Wet food brand suggestion?

otto said:

That should be interesting. Banfield vet food recommendations I mean. Let us know!
Congratulations on wanting to get your cats on a wet food diet. You will be thrilled with the improvements in their coats, activity level, litter box habits (more pee, but less poop) and just general air of well being!
I feed a lot of the brands mentioned in this thread, rotating as much as possible.

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Well the vet didn't suggest any specific diet yet or recommend any particular brand since we still don't know exactly what's wrong with him. When I told him I was switching both cats from dry food to wet food now that I know it's better for them he nodded but didn't say anything in favor or against it. I'm not sure if this is because he personally has a neutral stance on the issue or if he's not allowed to recommend one over the other because Banfield is inside Petsmart and his opinions might impact their business. He did ask me what I was feeding him and I told him the few brands and flavors that I've tried and again he just nodded so I guess he approves. Tonight I tried BB wilderness Turkey flavor on them. Titan has eaten it twice already and Sangha continues to snub his nose at it.

BTW is Wellness Core a healthy choice? I tried the  turkey,chicken,liver flavor on them yesterday and they both liked it. It seemed healthy but as I said before I never know if what I'm reading on the labels is true.

Wellness and Wellness Core have been known to cause urinary tract problems. Nothing official, but there are enough other choices out there that I would avoid Wellness with the exception of a very occasional meal.

otto said:

Wellness and Wellness Core have been known to cause urinary tract problems. Nothing official, but there are enough other choices out there that I would avoid Wellness with the exception of a very occasional meal.

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I have heard the same as well. The only Wellness I feed is the Wellness Pouches http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/products.aspx?pet=cat&ft=4. And I feed them about once a week. If you do decide to feed Wellness Core, if you rotate between brands than it shouldn't be an issue, but if you feed exclusively W Core than I wouldn't recommend it. I would look into Blue Wilderness WILD DELIGHTS instead of just Blue Wilderness. They are carrageenan-free and just as good and cats love them, because they are chunky pieces in gravy. 

Yup you can find many of those brands at Petsmart, and check any other local pet stores near you, you'd be surprised what you can find. Another decent brand not mentioned is Ziwipeak (has carrageenan but supposedly its the non-degraded version which is safe).

Basically the general rules when looking for a high quality wet food = high protein, low carbs (including grains and veg) and no carrageenan, colours or preservatives. Remember we are looking for a cat food that mimics an obligate carnivores diet!! 

It doesn't surprise me that your vet didn't say anything, most either don't know anything about nutrition or chose to advocate the prescription brands because of the kickbacks. We cat owners tend to have to investigate cat nutrition by ourselves, my vet knows not to mess with my cats nutrition anymore by recommending poor quality prescription dry foods, otherwise she gets a good lecture from me 

Welcome to TCS btw!!    

Wellness and Wellness Core have been known to cause urinary tract problems.

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I've seen these rumors but I thought it was the dry Wellness that was the problem.  If the Wellness canned is a problem then my little cat family is at risk because it is their absolute favorite.  (I try to rotate in other brands though.)

I went to my local Petsmart store and bought two, 3 ounce cans of Blue Buffalo "Wild Delights" Chicken & Turkey flavor to try on my 15 year old cat. It's not pate' and its's not shredded meat either. It's small meat chunks. He loves this food. Grain free and no carrageenan in it either.

BTW, my cat is picky when it comes to canned wet cat food.

LuvMyBengals33 said:

I don't know alot about ingredients but I'd like to avoid as much of the bad stuff as possible. I don't mind increasing what I'm spending on food to help their health although I'm pretty clueless about the price ranges/brands. I just want to make sure if I'm paying the additional cost I'm actually getting the quality. All this time that I've been buying Science Diet I've been paying for what I thought was quality and it turns out I could have been buying Walmart cat  food & probably would have been just the same.

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Ingredients to avoid are:

Anything with the word "meal"

All kinds of byproducts

Animal digest

Animal fat

Carrageenan

Ethoxiquin

BHA

BHT

Corn

Soy

Wheat

Rice

Oats

Unfortunately, ethoxyquin is not always listed, so it is a good idea to avoid fish flavors.

otto said:

Wellness and Wellness Core have been known to cause urinary tract problems. Nothing official, but there are enough other choices out there that I would avoid Wellness with the exception of a very occasional meal.

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Thanks for the info that's good to know

LuvMyBengals33 said:

I'm trying to switch my 2 Bengals(both 6yrs old) from dry food to wet and I'd like to know what brand is the healthiest. I made the mistake of feeding them Science Diet since they were kittens because I thought it was healthy and now I find out it's terrible. One of my boys is sick(possibly with kidney issues) so it's important that I get them eating right. I stood in the pet store for almost 30 minutes today trying to read the labels of the canned food and I was completely confused because it was unclear to me what was good and what was crap. I don't have any trust in these companies or how they label their products so I'm reaching out to see if anyone can suggest anything.

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you can also go to doggiefood.com.  that's where i get a lot of food, if you order bigger cans (5.5 oz) of weruva, you can get it for 1.34 a can, which is cheaper than i can buy it anywhere else, even with a discounted repeat subscription.  if you order at least $49 worth, you get free shipping and if you order over $100 you get a 15% discount.  it's not bad if you know exactly what kind of food your cats like.

i'd also recommend that they eat more than one cat of it lol before buying a case.

they carry a lot of good foods, but they don't have hound & gatos, which is 98% meat, and i like it so far, preferring it over EVO because i don't want to patronize p & g for cat food.  they list ingredients under each food so you can research it online at home if you want.  maybe easier than going to the store and trying to figure it out.

I'm now going to need a diet for Titan that is specific for his kidney stones. The vet(Banfield Hospital) said they recommend Hills and Royal Canin but aren't these brands poor quality(even the prescription diets)? I told her that I've been reading about alot of cat owners who feed raw food diets and she said that it's risking Salmonella, Ecoli, and other bacterial contamination. I certainly don't know enough about the subject but I know many of you on this site do. She said I have to have him on a low protien diet but at this point he's barely eating at all. I don't know what to do. Does any one know if it's safe to give Nutri Cal to a cat with Kidney Stones?

LuvMyBengals33 said:

I'm now going to need a diet for Titan that is specific for his kidney stones. The vet(Banfield Hospital) said they recommend Hills and Royal Canin but aren't these brands poor quality(even the prescription diets)? I told her that I've been reading about alot of cat owners who feed raw food diets and she said that it's risking Salmonella, Ecoli, and other bacterial contamination. I certainly don't know enough about the subject but I know many of you on this site do. She said I have to have him on a low protien diet but at this point he's barely eating at all. I don't know what to do. Does any one know if it's safe to give Nutri Cal to a cat with Kidney Stones?

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Sorry I don't have the knowledge or 1st hand experience with a cat suffering from kidney issues. Please be cautious with some posters suggestions of what & how to care for Titan. 99.9% of the posters on TCS do know what they are talking about & will give you excellent guidance. This is just a thought, but have you considered a 2nd or 3rd evaluation for Titan? Not every DVM graduated in the top 10%.Some times a Vet Tech can be a bit more helpful & willing to explain things so you can understand the treatment & management of Titans illness.

yeah of course she's going to tell you about the bacterial contamination risk, but that seems to be stock with a lot of vets who aren't very open-minded.  i wouldn't feed my cats either of the foods she recommended, i'd find a different vet.  i don't have any kidney stone experience, but i'd find out some things. go to www.catinfo.org and read all about it, she had a cat with urinary tract problems that required surgery and all kinds of things.  it's a big site but it has a lot of good information.

LuvMyBengals33 said:

I'm going for a consultation now with the vet at Banfield to go over my cat's lab results since my other vet wasn't very helpful at explaining things or giving me a clear diagnosis. I will see what he/she suugests for diet. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions it helps me to be able to ask informed question when I speak to the vet.

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This might be the best situation for you to begin in you quest for ideas for a better diet.  Personally, I would only go with a wet diet myself but that's just me.  I don't know if any of the Nutro products are what would be necessary for your kittys that you love so much You can check out the Nutro brand at http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-food.aspx

All 4 of my cats have done quite well on the various Nutro products over the years but none of them have special needs either.  Best of luck in your quest