Here I was thinking I was giving my cat a great food, but just because it looks like it has good ingredients, doesn't mean it's right for your cat. A year ago, I changed my cat's diet to Instinct because she was having problems with her thyroid. Her kidney numbers were all within normal range. While she lost weight on this food, a year later when I got her blood work done again, her kidney numbers were far outside of the normal range. The vet said that Instinct is too high in protein for a cat who is considered to be senior [she's 11]. This can wreak havoc on the kidneys. From my own research, one of the major ingredients in this food [dicalcium phosphate] can also cause kidney problems.I'm giving this two stars because I do think part of the responsibility needs to fall on the company. They should not be putting harmful ingredients in their cat food that could potentially cause serious health issues and they should also have warnings that a high protein diet may not be right for senior cats. It can give them kidney and heart problems. Better yet, create a blend that IS right for senior cats and what they need.

My 2 year old cat loves this product.

My cats have sensitive tummies and this seems to be the only food (out of the ones I've tried) that don't irritate their digestion. My cats don't love pate so I wish they made this food in other consistencies.

I recently inherited a cat whose diet consisted of dry food only. Having read that wet food might be better for her I wanted to start transitioning her into eating wet food, at least for one of her meals. I decided on the Instinct Grain-Free Chicken Canned Cat Food by Nature's Variety because she was already eating the Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost Grain-Free Chicken Meal Formula Dry Cat Food, and I thought that it would make for an easier adjustment.I began by replacing one portion of her dry food with the wet food and she took to it immediately. My main concern was whether or not she would have any stomach issues switching over to wet food, but she had no such problems and really enjoys it, so much so that she has seemingly stopped eating her dry food in anticipation for the wet and will now only eat the dry when she realizes she's not getting the canned food until later.The product is packaged well (you receive two 12 pack cases stacked on top of each other) and the price on Amazon is comparable to what you'd find in the Pet Stores. So far I haven't noticed the issue of quality consistency from can to can as others have mentioned, but will update this review if I come across it.The only thing that I didn't like about this product (and in the Nature's Variety products in general) is that I don't believe they put the Nutrition information on the packaging. I was trying to determine how much wet food would be adequate to replace for the dry and needed the calorie information. This is only a minor issue though as I was able to find the Nutritional information on their website. For any one else who might need the information, it seemed like the wet and dry food had a similar caloric exchange.

EDIT 3: After running out of cans, I ran to my local Petco. Once again, NV caused my cat to vomit, albeit I gave them one final chance and figured there may have been some soap left over from washing his plate. After testing my theory with a paper plate and getting the same result, I've finally given up on this brand. The numerous times I've had my kitty get sick from bad batches has made me lose my trust in this brand, especially since they rarely ever recall food despite numerous people complaining on amazon. I fed him tuna after the last 2 NV cans made him sick, low and behold he didn't vomit! Poor thing was starving. I've temporarily switched him to Wellness striped chicken and he hasn't thrown up.I advise anyone looking to buy this brand to look elsewhere. The company never replied to complaints on amazon right up until recently when numerous 1 star reviews started appearing. I still have the 2 empty sealed cans they packaged. One would assume numerous bad batches would imply amazon doesn't keep these properly stored, but if Petco is having bad batches too I am to assume either this brand has an ingredient that causes a reaction, or QC is slipping at NV which is very likely. Sayonara Nature's Variety, it was lit.EDIT 2: Got another empty can in my orders, this is starting to get ridiculous. Quality check is slipping at NV, you can't ask NV for compensation from their mistakes as they'll tell you to ask for a refund/replacement from your vendor. Yeah, because Amazon is seriously going to give you your money back for 1-3 empty cans or send an entire order to replace the rouge cans. Very disappointing customer service at NV, they happily send out free samples but no replacement for obvious factory duds? I paid for 24 cans not 22.EDIT: As of September and October I can no longer rate Instinct 4 stars, it's dropped to one.Being a faithful customer to Natures Variety since 2011 I've seen the inconsistencies between batches. I've seen cans come full, others quite full of gravy but moderate amounts of meat, to atrociously dented cans while the food remained intact and healthy. Whenever my little guy would eat instinct regardless of the flavor he would gobble it up. If he ever were to throw up it was his own fault for not taking it so slow. Not this time. I received packages from amazon, after my mailman lost my package once then delivered it to the wrong address, and one package had 2 rouge cans in one batch of 3 oz case of 24 chicken. One can had no label and the other was hollow! They actually delivered me a can that had no food in it but was sealed! By no means is this Amazons fault, both these batches were sealed by the factory. The other batch, a best by date of June 03,2018 had gone bad.The entire 24 cases were gray colored instead of the usual pink/brown you'd see. It had a bit of a pâté consistency. Absolutely no gravy whatsoever, and when trying to cut it up for my little guy it felt like the meat had gone bad at the factory before shipping. A very spongy texture. My cat ate a bit and had a reaction to it. He wouldn't stop licking his face and started to throw up. I figured it might have just been that one can but opening another one revealed the same thing. He refuses to eat them and would rather starve than eat that specific batch. I still had some cans from a previous shipment left over and he would happily eat those, they contain the old style of gravy/meat. I'm not sure if NV changed the formula or if this is a bad batch, but I'm willing to bet my money its a bad batch. I've sent a complaint to NV and encourage anyone else with bad batches to complain as well.Very good quality canned food. I had purchased this 3 years ago when I adopted a severely underweight kitten. This helped him recover to a healthy weight and he can't get enough of this food! The gravy may be inconsistent from batch to batch but overall should be there. The only thing I'm wondering is what caused Nature's Variety to increase the price. To the more exotic flavors I could understand but there's no shortage of beef nor chicken. Why the jumps in prices? The limited ingredients versions would be understandable but not this one. In their defense it hasn't increased exponentially to my knowledge lately, is it a union thing?