The only concern I had about the food from a first look was that there were a couple of the sleeves as they were not as well vacuumed as the others and some frost was covering the food. I made sure to take notice of the smell and how my cats reacted and there seemed to be no difference between the well vacuumed packs and not-so-well vacuumed packs.
Okay, so I might be happy with the food from a label and packaging point of view, what about the boys? I did a taste test between the food I make at home which at the time was only chicken and Viva Raw’s chicken cat food. I cooked both of them just a little like I usually do and served them up side-by-side. I am linking a video below where you can see that both cats insulted me by choosing to eat the Viva Raw before eating my lovingly made homemade food. Ungrateful brats. So yes, they really like the food and they like it more than my food. I chalk it up to the additional ingredients in Viva Raw like oysters and mussels.
While they happily gobbled up all of the flavors not all of the flavors agreed with them. Sadly, the beef flavor was a total no-go. For whatever reason Zeus will always vomit up beef and this food was no exception. Just minutes after polishing off his meal it all came back up. Also, for some reason duck caused them to have slightly soft stools. Maybe they would have adjusted to it over time, but I chose not to finish off the beef and duck flavors. I fed those to a cat that we had rescued recently that was staying at a friend’s house while waiting to find his forever home. His street-cat digestion handled both flavors without any issues. He loved it.
Taste test time!
Not going to wait for me to put it int he bowl
Iz loves the flavor of all the food. Although, that might not be a good indicator of deliciousness for all cats. He is not terribly picky.
Shortly after buying a gigantic box of Viva Raw I took Zeus in for some blood work where his creeping T4 finally showed him solidly in the hyperthyroid range. I had been monitoring it, checking every 3-4 months to see if he might finally need treatment. He was already slightly symptomatic doing a little more yowling than usual, and down in weight just a few ounces. I say all this because Viva Raw contains sea kelp as a source of iodine which is an ingredient in excess can aggravate hyperthyroidism. In no way do I think Viva Raw caused his hyperthyroidism, it is just that I prefer to know and control the iodine content of their food now that it is a health concern. By making their food at home I can do that. Buuuuuttt…while writing this post I found that Viva Raw now offers “Pure” recipes that are made of a single ingredient. While I do save a little money by buying and grinding my own cat food at home, saving time and effort has me curious again. One of their vets has also recommended adding in rabbit (because beef is not an option) so that I am rotating proteins and providing more fresh variety.
I suppose there will be another Viva Raw post coming your way soon!
In summary, if you are interested in feeding your cat minimally processed food I think this is a great option and worth a try. Even if you keep feeding your cat its usual meals but add this food as a topper I think you would be helping to improve the quality of your cat’s diet. I mean, if fresh food is good for people, why wouldn’t it be healthier for cats too. Even if health isn’t at the top of your list, maybe give it a try as a treat.
What about you? What foods do you feed your pet and why? Have you tried or considered feeding fresh or raw foods?
