still debating on what adult food to switch to.

I am still debating on what type of cat food to switch Lily and Callie over to. Lily will be one very soon, and Callie is almost two, I believe. They have been eating IAMS kitten food, and they only choose to eat a very little bit of soft, which is Fancy Feast turkey & cheddar, and fancy Feast whitefish & cheddar. And they get treats too. Whiskas Temptations, My little Lion, Simply Nourish freeze dried turkey, and I give them GNC Multivitamins for cats. I know a few people on here are against the vitamins, but since they've been getting them, their hair is much softer, and Lily used to have a goopy discharge from her eye,and now she doesn't, so I think the vitamins are good for them Anyway. I've been to Petsmart countless times comparing hard foods, trying to find the best adult one. Nutro has a adult food for finicky cats, which mine are extremely finicky. I am leaning more towards the Simply Nourish Grain Free, turkey & chicken I believe it is. it has a high amount of protein, and its $10 a bag. Is that a good one? I know I'll be told try and do more wet, but they won't eat wet very much. I've tried every brand available, and I can only get them to eat the Fancy Feast Cheddar varities, and it has to be in shreds, if its any other brand. They are simply stubborn, and as long as they are eating some, and getting enough nutrition, I don't care where its coming from, treats, vitamins, etc, lol.  I looked at the blue buffulo hard food, and wellness, and they are very pricy, so hopefully Simply Nourish is good. I would just go to IAMS adult food, but I wanted a little better quality since the hard food is mainly what they eat. Here is a picture of Lily now, just taken today. I don't think shes getting hefty yet but I'm worried she will be if I keep her on the IAMS kitten too much longer. Callie I don't worry about getting fat, she was very underweight when i got her, and as an adult shes still skinny but healthy.


Thanks

Stacydc83 said:

 I know I'll be told try and do more wet, but they won't eat wet very much. I've tried every brand available, and I can only get them to eat the Fancy Feast Cheddar varities, and it has to be in shreds, if its any other brand. They are simply stubborn, and as long as they are eating some, and getting enough nutrition, I don't care where its coming from

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Have you tried warming it up to make it smell better, that worked with my kitten. Have you tried using parmesan cheese, it smells really strong and attracts them to it!

Oh stubborn eaters! 

Well, for a dry food, Simply Nourish Source high Protein Chicken and Turkey isn't bad.  It's got dried potatoes, which I'm not crazy about, but then, every dry food has something in it that I'M not crazy about .  

Have you checked out this article on transitioning to canned?  I never, ever thought I would be able to move my (at the time) 12 year old free fed kibble addict to canned, but I did, by following the advise here:  http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf 

Honestly, the pictured cat does look slightly hefty. It would be easier to tell from a  different angle, maybe, but she is considerably heavier looking than most 'ideal weight' cats I've seen and I have a lot of experience with cats. So I think transitioning to adult food is a good idea.

Other than that, as said above, Simply Nourish Chicken and Turkey isn't too bad for a dry food.  Others are better IMO, but if you are constrained by budget, you could do a lot worse (as you correctly noted, IAMS adult food is not good at all which has always been strange to me because their kitten food isn't so bad).

I really encourage you to continue to try to get them to eat more wet.  

See if both of your cats will eat grain free Nutro Natural Choice wet canned cat food. My very picky manx cat was a kibble addict all his life. He's 16 now and he's refused every brand of wet canned food from just about every manufacturer no matter the flavor or texture. When he turned 16, I tried one small NNC can and was surprised when he gobbled it down. He likes NNC in the sliced turkey, minced chicken and sliced chicken & tuna flavors. The next NNC flavor I'm going to try him on is the sliced salmon.

Tiger weighs a little over 11 pounds now and he eats two, 3 ounce cans of NNC a day. At his present age, he does sleep a lot.

NNC comes only in small 3 ounce cans and you can buy one can for a taste test. NNC has no carrageenan in it and has taurine which cats need. You can buy NNC at Petsmart and Petco. At Petsmart, it's on sale right now for $1.00 a can.

Since your cats like shreds, try the NNC sliced turkey flavor on them. Check out the ingredients. The link to it is below.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19068856&lmdn=Brand&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No
 

If you're worried about weight in general stay away from carbs. So wet food would be better if you can get them on it. Have you tried sprinkling Fortiflora on it? It's a probiotic with animal digest in it. Animal digest is the stuff they spray on dry food to make them eat it.

Thankyou for all of the replies! I think I will go with the Simply Nourish grain free hard food, and give the Nutro Naturals soft a try, I think thats one brand of soft we haven't tried, at least since before she got picky and was eating the Nutro kitten soft when she was about 3 months old. Who knows, they make actually like that? One thing I'm a little iffy with the switch to adult, is the amount of DHA. I still believe Lily has some growing to do, but I'll continue with the treats, (My Little Lion, Blue Buffulo hair and skin, and Whiskas kitten temptations, and the GNC vitamins) they all have DHA in them so that'll hopefully make up for the lack of it with adult food.

Thanks again and hopefully this switch will go very smoothly