Ugh, even the best canned foods don't seem ideal!

anjhest

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
287
Purraise
1
Location
Augusta, Georgia
Soooo as you know, I've switched my cats to wet food. Minka & Leo are still half dry/half wet, but Taxi has completely switched (as we already ran out of his dry food).

Currently I'm not sticking to one brand in particular, but rather am feeding them a combination of Authority, Blue Buffalo and Nutro Natural Choice. I am trying to avoid anything with fish, as Taxi has a propensity towards UTIs.

However, it seems that even when following the food guidelines in this forum (avoiding certain ingredients, making sure the top 5 meet certain criteria), even the high-end wet foods don't hold up 100%.

A couple of examples:

Nutro Natural Choice Chicken & Turkey Platter:
1st ingredient is Chicken Broth
5th ingredient is Dried Egg Product
6th ingredient is Rice Gluten

Blue Wilderness Turkey
3rd ingredient is Potatoes
4th ingredient is Guar Gum

Is there any wet food that actually meets the standards frequently mentioned in this forum? And how much do I really need to worry that Rice Gluten is the 6th ingredient listed in Nutro Natural Choice Chicken & Turkey?
 

artgecko

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
768
Purraise
3
Location
Georgia
What about the EVO 95% meat line and the "by nature" 95% meat line?

Here's a link to EVO and By nature.

I'd be feeding my cats only the EVO / By Nature canned if I could get them to really like it. Unfortunately they prefer their "junk food" canned friskies.

Art
 

ut0pia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
5,120
Purraise
34
What about wellness? I'm planning on getting that soon...I also plan to try avoderm- they have plenty of it in petsmart, although i'm sure it's not as good as wellness...I wish I knew more about feeding, but I pretty much just make sure there aren't any by products and that the first few ingredients are meats...you also have to look at carb/protein/fat percentages I think...so even if it has grain that is within the first few ingredients, if it's protein content is high it isn't bad. That's why royal canin is considered good, even though it has grain, right?
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
anjhest;2583310 said:
Soooo as you know, I've switched my cats to wet food. Minka & Leo are still half dry/half wet, but Taxi has completely switched (as we already ran out of his dry food).

Currently I'm not sticking to one brand in particular, but rather am feeding them a combination of Authority, Blue Buffalo and Nutro Natural Choice. I am trying to avoid anything with fish, as Taxi has a propensity towards UTIs.

However, it seems that even when following the food guidelines in this forum (avoiding certain ingredients, making sure the top 5 meet certain criteria), even the high-end wet foods don't hold up 100%.

A couple of examples:

Nutro Natural Choice Chicken & Turkey Platter:
1st ingredient is Chicken Broth( the wet food is in fact 75% 85% water or broth so it has to be this way or it would be dry food
)
5th ingredient is Dried Egg Product( Excellent protein source the only one that is 100% digestible and also a " meat product if you wish"
6th ingredient is Rice Gluten- grain protein , not great but better than IMHO a whole grain

Blue Wilderness Turkey
3rd ingredient is Potatoes- starch , not great but not bad either
4th ingredient is Guar Gum- this is a gel aid to keep the food together

..........

I aim for NO grains or starches in the first five or six ingredient s ... at least the first three HAVE to be broth and meats

Everyone has an opinion on what a wet food should read but the 5 meat is a guideline not a standard
 

northernglow

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
2,061
Purraise
34
Location
Finland
Animonda Carny has several flavors and they only contain different kinds of meat and minerals. Example the 'Beef pure': "meat and animal by-products, 100% beef, minerals", and 'Turkey+Rabbit': "meat and animal by-products, 85% beef, 10% turkey and 5% rabbit, minerals".

My cats love it.
 

jack31

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
1,819
Purraise
15
Location
Cincinnati, OH
You're title is exactly why I'm switching to raw. Having complete control of the boys food intake is much more to my satisfaction and theirs!

Leslie
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Originally Posted by Jack31

You're title is exactly why I'm switching to raw. Having complete control of the boys food intake is much more to my satisfaction and theirs!

Leslie
Truthfully you have a bit more control but unless you are raising the food not nearly as much as one thinks
 

jack31

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
1,819
Purraise
15
Location
Cincinnati, OH
true--but still more control then depending on commercial companies to provide for my cats nutrition. In my opinion they're failing.

Leslie
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
Originally Posted by Jack31

You're title is exactly why I'm switching to raw. Having complete control of the boys food intake is much more to my satisfaction and theirs!
Leslie
Me too! Although two of mine aren't as "satisified" as the other two!
 

kai bengals

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
3,931
Purraise
17
Location
North Carolina
I've found the "By Nature" products to be a big hit with the bengals who aren't that happy on the raw diet.
Ingredient list is pretty good.
Very expensive compared to everything else though.
Available at most Petsmart stores.
 

auntie crazy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
2,435
Purraise
60
Originally Posted by mschauer

Originally Posted by Jack31

You're title is exactly why I'm switching to raw. Having complete control of the boys food intake is much more to my satisfaction and theirs!

Leslie
Me too! Although two of mine aren't as "satisified" as the other two!
Ditto. And there is a lot more control when feeding this kind of diet. I decide what kind of meats to feed, what condition those meats are in, and how "enhanced" (or not - hormone and antibiotic-free chickens, etc. are readily available) those meats are, not to mention completely eliminating all the grains, fish, fruits, vegetables, preservatives, supplements, flavor enhancers, etc. that come packaged with commercially prepared foods.

Before I switched to raw, I fed several different canned flavors including Evo 95%, Natures Variety Instinct, Wellness Core, Wellness Chicken, Wellness Beef and Chicken, Wellness Turkey, and By Nature Organics - all grain-free foods.

These are the foods I would recommend as being the next best thing to a cat's natural diet. There has been a marked increased in my cat's energy levels since I switched to raw, so they are not as nutritious as I originally believed them to be, but they're grain-free and, mostly, fish- and vegetable-free, so if feeding a natural diet isn't something you can do right now, these brands would be my recommendations.
 

akane

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
8
Purraise
0
Location
iowa
Well those really aren't anywhere near the "best" canned foods yet. More like top mid grade which is why you'll still find some ingredients you don't like and not as much meat. Try natura pet canned foods. That would include the evo which I use in addition to raw. Nothing but meat. Some of the merrick foods aren't bad. Although they generally only make 3-4 meat ingredients in the top of the list but the list is short. There's only about 12 ingredients before the vitamins so 4 meat ingredients is 1/3rd of the list with there being more of those ingredients than the rest. Some of the avoderm canned foods might meet your requirements too. Both brands do have the occasional grain item in the list though.

If you just want everything I'd put above nutro then there's evangers, felidae has a canned food, evolve, fromm, pinnacle, solid gold... Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Heck I'd even put natural balance above nutro. The ingredients in the grean pea and venison NB are "Venison, Venison Broth, Venison Liver, Pea Flour, Venison Meal, Salmon Oil". After that it's all vitamins so I'd say the meat content is pretty high despite only 3 meats and a broth. Nutro is pretty darn low on my list and Blue Buffalo only a little higher so to me you haven't even touched the good canned food yet.
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Originally Posted by Akane

Well those really aren't anywhere near the "best" canned foods yet. More like top mid grade which is why you'll still find some ingredients you don't like and not as much meat. Try natura pet canned foods. That would include the evo which I use in addition to raw. Nothing but meat. Some of the merrick foods aren't bad. Although they generally only make 3-4 meat ingredients in the top of the list but the list is short. There's only about 12 ingredients before the vitamins so 4 meat ingredients is 1/3rd of the list with there being more of those ingredients than the rest. Some of the avoderm canned foods might meet your requirements too. Both brands do have the occasional grain item in the list though.

If you just want everything I'd put above nutro then there's evangers, felidae has a canned food, evolve, fromm, pinnacle, solid gold... Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Heck I'd even put natural balance above nutro. The ingredients in the grean pea and venison NB are "Venison, Venison Broth, Venison Liver, Pea Flour, Venison Meal, Salmon Oil". After that it's all vitamins so I'd say the meat content is pretty high despite only 3 meats and a broth. Nutro is pretty darn low on my list and Blue Buffalo only a little higher so to me you haven't even touched the good canned food yet.
pea flour is starchier than rice
.. thus = more carbs than either of the other two mentioned
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #15

anjhest

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
287
Purraise
1
Location
Augusta, Georgia
I stopped by Petco this afternoon and they carry Wellness and Natural Balance. The Wellness wet food seems to be the best of everything I've found so far, so I purchased a lot of those cans. A couple of the Natural Balance cans seemed okay.

Right now I'm serving my cats about 5 different brands. Although there are some undesirable ingredients in a few of the brands, it still beats the heck out of feeding them Science Diet dry food every day like I've been doing.
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Originally Posted by anjhest

I stopped by Petco this afternoon and they carry Wellness and Natural Balance. The Wellness wet food seems to be the best of everything I've found so far, so I purchased a lot of those cans. A couple of the Natural Balance cans seemed okay.

Right now I'm serving my cats about 5 different brands. Although there are some undesirable ingredients in a few of the brands, it still beats the heck out of feeding them Science Diet dry food every day like I've been doing.
Improvement is great ... no food is perfect
_
 
Top