My petco list HUGH VARIETY TYPE OF FOOD

Do you you think this is a good petco list? I think so I want to give my cats a big variety of food brands so thye don't get bored and so I can see who likes what the most

petco

cat wet

petco 

days 15

wellness

wellness core 

innova

Soulistic

spots stew

nutro max

nutro natural

nature variety inst

blue buffalo spa

Merrick Gourmet

before grain

natural balance

solid gold

canyon creek

RANDOM

dry

BG chicken

BG salmon

BG tuna

goodlife <this one might change

Johnny cat litter 120lbs

dog

wet

Nutro Natural Choice Sensitive Skin & Stomach Senior

Nutro Max Senior Chicken & Rice Dinner

Whole Earth Farms Senior Canned Dog Food

Wellness Senior

dry

dachshund eukanuba

IF THIS IS IN THE WRONG FORUM PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

Personally, I consider Eukanuba to be extremely overpriced for the low quality, and breed-specific formulas are a gimmick. I wouldn't buy it, but if your dog does well on it and you don't mind the price, more power to ya. Goodlife is a very low-quality food, I wouldn't buy that at all. And I try to avoid fish-based dry cat foods, so I also wouldn't get the BG salmon and tuna.

Is there a Petsmart where you live? I find that they have better prices on food, usually.

But have fun shopping! :tongue2: Whenever I go to the city, I can barely fit all the stuff I buy in my car, LOL. And my car drives funny with 200 pounds of litter in the trunk. Maybe I should drive something bigger than a Honda Civic. . .:lol3:

Will my dachshunds can't handle any other dry so i'm staying with the eukanuba dachshund and my cats wets are rarely fish flavor mostly chicken or turkey because they cant stand the fish wet but they love the fish dry and I was going to mix all the dry together

and why do you say goodlife recipe ain't good?

do you know any other good dry brands i can replace goodlife?

I can't copy/paste the ingredient list from my phone, but if you click on ingredients on this page you can see them: http://www.thegoodliferecipe.com/food-for-cats/chicken-dry.aspx

Not as bad as, say, Meow Mix, but it does have corn as the first ingredient, by-product meal second, and corn gluten as the third ingredient. Which means it has very little animal protein. As for what to replace it with, a cheaper food or any price? PetCo doesn't have a lot of cheaper decent foods, though.

No I meant as a no corn or wheat dry to replace the goodlife because I want a 4 dry type to bad before gran don't have a 4 flavor

what about this one http://www.petco.com/product/116203...l-Formula-Dry-Cat-Food.aspx?CoreCat=LookAhead

I don't really care about price

Well, you did ask for money-saving tips before :tongue2:. So one tip is not to buy dry foods that cost $4 a pound! :lol3: But, yes, Nature's Variety is a very good brand.

If you can find an independent feed store or Tractor Supply, they usually have a better pet food selection at better prices. The cheaper-but-still decent dry foods I was using were: Diamond Naturals Active Cat, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul (yes, the name is dumb but it's a good food), Taste of the Wild, and 4Health. I got them all at Tractor Supply except for the Chicken Soup, which I got at an independent feed store (they have a store locator on their website). Those brands all make good dog foods, too. Learn to read the ingredient labels and you can find some great foods in unexpected places!

I bought everything on that list yesterday at petco and I got nature variety instead of goodlife

Your list looks pretty good.  Do you have a Petsmart nearby?  I think they carry most of those brands and I think it will be less expensive at Petsmart.  At least the Petsmart's tend to be less expensive here.  You really are mixing it up LOL!  I mix mine up too.  I feed mostly the Nutro Max and Nutro Natural Choice but also buy a few of the brands you have on your list to give them variety of flavors and textures.  Also, starting Tomorrow, 12/6/12, Thursday, Petsmart is having it's Friends and Family event.  You can save 15% of your entire purchase.  There is a post in the Cat Lounge about the sale if you want to look for it.

Looks like your kitties will be having an enjoyable time come dinner time

No I don't have a petsmart and I don't like them anyway so Petco is better so far no pickyness from my cats shocker I wanna go bigger variety but the other brands have wheat or corn in it

That's quite a variety of food there. This is just my personal opinion. I would stick with two or three canned and dry foods to rotate from that your cats and dogs do well on. If you pick too many kinds, you may create picky eaters and also cause digestive upset.

Miagi's_Mommy said:

That's quite a variety of food there. This is just my personal opinion. I would stick with two or three canned and dry foods to rotate from that your cats and dogs do well on. If you pick too many kinds, you may create picky eaters and also cause digestive upset.

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This is opposite to my experiences. The more variety I feed to my cats and dogs, the less they have digestive upsets and the less picky they are. Humans are encouraged to eat a wide variety of different foods (and especially when encouraging children to be less picky), so why would animals be any different?:dk: But whatever works best for your pets is what's important!

All my cats and dogs get picky by staying on one brand or type if I give a big variety no pickyness out of them.

Willowy said:

This is opposite to my experiences. The more variety I feed to my cats and dogs, the less they have digestive upsets and the less picky they are. Humans are encouraged to eat a wide variety of different foods (and especially when encouraging children to be less picky), so why would animals be any different?

But whatever works best for your pets is what's important!

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That's been my experience as well Willowy.  With the exception of the dog's kibble.  I can't mix it up because of digestive upset but I can mix anything wet up for them.  But yes, whatever works for the animal is what's best.  I tried to count the different varieties my cats eat.  There are 4 brands I buy in addition to the Nutro foods.  Not as much as the OP but quite a variety anyway.

I do the same thing with my pets food. I buy two or three different drys for the cats and mix them in a container. I usually mix a grain free and a grain inclusive just to be on the safe side with urinary tract health. I also  get a variety of canned foods so they get a different flavor every day or every other day. I also am not too fond of the Good life recipe. The foods I have currently are TOTW and Wellness Core for grainfree and Blue Finicky Feast and Natural Balance Ultra Premium for the Grain Inclusive foods. Canned I use anything from Wellness, EVO, TOTW,  Avoderm, Tiki cat, Werurva, Soulistic and even certain varieties of Friskies or Fancy feast. I reserve those for the picky days lol. For my dog he normally gets Acana pacific or grasslands dry, but since there is a shortage on that, I have him on wellness Core. Thinking of doing more of a rotation on his food as he is doing really well with the switch. He also gets canned Wellness, Blue Wilderness, Merricks, Natural Balance, TOTW, Canidae ect.

Contrary to some beliefs, I actually think rotating dry foods and canned is actually a good thing. I believe that it helps not create picky eaters, It is good if there is a shortage  or recall on a particular food and also I believe that it allows for a more well rounded diet. Some foods deliver their nutrients in different ways, so by rotating, it ensures that your pet is getting all of the nutrients they need. Another good thing is I think it actually reduces the chances of allergies. When a dog or cat eats the same thing day in and day out for years, they can sometimes become hypersensitive to one of the ingredients in their food or when suddenly exposed to a new food. By rotating, they don't develop that chance to become sensitive. As long as you leave a novel protein out of their diet on the chance that they do become allergic, you'll be fine. For example feed a variety of foods, but don't feed rabbit or venison. In case you encounter an allergy, you can use that novel protein in an elimination trial.

Now not all animals can do this for various reasons. If they have an illness that needs a certain diet, or if they are just too sensitive to change then it isn't as good an idea. I do actually believe that alot  of the sensitive stomach pets are actually created by feeding the same diet for years. As I started more variety in my own dog, his sensitive stomach went away, to the point where I can change foods cold turkey if I have to, and we don't get gut disturbances. Back when I didn't know better, he was on the same food for years, when I decided to change. It was a battle of loose stools for weeks. Not fun. Now when we cold turkey changed him from Acana to Wellness Core, it wasn't an issue. Stools are still normal and all is great. This is just my personal view though from what I've seen and researched as a vet tech in practice and on my own pets. So you can take it as you will, but I think the variety is great and looks similar to my own pet shopping lists

Oh and I normally shop either petsmart or some of our local shops as I can get better prices for the better foods. I do use Petco as well, but i wait till I get a 10% off entire purchase coupon and then go there instead of Petsmart for the month. It seems I still spend the same, but i can get some of the different foods like soulistic that I can't get elsewhere.