1st time cat owner! What food to buy?

[font=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana][font=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana]Hey Everyone!

I've had dogs most of my life and I'm very excited to be owning my first cat! She's about a year old.

I just have a few questions about what kind of cat food I should get.

Are there any typical brands that any of you prefer?

Have your cats typically liked dry food or moist food more?

Are there any deciding factors that make you buy your favorite brand of cat food over others?

Is there anything I should be looking for in my cat food and anything I should avoid?

Should I just typically start with the cheapest brand?

I know... it's a lot of questions. :/ Thanks for the help though guys![/font][/font]

Cats are obligate carnivores. They have no use for grains, fruits, veggies, carbs--anything other than animal products. So keep that in mind when choosing a food. .. any non-animal ingredients are only in there to bring the cost down and have no benefit for the cat. Also, cats are designed to get their moisture from the food they eat, they have a very low thirst drive. So canned food (or a balanced raw diet) is best to prevent chronic dehydration.

I don't know what your budget is or what's available in your area. So I can't make specific recommendations. Just remember to look for lots of meat, and not a lot of grains and veggies. You probably won't find many decent brands at the grocery store. Feed stores usually have a good selection and are cheaper than the big-box pet stores.

Adding to Willowy: "animal products" does NOT include milk, eggs, bones, or byproducts. Some people say RAW eggs and bones are fine but for your first cat I would recommend starting with a grain-free canned food  because a raw diet is too complicated for a newbie IMHO.

It is so insightful for you to ask this question. I wish I had done that when I got my first kitty! 

This many years later and with several cats now 12+ years old where they are beginning to show evidence of what they have and haven't eaten- I can tell you it is definitely a good idea to feed your cat grain-free food and ideally only grain free wet food. For anyone who tells you cats need crunchies to help keep tartar off their teeth, that is a load of bs, crunchies actually put a film ON their teeth. 

Raw is probably the best diet because it mimics their natural diet. Here is something I wish I had known a long time ago- you can buy freeze-dried raw food and it looks and feels like dry food, so you don't have to immediately figure out whether you want to buy actual frozen raw food and go through preparing it etc.. I ordered Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw salmon and also their chicken, both for cats, and I put it in my cats' dish where I used to have their dry food. 

I now use Natural Balance grain free wet food packets along with Weruva grain free packets and Weruva canned food. A really high end pricey but great grain free wet food is also Tiki-cat. If you can afford to stay high end with your kitty, I recommend it.

But no matter what, avoid the dry food and if you absolutely must feed them dry, (NOT a good idea) I recommend Orijen or BG Chicken, both dry grain free foods. 

Good luck with your kitty.   I hope you will stay on this forum and let us know how you are doing, and share pix and all your good times with your new pet! And we can give you advice on other stuff too :-) if u want!

A homemade raw diet may be somewhat complicated (even so, a "newbie" could do it with proper dedication). . .but an AAFCO approved prepared raw food is as complete and as easy as a canned food. Perfectly fine for anyone.

And I won't totally dismiss by-products. Some of the most nutritious parts of the animal are considered by-products. I would avoid by-product meal in a dry food but I don't mind by-products in a canned food. Also, eggs are an ingredient in many cat foods and I consider that to be a quality protein source. I wouldn't avoid eggs at all.

Awwwww, welcome to TCS AND the wonderful world of cats! :lol3: You are going to laugh (and probably cry sometimes LOL). Cats are SO not dogs. I was a dog person, and ALL of those cliches about cats are just sooooo true ("Dogs come when called: cats take a message and get back to you;" "Dogs have owners, cats have staff..." that kind of thing. :lol3: ). I hope you have fun with the process!

Very important nutritional differences between cats and dogs:

1) Cats are obligate carnivores. Their digestion is so specialized, they cannot synthesize a number of vitamins, essential fats, and amino acids the way people and dogs can, they MUST get them from meat. (Example: Vitamin A - carrots are filler and beta carotene is color. Neither does anything for a cat. They say dogs can eat cat food, but cats can't eat dog food. This is true: cat food is supplemented with taurine, an amino acid cats cannot synthesize from its components. ALA (an omega 3) - cats lack the digestive enzyme required to even utilize this plant-based source of Omega 3. Flax seed in a cat food? I'm not sure what benefit it has, but it's definitely not altering the omega 6: omega 3 ratio in a way that benefits the cat any).

2) Dogs can eat just about anything, but cats are not constructed to eat carbohydrates. Cats get their energy from protein and fat; carbs typically just go to fat. And cats, unlike people (I don't know about dogs), are not designed to use body fat as energy in times of starvation. Their bodies will use their muscles first, and then the fat floods their livers and overwhelms them, causing a disease called hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver). There are two lessons here: you want the food you feed your cat to be as low carbohydrate as possible, and you cannot starve a cat into eating the food you want them to eat. Dogs, if you deprive them of food for 24 hours, will eat the new food. Cats, if they do not want a food, they will not eat it. Cats will starve rather than eat something they don't think is food. If you want them to eat something they don't want to eat, you have to convince them into it (by making it smell like something else - sprinkling stuff on it that they DO want to eat LOL).

3) Cats do NOT have a thirst drive like dogs do. This was already addressed, and it's important to have fresh water out for cats to drink (obviously you have it out anyway for the dogs), but if you're feeding the right diet to your cat, you will almost never see your cat drink water. They are designed to get all their moisture from the food they eat.

I REALLY wish I'd asked the same questions when we first started rescuing cats!! I learned all about rescue - but nothing about nutrition. ...not until we had a health issue, and my cats had already "paid" for my lack of knowledge about their diet.

BTW - there's a whole school of thought out there for feeding dogs raw food. In fact, it's been around longer and is more established than feeding cats raw. :lol3: It's called B.A.R.F., though the recommendations of BARF, with the 20% veggie/fruit content, is not appropriate for cats.

As to species-appropriate nutrition for kitty... if you want to provide commercial food, I think raw is best, followed by grain-free, low carb canned food. I have NO idea what your budget is, or if you have a lifestyle that allows you to feed only wet food. :dk: (Those of us that do usually provide 3 meals a day - in the morning before work, in the evening when home from work, and then before bed. Cats need more frequent, smaller meals (proportionally) than dogs typically do). But IF that's an option, if you want to explore raw foods, we can help in the raw food forum. (Though, actually, feeding home made raw FEELS overwhelming at first, it's actually quite simple and straightforward. I switched to raw this past January).

If you want to feed wet food, low-carb, simple-ingredient list options are Nature's Variety (it has peas and carrots, but there are few, and they're easy to pick out); Merrick's Before Grain; EVO 95% meat; By Nature 95% meat; Earthborn Holistic; a number of the Weruva flavors (some have a lot of veggies, others have none); Soulistic (similar to Weruva - it's Petco's store brand, but, in fact, is made by Weruva). I think I'm missing some.

If you want to feed some kibble, it's best to NOT free feed it, but to feed it measured, and make it only part of the diet. Again, the lower carb kibbles are Nature's Variety, EVO (which is also calorically dense), and Before Grain. If you can afford it, there is a carb-free, starch-free kibble made by Wysong. It's called Epigen90. But it's very expensive. And as BarbB points out, feeding freeze-dried raw in place of kibble IS an option.

LOL I agree with everything LDG (Laurie) said! 

I should have also said I plan to convert to raw after my boy kitty finishes his chemo, he is doing really well but I don't want to do a major transition beyond what he is already experiencing.

Cool - I actually came into this section of the forum to ask the exact same question! We've had our 2 kittens for 9 and 10 months respectively, and both are approaching a year old but I never joined this forum until yesterday! I did research online to figure out what to feed them since we too are first time cat owners. Because of the research I did, they do eat mostly wet food, but we free feed them dry food as well. We buy Whiskas Purrrfectly Fish and Purrrfectly Chicken pouches. There are multiple flavors of each, but they all have some kind of meat listed as the first ingredient, not any kind of meat by-product or grain. Best of all, they're in our budget and I can get them shipped right to the house from amazon.com. For dry food I give them Iams. I won't lie, I'm not sure about the ingredients in that one, but they don't eat too terribly much of it anyhow so I don't worry too much about it. It's just because I bought them Iams kitten food and they loved it, so I didn't bother to switch brands when I recently started to transition them onto adult food. I do feel like my cats are getting "bored" with the Whiskas Pouches though and would like to try something else, but I'm not sure what other direction to turn that's still within budget. They will not eat any of the pate or pete (or however it's spelled) - it has to be like actual chunks of meat in there for them to even want to touch it. Ideas?

freeze-dried raw food and it looks and feels like dry food

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I did NOT know this.  So interesting....I'm looking into it.  I mentioned on another thread that I give mine a tiny spoon of kibble for a midday snack and this sounds like a healthier alternative.  You have gotten a lot of great advice here ninjakitty.  Looks like I did too. 

Oh - the freeze dried raw foods are meant to be rehydrated. They make GREAT snacks dry though, and you can definitely feed them the freeze-dried raw without rehydrating it. :nod: But if it's going to be the main source of food, they're supposed to be rehydrated. :nod: (The good quality ones that cats like are typically much more expensive than other commercial raw options though).

RIccaDawn said:

Cool - I actually came into this section of the forum to ask the exact same question! We've had our 2 kittens for 9 and 10 months respectively, and both are approaching a year old but I never joined this forum until yesterday! I did research online to figure out what to feed them since we too are first time cat owners. Because of the research I did, they do eat mostly wet food, but we free feed them dry food as well. We buy Whiskas Purrrfectly Fish and Purrrfectly Chicken pouches. There are multiple flavors of each, but they all have some kind of meat listed as the first ingredient, not any kind of meat by-product or grain. Best of all, they're in our budget and I can get them shipped right to the house from amazon.com. For dry food I give them Iams. I won't lie, I'm not sure about the ingredients in that one, but they don't eat too terribly much of it anyhow so I don't worry too much about it. It's just because I bought them Iams kitten food and they loved it, so I didn't bother to switch brands when I recently started to transition them onto adult food. I do feel like my cats are getting "bored" with the Whiskas Pouches though and would like to try something else, but I'm not sure what other direction to turn that's still within budget. They will not eat any of the pate or pete (or however it's spelled) - it has to be like actual chunks of meat in there for them to even want to touch it. Ideas?

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Hi Ricca! I accidentally looked up the ingredients in the Whiska's "Pouches" before I saw you feed the "Purrfectly" pouches. Interesting - the regular pouch foods actually have different ingredients. For some reason, the Purrfectly stuff has soy oil in it. :dk: Soy is one of the ingredients I recommend avoiding completely in any way, shape or form in cat food. Here's why:
Scroll down to "Hidden Poison in food?" in this article: http://www.optimumchoices.com/Silent_epidemic.htm . More info: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/03/28/avoid-using-soy-on-pets.aspx

I know you're looking to "upgrade" from Whiskas, but you may want to switch to the regular pouches from the Purrfectly pounces while you decide what you want to use. The regular pouch foods have wheat gluten, not an ideal ingredient either, but seems to me to be the lesser of two evils (though many people try to avoid wheat gluten, both because it's wheat-based, but more often because it was the source of the large melamine poisoning that killed 8,000 - 10,000 animals back in 2007/2008 ).

When considering foods, one of the potential problems is - do you want to feed carageenan or not? There are so few canned foods without carageenan (it affects texture). Here are the issues with carageenan: http://consciouscat.net/2012/06/08/carrageenan-should-it-be-in-your-cats-food/ and http://www.notmilk.com/carageenan.html FYI, it's in heaps of people-food too. :lol3:

For "chunks and gravy" style foods, the grain-free options are Earthborn Holistic, a number of Weruva foods, Soulistic. (Soulistic is the Petco store brand, made by Weruva. :lol3: ), AvoDerm, and some of the Wellness Pouches. (There may be more, those are the ones I'm aware of).

None have soy; Weruva and Soulistic do not have carageenan.

http://www.soulisticpet.com/cuisine.php
http://www.weruva.com/cat-cuisine-paw-lickin-chicken.php
http://www.avodermnatural.com/Cat_Foods/3oz_chicken_chunks.htm
http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/products.aspx?pet=cat&ft=4
http://www.earthbornholisticpetfood.com/us/cat_formulas/chicken_catcciatori/ingredients.php

Weruva is usually an expensive option, but the cat food is made from human grade food, not pet grade food. I can't tell if Soulistic is also or not: http://www.soulisticpet.com/about-the-food.php

Quick question: Do they like the chunks and gravy style food primarily for the gravy? That was the case with my cats. All gravy foods have potato starch, wheat gluten, or SOMETHING to "gel" the gravy. When I wanted to improve the quality of the food I fed them, I introduced pate style foods simply by mixing in a little water - turning the entire meal into "gravy," essentially. This worked for us. That way I was able to introduce the higher quality Nature's Variety, Merrick Before Grain, and EVO 95% foods. :nod: Before Grain and EVO do have carageenan. But I fed all of those foods on rotation, as I preferred to feed a rotation of both proteins AND manufacturers. :nod:

If cost vs. quality is of concern, you MIGHT want to consider feeding raw food - commercial or otherwise? :dk: The cheapest, highest quality food is home made raw. :dk: Just a thought. I wrote an article on the costs of feeding various foods, including commercial raw (and included the cost of feeding it both with shipping, assuming most people didn't have pet stores around them that carried the food), and without shipping (because Bravo, Nature's Variety, Rad Cat, and Stella & Chewy's are widely available). It doesn't address quality, just cost, but the tables do provide the information about the carbohydrate content of each food, and each food does have a hyperlink to the manufacturer website so you can easily check ingredients. :nod: http://catcentric.org/nutrition-and...y-cat-or-i-can-afford-to-feed-commercial-raw/ The tables are available as links at the end of the article.

LDG,

WOW! Lots of helpful stuff there. I haven't had time to properly sort through all the links yet, but can tell from what I have seen that it will be helpful. As far as your question about whether my kitties like the chunks and gravy mostly for the gravy...the Purrrfectly food doesn't have gravy, at least not in the fish varieties that I usually buy. When you take it out of the pouch it just looks like a big hunk of raw fish. It smells horrid (coming from a human who eats no fish at all) and my cats used to love it. They're just not as enthusiastic about it anymore, which is why I was possibly looking to switch foods. The regular Whiskas pouches are just chunks with gravy and my first kitty did just lick the gravy off of it - I only fed it for a couple weeks and was done with it by the time we got our 2nd cat a month later. The Purrfectly stuff is actually more expensive, which I suppose is what made me think it was of higher quality. Also, I seem to remember that the regular whiskas pouches had some kind of meat byproduct as the first ingredient. I do live very much in the middle of nowhere...1 hours drive to the nearest wal-mart, let alone any pet stores...so I'm worried about not only cost, but also where I can even find some of these other healthy foods.

I have a list of fancy feast wet foods from my vet that do not contain corn, wheat or soy. I looked at the store and they don't have "gourmet" written on them anymore but I assume the ones with these basic titles are all still free of the bad ingredients. Anyhow, if you (or your kitties :-))  have any interest in getting any of these, maybe they will work?

Flaked fish and shrimp feast

Flaked Ocean Fish

Gourmet Beef and Chicken feast

Gourmet Beef and Liver Feaste

Gourmet Chicken Feast

Gourmet Chopped Grill Feast

Gourmet Cod, Sole, and Shrimp Feast

Gourmet Ocean Whitefish and Tuna Feast

Gourmet Salmon and Shrimp Feast

Gourmet Savory Salmon Fish

Gourmet Seafood Feast

Gourmet Tender Beef Feast

Gourmet Tender Liver and Chicken Feast

Gourmet TUrkey and Giblets Feast

Kitten Tender Ocean Whitefish Feast

Kitten Tender Turkey Feast.

Thanks for typing out that huge list Barb! Looking on their website, it looks like those are all the "Classic" Fancy Feast, which appears from the pics to be pete...exactly what my cats won't eat. None the less, I will buy a few cans when I am out and mix it with water and make it gravy-like like LGD suggested. Good thread here

RIccaDawn said:

LDG,
WOW! Lots of helpful stuff there. I haven't had time to properly sort through all the links yet, but can tell from what I have seen that it will be helpful.

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Yeah, it's a lot of information! It takes a while.

RIccaDawn said:

As far as your question about whether my kitties like the chunks and gravy mostly for the gravy...the Purrrfectly food doesn't have gravy, at least not in the fish varieties that I usually buy. When you take it out of the pouch it just looks like a big hunk of raw fish. It smells horrid (coming from a human who eats no fish at all) and my cats used to love it. They're just not as enthusiastic about it anymore, which is why I was possibly looking to switch foods. The regular Whiskas pouches are just chunks with gravy and my first kitty did just lick the gravy off of it - I only fed it for a couple weeks and was done with it by the time we got our 2nd cat a month later. The Purrfectly stuff is actually more expensive, which I suppose is what made me think it was of higher quality. Also, I seem to remember that the regular whiskas pouches had some kind of meat byproduct as the first ingredient.

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Oh, I didn't realize the difference in the types of food. Similar types are Tiki Cat and B.F.F. (Best Friends Feline). Unfortunately, they're all only-fish based, and it's not a good idea to feed your kitties so much fish. I know, I know, more reading. :lol3: :anon: But here's information on that: http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-fish-is-dangerous-for-cats/

RIccaDawn said:

I do live very much in the middle of nowhere...1 hours drive to the nearest wal-mart, let alone any pet stores...so I'm worried about not only cost, but also where I can even find some of these other healthy foods.

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That is frustrating from that perspective. Online ordering is often great - and when you order certain amounts (some sites it's $50, others it's $60) at one time, shipping is free, and the sites often have sales that also save you money. BUT... if you don't know what your cats will EAT, you don't know what to order. It's easy for people who have access to Petco and Petsmart or local farm feed supply stores. Then you can buy one or two cans of all kinds of things, figure out what they'll eat, then order online to save money. Without being able to sample the stuff, it's hard to make that kind of commitment though.

Of course.... just a thought.... but since they like chunks of meat, maybe consider feeding them raw meat? :dk: Next time you're making chicken or something, snip off a small piece and offer it to them. See if they like it. :dk: By feeding a rotation of a number of proteins, you can easily feed them home made and make it complete with a supplement called Call of the Wild, made by Wysong. It has calcium and all the nutrients they'd get from organ meats. I "make" home made raw food for my kitties. I just provide cut up meat and organs, and use a calcium supplement (I also give an Omega 3 supplement and probiotics). But one of the kitties doesn't like the organs, so I don't bother trying to feed them to him, I use the Call of the Wild supplement. I just sprinkle it on the meat I cut up for him. Very easy, and potentially cost-saving for a very high quality diet. No pressure - just information to consider that you might not otherwise have known.