will I ever find the perfect cat food?

Well, before we moved in March Raven and Jack were both eating Nutro Natural Choice Indoor Kitten. They both had problems with throwing up. First Raven, then Jack, and Jack would throw up every meal! I tried the not indoor formula and same results.
Once we moved we hit a little financial trouble (that is what happens when you move across the state with no job lined up first). But I REFUSE to give up the cats so I have made adjustments to their food and litter. I went from scoopable to clay (which is cheaper) and switched off the Nutro to Whiskas kitten. Now I know that Whiskas is corn based and thus not the best choice, but I knew that Raven had had that as a tiny kitten and really liked it, they both ate it well and Jack completely stopped throwing up.
Could the Nutro have been to rich for him?
Anyway, I felt so guilty buying food that I know has corn as a main ingredient and thus not good for cats that I have since bought Purina One Kitten.
Jack still is no longer throwing up but Raven is again, I am not sure that it is the food but think she may struggle with hairballs. She is short-medium haired but very sleek.
I need a food I can afford but that I know will be better for them. You see so many commercials for the newer natural choice or healthy balance or all that in cat foods.
I wish that they could go back to a 1 meal a day wet but I really can't afford that.
Anyway, any ideas? Raven will be 1 in August and Jack will be 1 in October.

When Kitty was a kitten she had the worst gas EVER! We thought maybe it must be the food, and tried several different brands (Nutro, SD, Iams) and nothing helped. When she trurned 1yr old recently, I started her on SD indoor adult and the gas has totally stopped

My point is that they may just have sensitive kitten tummys, and IMO kitten food, while a neccesity because of vitamins and such, has a higher fat content that isn't as easy to digest.

I know SD isn't the best food, so I'm going to try the Royal brand soon. Or, chicken soup for the cats soul is supposed to be good, but I can't find it yet. If your looking for cheaper food, just the other day in the pet store I looked at I think Whiskas Natural or something that, and the list of ingredients is surprisingly good. Not alot of fillers hopefully. Good luck

thank you. That makes sense. I do wish I had the budget for an all wet diet, or even half wet, but I don't. I love the beasts though.

If Natural choice is too rich I would avoid the multiple grain and multiple meat brands like chicken soup...

Have you tried something like pea and duck???

This isn't about food but if you want to save even more on litter (then maybe you can buy better food) you should try pine wood stove pellets. It is just like Feline Pine, smells nice, you can scoop poo out and the pee just stays behind and turns to sawdust, AND it cost $6 for a 40lb bag which lasts FOREVER.

Just FYI. If your cats will use it, its a huge money saver.

Shasha was throwing up alot last summer. I feed her Purina One sensitive systems, and she's alot better. It's not the best food , but it works for her. I buy a 7lb bag for about 8.00 dollars. I too had to cut down on cat food expense, but still feed two 3 oz. cans of wet per day to my boy cats because it's so much better for them. Shasha won't eat wet ,so she dosen't get can food. I cut down expenses on other things like eating out.

BTW my kitties use to throw up when they ate Nutro Natural Choice, too.

Silly ?? ... does the vommiter eat fast ?? swallow over chew( most cats swallow I have a rare chewer

Originally Posted by sharky

Silly ?? ... does the vommiter eat fast ?? swallow over chew( most cats swallow I have a rare chewer

Click to expand...

was this ? to me?
Jack tends to eat faster than Raven does. They have seperate bowls. Jack would throw up immediately after eating while Raven would throw up at any time, usually not (seemingly) related to a meal and I have found hairballs in it.

Originally Posted by mom2raven

was this ? to me?
Jack tends to eat faster than Raven does. They have seperate bowls. Jack would throw up immediately after eating while Raven would throw up at any time, usually not (seemingly) related to a meal and I have found hairballs in it.

Click to expand...

You could try elevating the bowls too. That might help. Even just on a phone book, or something about that height, can help. I have very tall (and older) cats, so we went to small dog sized feeders like this.

We had to "downgrade" our dry cat food to find something that agreed with our cats. For dry I'm feeding Iams Healthy Naturals with Chicken.