Pawalla July 2013 Box

It's been a while since I've gotten a Pawalla box so when they contacted me regarding a slight glitch, I was more than happy to accept the box rather than a refund. Now I will completely admit that upon opening the box, I wasn't all that thrilled about the contents. I'll explain as I go through the listings of the box and my first impressions but I'll also remark now that the box was well received by the kittens so take what I say in my initial observations with a grain of salt.

The contents of the box included the following:

• 2 Cans of Against the Grain - Big Kahuna with Crab & Tilapia
• 2 Cans of Against the Grain - Shrimp Daddy with Tuna & Salmon
• Greenies
• Whole Life - Tail Mix Cat Treats
• Petchup - Catchup
• PushClean - Pet Towelettes
• I Love Catz - Sisal Rattle Football Cat Toy
• Doggles - Sushi Catnip Crab

So the reason why I was slightly disappointed (which had nothing to do with the box) was the cat food selected was something that the kittens have rejected before which was a bit of a bummer. I thought they'd love it but they seemed to have hate it. That was a few months ago and I'll likely try it again with them. The toys I figured that there was no way that they'd play with them because they've been all about their collection of mylar balls. The treats... well, I kind of wish they wouldn't send so many treats because we have a surplus of them so I could do without 2 more bags. Then there was the towelettes which just seemed odd. I was really unsure of the Petchup because we actually still have the Meowstard from January and none of the cats seem to like it anymore. 

I was glad that I was so wrong because an hour or so after opening the box and mulling over what to do with everything, I found a small lump on Hiro. Rather than grab the usual baby wipes (we use Huggies Natural Baby Wipes), I figured I'd give the new PushClean bamboo towelettes a shot. They worked great with the small clump of hair and blood and we were able to see what was happening without hurting him. Shortly after that, I come in to check on Shiva who is happily playing with both new toys.

I'm still on the fence about the food, treats, and additional supplement but we know a lot of cat owners out there who will happily take it off our hands. If not, then there's always the chance to donate them to the shelter that we adopted our kittens from.

Pawalla March 2013 Box

So when the box arrived, it was by the front door and I had the hardest time getting Shiva to stay indoors while I retrieve it and he's normally really well behaved. Anyhow... February's box was a hit with the minions so I (and the kittens, apparently) were looking forward to their next box.

Shiva was already attacking the catnip toy. Each time we open up this box, we have to hide it so we could take pictures before they come up and drag the toy out. 

So first up is the food -- I was surprised to see two large cans instead of the regular 4 small cans. The cans are from Canine Caviar and it's the Green Venison Tripe. At first I was a bit wary since this looked like it was just for dogs, but with previous Pawalla picks, cats can eat it as well. Since the kittens eat periodically throughout the day, I split it up into three servings. As I write this now, they are on their second helping gulping it down. It's been a hit! 

In this section, there's the Bench & Field Holistic Natural Feline Treats, Pet Greens Crunchy Cat Treats, and Natural Balance Perfect Bites Salmon Treats. I haven't opened them yet since they are still getting through the treats they got last month. I am familiar with the Pet Greens from living with cats previously so I was quite happy with what I got.

Finally we got a can of catnip which I was really happy to get because we actually don't have any catnip right now. I especially like that it comes in a tin which means we can easily reuse it. 

Pawalla February 2013 Box

Sometime in between getting the first Pawalla box, I ended up screwing up an order of food for the kittens from Petco. Hilarity did not ensue when four giant bags of food showed up at our door, so we ended up cancelling the next Pawalla box in order to figure out the food situation. As it turns out though,the kittens got through most of their first box (and a giant bag of food) so we figured that a second Pawalla box would be worth it since... well, between 3 cats, we'd likely get through everything.

Anyhow, this post is just to show you what we got in the box. As it happens, just before I got home, I stopped off at the pet store and picked up some wet food based on the Canned Cat Food Spreadsheet (basically it shows you what some of the canned foods look like). I ended up grabbed three cans of Merrick cat food (Ocean Breeze, California Roll, and New England Boil) and one can of Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance L.I.D. Duck & Green Pea Canned Formula. This came about when we realized how quickly they were getting through their cans of Wellness Kitten food. I'll probably have a follow-up later to tell you how the kittens received this particular box since they haven't tried the food yet. (And if you're wondering, the first box [January 2013] was a hit).

I'll apologize in advance for the photograph quality; my camera is on it's last leg so I've ordered a new one, but I really wanted to share the contents today. Inside this month's box was the following items:

• 4 Cans of "By nature 95% Protein Food For Cats
• 95% Chicken and Chicken Liver
• 95% Oceanfish
• 95% Turkey and Turkey Liver
• 95% Salmon, Mackerel, and Sardines
• Grizzly Salmon NuTreats for Cats
• Primal Jerky Chicken Nibs
• The Honest Kitchen Grace
• Grizzly Salmon Oil for Cats
• Spot Cute Critters Catnip Toys

While opening of the box; Shiva couldn't stay away from the catnip toys and when I finally "set them free" and allowed the cats to play with them, the older cat came running over and ran off with one. The toys were clearly a hit with them.

The food is interesting; I don't know how the kittens will like it but earlier today when I was at the pet store earlier and I was trying to find the specific brands that I picked according to the spreadsheet, I saw this brand that they were unpacking. I didn't want to grab too many new brands for the kittens so I made a mental note to try it the next one. I was quite happy to see it in their box when I got home.

Honest Kitchen already exists in this house (though my roommate uses Prowl) and the kittens love to steal a bit of the Prowl. I was definitely glad to see this in the box so that they could have their own version of it.

Primal Jerky... well, up until a few hours ago, I hadn't ever heard of this before. When I saw it in the box, I figured that they would like it since they seem to like these variety of things. My roommate came over shortly thereafter and gave a bag of Primal Treats Freeze Dried Turkey Liver Munchies Treats for Cats and Dogs (which she got in the PetFlow's Spoiled Rotten Box for this month). They loved the liver version so I imagine that the Jerky Chicken Nibs will be well received by them.

The last two items were both from Grizzly that I am unfamiliar with. The concept I am no stranger to, but just the brand (which really isn't a problem for me. The NuTreats and the Salmon Oil are things that we're going to have to wait to see if they take to or not.

The Cat Food Debacle

Since getting the minions I've been proactive about getting new information specifically regarding food from both Reddit and Cat Forum. One of the big topics that I try to keep informed about is food. 

The shelter that the minions came from said that feed the cats and dogs Halo food. So when we went to check out food options, we decided to go with Spot's Stew since it's the only one that is grain free. (Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of other brands that carry grain free, it's just that Halo has one grain free dry food and luckily the kittens love it).

The vet said that while a dry diet was fine, we should be giving them a bit of actual kitten food rather than something that was for all life stages only because they needed more fattier substances but it turns out that grain free kitten food is actually kind of hard to find.

Now before I can get to what we did find, Shiva got sick shortly after so it was a scramble to get him food that he could find. Turns out that kittens (or cats) when sick aren't always able to find their food so warming up a bit of wet food (about 5 seconds in the microwave) helped Shiva find his food. It wasn't the greatest solution but it worked. In our scramble to find wet food though we ended up getting a few cans of Iams ProActive Health Kitten Premium Pate with Gourmet Chicken.

I wasn't exactly thrilled to be making such sudden changes to Shiva's diet so I tried to find another type of food. I ended up stumbling upon Newman's Own Organic Cat Food and figured that I'd work that in with the two of them.

Overall, they enjoyed both foods but weren't in love with them. It also didn't help that Shiva was very sick and Hiro was also a bit sick. After they finished the few cans we got, we headed over to Pet Food Express to see what other options we had for them.

Did I mention that it's a bit difficult to find kitten food that is grain free? After hanging out in the store (for what seemed like forever), we finally decided to get Lotus. We tossed a few cans in our cart and just as we were about to walk away, Wellness caught our eye. Lo and behold, Wellness has a kitten formula that is grain free! We grabbed a few cans of that too.

After seeing how the kittens go to town on food, I'd say Lotus and Wellness are the winners here (in terms of wet food). The Lotus cans are a bit smaller but the food disappears almost before I can leave the plate. They love the Wellness just as much, but the Lotus food comes out on top.

I think the great thing though is how well they have handled the mix of foods lately. They still love their Halo which is a staple of their diet but it's great to see them flit between Lotus and Wellness without experiencing too much of a disruption.

I still don't know exactly what is best for them though -- we try to balance their diet between dry and wet foods along with treats and along with their vets approval, I think we've been doing alright. 

Sick Kittens & the Battle of Humidifiers

The kittens are back at normal speed, running around the house and climbing all over their new cat tree. But when they were sick two weeks ago, it seemed like forever. Probably because I was also sick at the same time and let's face it, that's not fun either. Shiva had to have multiple trips to the vet to be checked out and was given lots of medication. Then he passed on that sickness to his brother, who luckily didn't get it as badly.

Sadly, the kittens got confined to our bedroom where I had a humidifier running for them. When we first saw the signs of sickness (which seemed like conjunctivitis but it might have been something else), I started doing the research to figure out if I should have a vaporizer or a humidifier running for Shiva (since he was sick first). It didn't take much research for me to settle on a humidifier simply because a kitten cooped up in a room with a vaporizer who may or may not be attended just didn't equate to a good scenario for me.

I ended up picking up the V3100 Vicks Cool Mist Humidifier because basically it's made for a smaller room and... well, I didn't check the reviews on it before I purchased. At this point, I will warn you... just don't. After I got it, I read the reviews but realized that it looks as though they switched the caps around so I figured that maybe they fixed the problem. Nope. For the first few days it worked out incredibly well but then the trouble started and that was mainly the leaking. No matter how much I fought with it in the bathroom to stay on correctly, by the time it back into the bedroom it would leak. There were one to two times whereby it leaked a little bit, but not enough to warrant concern. Then one day the whole gallon leaked out and you can imagine on a wall to wall rug, that it took a few days to dry.

We ended up returning it to the store and after much research into a better alternative, we decided (well rather, it was the only one we could get our hands on immediately for the sick kittens) on "Elliot the Elephant." I personally wanted Merlin the Dragon but we couldn't wait for it to be shipped out.

Elliot the Elephant

Yep, so it turns out that this particularly odd shaped humidifier has some of the best reviews around the web:

• Amazon
• Babies R' Us
• Diapers.com
• Target
• Walmart
• Co-workers who saw it and started raving about it.

The kittens have been feeling better but as a precaution, we've been running the humidifier at night. Partially because I also feel a lot better waking up with it. So the moral of the story is that baby websites are pretty awesome sometimes when you have two sick kittens. 

Hiro & Shivanand Rafhman

For almost all of my life I've wanted a cat. Or a dog. Either way, I remember as a kid I would write to Santa asking for a cat or a dog (preferably all black) and even when I found out that Santa didn't exist, I'd still write (up until my parents found out about my trickery). I had come close twice in my life to sneakily bringing home kittens but that didn't quite pan out but I'm happy to report that they are both in happy homes (well, they are in one home since my cousin decided to keep both of them).

On the day before Christmas Eve, we were checking out Petfinder and we came across two kittens that were so adorable -- two sibling black kittens -- and we just had to have them. Given that it was right before Christmas, we anxiously awaited to hear back about them and even went as far to try to see them the next day. Unfortunately for us, Animal Care and Control is located right next to ASPCA and we didn't realize the difference and ended up going to the ASPCA who happened to be closed.

So on the 26th we went over to the ACC (this time, the correct building) and while we didn't find the two black kittens, we did come upon sibling Siamese kittens. I signed the adoption papers but was told that we couldn't take them home right away so began my preparation for the kittens.

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Pet Insurance

My very first order of business was to get pet insurance. Now I know that a lot of people don't deem it necessary but being the child of a former medical claims specialist, I rest more assured when I have it. Now there's a lot of insurances out there but luckily for me, my boyfriend is much better at processing this type of information. He found this nifty chart that breaks out a few different insurances and compares them by level.  (This isn't all of them, so please do your research if you opt for insurance and note that it doesn't work like normal insurance; you have to pay upfront and then they reimburse you based on the policy). By the time I came back from shopping for kitten goodies, he had selected PetPlan. Their customer service was incredibly helpful as they helped me complete my policy and within 10 minutes, both kittens were set up.

Veterinarian & Emergency Hospital

If there's anything I've learned from my cockatiels it was to make sure I keep the numbers of emergency hospitals on file. I can list the ones I chose, but this is very location specific. In addition to knowing your vet, where they are located, and their hours of operation, you should know where you can take them in case the vet isn't available during an emergency. If you're in the Outer Sunset area, then I'd recommend the Sunset Veterinary Hospital as the primary veterinary care and the All Animals Emergency Hospital or VCA San Francisco Veterinary Specialists (this one is located in the Mission) for those odd hours that your primary veterinarian isn't operating. Note: I haven't had to use either emergency hospitals, but I do keep their numbers listed in my phone as a precaution. 

Emergency Preparedness Kit 

If you haven't gathered, I live in San Francisco. Part of that means that for this East Coaster, there is something I never really had to contend with and that is earthquakes. I also didn't have much of my emergency supplies as I did when I was back home so after much consideration last year, I ended up purchasing a 3 Day Emergency Preparedness Kit. So it comes as no shock that I needed to get one for the kittens.

While the ASPCA Emergency Ready Cat Survival Kit was a strong contender but then after chatting with my boyfriend about it, we thought that it might seem strange to get two of those kits since they were a bit on the pricey side and we do have a lot of those items already.  After searching for more alternatives, I found  the Quakekare Deluxe Multiple Cat Survival Kit which works out pretty well. Just as a note, as with any preparedness kit, make sure you "customize" them by adding in items that are specific to you and your pets.

Pet Pal App (for Droids)

I have a very specific place that I keep the documentation for our little minions -- both hard and soft copies. But one thing I absolutely wanted was the ability to access some of their information while on the go (specifically during their vet visits). Pet Pal has been great about keeping the information about the two in one solid place -- while this doesn't beat having the hard copies of their policy information or their medical history, it does help me keep quick notes about them (such as what to ask the vet or what have I learned for future reference for them). Not to mention the reminders that you can list out on your phone.

Microchipping

I hesitated to add this one since the ACC automatically microchipped the cats upon adoption. I will list this out only because I do think that it's rather important and even if the ACC didn't automatically do it themselves, I likely would have taken the cats in to be microchipped. I did find a few nearby clinics that would do it for under $50 and there are also certain places that you can take them in to get it done for free.

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The items mentioned above are the things I took care of right away. Now I'm not an expert and this is my first time owning cats so obviously there's going to be a bit of trial and error. As I figure it out, hopefully I'll update the blog alongside.