Dry food input

So I've just switched...actually it's been a while now, anyway, I switched from Chicken Soup Adult Light because two of my boys were having urinary issues. Now Chester is on a prescription diet and I put the other boys on Purina One Urinary Tract Health, just for peace of mind. The CS had 8% fiber (quite high) and their poo was very regular and big and healthy looking. The PO has 2% fiber and their poo was irregular, super tiny and super dry. So I've just picked up a bag of Iams Indoor weight and hairball control, with 6.5% fiber. I hate feeding Iams but I need something that's affordable and that I can find easily (I'm moving soon and need to be able to run into a walmart if I need cat food). I looked at Solid Gold, but fish was high up on the ingredient list and I'm trying to stay away from the fishier foods. The fish meal in Iams is number 8 on the ingred. list. I'm thinking maybe Felidae once I get settled and find a new pet store, but I need to stay under about $30 for about 20 pounds. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Do you have a Costco near?>

Diamond has a few different formulas( around here about 23$ for 16-20lbs)

Did you read purina naturals label?

I don't really like Purina or Diamond but I'll look into the Purina naturals

Costco makes some of the best dry food under the Kirkland label, and it is only $15.47 for 25 lbs.! My cats love it!!!

You can find a lot of decent foods for that price. I pay less than that for all the foods I use....I mix 4 different dry foods: Taste of the Wild (about $25 for 15 #), Chicken Soup (adult formula....$22.89 for 18 pounds), Diamond Naturals Active Cat ($18-something for 18 pounds), and Purina Naturals ($15.99 for 15 pounds). Of course for those prices you need to find a good feed store, not the big-box pet stores (except I get the Purina Naturals at Petsmart....they're the only ones who sell the big bag).

Of course all those brands are made by Diamond or Purina....LOL. But my cats have done well on the mixture. The CostCo food is also made by Diamond, and I think it's the same formula as the DN Active Cat. My cats didn't do well on Solid Gold or Felidae...but all cats are different.

You can usually get what I feed my cat Chester, Nutro Max Cat Indoor, about $23-$25 depending on where you shop. I would say it is better on ingredients than Iams. A friend of mine actually used to feed Iams and tried the Max Cat and her cat refused the Iams after trying Max Cat. Of course, every cat is different. I have seen some good sales at Petsmart lately too if you have one in your area. Sometimes feed stores that carry pet food have better deals than pet specialty shops too.

Good luck!

Of the foods suggested, I've had multiple cats develop UTIs on the following foods: (realize this is over the past 3-5 years that I have fed some of these foods)
Nutro MAX
Nutro Natural Choice
Chicken Soup Adult
Diamond Naturals Indoor
Taste of the Wild
Solid Gold Katz-N-Flocken

I've had good luck with Purina ONE formulas (Urinary, Hairball, & Sensitive Stomach), but like you have had some poop issues (stinky & not 100% solid). I do feed TOTW currently to some of the kitties - a few of mine developed UTIs on it, but some didn't.

Depending on what you have locally available, *knock on wood* Healthwise hasn't caused any urinary issues in my household. It runsa bout $25 for a large bag, but I can't tell you how big the large bag is. It's hard to find Urinary Tract Health certified foods anymore it seems.

I guess I have been lucky, I have not had to deal with any urinary issues with mine (and I think Scully had everything else )

I had pukers on Solid Gold, even with the ones who can handle most foods and they turn their noses up at TOTW but honestly, I think you can find something better with fibre for the same price as Iams (at least here)

Originally Posted by Willowy

You can find a lot of decent foods for that price. I pay less than that for all the foods I use....I mix 4 different dry foods: Taste of the Wild (about $25 for 15 #), Chicken Soup (adult formula....$22.89 for 18 pounds), Diamond Naturals Active Cat ($18-something for 18 pounds), and Purina Naturals ($15.99 for 15 pounds). Of course for those prices you need to find a good feed store, not the big-box pet stores (except I get the Purina Naturals at Petsmart....they're the only ones who sell the big bag).

Of course all those brands are made by Diamond or Purina....LOL. But my cats have done well on the mixture. The CostCo food is also made by Diamond, and I think it's the same formula as the DN Active Cat. My cats didn't do well on Solid Gold or Felidae...but all cats are different.

Click to expand...

Costco is not the active formula... they had dimond make it but it is not a diamond product...

Originally Posted by MonaxLisa

So I've just switched...actually it's been a while now, anyway, I switched from Chicken Soup Adult Light because two of my boys were having urinary issues. Now Chester is on a prescription diet and I put the other boys on Purina One Urinary Tract Health, just for peace of mind. The CS had 8% fiber (quite high) and their poo was very regular and big and healthy looking. The PO has 2% fiber and their poo was irregular, super tiny and super dry. So I've just picked up a bag of Iams Indoor weight and hairball control, with 6.5% fiber. I hate feeding Iams but I need something that's affordable and that I can find easily (I'm moving soon and need to be able to run into a walmart if I need cat food). I looked at Solid Gold, but fish was high up on the ingredient list and I'm trying to stay away from the fishier foods. The fish meal in Iams is number 8 on the ingred. list. I'm thinking maybe Felidae once I get settled and find a new pet store, but I need to stay under about $30 for about 20 pounds. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Click to expand...

Big poops are not necessarily good. It usually means they are not digesting the food properly, too much is going to waste. All that fiber is just pushing the food right through.

Three or four sections of small stool poops are normal poops for cats.

Cats don't really need a lot of fiber, it can be counter productive. They need moisture rather than fiber.

Mazy is on hill's prescription c/d kibble and has classic cat poops. Small three sectioned stool. Jennie is on a grain free canned diet (to control constipation) and while her poops are bigger than Mazy's there are still a classic four small stool sections.

Tolly has always had large poops, no matter what he eats, but he is on a lot of medication, so it's difficult to judge.

Be sure to keep your one kitty on the prescription food for life.

here's the beginning of the purina naturals ingredients:

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Brewers Rice, Animal Fat Preserved With Mixed-Tocopherols (Form Of Vitamin E), Corn Meal, Chicken, Salmon, Powdered Cellulose, Ground Whole Wheat, Soybeans Hulls, Malt Extract, Brewers Dried Yeast, Phosphoric Acid, .

here's Iams healthy Naturals:

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 Vitamins

I'm just going through options they have at walmart, since you said you needed to be able to stop there for food, between those two I'd go for the iams, at least the first ingredient is chicken.

They aparently also have Newmans Own which looks like this

Organic Chicken, Chicken Meal, Organic Soybean Meal, Fish Meal, Organic Sorghum, Organic Peas, Organic Brown Rice, Organic Millet, Organic Rice, Organic Canola Oil (Stabilized With Mixed Tocopherols A Source of Vitamin E), Organic Oats, Organic Barley, Chicken

honestly if I had to go with Walmart, even for a short period of time, I'd go either with the iams or newmans, I always based my wet food choices on reading each can/pouch individually.

hope that helps, I read through all the brands I found (with the exception of dads or special kitty) and those were the three that looked the most decent to me.

all of them were listed on walmart.com

Originally Posted by CLucas976

here's the beginning of the purina naturals ingredients:

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Brewers Rice, Animal Fat Preserved With Mixed-Tocopherols (Form Of Vitamin E), Corn Mealno IMHO corn and corn gluten should not be in same formula, Chicken, Salmon, Powdered Cellulose, Ground Whole Wheat, Soybeans Hulls, Malt Extract, Brewers Dried Yeast, Phosphoric Acid, .

here's Iams healthy Naturals:

ChickenThis is mostly water leaving by product meal as the main ingrediant... by wt chicken is about where barley is, 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 Vitamins

I'm just going through options they have at walmart, since you said you needed to be able to stop there for food, between those two I'd go for the iams, at least the first ingredient is chicken.

They aparently also have Newmans Own which looks like this

Organic Chicken, Chicken Meal, Organic Soybean Meal, Fish Meal, Organic Sorghum, Organic Peas, Organic Brown Rice, Organic Millet, Organic Rice, Organic Canola Oil (Stabilized With Mixed Tocopherols A Source of Vitamin E), Organic Oats, Organic Barley, Chicken

honestly if I had to go with Walmart, even for a short period of time, I'd go either with the iams or newmans, I always based my wet food choices on reading each can/pouch individually.

hope that helps, I read through all the brands I found (with the exception of dads or special kitty) and those were the three that looked the most decent to me.

all of them were listed on walmart.com

Click to expand...

Magenta = IMHO use caution, not a ingredient that I would use for most cats

Light brown and orange= fine for most cats but use caution

Blue= Good for most cats

I just went with what had been mentioned and where it was stated she may need to shop.

I love when someone can highlight the ingredients as you did, and if there was a thanks button or a like button (like on FB ) I'd click it for you