A third UK pet food manufacturer has released an insect-based cat food this year. Yora has been making insect-based dog food for a little while but the cat food was taking a while to materialise. I contacted them about it over a year ago now and they told me they were working on it. I guess it’s harder to create a non-meat food for cats than dogs since cats are obligate carnivores while dogs are omnivores.
Victoria did the taste test yesterday and I took a video of her. I sound ridiculous – like someone from Sesame Street or Play School – but the kids tell me I always sound like this when I talk to the cat.
I managed to get Ben to try one of them. As he was crunching away and screwing up his face he asked me what type of insect is in it.
“The larvae of the black soldier fly”, I replied.
“Great, so I’ve just eaten maggots then.”
You can read all the reasons for why insect protein is a smart choice on the Yora website – benefits. Here’s a chart on the environmental benefits which alone is very persuasive. Insect farming uses less land, produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and uses far less water to produce the same amount of protein.
rachel.blog 
Victoria is such a sweet little girl! I read somewhere that it’s instinctive of humans to talk to babies and small animals in a high-pitched “twee” voice. Supposedly, babies hear high-pitched sounds better and learn to respond to their parents’ voices, especially their mothers’, much quicker when spoken to in that manner. And yes! I talk to my cat that way as well, and I have what some call a “tenor” voice, one that registers in the lower scales. I don’t recall if I spoke to my own children like that, but I definitely use it with cats.
As an entomophobe, I don’t think I will be using insect-based cat food anytime soon, however. I had a traumatic experience with wasps, then grasshoppers, when I was a child. While I’ve learned to live with bugs in mostly peace in the garden, I still have to fight feelings of fear and disgust when I see a spider or similar creature in the house. My younger daughter chides me for swatting them with a slipper—she catches them and carries outside!—but I’ve told her that “If they’re in the garden where they belong, great, but if they’re going to crawl around my bedroom where I sleep, NO!”
Ah that must be why I sound like a moron then š I’m glad there’s a reason for it. She is a cutie.
Lots of people find the idea of eating insects icky. Have you ever eaten prawns though? They’re not so dissimilar to insects. I’ve heard them described as cockroaches of the ocean. Lots of people will eat prawns but not grasshoppers. Why? They both have exoskeletons and antennae and spindly, crunchy limbs. That said I think it’s better just to eat plants and personally would never eat insects.
I don’t like prawns either, lol. My mother served them for dinner an awful lot (emphasis on awful) because, I guess, they were often on sale at the store and because my father liked them. I would eat them if they were thoroughly cleaned, no shells, legs or head, and they had to be tempura-fried: but as I get older I’d really prefer not to eat any seafood at all. My doctor is always pushing me to ‘eat more protein,’ so I will occasionally break down and have a piece of grilled salmon or trout. But no sea bugs for me these days!
When I was very little, I woke up in my bed where I was taking a nap and saw a huge grasshopper (actually a locust, though I didn’t know that at the time) sitting right next to my head. When I moved, it leaped right into my eye and scratched it. The image of those big beady eyes, beak-like jaws and long jointed legs still sticks with me; it took me a long time to get over that, even when I saw tiny grasshoppers and crickets in the fields. When I visited France as a young adult and saw roasted locusts at a street stall, my stomach did a backflip. I realize it’s cultural as well, but two-year-old me still doesn’t like bugs, and she’s not one to forgive!
Why is your doctor pushing you to eat more protein? I’m always wary of high protein diets since they’re not very good for us. Doctor Gregor has lots of videos about it. This is as good one https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-great-protein-fiasco/
The doctor says I need protein to maintain muscle tone and cell growth, especially since I still lift weights, bicycle and walk a great deal. I told him I eat a lot of tofu and legumes, but he’s convinced it’s not enough. I should add he’s from Taiwan, where culturally meat and fish are considered necessary to a healthy diet, plus it’s a sign of prosperity. Only Buddhist monks and “poor people” were completely vegan. (My parents were of this opinion too, though they also considered themselves good Buddhists, lol.) This is changing, though, at least among younger people. Vegan restaurants are becoming more popular in the urban parts of East Asia.
I’m glad Victoria likes this. I guess it was worth all the research and development – my experience is that cats seem to respond better to more nutritious food. They seem to be better evolved than humans in that respect.
Yes, it’s interesting how cats have no interest in chocolate or cake or anything unhealthy like that. When we had dogs we could never leave food out but Victoria has no interest in any of our food. The only thing I’ve seen her lick is coconut oil š