Suggestions for grain-free weight management-dry kibble

Ugh. I switched my kitties from Innova EVO to TOTW a few months back, as we had adopted our third cat and hubby was trying to save a little money...he is the only one working right now. Since the switch, I have noticed two of the cats are getting chunky. I have always fed less than the bag recommends and my cats all do great. All three cats are right around 10-11 lbs and only get a little over 1/4 cup a day. They drink plenty of water. Like I said before, TOTW has caused them to gain a great deal of belly fat. I have noticed my first two kitties(the ones who have put on weight) aren't quite as active anymore and their coats looks greasy and have lost their sheen. At this point I am SO disappointed with TOTW.

At one time, I have my cats of BB Wilderness Weight management and I can honestly say, I think my cats seemed happiest on this food. I switched to EVO from BB because I felt that the wilderness was far over-priced for the ingredients. I also read it contained too many starches. I switched them to the EVO regular (not the weight-management) and it seemed they did so-so on it. They didn't gain weight, but their coats did lose a little luster and they didn't seem as active as they had on the BB.

Honestly, at this point, I am not sure which direction to go. I feel like I can't feed them any less of the TOTW, as they barely get anything as it is. They get treats, but it is a once or twice a week kind of thing and the treats are grain free. I only give them a few treats a piece. I know the wet food argument and honestly, I wish we could afford to feed them wet food, but even the cheapest brands would push us over our food budget. We have a toddler and three cats, so we just can't be spending $100 month for wet food.

So, is it EVO? Back to Blue Buffalo? Or does anyone else have recommendations? I calculated that we can afford a dry food that is no more than $3 per lb.-so about $45 for 15 lb bag MAX. Thanks everyone!

I just remembered our maine coon has serious runny poop issues on the EVO...maybe the 50% protein was too much for him...

A lot of cats have problems with diarrhea on many of the grain free drys.  One of mine does that with every grain free dry that I tried and she isn't the one that has the chronic digestive problems.  I have heard of some problems with BB causing problems with crystals more than other dry food.  Maybe you could go with a little cheaper dry and feeding part dry and part wet.  I am assuming you are looking at $45 a month for food.  Maybe something like Nutro naturals or Natural Balance along with one of the cheaper wet foods like Friskies pate.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I am thinking about $40-$45 per month for all three cats. I did consider adding wet food in the morning and then the dry at night. I could do that for about $15 a month (wet food). My only concern about the wet food, is that in the past when I have given wet food as a "treat", the cats want nothing to do with the dry food for a couple days/weeks. My female in particular seems addicted to wet food once she has a taste. lol. If I knew that I could introduce a wet food once a day and they would still want their dry food at night, I would seriously consider it. I'm not sure splitting up 1 (6 oz) can a day between three cats and only 1/8 a cup of dry food per cat at night would be enough food? What do you think?

If you can do $40-45 a month for cat food, depending on where you are, you can afford to feed all wet. Assuming you're in the US, you can get 5.5 oz cans of Friskies for about 45 cents each. Most cats eat about one 5.5 oz can a day. This works out to $40.50 for a 30 day month. You can also get the 12 oz cans of Friskies for even less per oz. The Friskies pates are really good value for money. They are high in animal protein/moderate fat/low carb. They do have some rice but no other grains or vegetables. Yes, they do contain meat by-products and artificial color, but I would feed Friskies pates over dry food any day of the week.

From what I have read, it does seem like ANY wet food is better than dry, I just have a really hard time feeding them Friskies. I guess I start thinking about all the barns cats I have known that get Friskies and look like crap. It's probably only because they are outside kitties, but that's the image I have of cheap wet food...

Friskies is a very good cheaper food.  Many people who feed ferals use it and many people feed it to their pets as well.  Cats that stay outside are going to tend to look a little ragged around the edges.  You can stock up at a discount store like Wal-mart or catch it on sale and stock up.   All of us who love our cats feed the best that we can afford.  I think most of us here have our limitation as to what we are able to feed, especially with the economy being the way it has been for several years.

Some cats also prefer the cheaper canned foods, I know mine do.  I haven't been able to get them completely off kibble, they are true addicts, but they will eat some wet every day.  They actually do better with Friskies or Fancy Feast than they do with the more expensive wet foods.  I have pretty much given up on the more expensive food.  I tell them they are blue collar kitties and prefer blue collar food rather than fou fou food.

lol :-) That was an awesome response. I'm online now trying to find a good cheaper wet food. I found the friskies pate, but then I see Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul (jeez that was long) and it is only about 15-20 cents more per can than the friskies and I think this brand might be grain free? I finally got my husband to agree to let me give them wet food in the mornings and I will probably start with friskies. If he doesn't complain about it after that, I might look into either moving them completely to that, or supplement with a higher quality wet once a day. Thanks!

I'm guessing those barn cats were  fed Friskies kibble, not canned, weren't they?  And some of the canned Friskies are filled with carbs, some aren't.  You just need to look for the right ones. 

These are the Friskies canned food that are lowest in carbs (as of 9/12/12):

The cans should say SPECIAL DIET

Beef & Chicken Entree

Beef & Liver Entree

Turkey & Giblets Dinner

Whitefsh Dinner With Salmon

Otherwise, the regular Pates are higher in carbs, but all under 12 on a dry matter percentage.

Do you think fancy feast might be a better choice? It's only a little more that the friskies at my petsmart. The next price point would be Iams probably. Any opinions on the Iams?

Nevermind about the FF. I just remembered they are smaller cans. I guess the Iams IS quite a bit more. I will look for the special diet friskies and try it.

Lol, I swear this is the last question. I see Authority is just a quarter more per can, what about that brand. The ingredient list doesn't look too bad. I doubt my hubby would notice that small of a difference. I think I'm making my husband out to be a bad guy, lol. I just try to keep him from getting annoyed about all the money I put into the cats all the time :-) They are my other three kids.

I figured the carb percent on the Authority chicken and got 11.4 which is good.  I am not 100 percent sure if I am figuring it right but that's what I got.  The way I understand calculating carbs is to add the protein, fiber, fat, moisture and ash percentages in food and subtract that total from 100.  I then get the dry matter by subtracting the moisture from 100%.  I then divide the first number by the decimal equivalent from the second.  Hopefully someone who is better at figuring these things will come along.

Dang! I am not NEAR that advanced in kitty nutrition, lol. I went ahead and picked up 6 cans of the Authority just to see what they thought of it. I went to petsmart tonight and compared the Nutro Max, Friskies Pate (poultry platter) and the Authority. I really liked the ingredient list on the Nutro Max, but it was still a bit over $1 per can and I was trying to be under that if at all possible. Authority FAR outweighed Friskies IMO. They both listed a few things I would prefer to stay away from, but Friskies had meat by-products and the Authority did not. It was on sale for 75 cents (orig .89) per can, so if they like it, I will stock up while I can :-)

Yes, Authority is MUCH better than Friskies (no by-products).  They still have brewer's yeast, which I'm not fond of, but one really good thing they have going for them that so many others don't is that they don't use carrageenan, which is a real plus in my book.  Even Wellness uses carrageenan (seems like most of the expensive brands use it).  And since Authority is made strictly for Petsmart, it IS a pretty good price.  (not as good as Friskies at Walmart, but still a pretty good deal)

jazzygemmy said:

 
Dang! I am not NEAR that advanced in kitty nutrition, lol. I went ahead and picked up 6 cans of the Authority just to see what they thought of it. I went to petsmart tonight and compared the Nutro Max, Friskies Pate (poultry platter) and the Authority. I really liked the ingredient list on the Nutro Max, but it was still a bit over $1 per can and I was trying to be under that if at all possible. Authority FAR outweighed Friskies IMO. They both listed a few things I would prefer to stay away from, but Friskies had meat by-products and the Authority did not. It was on sale for 75 cents (orig .89) per can, so if they like it, I will stock up while I can :-)

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It isn't at all difficult to figure the carbs and if you google carbs in canned cat food it will bring up several sites that will explain it better than I do.  It was something I wanted to figure out how to do when grain free became the rage.  A lot of companies switched to other cheap fillers so they could advertise grain free or simply not have grains in their ingredient lists.  A lot of people here know a lot more about nutrition and really get in depth with it.

MrsGreenJeens- Brewers yeast was the other ingredient I was concerned about. Honestly, I don't know why it would be bad, I just couldn't understand why it would be in there. Seems unnecessary to me. Do you know why they add that? I'm happy to hear that Authority is considered a "good" brand though, b/c it really is the best we can afford on our budget.

Denice- I will definitely figure out the carb calculation. You are right, it seems like a good thing to know :-)

I split a can between the three kitties last night and they DEVOURED it! They then got there TOTW dry this morning and weren't all that impressed, but alas, they ate it anyway ;-)

Thanks so much everybody for the help!!

I think brewers rice is a term used for rice that is odd shaped, it isn't pretty so it isn't sold in grocery stores.  It's used in the brewing process that's where it got it's name.  It's like putting regular rice in it like many foods do.  I think rice is one of the better grains to be in food.  My IBD kitty actually does better if he gets a little rice in his food.  Boiled chicken with rice added is often used in cats with chronic diarrhea.  If food intolerance is the cause of the diarrhea then it will get it under control and then start reintroducing a different cat food.

I don't think Brewer's Yeast is harmful, it's just that it can be one of those things they can be allergic to.  But, they can be allergic to chicken!  I'd rather see Brewer's Yeast than CORN, any day of the week.  And Authority doesn't use by-products, so that's a real plus in my book.

Denice said:

 
I think brewers rice is a term used for rice that is odd shaped, it isn't pretty so it isn't sold in grocery stores.  It's used in the brewing process that's where it got it's name.  It's like putting regular rice in it like many foods do.  I think rice is one of the better grains to be in food.  My IBD kitty actually does better if he gets a little rice in his food.  Boiled chicken with rice added is often used in cats with chronic diarrhea.  If food intolerance is the cause of the diarrhea then it will get it under control and then start reintroducing a different cat food.

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It's Brewers YEAST, not rice, in Authority, at least in the chicken flavor that I looked at.