Narrowing down the best of the best

Hi everyone -- thanks to everyone for such a wonderful site.

A brief history -- A couple weeks ago, we encountered an abandoned stray kitten at our office complex. I'm happy to report that he's being spoiled rotten and is getting more love and attention than he knows what to do with.

The lucky thing for him is that the office complex he happened to stumble upon is full of research scientists. With hundreds of kitty food products on the shelves, what ensued was discussion and considerable research over the last couple weeks as to exactly what was in the kitty food we were feeding him and just which kitty foods were nutritionally the best for the cat.

Omitting the raw diet due to feasibility constraints here at the office, we came up with a list of three dry foods which we deem to be nutritionally the best.

In no particular order --

1. Innova EVO

2. Orijen Cat & Kitten

3. Fromms Surf & Turf

Beyond concluding that either of these three offer the best overall nutrition for our kitty, we have thus far been unable to narrow it down to a singular best food. Neither of the above three seem overwhelmingly better than the others. We started him on Innova EVO and plan to try each of the three as the kitty food supply is exhausted.

So for those of you who have used or are currently using any of those three foods, and omitting price because we know they are all expensive, I'd like to discuss the pros and cons of each that you have come up with over time.

Awesome! This little guy knew where to go. Welcome to the forum.

I have used Orijen in the past. When I added California Natural Chicken and Rice, my 7 cats started picking out the Calif Nat to eat and leaving Orijen.

I like to feed the grain free and tried Taste of the Wild. All liked this one so that is one that I use regularly.

I am trying Acana next to see how they like it. (made by same company as Orjien) I like to rotate dry and canned foods/brands.

EVO is one I have not tried. From what I have read here, some do well on it and for others not.

Fromms Surf & Turf is fish based and if you happened to have a cat inclined to get kidney/urinary issues, avoiding fish based foods becomes important.

With your experience you already know to switch dry foods very slowly to avoid any digestive problems.

I look forward to more about your new kitten and his food.

Originally Posted by Skimble

Fromms Surf & Turf is fish based and if you happened to have a cat inclined to get kidney/urinary issues, avoiding fish based foods becomes important.

Click to expand...

That's a great point. Nutritionally, Fromms is a very good food but a previous cat I had for 17 years had the occasional bout of urinary crystals which caused him all sorts of problems. Not something I'd be too interested in a repeat performance of.

We are still unsure about the long-term effects of the higher levels of proteins in these foods. Excess protein being known to cause kidney/renal problems.

Of course, a common field mouse is 40% protein and 50% fat so it follows that a diet that closely mimics those numbers would be safe for kitty.

I've learned that there are a lot of tradeoffs with pet food.

Why not feed them all?

I feed a mixture of foods, which I mix in a big bin. 1/4th of one kind, 1/4 of another, and 2/4 of the last.

This way your cat gets the benefits of each food, without becoming totally spoiled on one specific food.... (personally, the fish one I would use as 1/4... and probally EVO for the 2/4)

Nice choices!!!
I have been feeding Orijen for a while, and now I am adding Acana to it, as a second protein source. I used Orijen Cat first, but my cat Bugsy has allergies to Chicken, so I changed to Orijen 6-Fish. As far as dry food, IMO there is nothing better than Orijen.... Recently I started to add Acana Grasslands to their diet, mixing 50/50 - as others have said, Acana is made by the same co. as Orijen. This is the mixture I will be keeping here, unless Orijen runs out of 6-Fish(can be seasonal), then I will feed Acana only.
Orijen is really a wonderful food; I trust them completely.

What does the kitten like? around here none of mine will touch grain free so they made the choice

I also like the suggestion of multi brand/type mixing i do this myself... good luck!