Wellness Cat Food

I'm curious.

Currently I'm feeding my two kittens Wellness Formula.

Charlie: 4mo. old, male, fixed

Jet: 2mo. old, female, fixed

I got a couple sample cans from the vet, and both of them LOVED IT. its a bit on the pricey side, for me anyways, but its the only wet food my kitties will eat. From all the research I've done (going over reviews, ingredient lists, etc), Wellness seems to be a pretty good brand for my kitties to be on for life.

This question is more for those are have more experience with Wellness, and also feed it to their kitties:

I've been doing research on Wellness original formula foods, and Wellness CORE. I wanted to know which would you Wellness users prefer or suggest? Wellness Original Formula VS. Wellness CORE

A huge concern for me is weight gain. I don't want my cats to be overweight, which will just lead to more health issues for them down the line..., and quite honestly, Both my kitties have been looking a bit pudgy since being on Wellness Kitten Formula (for the past 2 weeks). I know they're kittens now, and they need all the nutrition and fat they can get, but I don't want to snowball them into an unhealthy weight before they are full adults...and being as they are fixed and indoor cats, weight gain will be an issue for them...

Just some advise I guess for which brand you guys would prefer...I will be asking my vet...but wanted to get some feedback from you guys first =)

Thanks.

Wellness Core is a higher grade food in that the protein is higher. I fed both and had no preference other than that the nutritional contents were better in the Core line.

You should feed your kitties more than one brand of food, however. This prevents addiction to one brand and helps against development of allergies. I favor Hound and Gatos, but it is relatively hard to find if not ordered online. You can see my signature for information on places that will sell single cans of it (first link).

Wellness also tends to be higher calories. For the adult food it is about 200-220 calories/can depending on flavor. Most other brands are in the 165 calories/can range. So check your calories. If you're feeding them the same as they got before maybe you can get by with less. With kittens, though, it is important they get plenty of calories for growth.

My cats enjoy Wellness--but limited flavors. They like the turkey, chicken and turkey and salmon. Any of the other flavors are left untouched.  Two of my cats liked Wellness Core. Now one will have nothing to do with it. The other one thinks it is still acceptable.  No one ever likes the beef.

For kittens, I recall that after they eat, their little bellies are quite round. Then they scamper them off throughout the day and night. The kitten food phase can end by the time they are 4 months. Just give them the adult canned food.

Raintyger said:

 
Wellness Core is a higher grade food in that the protein is higher. I fed both and had no preference other than that the nutritional contents were better in the Core line.

You should feed your kitties more than one brand of food, however. This prevents addiction to one brand and helps against development of allergies. I favor Hound and Gatos, but it is relatively hard to find if not ordered online. You can see my signature for information on places that will sell single cans of it (first link).

Wellness also tends to be higher calories. For the adult food it is about 200-220 calories/can depending on flavor. Most other brands are in the 165 calories/can range. So check your calories. If you're feeding them the same as they got before maybe you can get by with less. With kittens, though, it is important they get plenty of calories for growth.

Click to expand...

Hmmm. i will definitely look into other brands of cat food as well. I don't want them to get bored...but at the same time I don't want to feed them crap (ff, friskies). I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but both my kittens had horrible reactions to both fancy feast and friskies (vomiting, diarrhea), so I would prefer to stick to something similar to Wellness, just cheaper i guess. Aside from Hound and Gatos, any other suggestions? I'm looking to stay more on the all natural, and predominantly protein diet, and AWAY from filler and meat by-products. 

They both combined eat 2 cans of Wellness kitten formula. I'll open a can in the morning and split it. And in the evening I do the same. I have noticed that their belly gets REALLY bloated and they're a bit gassy, farts and burps lol. But i don't mean that..i mean they've actually gained weight, aside from the pudgy appearance in the face and neck, they feel a bit heavy too (compared to before).

lauraG said:

 
My cats enjoy Wellness--but limited flavors. They like the turkey, chicken and turkey and salmon. Any of the other flavors are left untouched.  Two of my cats liked Wellness Core. Now one will have nothing to do with it. The other one thinks it is still acceptable.  No one ever likes the beef.

For kittens, I recall that after they eat, their little bellies are quite round. Then they scamper them off throughout the day and night. The kitten food phase can end by the time they are 4 months. Just give them the adult canned food.

Click to expand...

See, I'm so confused, and I'll also ask my vet for his opinion on this, but I'm not sure exactly HOW LONG to keep my kittens on "Kitten Formula" or "Kitten Food". The shelter has told me two different things on two occasions (upto 6 months, upto 1 Year), I've read here that to keep the kitten on a kitten diet for at least 1 year of age, and then others say its not necessary....i'm super confused about this.

I've learned early on that neither of my cats like fishy flavors, via experimenting with kitty treats. Chicken seems to be the favorite for both..and whiskas temptation chicken flavor is kitty crack for them. lol. I'm curious to try other flavors like turkey and maybe even beef.

By Nature Organics and Natural Planet are two really good "organic" foods, IMHO, although they don't make kitten food.  They may come in "all stages"...not sure.  I know EVO makes a kitten food. 

Our Vet said once our last set of kittens reached 8 months it would be fine to start feeding them adult food.  I know certain breeds don't reach adulthood until over a year.  Those are the larger breeds, I think, like Maine Coons.  I think your best bet is to ask your Vet when they can go off kitten food. 

Fish flavors have varying levels of popularity in my house too. I really try not to offer it much.  My "free" rescue cat Boo Berry was very fond of Wellness Core and Evo and then I gave him a packet of Stella and Chewy's Duck Duck Goose.  It's freeze dried raw but I don't think I'd recommend it for kittens because they grind up bones in it. I'm sure there are those who would disagree but little baby cats might not be able to handle that.

For the longer term resident cats, I split Wellness and FF classic for them because they aren't super thrilled with the Wellness by itself. I've alternated it with EVO and Merricks (no one like Merricks) and I've tried Lotus ( a big paw down). Weruva chicken varieties are popular but there's hardly any food in the very expensive cans. Also I'm a little iffy on the overseas manufacture thing too. FYI Wellness Signature-the new 3 oz can choices are made in Thailand.

I've added some Nutro naturals to see how that goes. No wheat gluten. First choice -minced turkey wasn't a big hit.

I can pretty much guarantee that anything that is pricey will be rejected at some point by my group.

As for kitten-yes just ask your vet.  Everyone has a different opinion.

Innova makes a cat food that is for both adults and kittens. Other brands include Nature's Variety, Tiki Cat, Weruva, Daves (95% line) and Pure Vita, but I don't know if those brands have kitten food. The Tiki Cat and Weruva are low-calorie, too, so you have to feed them about 2x in volume what you would a lot of other brands.

Wellness tends to be higher fat, as do some of the higher calorie brands mentioned here (Hound and Gatos, Innnova and I think Evo). Maybe their digestive tract isn't accustomed to the higher fat yet? I wouldn't eliminate the high fat foods, though, unless you know it's a real problem. Cats are supposed to handle fat a little better than people, so it's OK to go a little higher relatively.

Sorry, I don't know about exactly when to take cats off kitten formula food. It won't hurt to leave them on it longer, though, as long as they don't get fat.

Almost forgot to give you a link to Dr. Pierson's famous cat food chart:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

She lists the protein, fat, and carb content of many cat food brands. This doesn't mean they're all good because they're on the chart. You want to find a cat food whose carb content is 10% or under and is grain-free as a general guideline.

My kitten loves both the Core and regular one. She gets wellness core dry once a meal every week or every other week, other then that bowl of dry she is strictly wet with an occasional raw meal. I feed her both adult and kitten formula. I don't believe that a kitten need to be fed a can that specifically says kitten on it. Most food is for all life stages and the way I see it is that in the wild a kitten doesn't chase after a mouse that's labeled for kitten consumption. I just keep an eye on the overall analysis, I look for high protein and higher fat, which is what kittens need. My kitten gets a rotation diet. Wellness is at the top of her list. Another you might want to try that's cheaper and easier to come by is Soulistic sold exclusively at PetCo. From what I've read its made by Weruva just for PetCo. Its grain free and has pretty good ingredients. My cat likes it in the pouch and in cans with gravy, they also offer it in cans with gelee. If you want something that's cheaper (just to try wouldn't hurt) then I would suggest Sheba, its cheap and grain free, better ingredients then Fancy Feast Classics (which is also grain free). I also like Hound & Gatos. Evo 95% is a great high quality choice as well. My kitten is kept on a rotation diet so she doesnt become fixated on one brand, or flavor or type (pate, etc.)

Sorry, my memory fails me! The Innova is NOT grain free, but the carb content is still very low.

Thank you ALL for your awesome input. I will definitely look into ALL the things mentioned here. My main concern is giving my kitties the BEST food. so they can be healthy, and not overweight. I'll have to do some research and see what will work for them...but thanks again =) this thread is SUPER helpful. Of course i'll also talk to my vet upon any decisions of changing the kitties diet and also have that question answered...when is a good time to go off kitten and move on to regular food...

i love this site and its members =)

Just as an aside, feeding them the best food will not guarantee they won't become overweight .  that will be up to YOU, to make sure you monitor them once they have finished growing, and make sure you don't over feed them, and make sure they get plenty of exercise as well with things like cat trees to jump up and down on, and interactive playtime.  Since you have two furbabies, very close in age, hopefully they will chase each other around and get lots of exercise playing together for many years, but still, it will be up to you to monitor their food intake and make sure they maintain a healthy weight.  And never forget, calories in treats add up...even healthy treats.  

I feed my cats a raw diet, and one of them is still on the pudgy side .  I convinced my husband to go raw because I said I thought it was the only way we would ever get Darko to lose weight.  He HAS lost some, but not really because he is eating raw, but because I WEIGH his portions to the tenth of an ounce so I know exactly how much he is eating.  And his Vet said I cannot feed him any less than I am feeding him  now, but he has stabilized at a weight that is higher than we would like.  And when he gets treats (100% pure meat, but freeze dried), he gets just the teeniest little pieces and I throw them as far as I can so he has to run for them.  I can't NOT give them to him when the other two are getting them     OMG, did I digress or what   Sorry 'bout that...hope I made my point

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Just as an aside, feeding them the best food will not guarantee they won't become overweight

.  that will be up to YOU, to make sure you monitor them once they have finished growing, and make sure you don't over feed them, and make sure they get plenty of exercise as well with things like cat trees to jump up and down on, and interactive playtime.  Since you have two furbabies, very close in age, hopefully they will chase each other around and get lots of exercise playing together for many years, but still, it will be up to you to monitor their food intake and make sure they maintain a healthy weight.  And never forget, calories in treats add up...even healthy treats.  

I feed my cats a raw diet, and one of them is still on the pudgy side

.  I convinced my husband to go raw because I said I thought it was the only way we would ever get Darko to lose weight.  He HAS lost some, but not really because he is eating raw, but because I WEIGH his portions to the tenth of an ounce so I know exactly how much he is eating.  And his Vet said I cannot feed him any less than I am feeding him  now, but he has stabilized at a weight that is higher than we would like.  And when he gets treats (100% pure meat, but freeze dried), he gets just the teeniest little pieces and I throw them as far as I can so he has to run for them.  I can't NOT give them to him when the other two are getting them

    OMG, did I digress or what

  Sorry 'bout that...hope I made my point

Click to expand...

Oh you're absolutely right and i definitely agree with what you're saying. I do monitor what and how much they eat. And i try not to over do it with the food amount and the number of times they eat through out the day. Charlie is good in the sense that he'll eat and once he's full he'll (even of that means there is food still in his bowl) "bury" his food and walk away (he pretend digs around the bowl and then leaves it. I don't know why), but my little one Jet, she'll eat whatever you give her, which is a far cry from when we first adopted her, she was a scrawny little two month old who never ate, so I'm glad she's eating, and putting on weight like she should, she needs to, but I have to watch her especially. She'll eat anything and everything now 

I'm really glad you brought up the whole subject of raw diet for the cats. I've been reading a lot about it, and i am seriously gearing towards it, when I have a bit more money and more space (currently living with roommates, small apartment, smaller fridge space  ), but i LOVE the idea of making food for my fur babies. I know what's in the food they're eating. NO unpronounceable items in the list of ingredients... so hopefully soon I will try that out....do they have to be of a certain age to transition to a raw diet??

Young kittens take to raw very well .  Older cats sometimes have a problem because they have no idea that's what they were meant to eat.  Two of mine were 3 years old when we transitioned, and they were "difficult" at best .  It took me months of rolling their little raw lamb balls in crushed treats to get them to eat it.  But they were kibble addicts prior to that.  I think if they are used to canned food, it's easier, because at least you can mix the raw into it, but others here have still had issues with it.  However, some cats take to it right away, it just depends on the cat. 

You can actually buy commercial prepared 100% nutritionally complete raw food, which doesn't take up too much freezer space, then just defrost a little at a time.  Most of those foods come in frozen nuggets or patties so they really do defrost in no time at all.  It's not quite making your own, and is more expensive, but is an option.  I ended up buying a whole extra freezer for the garage for the cats, and turns out for 3 cats, they only needed one shelf of that freezer for their food.  It doesn't really take up as much room as you would think.

Have you looked at our raw resources thread?  If not, there is a wealth of info there.  Here's the link:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

Thank you yes! I will take a better look at the link once i get home.

My kitties are 4mo. and 2 mo. do you think that will be an issue? they're both on a kibble and can food diet, mostly can food now..

If your interested in buying commercially prepared raw some brands I like are

http://www.petco.com/product/121727/Natures-Variety-Instinct-Raw-Bites-Frozen-Pet-Food.aspx

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/cat-food?gclid=CLXn2_uElrsCFSVgMgodpjgA3g

http://www.darwinspet.com/our-cat-food/
 

http://cats.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1...ww.stevesrealfood.com/feline/cat_chicken.html

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Primal-Pet-Foods-Raw-Cat-Food/165006.aspx

The second link I providing I recommend checking out. Its called The Honest Kitchen, everything is human grade and made in the U.S, they have sample bundles available for a short time for a 1$! Shipping should be like 2.50$. Worth checking out too see if your kitty's like it. Here is a link to the bundles
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/other-items/sample-bundle

or if you happen to have a retailer that sells THK near by here is a link to get a free trail sized box, call them first to make sure they have the cat version first though! Some only carry the dog ones. Also the trail box makes one whole pound of food! O:

http://cdn.thehonestkitchen.com/med...ssc=9697450.4.1386141916499&__hsfp=1158265965