i need your dry food ratings!

I think my cats need to eat a better quality dry food. Their coats look raggy and lack shine, and theyre eating the food i'm currently feeding them like mad, which probably means they arent getting enough nutrition from it. I've been giving them Authority brand dry food (hairball formula). They eat mainly dry, and get wet only once a day, one cat doesnt' eat wet alot, she'll only touch it a few times a week. I'm feeding them Merricks wet now.

Sooo, i need youre opinions on the best dry foods out there. Theyre some new brands Petsmart is carrying: by Nature and something else, if anyone has any good/bad info please share. Thanks.

I feed my cats California Natural Chicken & Rice.
Its a very good food, one meat to one grain (kitties don't need too many grains).

How old are your kitties?

The males= Flaco:3 yrs (around)
Taylor: 1 1/2.
Female= Molly will be 2 in august

hi, back when my kitties were babies, I fed them Nutromax kitten. But with the food recalls, that has made things more challenging. I think Nutro foods was on the list of recalls, so I can't recommend it to you without you doing the research on it.

Make sure they don't' have worms or fleas too, as that can affect appetite and coat. And brush out the shedding hair if they'll let you.

oh my! I guess it's late and my brain is tired. I didn't notice your cats are grown.

excuse me...I feed Tigger and Cricket Maxximum from Walmart, the sensitive stomach formula. Sometimes I mix in Purina One. Dry only.

and they are beautiful if I do say so myself. Pics are on the fur page.

All are worm and flea free. I wish they would let me brush them, the oldest loves it, the youngest just tries to play with the brush, and the female won't tolerate brushing at all. Ill have some free time now so i was actually planning on working on getting themt o like brushing. I just really want them to eat well.

I know what you mean. I obssessed over cat food with the recall and things. My dh actually got frustrated with me cause I worried more about what the cats ate than what we did. I'm unbalanced like that sometimes.

there are a lot of people on this site that know LOTS about foods, ingredients and such. One member, I think it's Sharky, is like a professor about it. You'll probably get tons of responses.

sorry I can't be more helpful.

The best food is one your cats do best on. I would try something like:

Felidae
Natura Pet foods
Eagle Pack
Wellness

That's all I can think of right now. I do not know what is avaliable locally, either. You can try Nutro/Nutro MAX cat, too. But, I think it's similar to Authority, so I'd go for one of the ones I listed above. HTH!

With the brushing problem - if your girl will let you pet her with no problems, maybe you can try some of those gloves that are made to pull off extra hair. I picked up a pair for my boys to try and get some of the worst of the shedding off, and they work alright - not great, but better than nothing if she won't let you brush her. They weren't too expensive either, maybe 5 or 6 bucks at Petsmart.

Authority is good ...
AT THIS PT MOST foods have had a recall so I am not noting that

Natural choice would be a step up without being grainy ...

Blue spa is a good , grainy but good

By nature is good but also a bit grainy ...

Cal natural is a good food

chicken soup is great for the $$ about the authority price

We are feeding Royal Canin Special 33 or Beauty & Fit (right now its the B&F) - no problems, coats nice and healthy/shiney.

They get the dry in the morning, canned at nite (Friskies).

We just started feeding TimberWolf a little over 2 weeks ago. And Ping's fur is so shiny smooth and soft. I was (still am) completely surprised at the coat difference in just the two weeks he has been on this food. Plus no stinky bathroom visits with him. So thats me vote.

I like the Cal Natural Chicken and Rice, and I've started mixing in some Orijen. I plan to stick with a mixture of the two.

I also like California Natural.

Right now I am feeding California Chicken and Rice and Wellness Chicken and Rice. They both have really nice coats and they are shedding a lot less than they did at this time last year.

my guys are on Wellness Indoor and Nutro Natural Senior. i'm not going to continue the wellness when i run out. the kibbles are too small, and 2 of my cats have gotten the kibbles stuck in their teeth. one i thought was choking (he's actually choked on hill's c/d before, so it's definitely a concern).

i fed Natural Balance Ultra dry for a month too. my cats had really nice coats on that food. i think the nutro is giving them just as nice of a coat, though.

i also feed 3 wet meals (usually friskies or fancy feast, but a few other brands too).

California Naturals, Timberwolf Organics.

My kitties LOVE Eagle Pack, the only one I could get one of my kittens to eat!

well it'll probably depend on the cats, since with my trio their is only one food all will agree upon

anyhow, i use Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Indoor this is available at petsmart and this is the food all 3 of mine will eat, probably partly because this was the food the breeder used as well, so this was the "raised on" food

Next is California naturals, my oldest 2 enjoy this food, my youngest won't touch it

finally, orijen which is a grain free food, my youngest nibbles at it now & then as well as my 2+yo female, my oldest male[2yrs this Aug] completely hates it and refuses to touch it

I also have success with wellness indoor with my males but my female liked the CN better.

They also get wet in the morning and evening, i am just using proplan though since our nutro wet was recalled, despite my best efforts to try other brands this is the only food they willingly eat so i go with it.

Good luck!!

I am in the process of switching over to Orijen.

In the leadup to this...really in the last 2+ months since the first recalls...one of the recurring comments I heard was that the cats will eat much less (volume) of a "better quality" food than of "standard" brands.

After the first week of simply sprinkling some of the Orijen throughout their Iams dry, I am shocked at the difference I'm seeing. Five cats, previously going through 2 bowls of Iams a day....now down to (+/-) 1 1/4. I don't think I'm using even 10% Orijen at this point.

This tells me that, what I also heard about a net zero cost differential, will probably not only turn out to be correct but, that I'll probably actually save $$$$$$$ !!