Does my cat have a balanced diet in Hong Kong? (Orijen/Almo Nature)

Hi everyone!

My first post here and I'd love some advice for my cat Gideon.

A little background:

He's a 10 year old Siamese/Thai cat (traditional)

Has been hospitalised twice in 10 years for dehydration (now rectified thanks to his lovely cat mate water fountain)

He's at a healthy weight for his size (about 4kg/10pounds)

He has been eating Mon Petit Tuna and Whitebait/Whitefish wet food for about 9 years, complemented with various dry foods (from Science Diet, Hills, Evo etc). He's a very fussy eater and turns his nose up at almost every wet food.He recently went off his wet food completely, and doing plenty of research I have now swapped him onto the following (with great results):

Wet food: Almo Nature Senior - Chicken (he gobbles this up, even before we warm it up from the fridge! Never did this with Mon Petit)

Dry: Orijen Chicken Cat and Kitten Formula.

I understand that Almo Nature is a complementary food. Is he getting a balanced diet if he's getting Orijen kibble as well? Will this combination dehydrate him or provide him with enough Taurine, or should I consider supplements? It's extremely difficult to get him to eat...he even turns his nose up at treats! He doesn't like 'human food' either. If I'm having a bit of boiled chicken breast, or a little bit of tuna, he won't eat it. The fact that he's gobbling down the Almo Nature with relish is a first! 

He's always loved his dry food and our vet says he looks about 7 rather than 10, so I have no intention of stopping his dry free feeding during the day, and aim to provide him with the best I've found in my research (Orijen).

These are the list of wet foods I've tried him on (trying to substitute Mon Petit over the course of a week or two, as well as starvation which I know is slightly cruel, but didn't work either the one time I tried it!):

Nature's Logic

Nature's Variety

Mon Petit (various flavours)

Schesir

Applaws

Various local brands imported from Japan

Kakato

Freeze-Dried Grandma Lucy's

I tried to get him the best I could on a limited budget and with limited options. Foreign cat food is ridiculously expensive here, even if you order online. Almo Nature is roughly £1.30 a tin, and Orijen sets me back about £25-30 for a 5 pound bag easily. I don't mind the expense, happy to spend more, but in my current financial situation it's simply not possible. I'd love to try the BARF diet at some point too, but don't want to commit to a large batch if my gut tells me he won't eat it.

 Is Almo Nature (Senior Chicken) combined with Orijen (Chicken formula) okay? Any advice appreciated, and apologies for the long-winded post! I love him dearly and just want him healthy and happy.

Orijen is very good for dry food, so "it should suffice and be over".

Almo Nature, I made a quick search on swedish.  They published a test made here in Sweden, comparing several brands... Almos was NOT the best although most costly in the test. They had barely some of the minerales it was supposed to contain.  Even some cheap brands from supermarkets were better.  

If you want to proceed with Almo Nature, I suggest you look into their kitten variation. Or at least, variation for active cats, if they have such variations.  These are usually better, containing more, than the adult versions.

My two cents worth of advice... 

Good luck!

  Welcome to our Forums!

I'm not really familiar with Almo foods, but any foods that are not nutritionally complete and are supposed to be complementary or supplemental food only should be less than 15% of the total diet. Otherwise, you really should supplement to ensure that enough calcium, taurine, vitamins, etc. are in his diet. The Orijen is a pretty good food for a dry food, but I am not a fan of dry being a large part (or any really) of their diet. Dry food is too high in carbs which cats have no nutritional need for being obligate carnivores and is low in moisture. http://www.catinfo.org/ is a site written by a vet that explains it more.

I would keep trying different wet foods for him and use "toppers" to get him used to them. You can use the wet food he likes on top of other foods or crush up the kibble he likes and put that on top of his food. At first you may need a lot of toppers, but you can gradually reduce the toppers until he is eating the food without them.