Newbie

Hello, 

This is the first time I've been here. I have 3 cats and they have been on dry food for most of their lives, but since recently discovering that wet food is so much better for them, I want to switch. I'm just having trouble figuring out which wet cat food to try. 

I'd like to get the really good stuff, but I added it up and it comes to approximately $260 per month! I just can't do that.

I found a good site that has a list of rated grain-free cat foods at http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far. Unfortunately all of the choices are the $260/month ones. I'm adding it here because I thought it might help someone else. 

The other thing I am thinking of doing is making my own raw cat food. I found a very detailed site http://www.catinfo.org which tells you the how and why to make your own, but it seems intimidating. 

I'm hoping to get some help and advice about what to do. If you make your own raw cat food, please chime in. Also chime in if you have a reasonably priced brand that is still considered very healthy.

The brands that others have listed here are considered not good for cats based on the natural cat blog's(see above for link) list. Mainly because they aren't grain free, have a high carbohydrate percentage and contain carrageenan (don't know what that is).

I feel like the more research I do, the more confused I get! 

Hello to you too.  What gorgeous cats!

Good for you for wanting to transition your cats to dry; as you've learned, wet is much better than dry.

And raw better than wet, if you can do it.

Here is an article and chart about good canned foods.  There is also a thread asking similar questions. 

Fancy Feast Classic is an okay brand, as is Friskies Pate, for the price.  But there are better foods out there.  Note that some brands (Evo) sell cat food in 13 oz cans which on a per-ounce basis makes the cost more reasonable.

For your questions about raw feeding, may I direct you to the subforum  about raw feeding.  When I first started Ritz on raw I was a bit put off by all the information, but I just took the leap and never looked back.  In other words, it's not as hard as it seems.  Note that you can buy all the supplements (Hare Today for example) and simply add it to the meat you grind.  Takes the guess work out.

I feed Ritz frankenprey, though I started her off on commercial raw.  I really don't like to cook so making my own cat food wasn't in the cards.  But I don't mind cutting up meat and organs.

By the way, you should also read how to transition a cat from kibble to raw; some posters might advise to go straight from kibble to raw.  I didn't have that problem--I'd always feed Ritz canned food and commercial raw has the same consistency of canned food.

Those are some very cute kitties! 

As for the wet food, it's generally much easier to find grain-free ones compared to dry food! You can even find relatively cheap wet food that have no grains in them. BUT beware of the by-products and animal fat etc in those. 

I suggest you add a little bit of water in the wet food, this is what I have been doing in order to increase their water intake even more. Also, in my experience in volunteer work at an animal shelter, most cats seem the prefer the pate canned foods. A lot of the cats would often just lick the gravy off the chunky or sliced wet foods... But that does not mean your cats will do the same! Just a tip for starting out, buy just a can or two first to see if they like it or not! 

On the catinfo site, she does say that even the cheap canned stuff like Friskies is certainly better than dry food, and not really worse than a lot of the expensive foods (like the ones with tons of veggies). She explains why so I wont . Yes, there are better canned foods, but not many, when you get right down to it. Buying the large 13-oz cans reduces the per-ounce price of any food considerably.

I feed my cats canned Friskies, with 95% chicken/turkey EVO in the rotation. I also grind my own raw food, somewhat based on the catinfo recipe (but since it's not a large part of their diet I don't worry overmuch about how balanced it is). A lot of cats who have never tasted raw meat have a difficult time with the transition to raw, so don't expect a quick conversion (unless you get super lucky!).

The "chunky" canned foods usually have a lot of wheat gluten and soy protein in them. Generally speaking, the paté flavors are higher quality than chunky flavors of the same brand. Try to avoid fish flavors; most of the non-fish flavors still have fish in them, and too much fish can cause issues in some cats.

Hi Jenn! Welcome. I'm very new as well to this site, and I joined for a lot of the same reasons that you did. Finding good quality canned food that my cat will actually eat is very difficult. Plus, it can be expensive even though I only have one cat. When doing my research, I came to the conclusion that raw was the right way to go. However, the whole grinding process turned me off for a lot of reasons. I researched some more and found out about prey model (or frankenprey) raw feeding, and I decided this was best for us. I like the dental benefits, and I like that it was closer to nature overall than ground. It is also more economical than canned food. There is a thread where the costs are compared by one of the most knowledgeable members on this site. I will dig that up for you. I found it very informative and helpful.

I've started feeding my cat a little raw (just chicken and Cornish hen diced meat), and she's taken to it pretty well. I have ordered Wysong's Call of the Wild supplement and will use that to supplement the all meat meals until I can (hopefully) add bone and organs.

Ack, I don't know how to copy a quote from one thread to another, but here's the link to the info I was talking about. It's written by Laurie (aka LDG). There's a table at the end that's very helpful. And doing homemade raw is even cheaper even with the costs of supplements.

http://catcentric.org/nutrition-and...y-cat-or-i-can-afford-to-feed-commercial-raw/
 

Thank you Ritz! I don't know why I didn't think to investigate the forums more before posting. I think my head was spinning from all the different articles I had just been reading. By the time I found this site, my brain was just too full and confused to read any more. 

Vball91,

Thank you for the info! I had never heard of Frankenprey feeding. The idea of grinding bones is unsettling to me too. Plus I'd have to buy a good grinder which I can't afford at the moment.

Jenn

Willowy,

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it!

J

Update!

I started feeding my cats Friskies Pate on Sunday. Two of my cats love it, but my boy, Cosmo (gray kitty), is stubborn. At first he seemed to be turned off by the smell and wouldn't eat his dry food if it was too close to the other cats while they ate wet food.

Today (Wednesday), he seems less disgusted by the smell and will eat his dry food even if it's close to the wet food. I'm hoping that by the end of the week, he'll be so used to it, he'll be ok with tasting it. 

I have to do more researching about how to transition a cat to eat wet food, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know! Thanks!

Hi Jenn, Just wanted to say welcome to TCS!  I think every one answered your questions, so I don't have anything to add right now.  

This IS a great site. You will love it! I know I have learned TONS in the time I have been on here & it has helped so many times. Lots of good advice from knowledgeable people & great support too!

Welcome!  Keep in mind when figuring the cost of feeding canned that the serving suggestion sizes on the cans are usually too much.  I was feeding 3 cats Wellness grain free type quality foods (we used several similar brands) for somewhere around $100 per month (I forget the exact amount) by ordering the largest cans possible and ordering from sites like petfooddirect or doggiefood.com.  They each ate about 4-5 oz of food per day. 

I transitioned them to raw this fall.  I wasn't up for the learning curve of frankenprey or homemade, but I had some locally available (Nature's Variety Instinct) from a holistic pet food store to get us started.  I didn't like the veggies found in the affordable commercially produced raw food, so now we order ground meat from Hare Today and add the Alnutrin supplement to make it balanced and complete.  I'm now feeding four cats for $150 per month (including shipping and supplement)....very similar to what it would cost to feed premium grain free canned.  Someday I'd like to add some more variety (and save more money), maybe chunks of meat or meaty bones.  But for now they are enjoying the ground rabbit, chicken and turkey....occasionally throwing in something different like mutton or duck....all ordered from Hare Today.  Here's a link if you are interested....

https://www.hare-today.com/

Since you asked, here is a thread on transitioning from kibble to canned:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/232143/transition-from-dry-food#post_3076458  (oh boy...more to read!! )

BTW, don't know where you are located, but if you decide to eventually transition to raw, you may be able to go even cheaper by joining a local BARF group on yahoo and if you are in a fairly large town, they may have access to great prices on meats.  For instance I live in the Phoenix area, and once a month or so they send an email out to take orders for everything imaginable from raw duck hearts to finely ground complete rabbit (bones, organs, etc.) to chicken feet, to well, just about everything!  Then you just drive over on delivery day (with your ice chest) and pick it up and pay for it.  Prices are probably comparable with Hare-Today, and no shipping

Hi Jenn I see MrsGreenJeens is taking good care of you! I'm so glad you've decided to transition to wet food. You've already had excellent advice on how to do so. If you ever decide to research a raw diet, the TCS people here can certainly give you plenty of excellent information on the raw forum here in TCS at http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-feeding-for-cats You might want to mosey over there for a look see. I'm not at all informed or a raw diet so I'll offer no advice on it but I do believe I've seen people that feed a combination of raw AND wet.

Txcatmom,

Thanks for the info and the link! I'm definitely interested in the raw food diet.

Hi Nutromike,

Thank you for the link and info! Everyone here is so helpful and nice. I love it!

Mrsgreenjeans,

It doesn't look like there is a BARF group in my area, but we do have lots of local farms and such. Thank you for info and link though! My cat finally chose to eat the wet food this morning. Yay for small victories!