Hello there; long-time lurker, first-time poster.
Over the past few months, I've done an insane amount of reading about cat food, and am basically going crazy at this point. Between my cats' issues and the various "rules" about what to avoid, etc. it's been extremely difficult to find a canned food I'm happy with.
That said, for now we've settled on the Wellness grain-free and CORE lines. My cats like them, I can afford them, and they generally meet the criteria I'm looking for. However, I know it's important to have a rotation going and/or try different brands so the cats don't get hooked on a single one. This is where my problem lies... there are blessed few other cat foods out there that make both me and my cats happy. I'd also like to add that while I know raw will probably be suggested, and I'd consider it in the future, I don't really want to go down that road yet (and my husband still needs to warn up to the idea as well).
We have two 3-year-old cats, a brother and sister (Ray and Luna). Luna is super easy when it comes to food... she will basically eat whatever I give her. Ray is my problem child - he is picky about flavors, and he's also extremely picky about texture. He's a "licker," in that he doesn't seem to know how to pick up wet food and actually chew it - he just licks and licks until the food's mostly gone (I had a previous cat like this as well). Because of this, he can only eat pate (I've tried stuff that's shredded/minced/in gelee... he licks at it a little and then peers up at me in frustration because he can't figure out how to eat it). It's all very weird because in the past he's eaten kibble and crunched/chomped on it just fine. He just has issues with wet. Anyway...
So keeping the pate restriction in mind, I also narrow choices down based on these criteria:
- high protein
- grain-free
- low-carb
- no fish
I have had decent success with Instinct (particularly the rabbit flavor), though I was hoping to find an option that isn't $2.50+ a can (Wellness is about $2 here for a 5.5 oz can). I give the Instinct as an occasional thing.
Here are the brands I've considered and why they didn't work out:
- Addiction: This is the only food that Ray will just sniff and walk away from. He really doesn't like it for some reason.
- Authority: Has rice, and also has fish even in the non-fish flavors.
- Evo: Possibility, but due to the numerous recalls, nobody seems to carry it anymore. I haven't been able to get a can to try it.
- Fancy Feast: I was actually considering this because it keeps to the basic restrictions above and most folks seem to say it's a decent budget choice. However, I noticed how much phosphorus is in this food (even non-fish flavors) and it kind of freaked me out - see below.**
- Go!: Ray nibbled this a bit (chicken/turkey/duck), but he wasn't really a fan.
- Halo: Their chicken pate is probably the most successful of anything I've listed. He'll eat most of it, but he doesn't love it.
- Hounds & Gatos: I would have to get this online - it seems like this is in shreds and not pate, is that correct?
- Merrick: I've fed their Purrfect Bistro a bit in the past, but then I read that this new formula is apparently really high in carbs.
- Weruva/Cats in the Kitchen/Tiki Cat/Soulistic: Promising, but no pate texture. I tried all of these brands and Ray had problems eating them.
** To add to my worries, there's the issue of phosphorus. Everyone says it's bad - that it's one of the reasons you don't want to feed fish regularly, and that it causes UTIs. Most foods seem to fall within a similar range, but I was looking at Fancy Feast, and holy moly, it has a ton of phosphorus compared to the other brands. According to the catinfo.org chart, Fancy Feast classic chopped grill (no fish) has 569 mg/100 kcals. That's actually more than some of the fish flavors, but they all range around 500-800 mg. That's compared to say, Wellness chicken at 219.
Apologies for the long post, but in the end, these are my questions:
1. Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent canned pate that I haven't tried? What would be the lesser of two evils - low-carb with some grain, or higher-carb but no grain?
2. To everyone that mentions Fancy Feast as a decent budget choice - is the phosphorus enough to worry about? Why is non-fish Fancy Feast better than other foods that may have fish but way less phosphorus?
Thanks. As you can probably tell, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this; just trying to come up with a reasonable solution.
Over the past few months, I've done an insane amount of reading about cat food, and am basically going crazy at this point. Between my cats' issues and the various "rules" about what to avoid, etc. it's been extremely difficult to find a canned food I'm happy with.
That said, for now we've settled on the Wellness grain-free and CORE lines. My cats like them, I can afford them, and they generally meet the criteria I'm looking for. However, I know it's important to have a rotation going and/or try different brands so the cats don't get hooked on a single one. This is where my problem lies... there are blessed few other cat foods out there that make both me and my cats happy. I'd also like to add that while I know raw will probably be suggested, and I'd consider it in the future, I don't really want to go down that road yet (and my husband still needs to warn up to the idea as well).
We have two 3-year-old cats, a brother and sister (Ray and Luna). Luna is super easy when it comes to food... she will basically eat whatever I give her. Ray is my problem child - he is picky about flavors, and he's also extremely picky about texture. He's a "licker," in that he doesn't seem to know how to pick up wet food and actually chew it - he just licks and licks until the food's mostly gone (I had a previous cat like this as well). Because of this, he can only eat pate (I've tried stuff that's shredded/minced/in gelee... he licks at it a little and then peers up at me in frustration because he can't figure out how to eat it). It's all very weird because in the past he's eaten kibble and crunched/chomped on it just fine. He just has issues with wet. Anyway...
So keeping the pate restriction in mind, I also narrow choices down based on these criteria:
- high protein
- grain-free
- low-carb
- no fish
I have had decent success with Instinct (particularly the rabbit flavor), though I was hoping to find an option that isn't $2.50+ a can (Wellness is about $2 here for a 5.5 oz can). I give the Instinct as an occasional thing.
Here are the brands I've considered and why they didn't work out:
- Addiction: This is the only food that Ray will just sniff and walk away from. He really doesn't like it for some reason.
- Authority: Has rice, and also has fish even in the non-fish flavors.
- Evo: Possibility, but due to the numerous recalls, nobody seems to carry it anymore. I haven't been able to get a can to try it.
- Fancy Feast: I was actually considering this because it keeps to the basic restrictions above and most folks seem to say it's a decent budget choice. However, I noticed how much phosphorus is in this food (even non-fish flavors) and it kind of freaked me out - see below.**
- Go!: Ray nibbled this a bit (chicken/turkey/duck), but he wasn't really a fan.
- Halo: Their chicken pate is probably the most successful of anything I've listed. He'll eat most of it, but he doesn't love it.
- Hounds & Gatos: I would have to get this online - it seems like this is in shreds and not pate, is that correct?
- Merrick: I've fed their Purrfect Bistro a bit in the past, but then I read that this new formula is apparently really high in carbs.
- Weruva/Cats in the Kitchen/Tiki Cat/Soulistic: Promising, but no pate texture. I tried all of these brands and Ray had problems eating them.
** To add to my worries, there's the issue of phosphorus. Everyone says it's bad - that it's one of the reasons you don't want to feed fish regularly, and that it causes UTIs. Most foods seem to fall within a similar range, but I was looking at Fancy Feast, and holy moly, it has a ton of phosphorus compared to the other brands. According to the catinfo.org chart, Fancy Feast classic chopped grill (no fish) has 569 mg/100 kcals. That's actually more than some of the fish flavors, but they all range around 500-800 mg. That's compared to say, Wellness chicken at 219.
Apologies for the long post, but in the end, these are my questions:
1. Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent canned pate that I haven't tried? What would be the lesser of two evils - low-carb with some grain, or higher-carb but no grain?
2. To everyone that mentions Fancy Feast as a decent budget choice - is the phosphorus enough to worry about? Why is non-fish Fancy Feast better than other foods that may have fish but way less phosphorus?
Thanks. As you can probably tell, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this; just trying to come up with a reasonable solution.