Dry Food VS Wet Food

Originally Posted by yiplong

Note: I am not sure where you got your ingredient list, but Purina One's ingredients for adult formula is as the follows:

Purina One
Corn gluten meal, ground yellow corn, chicken, brewers rice, wheat flour,

which is much less quality than Iams.

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i won't buy the adult formula - as i stated, when pressed, i buy kitten formula, & those were the ingredients i posted.
here, Iams is approx. $15 for a 4 pound bag... the Purina is about 1/2 as much.

Originally Posted by littleraven7726

That's how my cats are too. One will eat super high quality if it agrees with him (he has issues with foods with lots of meat sources) the other recently decided he won't even eat Nutro Max.

Iams Healthy Naturals have been a nice compromise.

To All:
Not sure what formulas you are looking at, but Iams has plenty WITHOUT cellulose. I know because one of my cats CAN'T digest it so we don't buy any food with it in.

Iams Original with Chicken:
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Sodium Bisulfate, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Brewers Dried Yeast, Choline Chloride, Vitamins [Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid], Calcium Carbonate, Minerals [Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate], Salt, Rosemary Extract.


Iams Healthy Naturals with Natural Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Brewer Rice, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Sodium Bisulfate, Potassium Chloride, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Animal Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), DL-Methionine, Dried Apple Pomace, Dried Carrots, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Peas, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Folic Acid), Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Dried Spinach, Dried Tomato, Minerals (Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), Rosemary Extract.

The most expensive "best" food ever doesn't do a bit of good if kitty won't eat it. And I have one who won't.

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very true! i just copied the ingredients for the one i can find at the supermarket.

Iams does not have any GLUTENS. IMO that puts them above all grocery store brands.

I think that wet food is an important part of a cat's diet. Any wet food is better than none at all, I think.

My cat Chloe will not touch any of the higher quality wet foods I have given her (Wellness, Merrick, etc.). She kind of eats Chicken Soup, Nutro Max & Nutro Natural cans, licks the gravy from Nutro Max pouches. She also kind of likes Solid Gold Blended Tuna, but I try to avoid too much fish in her diet.

So far I know that she loves Science Diet pouches, Fancy Feast, and tomorrow I am going to try giving her Iams canned (I like the ingredients of Iams more than the Science Diet pouch, but I don't like that Iams does animal testing, so if she ends up liking it I will have to think about it). As far as ingredients go in grocery store brands, I like Iams. Meow Mix too. She eats a pretty good dry food now (Nutro) but am switching her to a better one as soon as I run out, so I don't feel so bad about having her wet food be less-than-ideal. A wet food with great ingredients does no good if your cat won't eat it.

I would try some of the lesser quality wet foods with the cats you have that won't eat wet. For some reason they seem to be more appealing (there's a reason Fancy Feast is called Kitty Crack....hehe).

Another thing to think about is possibly buying a water fountain if you don't already have one. My cats drink lots more water from the fountain than they ever did before I bought it. It's a good way to increase water consumption, which is especially important for cats who only eat dry food.

i have 15 cats to feed they all eat purina cat chow and 9 lives or friskies can food.. and they still love to eat mice and birds chipmunks and rabbits thats my happy cats..

Originally Posted by ms cat love

i have 15 cats to feed

they all eat purina cat chow and 9 lives or friskies can food.. and they still love to eat mice and birds chipmunks and rabbits

thats my happy cats..

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That's a whole lot of cats.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I've never heard of a cat that turned down shredded boiled chicken breast!

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Then you've never met Punkin! He won't eat it.

My Dante doesn't seem very interested in shredded chicken breast either - just comes over because Dharma gets so excited whenever I boil/microwave chicken breasts. I suspect Dante never got people food in his prior life, because he's never really begged for any - Dharma, however, is a different story.

I don't know how Punkin survived. I wonder what his previous owners fed him. He won't eat ANYTHING that people eat.

OP: Have you tried the Blue spa cans? Nanuk loves the turkey and chicken ones, and I love that you can see the carrots and broccoli in the food.
Canned cat food usually smells so gross to me that i want to gag, but the blue spa doesnt bug me.

I just skimmed this thread looking but didn't see anything about Sheba. Is that not good food?

My guys are pretty flexible so far. I keep a bowl of SD full all the time and they eat it. But twice a day i give them wet. Neither like canned, so it has to be pouch etc. I bought two cases of Nutro max kitten (they only make one flavor) and I bought two cases of sheba (the blue ones with tuna).

One thing I've found is that cat farts are MUCH stronger and more frequent if eating the sheba food. But I'm curious since I'm not seeing it mentioned if maybe it's not that good. It's more expensive but in my eyes the difference in cost is nominal so I don't mind paying for better food. However, if I could be getting even better food I'd like to try that.

I don't like giving them sheba more than once every few days because it's not kitten food and I know they need the added nutrients. But if it's not good for them I could use a recommendation on what's the best pouch type food.

Originally Posted by fastnoc

I just skimmed this thread looking but didn't see anything about Sheba. Is that not good food?

My guys are pretty flexible so far. I keep a bowl of SD full all the time and they eat it. But twice a day i give them wet. Neither like canned, so it has to be pouch etc. I bought two cases of Nutro max kitten (they only make one flavor) and I bought two cases of sheba (the blue ones with tuna).

One thing I've found is that cat farts are MUCH stronger and more frequent if eating the sheba food. But I'm curious since I'm not seeing it mentioned if maybe it's not that good. It's more expensive but in my eyes the difference in cost is nominal so I don't mind paying for better food. However, if I could be getting even better food I'd like to try that.

I don't like giving them sheba more than once every few days because it's not kitten food and I know they need the added nutrients. But if it's not good for them I could use a recommendation on what's the best pouch type food.

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SHeba is by product filled and IMHO not a good food

Sheba is designed to appeal to humans, not to be healthy and nutritious for cats!

Ahhh the old, "Dry vs Wet" debate! I offer a little of both. However, Maxx will only eat the dry (pretty much). He'll lick the wet once or twice and then turn his nose up at it. Go figure!

Sheba does not use by-products, according to their labels. However, they do say that it is intended for intermittant or supplemental feeding only. It offers pieces of meat, but not too much else to balance off the diet.

Please note - Sheba has two lines - I refer to the Sheba Premium Cuts
http://www.sheba.com/home.asp

Yeah it was the premium i'm pretty sure. It was like 1.15 per can.

I've given up and went back to nutro max pouches though. after about a day they were just fine eating that again.

they've also started really liking the science diet dry kitten food! well they like the wet better but they are eating dry now too. I also got some nutro max dry and they won't even touch it. I put both dry foods next to each other. they ate all the SD and none of the nutro max!

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Most of my rexes were dry food eaters (only the kits had canned for awhile) and they were mid to older teens when they passed on. If you want to feed canned that's fine - but don't worry about the ones that don't want it. Maybe they will sample it in time.

I've never heard of a cat that turned down shredded boiled chicken breast!

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My Livy and Bender won't even touch chicken! Weird LOL

Originally Posted by Sakura

Another thing to think about is possibly buying a water fountain if you don't already have one. My cats drink lots more water from the fountain than they ever did before I bought it. It's a good way to increase water consumption, which is especially important for cats who only eat dry food.

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I always want to buy water fountain, but that's too pricey. I'll have to save money! Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by Petstorejunkie

OP: Have you tried the Blue spa cans? Nanuk loves the turkey and chicken ones, and I love that you can see the carrots and broccoli in the food.
Canned cat food usually smells so gross to me that i want to gag, but the blue spa doesnt bug me.

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I should try that one! I use Blue spa dry food... wet food hmm ok!

Thanks everyone for the advices!!! I TRULY appreciate it!!!!

Originally Posted by asntp

Please note - Sheba has two lines - I refer to the Sheba Premium Cuts
http://www.sheba.com/home.asp

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those are fine for NOT Everyday feeding... or as a topper for dry or another less yummy wet ...I have used them but find them $$$ compared to even the top premium...

I bought some sturgeon caviar for my cat and he absolutely loves it.