When making decisions about how to feed a pet, the marketing and branding of a food product can muddle choices about what will truly be best for each animal.
Even well-regarded brands can have unintended reactions if an aspect of their formulation disagrees with their constitution, as one Target customer says she found out from purchasing the store’s Kindfull wet cat food.
In a video posted to TikTok, content creator Emma Pardy (@eepardy on TikTok) says her cats were peeing blood and throwing up after eating it one time.
“This is a PSA that if you have a cat right now, do not buy them Target brand Kindfull wet food,” she says in the video. “Yes, I’m going to put the name of the cat food on blast, I don’t give a sh*t, do not buy them that. I just dropped my cat off at the vet because she is peeing blood. My sister’s cat is throwing up after eating it and I’ve never experienced that with them eating food before.”
She says she chose the specific variety of Kindfull food for her cats because she was drawn in by the label, which claimed to be formulated for indoor cats, free of carrageenan, which is a thickening agent linked to colon cancer, and made with “real” chicken that the TikToker says she does not believe is actually chicken. Prior to feeding her cats the Kindfull wet food, she says she never had any issues with her cats eating any sort of food, and that it was the only change she had made in their diet.
The wet food was also not part of their regular diet, she says, as they were on a consistent diet of dry cat food from Costco. The Kindfull food was for a special occasion, she said, and the cats only ate it the one time.
“My cat’s going to be OK,” she says. “She only peed blood twice, so we caught it early. It’s also a lot more fatal in male cats to have urinary blockages, so if you have a male cat, especially don’t feed them this brand, but if you do try a new brand always pay attention to how they react to it because your time is limited if they do have a urinary blockage.”
@eepardy Addressing comments: This video is no hate AT ALL towards wet food, this is purely to call out KINDFULL because it hurt my cats as well as MANY other people’s cats. There is a clear connection. It caused one cat to throw up instantly and the other cat to pee blood. And FYI, there were no blockages. Her dry food/pumpkin diet are doing just fine for her (me a my vet know my cat better than you!). Ive done my research before, Billie has been on a wet food diet before, we like wet food! Again, I never said wet food is bad so idk why yall are up in arms in the comments. I only talked about their diet purely to show that theyve been on a consistent diet that they have never had issues with, and right when I added in this ONE new thing, issues started happening immediately. Ive tried multiple other wet food brands and this is the ONLY one that caused issues for my cats. And please do your research because the same exact thing has happened to other people’s cats after eating Kindfull. My cat went viral a couple days ago and I have a lot of cat lovers on my page right now, so all I wanted to do was spread the message about the poor quality of this brand. #greenscreen #cats #catsoftiktok #catlover #cattok #petsoftiktok #catfood ♬ original sound – Emma Pardy
The Daily Dot has reached out to Emma via comment on the video as well as TikTok direct message, and to Target via email regarding the video.
In a follow-up video, Emma shows her cat has returned home safely from the vet, and was recovering from the experience with the assistance of painkillers.
Viewers weigh in
Some viewers shared that they had mixed levels of success feeding their own pets food from the Kindfull brand.
“My cats HATEEDDDDDD the kindful cat treats and they eat anything,” one commenter wrote.
“But my cat has been eating the dry kind full food for like 3 years and has been fine,” another said. “I’m scared.”
“Okay. But the dry food changed my cats for the better,” a user said. “No issues at all. Hopefully it’s just the wet food.”
Others suggested that the issues her cats experienced could 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 she regularly adds pumpkin puree to her cats’ dry food to add the moisture and vitamins back into their diet.
“On a separate note UTs are way more common in cats that only eat dry food so it’s really important to incorporate the moisture into their diet,” one commenter wrote.
“Please find a wet food that works for them,” another advised. “i know this experience was scary but tiki cat is amazing! cats need the extra hydration and protein.”
“I’m not a vet but I had a similar sitch – got my cat a ‘special’ can of wet food,” a commenter wrote. “He usually has wet food but all I did was get a different brand and that was enough to cause a UTI. My take away was that it wasn’t the brand of food necessarily that caused the UTI, it was the sudden shift in his usual consumption. They have sensitive systems and I guess can’t have ‘fun’ random treats like us.”
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