When making decisions about how to feed a pet, the marketing and branding of a food product can confuse choices about what is really best for each animal.
Even well-known brands can have unintended reactions if an aspect of their formulation doesn’t agree with their constitution, as one Target customer said she learned from purchasing Kindfull wet cat food by store.
In a video posted on TikTok, content creator Emma Pardy (@eepardy on TikTok) said her cats were urinating blood and vomiting after eating it once.
“This is a PSA that if you have a cat right now, don’t buy them Target brand Kindfull wet food,” he said in the video. “Yeah, I’ll put the name of the cat food on the blast, I don’t give a sh*t, don’t buy them. I just dropped my cat off at the vet because he was urinating blood. My brother’s cat vomits after eating it and I have never experienced that with their food before.”
She said she specifically chose the Kindfull variety of food for her cats because she was drawn to the label, which said it was made for indoor cats, without carrageenan, which is a thickening agent associated with the colon. cancer, and is made with “real” chicken that the TikToker says she doesn’t believe is actually chicken. Before feeding her cats Kindfull wet food, she says she never had any issues with her cats eating any kind of food, and that was the only change he made in their diet.
Wet food isn’t part of their regular diet either, she says, because they’re on a consistent diet of dry cat food from Costco. Kindfull food is for a special occasion, he says, and cats only eat it once.
“My cat will be OK,” she said. “He only urinated blood twice, so we caught him early. Urinary blockage is also more deadly in male cats, so if you have a male cat, especially do not feed them this brand, but if you try a new brand, always pay attention to their reaction to it because your time is limited if they have urinary obstruction.”
@eepardy Addressing comments: This video is no hate AT ALL towards wet food, this is purely to call out KINDFULL because it hurts my cats as well as MANY other people’s cats. There is a clear connection. This caused one cat to vomit and the other to urinate blood. And FYI, there are no blockages. His dry food/pumpkin diet is fine for him (me a my vet knows my cat better than you!). Ive done my research before, Billie used to be on a wet food diet, we like wet food! Again, I never said wet food is bad so idk why yall are up in arms in the comments. I just talked about their diet to show that they were on the same diet that they hadn’t had issues, and when I added this ONE new thing, the issues started happening right away. I have tried many other brands of wet food and this is the ONLY one that has caused issues for my cats. And please do your research because the same exact thing happened to other people’s cats after eating Kindfull. My cat went viral a few days ago and I have a lot of cat lovers on my page now, so all I want to do is spread the word about the poor quality of this brand. #greenscreen #cats #catsoftikt #catlover #cattok #petsoftikt #catfood ♬ original sound – Emma Pardy
The Daily Dot reached Emma via a comment on the video as well as a TikTok direct message, and Target via email about the video.
In a follow-up video, Emma revealed that her cat made it home safely from the vet, and is recovering from the experience with the help of painkillers.
The audience weighs in
Some viewers have shared that they have had mixed levels of success feeding their own pet food from the Kindfull brand.
“My cats HATEEDDDDDD the nice cats and they will eat anything,” wrote one commenter.
“But my cat has been eating dry whole food for 3 years and has been fine,” said another. “I fear.”
“Okay. But dry food has changed my cats for the better,” said one user. “There is no issue. I hope it’s just wet food.”
Others have suggested that the issues her cats have experienced may be from their dry food diet, which can contribute to urinary tract issues if not supplemented with additional moisture and vitamins. However, the poster says that she regularly adds pumpkin puree to her cats’ dry food to add moisture and vitamins back into their diet.
“On a separate note, UTs are more common in cats that only eat dry food so it’s really important to include moisture in their diet,” wrote one commenter.
“Please find wet food suitable for them,” advised another. “I know this experience is scary but the tiki cat is amazing! Cats need extra hydration and protein.”
“I’m not a vet but I had a similar sitch – my cat was given a ‘special’ can of wet food,” wrote one commenter. “He usually has wet food but all I did was get a different brand and that was enough to get a UTI. My take is that it wasn’t the brand of food that necessarily caused the UTI, it was the sudden change in her usual consumption. They have sensitive systems and I don’t think they can have ‘fun’ random treats like we do.”
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Brooke Sjoberg
Brooke Sjoberg is a freelance writer for the Daily Dot. He graduated with his Bachelors in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020.
