Dec. 21, 2024

9 Lives Cat Food Reviews

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Top 5 Ingredients*
  1. Whole ground corn

  2. Poultry by-product meal

  3. Corn gluten meal

  4. Soybean meal

  5. Whole wheat

Artificial Ingredients Yes
Contains By-products Yes
Price Range $
*9Lives Daily Essentials® Cat Food was selected as the recipe for this ingredient list
What's good about this pet food
  • Good protein sometimes
  • Vegetables sometimes
What's not so good about this pet food
  • Lots of fillers
  • By products
  • Artificial coloring

Our Analysis

9 Lives Cat Food gets an average review for its mixed bag of varieties. Some varieties of the dry and wet food contain healthy ingredients for a balanced cat diet, while others seem to miss the mark. For example, with the Daily Essentials dry food variety, the first four ingredients on the list are fillers such as corn and grains, and the meat content is listed as animal by-products. In addition, artificial colors are used in this particular variety. This does not make for the most nutritious of diets.

On the other hand, other varieties such as the Tender Carvings with Chicken and Salmon in Gravy wet variety contain real chicken and salmon high on the ingredients list as well as B vitamins and green vegetables. With this particular brand, it pays to do a thorough check of the ingredients to ensure cats are getting the protein, vitamins and minerals they need for optimum health.

The Word on the Street...

Customer opinions and experiences are mixed when it comes to the 9 Lives Cat Food Review. Many say they love the low cost and availability of this cat food brand. Quite a few pet owners report happy cats that meow in anticipation of both the dry and wet food, especially the tuna and egg with cheese variety of the wet canned food. Even some finicky cats finish their bowls eagerly.

On the other hand, there are cat owners that comment on the corn heavy make-up of this brand and low meat content. Corn and grains can be a common allergy for cats, and so some report stomach problems after eating this food. Overall, it seems to be a matter of opinion, variety and each cat’s particular taste. For a low cost cat food brand, 9 Lives Cat Food is an average cat food brand that garners both good and bad reviews.

  • Kimber

    I am devastated I have one dead fur baby and one sick due to 9 Lives Plus care that states on the front of the bag “Helps maintain urinary tract health”. Jasmine was my 5 year old Maine Coon my beloved fur baby from 6 weeks of age. Trevor is my 20 year old fur baby who I watched be born and he has always been VERY healthy. In 20 years he has only ever had to go to the vet ONE time for being sick. Any other vet visit was just for yearly shots. It is very hard to me to speak of Jasmine in the past tense but I have to face the fact she is gone. I actually feed them both store brand food (I am only going to speak of the past 5 years the time Jasmine was with Trevor and I) They have both been very healthy the entire 5 years. Someone I know got onto me when she found out I was feeding them a store brand and said they deserved better. I’ve been raising cats 20 + years and I have never had a problem. As a matter of fact (I must rewind and amend above comments) before Jasmine came here I bought Trevor a Name brand I wish I could remember what it was but he kept throwing up and I had to take him to the vet and the vet said the food was too rich so I went back to store brand. I am NOT going to sit here and say it was 9 lives but since I now know this company who’s name is Big Heart Pet Brands makes name brand dog food and treats as well as other name brand cat food and treats. I could have very well been 9 lives or another of their brands. In 2007 the FDA made them pull some things from the shelves. Here is a link to their contact us page so I hope everyone who comes here contacts them…you will see a space that says topics even if you choose not to contact them click on that and it will show you all the brands they make! http://www.bigheartpet.com/Contact/ContactUs.aspx

    Back to my story. I felt guilty thinking I wasn’t giving my babies the best. I adore my babies they are like my children. They devoured the food eating like it was their last meal and for one of them that eventually came about. Trevor was the first to throw up and he did it while using the litter box I never saw that happen and I am not sure how long after he started eating the food it did happen. (It took Jasmine dying my momma’s cat getting a Urinary Tract infection from the same food and Trevor getting a UTI as well and me buying the food a second time to figure out what the heck happened.)

    Trevor and Jasmine both indoor outdoor cats so I think a lot of throwing up and diarrhea was happening outside and that is why it took me so long to put everything together.

    Trevor kept going outside and eating grass and just throwing up white foam which I just figured was flem I was a bit concerned thought it was weird he was doing this at least once a day in the house.

    With in a few weeks I am not sure how long 2 1/2 or 3 the food consumption was way lower. As Trevor is a picky eater I thought to myself well maybe he decided he does not like it and I bought store brand but kept both foods out thinking Jasmine might still be eating the 9lives. I noticed that after I bought the store brand both seemed to go back to it. I guess I was too thick headed to figure out it was making them sick. But in my defense them being outdoor animals I am positive a lot of the sickness was happening outside. Jasmine was throwing up once and I came into the room and she ran like crazy thinking I was mad at her. Animals are very smart if she thought that behavior would make me mad she sure as heck would try to be outside when that happened if she could!

    I am going to interject things throughout my story. AFTER I figured out what was going on I found a website and after reading just a handful of posts it didn’t take a genius to know. I will paste the link to that website after I am finished.

    There was still a bit of food in the bag and I gave up giving it to them and decided to give it to my momma for her cats. I feel really stupid I do. I also feel like with the help of 9lives I murdered Jasmine.

    Suddenly Jasmine was just gone. She was a lover of the great outdoors and loved to roam about and being gone hours at a time was nothing to worry about…but hours turned into a day and a day into two….you get the picture. I called her and called her and called her to no avail.

    I just didn’t understand …she wasn’t dead on the side of the road so she wasn’t hit by a car. I finally decided to talk myself into “someone took her”.

    A few weeks later I was out at the store and I saw a bag of the 9lives in a small resealable bag and I thought to myself wait maybe Trevor was the one who liked it maybe he never stopped eating it. Now before you think to yourself god what a stupid woman remember I am dealing with the grief of loosing Jasmine it hasn’t been very long and my animals are my children. So I bought it.

    In between times I know I am skipping around my story is long and hard to tell but I pray it all comes together at the end. Everyone here understand loving their animals and the grief of seeing them sick and loosing them.

    When Trevor first started crying in the litter box I had seen Jasmine and him “playing” she was rough and kind of bit him in the hind end area. Don’t get me wrong she was a beautiful cat with a beautiful personality she just had this tiny bit of a wild streak in her and she didn’t understand but she was learning. So at first I thought she just got him there and he was scratched. Then she disappeared and enough time had passed if she had “wounded” him it would have been apparent.

    I told my momma I have to take Trevor to the vet he has to have a Urinary Tract Infection. (At this point I had done some research). Again I am not stupid I really thought at first it was from her biting him. Who wouldn’t think that?

    My momma says oh I had to take Violet to the vet she had one. She said we gave her all the antibiotics and she started to get better now it seems to be coming back we are going to call the vet about more antibiotics on Monday (It was the weekend)

    I said well that is so strange that our cats have UTI almost the same time not even thinking about the fact I had given her the food because I had given her the food several weeks prior she must have just gotten around to feeding her Violet the 9lives.

    So I still didn’t get it…

    Friday night Trevor ate from the second bag of food I got. 2 days prior he had finally stopped crying in the litter box so he was getting better. (For those of you with male cats UTI’s are more dangerous to them I have found out.) Sunday morning I was awoken to a scream from the litter box from Trevor. My eyes flew open and FINALLY my very first thought was IT IS THE FOOD.

    It was 5 am I jumped out of bed and consoled Trevor and came online the very first site I found was this one….

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/9lives_cat_food.html

    I read so many stories that connected to mine. I no longer think Jasmine was taken by someone I think she went off and died. Please go to that link and read the heart wrenching stories. They sound just like ours.

    With each story I read I realized there were other signs. I DID think something was wrong with Jasmine she was sleeping a lot but then she would get up and be all playful. I wasn’t seeing all the signs. Obviously I never dreamed that she was slowly dying.

    I emailed the company…..I am going to copy and paste their reply to me.

    Dear Kimberlee,

    Thank you for your e-mail sharing your concerns about 9Lives Dry Cat Food. Please let me assure you that we take your report very seriously and are concerned about your experience.

    We’re sorry to learn Trevor is not feeling well after eating 9Lives Dry Cat Food and Jasmine is missing. We’re glad that you’re working with your veterinarian and we’ll be sending you questionnaires and further instructions in the mail so we can review your veterinarian’s findings and gather the information necessary to evaluate your experience.

    You mentioned seeing complaints online about 9Lives products. Any product from any brand will have comments like this from time to time. We take all comments seriously and investigate any report. We are a company of pet lovers and there is nothing more important to us than the quality and safety of our products.

    In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to speak with us, our toll free number is 888-495-4837 Monday through Friday, 9:00 am until 5:00 pm Eastern Time. We look forward to hearing from you.

    SERIOUSLY?

    I sent them the above link I am posting for all of you to read there are TWENTY TWO reports in the first 3 months this year alone of massive sickness and death!

    And Big Heart Pet brands thinks they are going to smooth this over with a small apology and try to make me think seeing these reports are NORMAL? REALLY?

    While going thru that site I found this site. I am glad I am allowed to post here people need to see this!

    I wrote them a scathing reply and told them they were crazy if they thought I was just going to let this go. I am going to scream this from the roof tops. I can only read so many reviews at once it breaks my heart and I am still grieving Jasmine it hasn’t been that long.

    I need help spreading the word. Please let us not let them get away with this.

    Last night I decided to fill out their little comment thing again and I sat there and copied and pasted a BUNCH of the comments off that page. In my first contact with them I also gave them this web address of course it’s pretty obvious they didn’t bother to look.

    While I was copying a bunch of the posts to them I found another thread on that site talking about dog’s dying from their products!

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/del_monte_pet_food.html

    People please the word needs to be spread. People need to contact this company. SOMETHING needs to be done. They aren’t reading sites like this we have to contact them.

    Keep posting here as well though I encourage it totally! Post everywhere you can…any social media site. This place obviously needs to be put out of business. They only care about the money in their pockets.

    I think I mentioned earlier I can only read so much at once. I HURTS me to read these things. Probably tomorrow I will be pasting the comments about the dogs to their web contact page.

    If people start contacting them maybe something will get done.

    Thank you for listening to me….please contact them and tell them your stories. Please for the sake of us as pet parents and the pets that are getting sick and some dying.

    Kimberlee

  • Alexis

    My cat is currently on antibiotics and in order to get him to take them I have to mix them with wet cat food. I had 2 cans of “9 Lives” left over from a 4 pack that my siblings used to trap starving feral cats. (Don’t worry they took them to a shelter)

    I put the 9 Lives “beef and gravy” flavor on a saucer for my cat to try. He turned his nose up to it and gave me a look of pure disgust. My sister walked in and told me about how not even these cats who were about to die from hunger would eat this food. I looked up the reviews of this product and was absolutely ill when I saw all the terrible reviews.

  • Cindy

    I bought 9 lives canned cat food because I feed several feral cats outside. Upon opening a can of turkey and giblets, I found really bright pink to purple stuff in the middle and I’m so glad I seen this before I mixed it with the rest. I feed 5 feral cats outside and give them 6 cans of wet food and always keep meow mix original out. I took photos of the food and wrapped it up and put it in the refrigerator so I can take it back to Kroger and let them be aware of this. Please if anyone has had this problem or know what this is, please respond, I do not wish to keep feeding this food to any cat if it is going to make them ill or sick. I have 2 inside cats that will not touch this food at all. I posted a photo of this.

  • Taylor

    I just started my three cats on 9 lives dry food, and my ten year old male had a reaction to it, the entire left side of his face is completely swollen. but my two females haven’t had a reaction yet.

  • Carmen Saturno

    My mom started buying 9lives at Sam’s Club over the river because of the inexpensive price. We have two cats, and we’ve already gone through one bulk bag of the dry stuff. My male 2 1/2 y/o Norwegian Forest Cat started developing symptoms about a week ago, but we did not know the cause; he started vomiting and whatnot, however both of our cats have hairball issues so we thought it was normal. He also has a tendency to overeat – he will eat up his food very fast and he tends to go over to our female 2 y/o Tortoiseshell Maine Coon’s dish and try to eat her’s. Later on, the symptoms got worse and my mom took him to the vet. Turns out he had a urinary tract infection, calcium crystals in his bladder and bladder spasms. He was immediately put on antibiotics to get rid of the infection and if he cannot pass the crystals on his own he will need to go under the knife for surgery as soon as his infection clears. It is difficult to hold down food, he will not drink on his own and we have to force-feed him so he doesn’t starve himself. We are NOT still using 9lives for him, we are giving him a prescription food. Unfortunately we cannot afford to have an IV fluid for him. He used to cry out in pain because of the spasms but he isn’t doing that so much now. Hopefully the antibiotics are working so we can fix this soon. If it’s been affecting him for so long, its a miracle he’s still alive, but he’s still very weak.

    On the other side, our female has been eating 9lives without any symptoms at all, which begs the question as to whether this is an extreme allergic reaction. All the same, neither cat will be eating 9lives any longer as it apparently kills most cats. I’m sure my mom would love to file a lawsuit against the company, but it is not possible for us because there is a difference in country.

  • Miwa

    I bought 9 Lives canned wet food a few days ago because it was cheap.
    After about a day of being on this food, one of my cats became violently
    ill and started vomiting foam and was having clear liquid diarrhea. He
    was extremely lethargic and had a high fever and stopped eating. We had
    to rush him to the vet and he’s been there the last 3 days plugged up to
    an IV. We did not realize it was the
    food until my second cat started showing the same symptoms and I spoke
    to the vet and he said to check for a recall for their food. I didn’t
    find a recall, but I found this site (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/9lives_cat_food.html)
    and my cats are showing all the same symptoms as the numerous
    complaints listed. The wet food is called 9Lives ocean Whitefish Dinner
    exp 05-13-17. Our mounting vet bill is going to be well over $800, so
    trying to save a few dollars is costing us BIG TIME. If we didn’t bring
    them to the vet, they would both have died. I am so furious that this is
    not recalled! I strongly recommend that NO ONE buy this brand EVER

  • Deb E

    I have been feeding my 3 inside cats 9lives and I also feed it to the many ferel cats that I feed but I have been having trouble getting my babies to eat it. I find it the dry food have so much , I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels like the food has a fine crumbly feeling to it and you can see it in their bowls and you can feel it on the food. The ferel cats outside have not even been eating it, so this is bad. Gritty is the word I am looking for. I live on a fixed income, I do without to feed the cats, so I bought 9lives, but I can’t when you get this kind of quality, and this has been with all of the varieties, not just a certain one. It is like a bottom of the barrel bag. Who wants to eat that. I just opened a new bag that is awful , now I have to go buy something else, geez I can’t afford this.

  • Relena Acker

    All three of my cats enjoy the taste as they eat every bit.. but… it cause my girls to have skin issues,, itching,, pulling hair.. all three started doing this after feeding for three days.. I am going back to Iams..also developed dirrehea and vomiting,, NOT GOOD CAT FOOD !!!!

  • Zoey J.

    In the past I fed my two cats 9 Lives Daily Essentials because of the lower calorie content but I’m tired of the red dye stain on the carpeting when they happen to vomit. Now searchng for a dye-free, healthy, low-calorie (under 300 calories per cup), reasonably priced cat food. BTW, they also get canned cat food.

    • The mean people

      That is what happened to my cat are they trying to take away the nine lives from the title we should sue

      • Carmen Saturno

        Yes! I would get my mom to sue them because of our experiences with our cat but unfortunately we live north of the border and therefore cannot sue an American company.

  • gabriella

    The contents of the tinned catfood vary. Read the labels. Some varieties are excellent without any carb fillers. Unfortunately this brand is no longer available in Canada. I think it was too low cost for the pet shops to be making money on it. Either that or other manufacturers pushed them out of the market here. Or it was not advertised.

    One of my friends crosses the border to buy this for his kidney failed cats. They did very well on it.

  • Pilar Eriksen

    I bought a package of 9Lives Cat Food Plus Care Net Wt 13.3 3064TP101550, because that day the store did not have Daily Essentials.
    I almost killed my cat. It developed vomiting and diarrhea. Change the food & got better.

  • Kare

    I was feeding both my cats another canned food. Being on a fixed income, I bought 2 four packs of Ocean Whitefish Pate’ 9 lives canned food. They liked it a lot. They both got fed 1/4 of a can every morning. I thought it was because of the change, but the more days I fed them the 9 lives, the sicker they got. Parasites were negative. They had constant severe diarrhea, in which they not only filled their litter boxes in no time, but started using the carpet. I stopped the 9 lives canned food and after a week back on the previous canned food, they went back to having normal stools and went back to using just their box and not the carpet. I won’t be getting any more of the 9 lives canned food, no matter how much of a fixed income I am on. I want to save my cats from this happening again and I’d rather not be cleaning up more than my fair share of litter box issues.

  • Alexis Roo S.

    okay Im writing this to tell you that this morning I was getting my cat some of your canned cat food and he was so exited when I took the cans lid off he ran over to it and started licking it. I saw blood and it turns out that he now has a deep cut in his nose and im kind of worried.im sure that there is nothing you can do because all canned cat food have sharpish lids and I understand but I just wanted to let you know. Maybe there is something you can do to prevent cats from getting cut on the sharp lid. any ways they loovvveee the canned cat food:]

    • Rose

      Um, you need to take the wet food OUT of the can before giving it to your kitty. You wouldn’t eat food straight out of a can, so why would you make your cat? Put it in a bowl (preferably ceramic or porcelain; plastic causes kitty acne and isn’t good for anyone) and serve it to your kitty that way.

    • WTF?!

      Are you dumb? or just don’t give a crap about your cat? My mom almost cut her finger OFF by mishandling a can of cat food once. I can’t believe that anyone would be stupid or lazy enough to just put the can down for the cat to eat out of… WOW

  • Eileen

    I have three cats, but only fed 9 Lives canned food to one of my cats. He became very ill (life and death ill) and over a week after the symptoms started he still can’t walk and has no bladder control. I know it was the food because after we had taken him to the vet, he had started to recover. We started feeding him the 9 Lives again and he relapsed and it’s taking him a lot longer to recover this time. I WILL NOT be buying this food again, ever (nor Meow Mix since they’re made by the same company).

  • Asha Kumar

    Does 9 Lives canned cat food, specifically “Super Supper” contain Mono Sodium Glutamate. What salt is used?
    thank-you,
    Asha

  • sakara

    been checking sites re 9 lives for last few hours—-after my 19 year old cat got dirrehea from eating 9lives for last few days.

    I rushed out a couple hours ago to get him different food, hoping the different/better food will get rid of the 9lives he ate.

    Have about 8 cans left—will give that stuff to an outside cat, cause its still better than outside cat starving to death.+

  • C. McMahon

    I have two cats who I have recently taken off 9 lives urinart tract formula. Both developed a yellow diarrhea, and my youngstet cat began pucking like five times a day. At first I thought they had upset stomaches an that it would pass. It didn’t. I immediatly thought it was the cat food and I went and bought meow mix to test my theory. Since switching over my young cat is pucking less often and the diarrhea is slowly getting better and not quite so yellow for both of them. I have never had problems with 9 Lives before 2012, I don’t know what changed but it wasn’t good. I’m just glad I caught it before my cats developed serious health problems that I have been reading about on the internet.

    • Shane

      Meow mix and 9lives are the same company. Del monte foods.

  • Helen

    Used it on my cats and all developed vomiting & diarrhea. Checked for parasites, negative, changed cat food & all got better, will not return to that nightmare!

  • Amy

    I’ m a little worried, 3 out of 6 cats have green stool and am wondering if its the food, 9-lives has anyone had theyre cats have this issue?? Ive searched and searched and cannot find anything other then possibly bacteria ?? Doesnt make sense seeing its 3 cats that seem to have it

  • Lai-Lai

    We have raised 8 addoptees & strays in my lifetime & all of the cats have 2 things in common:

    1)they will not eat any brand’s beef flavor.

    2)they will not eat 9 Lives.

    We tried this way back before we knew about food quality, back when Fancy Feast was considered the best advertised food you could get.

    • M. Hughes

      I bought a large bag of Cat Indoor(9Lives)because it was a bit cheaper. My 3 cats leave some fod always in the bowl. With other cat foods (Friskies) they never do that. The food has old-faded colors, however it says expiration date is 2015. I will never buy 9 Lives dry cat food again. It is poor quality.

      • Ennah

        Your cat food shouldnt have colors in the first place. Any cat food that has any dye in it is not good.

More Information

9Lives Cat Food

Morris the Cat is one of the most well-known mascots for cat food. Morris represents 9Lives cat food, a brand that has been around for several decades. However, 9Lives is often called a low quality brand by many nutritional experts. Is 9Lives cat food a good choice for your cat? What are some other cat owners saying about 9Lives cat food? Learn more about 9Lives brand cat food here!

Who Makes 9Lives Cat Food?

The company who makes 9Lives cat food is called Del Monte Foods. Del Monte Foods is one of the largest manufacturing companies for pet food in the United States. They own a variety of different brand names, including Milk-Bone, Pup-Peroni, Pounce, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Meow Mix and Meaty Bone. Del Monte Foods headquarters is currently located in San Francisco, California. Aside from pet products, Del Monte Foods also produces broth, sauces, fruit cups, canned vegetables and canned fruit. The Del Monte name first appeared in 1886.

9Lives Cat Food Recall

9Lives cat food is not listed on the FDA’s pet food recall website, and has not been involved in any recent recalls. However, in order to make sure that your cat’s food is safe, it’s always highly recommended that you check the FDA’s pet food recall website. This will help you to stay updated on the latest pet food recall information.

9Lives Cat Food Ingredients

It’s interesting to note that 9Lives advertises their formulas as being able to “provide cats with the essential nutrients they lack the ability to produce naturally”. The ingredients in 9Lives cat food formulas include products such as animal digest, corn gluten meal, ground corn, poultry by-products, meat meal, bone meal, salt, BHA and artificial colors. Corn products often make up the first two ingredients of many formulas, with the only meat source often being a by-product meal.

9Lives Cat Food Allergies

The 9Lives cat food formulas seem to be primarily based around corn, which is one of the most common allergens to cause symptoms in cats. Since cats are obligate carnivores, they are not meant to eat a diet that is so high in grains. With the 9Lives formulas being so heavy on corn, this may contribute to allergies and other health problems. If your cat has a specific allergy, you should always read the ingredients of any cat food formula.

9Lives Cat Food Coupons

Sometimes, pet food manufacturing companies will offer us coupons to share on our site. Are you searching for 9Lives cat food printable coupons? We will let you know when they are available!

Please check back soon for 9Lives cat food coupons!

9Lives Cat Food Ratings

Customer reviews of 9Lives cat food are mostly negative. Many cat owners cite the fact that 9Lives is corn-heavy as their reason for giving the formulas a negative review. Also, the inclusion of chemical preservatives was something many cat owners viewed as a negative factor. In general, most people seem to view 9Lives as a low-quality, inexpensive brand that doesn’t provide any health benefits to cats.

Have you fed your cat any of the 9Lives cat food dry or canned formulas? Do you have feedback that could help other pet owners? Please share your review of 9Lives cat food!

Ingredient List*

9 Lives Cat Food Ingredient List

*for 9Lives Daily Essentials® Cat Food

9 Lives Coupons

9 Lives Coupons

More 9 Lives Coupons…

27 Responses to 9Lives Cat Food

  1. Kimber May 2, 2015 at 8:45 pm #

    I am devastated I have one dead fur baby and one sick due to 9 Lives Plus care that states on the front of the bag “Helps maintain urinary tract health”. Jasmine was my 5 year old Maine Coon my beloved fur baby from 6 weeks of age. Trevor is my 20 year old fur baby who I watched be born and he has always been VERY healthy. In 20 years he has only ever had to go to the vet ONE time for being sick. Any other vet visit was just for yearly shots. It is very hard to me to speak of Jasmine in the past tense but I have to face the fact she is gone. I actually feed them both store brand food (I am only going to speak of the past 5 years the time Jasmine was with Trevor and I) They have both been very healthy the entire 5 years. Someone I know got onto me when she found out I was feeding them a store brand and said they deserved better. I’ve been raising cats 20 + years and I have never had a problem. As a matter of fact (I must rewind and amend above comments) before Jasmine came here I bought Trevor a Name brand I wish I could remember what it was but he kept throwing up and I had to take him to the vet and the vet said the food was too rich so I went back to store brand. I am NOT going to sit here and say it was 9 lives but since I now know this company who’s name is Big Heart Pet Brands makes name brand dog food and treats as well as other name brand cat food and treats. I could have very well been 9 lives or another of their brands. In 2007 the FDA made them pull some things from the shelves. Here is a link to their contact us page so I hope everyone who comes here contacts them…you will see a space that says topics even if you choose not to contact them click on that and it will show you all the brands they make! http://www.bigheartpet.com/Contact/ContactUs.aspx

    Back to my story. I felt guilty thinking I wasn’t giving my babies the best. I adore my babies they are like my children. They devoured the food eating like it was their last meal and for one of them that eventually came about. Trevor was the first to throw up and he did it while using the litter box I never saw that happen and I am not sure how long after he started eating the food it did happen. (It took Jasmine dying my momma’s cat getting a Urinary Tract infection from the same food and Trevor getting a UTI as well and me buying the food a second time to figure out what the heck happened.)

    Trevor and Jasmine both indoor outdoor cats so I think a lot of throwing up and diarrhea was happening outside and that is why it took me so long to put everything together.

    Trevor kept going outside and eating grass and just throwing up white foam which I just figured was flem I was a bit concerned thought it was weird he was doing this at least once a day in the house.

    With in a few weeks I am not sure how long 2 1/2 or 3 the food consumption was way lower. As Trevor is a picky eater I thought to myself well maybe he decided he does not like it and I bought store brand but kept both foods out thinking Jasmine might still be eating the 9lives. I noticed that after I bought the store brand both seemed to go back to it. I guess I was too thick headed to figure out it was making them sick. But in my defense them being outdoor animals I am positive a lot of the sickness was happening outside. Jasmine was throwing up once and I came into the room and she ran like crazy thinking I was mad at her. Animals are very smart if she thought that behavior would make me mad she sure as heck would try to be outside when that happened if she could!

    I am going to interject things throughout my story. AFTER I figured out what was going on I found a website and after reading just a handful of posts it didn’t take a genius to know. I will paste the link to that website after I am finished.

    There was still a bit of food in the bag and I gave up giving it to them and decided to give it to my momma for her cats. I feel really stupid I do. I also feel like with the help of 9lives I murdered Jasmine.

    Suddenly Jasmine was just gone. She was a lover of the great outdoors and loved to roam about and being gone hours at a time was nothing to worry about…but hours turned into a day and a day into two….you get the picture. I called her and called her and called her to no avail.

    I just didn’t understand …she wasn’t dead on the side of the road so she wasn’t hit by a car. I finally decided to talk myself into “someone took her”.

    A few weeks later I was out at the store and I saw a bag of the 9lives in a small resealable bag and I thought to myself wait maybe Trevor was the one who liked it maybe he never stopped eating it. Now before you think to yourself god what a stupid woman remember I am dealing with the grief of loosing Jasmine it hasn’t been very long and my animals are my children. So I bought it.

    In between times I know I am skipping around my story is long and hard to tell but I pray it all comes together at the end. Everyone here understand loving their animals and the grief of seeing them sick and loosing them.

    When Trevor first started crying in the litter box I had seen Jasmine and him “playing” she was rough and kind of bit him in the hind end area. Don’t get me wrong she was a beautiful cat with a beautiful personality she just had this tiny bit of a wild streak in her and she didn’t understand but she was learning. So at first I thought she just got him there and he was scratched. Then she disappeared and enough time had passed if she had “wounded” him it would have been apparent.

    I told my momma I have to take Trevor to the vet he has to have a Urinary Tract Infection. (At this point I had done some research). Again I am not stupid I really thought at first it was from her biting him. Who wouldn’t think that?

    My momma says oh I had to take Violet to the vet she had one. She said we gave her all the antibiotics and she started to get better now it seems to be coming back we are going to call the vet about more antibiotics on Monday (It was the weekend)

    I said well that is so strange that our cats have UTI almost the same time not even thinking about the fact I had given her the food because I had given her the food several weeks prior she must have just gotten around to feeding her Violet the 9lives.

    So I still didn’t get it…

    Friday night Trevor ate from the second bag of food I got. 2 days prior he had finally stopped crying in the litter box so he was getting better. (For those of you with male cats UTI’s are more dangerous to them I have found out.) Sunday morning I was awoken to a scream from the litter box from Trevor. My eyes flew open and FINALLY my very first thought was IT IS THE FOOD.

    It was 5 am I jumped out of bed and consoled Trevor and came online the very first site I found was this one….

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/9lives_cat_food.html

    I read so many stories that connected to mine. I no longer think Jasmine was taken by someone I think she went off and died. Please go to that link and read the heart wrenching stories. They sound just like ours.

    With each story I read I realized there were other signs. I DID think something was wrong with Jasmine she was sleeping a lot but then she would get up and be all playful. I wasn’t seeing all the signs. Obviously I never dreamed that she was slowly dying.

    I emailed the company…..I am going to copy and paste their reply to me.

    Dear Kimberlee,

    Thank you for your e-mail sharing your concerns about 9Lives Dry Cat Food. Please let me assure you that we take your report very seriously and are concerned about your experience.

    We’re sorry to learn Trevor is not feeling well after eating 9Lives Dry Cat Food and Jasmine is missing. We’re glad that you’re working with your veterinarian and we’ll be sending you questionnaires and further instructions in the mail so we can review your veterinarian’s findings and gather the information necessary to evaluate your experience.

    You mentioned seeing complaints online about 9Lives products. Any product from any brand will have comments like this from time to time. We take all comments seriously and investigate any report. We are a company of pet lovers and there is nothing more important to us than the quality and safety of our products.

    In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to speak with us, our toll free number is 888-495-4837 Monday through Friday, 9:00 am until 5:00 pm Eastern Time. We look forward to hearing from you.

    SERIOUSLY?

    I sent them the above link I am posting for all of you to read there are TWENTY TWO reports in the first 3 months this year alone of massive sickness and death!

    And Big Heart Pet brands thinks they are going to smooth this over with a small apology and try to make me think seeing these reports are NORMAL? REALLY?

    While going thru that site I found this site. I am glad I am allowed to post here people need to see this!

    I wrote them a scathing reply and told them they were crazy if they thought I was just going to let this go. I am going to scream this from the roof tops. I can only read so many reviews at once it breaks my heart and I am still grieving Jasmine it hasn’t been that long.

    I need help spreading the word. Please let us not let them get away with this.

    Last night I decided to fill out their little comment thing again and I sat there and copied and pasted a BUNCH of the comments off that page. In my first contact with them I also gave them this web address of course it’s pretty obvious they didn’t bother to look.

    While I was copying a bunch of the posts to them I found another thread on that site talking about dog’s dying from their products!

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/del_monte_pet_food.html

    People please the word needs to be spread. People need to contact this company. SOMETHING needs to be done. They aren’t reading sites like this we have to contact them.

    Keep posting here as well though I encourage it totally! Post everywhere you can…any social media site. This place obviously needs to be put out of business. They only care about the money in their pockets.

    I think I mentioned earlier I can only read so much at once. I HURTS me to read these things. Probably tomorrow I will be pasting the comments about the dogs to their web contact page.

    If people start contacting them maybe something will get done.

    Thank you for listening to me….please contact them and tell them your stories. Please for the sake of us as pet parents and the pets that are getting sick and some dying.

    Kimberlee

  2. Alexis April 1, 2015 at 12:50 pm #

    My cat is currently on antibiotics and in order to get him to take them I have to mix them with wet cat food. I had 2 cans of “9 Lives” left over from a 4 pack that my siblings used to trap starving feral cats. (Don’t worry they took them to a shelter)

    I put the 9 Lives “beef and gravy” flavor on a saucer for my cat to try. He turned his nose up to it and gave me a look of pure disgust. My sister walked in and told me about how not even these cats who were about to die from hunger would eat this food. I looked up the reviews of this product and was absolutely ill when I saw all the terrible reviews.

  3. Cindy March 17, 2015 at 3:44 pm #

    I bought 9 lives canned cat food because I feed several feral cats outside. Upon opening a can of turkey and giblets, I found really bright pink to purple stuff in the middle and I’m so glad I seen this before I mixed it with the rest. I feed 5 feral cats outside and give them 6 cans of wet food and always keep meow mix original out. I took photos of the food and wrapped it up and put it in the refrigerator so I can take it back to Kroger and let them be aware of this. Please if anyone has had this problem or know what this is, please respond, I do not wish to keep feeding this food to any cat if it is going to make them ill or sick. I have 2 inside cats that will not touch this food at all. I posted a photo of this.

  4. Taylor January 31, 2015 at 1:37 pm #

    I just started my three cats on 9 lives dry food, and my ten year old male had a reaction to it, the entire left side of his face is completely swollen. but my two females haven’t had a reaction yet.

  5. Carmen Saturno January 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm #

    My mom started buying 9lives at Sam’s Club over the river because of the inexpensive price. We have two cats, and we’ve already gone through one bulk bag of the dry stuff. My male 2 1/2 y/o Norwegian Forest Cat started developing symptoms about a week ago, but we did not know the cause; he started vomiting and whatnot, however both of our cats have hairball issues so we thought it was normal. He also has a tendency to overeat – he will eat up his food very fast and he tends to go over to our female 2 y/o Tortoiseshell Maine Coon’s dish and try to eat her’s. Later on, the symptoms got worse and my mom took him to the vet. Turns out he had a urinary tract infection, calcium crystals in his bladder and bladder spasms. He was immediately put on antibiotics to get rid of the infection and if he cannot pass the crystals on his own he will need to go under the knife for surgery as soon as his infection clears. It is difficult to hold down food, he will not drink on his own and we have to force-feed him so he doesn’t starve himself. We are NOT still using 9lives for him, we are giving him a prescription food. Unfortunately we cannot afford to have an IV fluid for him. He used to cry out in pain because of the spasms but he isn’t doing that so much now. Hopefully the antibiotics are working so we can fix this soon. If it’s been affecting him for so long, its a miracle he’s still alive, but he’s still very weak.

    On the other side, our female has been eating 9lives without any symptoms at all, which begs the question as to whether this is an extreme allergic reaction. All the same, neither cat will be eating 9lives any longer as it apparently kills most cats. I’m sure my mom would love to file a lawsuit against the company, but it is not possible for us because there is a difference in country.

  6. Miwa September 30, 2014 at 11:02 am #

    I bought 9 Lives canned wet food a few days ago because it was cheap.
    After about a day of being on this food, one of my cats became violently
    ill and started vomiting foam and was having clear liquid diarrhea. He
    was extremely lethargic and had a high fever and stopped eating. We had
    to rush him to the vet and he’s been there the last 3 days plugged up to
    an IV. We did not realize it was the
    food until my second cat started showing the same symptoms and I spoke
    to the vet and he said to check for a recall for their food. I didn’t
    find a recall, but I found this site (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/9lives_cat_food.html)
    and my cats are showing all the same symptoms as the numerous
    complaints listed. The wet food is called 9Lives ocean Whitefish Dinner
    exp 05-13-17. Our mounting vet bill is going to be well over $800, so
    trying to save a few dollars is costing us BIG TIME. If we didn’t bring
    them to the vet, they would both have died. I am so furious that this is
    not recalled! I strongly recommend that NO ONE buy this brand EVER

  7. Deb E May 25, 2014 at 1:36 pm #

    I have been feeding my 3 inside cats 9lives and I also feed it to the many ferel cats that I feed but I have been having trouble getting my babies to eat it. I find it the dry food have so much , I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels like the food has a fine crumbly feeling to it and you can see it in their bowls and you can feel it on the food. The ferel cats outside have not even been eating it, so this is bad. Gritty is the word I am looking for. I live on a fixed income, I do without to feed the cats, so I bought 9lives, but I can’t when you get this kind of quality, and this has been with all of the varieties, not just a certain one. It is like a bottom of the barrel bag. Who wants to eat that. I just opened a new bag that is awful , now I have to go buy something else, geez I can’t afford this.

  8. Relena Acker May 19, 2014 at 10:44 am #

    All three of my cats enjoy the taste as they eat every bit.. but… it cause my girls to have skin issues,, itching,, pulling hair.. all three started doing this after feeding for three days.. I am going back to Iams..also developed dirrehea and vomiting,, NOT GOOD CAT FOOD !!!!

  9. Zoey J. September 12, 2013 at 11:27 am #

    In the past I fed my two cats 9 Lives Daily Essentials because of the lower calorie content but I’m tired of the red dye stain on the carpeting when they happen to vomit. Now searchng for a dye-free, healthy, low-calorie (under 300 calories per cup), reasonably priced cat food. BTW, they also get canned cat food.

    • The mean people June 13, 2014 at 7:04 pm #

      That is what happened to my cat are they trying to take away the nine lives from the title we should sue

      • Carmen Saturno January 22, 2015 at 6:47 pm #

        Yes! I would get my mom to sue them because of our experiences with our cat but unfortunately we live north of the border and therefore cannot sue an American company.

  10. gabriella August 25, 2013 at 11:17 pm #

    The contents of the tinned catfood vary. Read the labels. Some varieties are excellent without any carb fillers. Unfortunately this brand is no longer available in Canada. I think it was too low cost for the pet shops to be making money on it. Either that or other manufacturers pushed them out of the market here. Or it was not advertised.

    One of my friends crosses the border to buy this for his kidney failed cats. They did very well on it.

  11. Pilar Eriksen August 4, 2013 at 9:33 am #

    I bought a package of 9Lives Cat Food Plus Care Net Wt 13.3 3064TP101550, because that day the store did not have Daily Essentials.
    I almost killed my cat. It developed vomiting and diarrhea. Change the food & got better.

  12. Kare June 19, 2013 at 8:22 am #

    I was feeding both my cats another canned food. Being on a fixed income, I bought 2 four packs of Ocean Whitefish Pate’ 9 lives canned food. They liked it a lot. They both got fed 1/4 of a can every morning. I thought it was because of the change, but the more days I fed them the 9 lives, the sicker they got. Parasites were negative. They had constant severe diarrhea, in which they not only filled their litter boxes in no time, but started using the carpet. I stopped the 9 lives canned food and after a week back on the previous canned food, they went back to having normal stools and went back to using just their box and not the carpet. I won’t be getting any more of the 9 lives canned food, no matter how much of a fixed income I am on. I want to save my cats from this happening again and I’d rather not be cleaning up more than my fair share of litter box issues.

  13. Alexis Roo S. March 26, 2013 at 11:02 pm #

    okay Im writing this to tell you that this morning I was getting my cat some of your canned cat food and he was so exited when I took the cans lid off he ran over to it and started licking it. I saw blood and it turns out that he now has a deep cut in his nose and im kind of worried.im sure that there is nothing you can do because all canned cat food have sharpish lids and I understand but I just wanted to let you know. Maybe there is something you can do to prevent cats from getting cut on the sharp lid. any ways they loovvveee the canned cat food:]

    • Rose May 14, 2013 at 9:47 pm #

      Um, you need to take the wet food OUT of the can before giving it to your kitty. You wouldn’t eat food straight out of a can, so why would you make your cat? Put it in a bowl (preferably ceramic or porcelain; plastic causes kitty acne and isn’t good for anyone) and serve it to your kitty that way.

    • WTF?! October 30, 2013 at 8:07 pm #

      Are you dumb? or just don’t give a crap about your cat? My mom almost cut her finger OFF by mishandling a can of cat food once. I can’t believe that anyone would be stupid or lazy enough to just put the can down for the cat to eat out of… WOW

  14. Eileen March 5, 2013 at 1:14 pm #

    I have three cats, but only fed 9 Lives canned food to one of my cats. He became very ill (life and death ill) and over a week after the symptoms started he still can’t walk and has no bladder control. I know it was the food because after we had taken him to the vet, he had started to recover. We started feeding him the 9 Lives again and he relapsed and it’s taking him a lot longer to recover this time. I WILL NOT be buying this food again, ever (nor Meow Mix since they’re made by the same company).

  15. Asha Kumar February 7, 2013 at 8:46 pm #

    Does 9 Lives canned cat food, specifically “Super Supper” contain Mono Sodium Glutamate. What salt is used?
    thank-you,
    Asha

  16. sakara November 19, 2012 at 9:32 pm #

    been checking sites re 9 lives for last few hours—-after my 19 year old cat got dirrehea from eating 9lives for last few days.

    I rushed out a couple hours ago to get him different food, hoping the different/better food will get rid of the 9lives he ate.

    Have about 8 cans left—will give that stuff to an outside cat, cause its still better than outside cat starving to death.+

  17. C. McMahon April 3, 2012 at 7:46 am #

    I have two cats who I have recently taken off 9 lives urinart tract formula. Both developed a yellow diarrhea, and my youngstet cat began pucking like five times a day. At first I thought they had upset stomaches an that it would pass. It didn’t. I immediatly thought it was the cat food and I went and bought meow mix to test my theory. Since switching over my young cat is pucking less often and the diarrhea is slowly getting better and not quite so yellow for both of them. I have never had problems with 9 Lives before 2012, I don’t know what changed but it wasn’t good. I’m just glad I caught it before my cats developed serious health problems that I have been reading about on the internet.

    • Shane July 31, 2014 at 8:48 pm #

      Meow mix and 9lives are the same company. Del monte foods.

  18. Helen March 14, 2012 at 11:40 am #

    Used it on my cats and all developed vomiting & diarrhea. Checked for parasites, negative, changed cat food & all got better, will not return to that nightmare!

  19. Amy August 30, 2011 at 11:46 pm #

    I’ m a little worried, 3 out of 6 cats have green stool and am wondering if its the food, 9-lives has anyone had theyre cats have this issue?? Ive searched and searched and cannot find anything other then possibly bacteria ?? Doesnt make sense seeing its 3 cats that seem to have it

  20. Lai-Lai August 16, 2011 at 8:47 am #

    We have raised 8 addoptees & strays in my lifetime & all of the cats have 2 things in common:

    1)they will not eat any brand’s beef flavor.

    2)they will not eat 9 Lives.

    We tried this way back before we knew about food quality, back when Fancy Feast was considered the best advertised food you could get.

    • M. Hughes December 6, 2013 at 2:57 pm #

      I bought a large bag of Cat Indoor(9Lives)because it was a bit cheaper. My 3 cats leave some fod always in the bowl. With other cat foods (Friskies) they never do that. The food has old-faded colors, however it says expiration date is 2015. I will never buy 9 Lives dry cat food again. It is poor quality.

      • Ennah July 14, 2014 at 10:18 pm #

        Your cat food shouldnt have colors in the first place. Any cat food that has any dye in it is not good.