When I lived in Fairfield, Iowa from 2006-2008, I had two options of veterinarians to bring my cat Simon to, and I chose the holistic one, only partly because he was closer to where I lived.  Simon had had a lot of trouble with bladder crystals living in the Twin Cities, and I knew it was from the processed food, and I wanted some help choosing something less processed.

Dr. Bill Pollack is a character.  He's lived in Fairfield long enough to raise two kids to adulthood, but he still has a strong New York accent (Brooklyn?) and the no-bullshit attitude to go with it.  Try to pussyfoot around him with Midwestern tact, and he will cut straight to the point.  On Simon's first visit, he told me in no uncertain terms that I would be doing Simon a grave disservice if I didn't allow him to go outside (which I had never allowed in the Twin Cities) and feed him a diet of raw meat.

Specifically, Dr. Pollack recommended bulk ground turkey, which could be obtained from the larger grocery store's meat counter in 1-pound tubes, frozen by the dozen in boxes.  Bought by the box this way, the turkey was cheaper than canned cat food and smelled much, much less offensive.  A single tube would last Simon about six days.  I was also supposed to feed him organ meat, but I didn't have a lot of luck with this.

I should have taken a photo of the tubes of meat, because they said, "GROUND TURKEY with flavor not found in ordinary ground turkey."  There was no indication of what caused the mysterious extra flavor, and I never worked up the nerve to try it myself, but Simon loved it.  He was happier and healthier on that diet than he had been before or has been since.

When Simon and I moved to Emporia, Kansas to live with Jessie and her cat Warren, I went looking for bulk ground turkey and couldn't find anything but Tyson's Honeysuckle White brand, which is not cheap, and Simon turned up his nose at it.  Apparently without the extra flavor it just wasn't worth eating!  So he's been on Science Diet ever since.

I was thinking of this today because I gave Simon the schmalz left over from cooking some ground turkey, and he loved it.  The turkey had been cooked with "poultry seasoning."  Maybe that's the mystery flavor?