What Canned to Try Next?

dianamc

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Background: My previous indoor/outdoor kitty had eaten only dry food. We had to have her put to sleep 2 years ago when she was 11.  I think several vets missed the obvious signs of kidney problems.  When we finally got a new kitten, I decided to feed mostly canned food and the craziness began.

Miss Dandy will be 6 mos. old at the beginning of January and we've had her since she was 8 wks.  We live in an isolated rural area and the only pet store is a small Petco that is 45 mins. away.  There's no place to try a can or two of many of these brands. I've mostly been ordering on the internet.

History

We got her started on Wellness Dry Kitten Food and she still gets 1//2 cup of it at night and eats all or most of it.

Reading about all the foods made me so confused.  I thought the Wellness canned Kitten Formula was carageenan free and we've been feeding her this.  The last case seemed to smell worse, she refused it a couple of times and her breath smelled sometimes.  That's when I realized that it's had carageenan in all along.  We will be out of it soon.  She will eat 1+ can of this a day.  It's been her staple food and I have no idea what to replace it with.

Earlier I tried the Wellness CORE Kitten food but she didn't like it and it has carageenan too.  We tried Canidae Pure Elements and she ate it but she smelled so bad that I returned the other 2 cans of the other Canidae varieties.  They had carageenan anyway.

I ordered

Hound and Gatos in two flavors.  At first she seemed to eat the one, but then she got pickier.  I have finally given up on the chicken entirely.  She will eat the Lamb, Chicken & Salmon if it is mixed with Fancy Feast Classic Chicken.  Before mixing, I was dumping most of it.  A case of 5.5 oz. cans of this has lasted a long time.  Buttons our outdoor cat will eat the chicken so real raw hasn't spoiled her :).  She never had canned before.

Tiki Cat Chicken - She likes it but it is too expensive and seems kind of limited for regular feeding.  It's a special treat.

Weruva Chicken in Gravy - Oh boy was this a mistake.  She loves it but she can eat a whole can and then be hungry in an hour or two.  I didn't realize there was so little food in these cans.  It seems to make her hungrier.

I need to order again soon since she will be out of her kitten food and I'm pretty much out of ideas.  Everything I find either has carageenan or a bunch of crazy ingredients.  Raw and homemade are not options here.  She would eat Fancy Feast but I don't want her to get stuck on that.  I don't know if the Hound & Gatos mixed with Fancy Feast is a reasonable compromise or not.  I wish she would eat it reliably with the mix, but I don't think so.  It has a funny texture, especially when you reheat it.

Thanks for any ideas.  I did get the Drinkwell out for her and she does use it.  She eats 3-4 meals a day.  She is half Siamese and half Ragdoll but seems very Siamese in most ways.
 

Willowy

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I was going to suggest raw or homecooked but no? It really is very fast and easy if you get a premix, and is generally cheaper than the high-quality canned foods. And it's the only way you'll have (almost) full control of the ingredients.

There aren't a lot of canned foods without carageenan :/. I think we have a thread around here somewhere. . .yeah, this one seems to have a lot of suggestions: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum
 
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dianamc

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Thanks for replying.  I'm disabled and my husband has health problems so cooking for the cat really isn't an option here.  I think I did look at that link before, but I appreciate it again.  They really do get confusing though.

I don't need complete control over the ingredients, but I've seen so much about carrageenan being bad that I was trying to avoid it.

I was thinking of trying Evo but now it seems to have carrageenan.  I seem to have Nature's Variety on my list but it has a bunch of vegies and stuff. 

This Weruva is really weird.  She ate nearly a can of it this morning and was still starving.  We weighed her and she is about 7.5 lb.

What do you all think about the Hound & Gatos mix?  Is this better than something else?  I wish she'd eat the HG alone but I was tossing way too much of it.
 

denice

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I think Hounds and Gatos mixed with Fancy Feast would be good especially if it is the Fancy Feast classic.  The Nature's Variety Instinct is good, the Prairie has veggies in it.  The Instinct used to have peas in it but I see on their website it doesn't even have those anymore.  The Nature's Variety does cost more than the Hounds and Gatos does though.  The Weruva has fewer calories than many foods.  If I remember right there is only around 100 calories in a 5.5 ounce can, that is much lower than most foods.
 
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dianamc

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Thanks.  I've been using the Fancy Feast Classic but have been careful because I didn't want her "addicted" to it.  Weruva is low-calorie but it should make a snack anyway.  It seems to make her hungrier but had a bunch of great reviews.  She does like it.

The place I looked must have been outdated because they still had the peas in the Nature's Variety Instinct. I'll go the the mfgr from now on.  Those peas were  one thing I thought was weird.  Hound & Gatos is reasonably priced, if she eats it, but I want to have some variety so she won't get stuck on just one.  She will have to switch from the "Kitten" eventually and I want that to be seamless.  Hound & Gatos says it's "Paleolithic Pet Food" and I had to look that up.  I guess it's suppose to be what cave-cats ate?
 
 

laurag

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I did that with my current brood. My plan was to make sure they had higher quality canned food. What ended up working best was mixing brands. Yes I feed Fancy Feast Classics but also include Evo, Wellness, Wellness Core and sometimes Merrick. I have 3 different flavors and portion out "entree and sides" lol for each of the cats so they have different bits of flavor and texture on one plate.

This has worked now for 7 or 8 years.  My cats will really love something one day and be indifferent to it the very next day. So having three flavors twice a day helps them. My most recent addition, Boo Berry, decided that he was a freeze dried raw cat only. Well, I offered that to them and he was the one who said "yes! this is it. Thank you."

I have 6 cats who split a 5.5oz and 2 3 oz cans of food at each meal. The larger can is the "entree" and the 2 smaller cans are the sides. The large can is usually Wellness/Evo/Merrick/Core and the two small cans are different flavors of Fancy Feast Classic.

They do not like all flavors of Wellness and only will agree to Turkey, Chicken, Turkey with Salmon. Evo duck is good. They aren't wild about the others. Merrick they like Cowboy Cookout and Grammy's Pot Pie. Fancy Feast Classic all flavors are accepted.

They all like Weruva Fowl Ball and the other chicken flavors but it is more of a snack than a meal, or useful to add a different taste to the plate.

For all of them, I've tried Rad Cat raw and even Boo doesn't want that. He wants food warmer than that. The others are a no go on raw-including the freeze dried.

What I have found with the freeze dried food (Stella and Chewy's and Primal) is that it is super easy to measure out what you want and then you can add a bit more water to get into a kitty that won't touch plain water (Boo Berry). I warm up a 1/2 cup water and mix it with 1/2 cup Stella and Chewy's and then mash it up making a broth for the food. He wouldn't eat it one day and so I crumbled up a piece of Life Essentials freeze dried chicken and so now of course----I have to do that at every meal.

The Primal is softer and so it doesn't take a bigger share of water like Stella and Chewy's.  He doesn't like me going back and forth between the two bags though and gets fixated on having the same thing at both meals.

I feed them a smaller meal before bed which for the 6 is two 3 oz cans of Fancy feast classic or even a can of Friskies pate.  Boo likes a 1/2 cup of plain meat. Etta one of the 6 decided that she likes the plain meat too so now that is also her night meal.

I do the plain meat because the bone content in the freeze dried makes it a bit hard for Boo to poop. He loves loves loves beef. I'm so surprised because that meat is shunned by the others unless its the Merricks Cowboy cookout. But mostly I cook turkey thighs or dark meat chicken and save the broth for the night meal.

I want to try U Stew supplement to add to the cooked meat, but haven't tried it yet. 

https://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_u-stew

I also ran across a recipe for making "bone broth" where the bones of the meat are simmered with vinegar for 24 hours and fed as a supplement from this website Healthy Pets-Karen Becker. I'm interested in trying that too. hthttp://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/12/02/pet-bone-broth.aspx.

I understand the idea that cooking for your cats is potentially a time suck and difficult if you are disabled. For the cooked meat snacks, I have started buying more of whatever food I'm fixing for supper and then set aside what I'm going to make for Boo from our meal (without seasonings or salt).

The meat snack requires that he chew it and so I'm guessing his teeth are getting a good cleaning while he's working. Now if I could convince the others....

Oh and I leave a 1/2 cup of Wellness core dry out overnight in 2 bowls for the evening munchies. 
 
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raintyger

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The Weruva is very low calorie, that is why she is still hungry. About half the calories as your average food. It is very good food, though. Mixing Hound and Gatos and Fancy Feast should be fine. You can follow the links in my signature to find places that sell single cans of cat food so you can try them. Hound and Gatos also has a link to some place that sells their food by the single can on their website.

http://houndgatos.com/cat-products.aspx

She likes both Tiki and Weruva, so perhaps it is the texture that she is going for? Try seeing if she likes other brands that are shredded. Simply Nourish or Soulistic have similar textures, but are 15% and 13% carbs, a little higher than optimal (you want 10% or lower carbs). Watch the calories on these, as a lot of the shredded/stew foods are low calorie. Soulistic has carrageenan. Nutro has sliced food.

The By Nature Organics organic line (NOT their 95% line) does not have carrageenan. They also have a stew line which has higher water content and tiny cubed food morsels.

http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/cat-food/
 
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dianamc

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laurag, It must be a regular Kitty Buffet at your house
  I'm sure Dandy could find something to suit her there.  In some ways it is a little easier having the extra cat because she will eat what Dandy won't (or the Border Collie gets it, we aren't quite sure).  I don't cook for us either any more so whipping up meals for little miss picky here is not on my agenda.  Maybe it is her age, but one day she eats ravenously and the next she doesn't seem to be too interested.  If I had more cats and I were younger and in better health, I would look into the homemade diets.

Raintyger, thanks for some ideas to look into.  I know Weruva is considered a good food and maybe Dandy's reaction to it is unusual because she really acts like she's had nothing, and we know better than to consider it a whole meal.  It is the chicken in the gravy stuff and she cleans the bowl like it's been washed.  She accepts the texture of all the other foods okay.  I don't know if you've ever had Hound & Gatos but it is almost like a mousse or something.  She likes it better fresh from the can but when it's reheated it breaks down and gets soupier.  So far, the mix with FF Chicken has gone down 100% though.

I appreciate the help.  I read all the awful stuff about carrageenan but it is still in so many of the products.  I'm torn about ignoring the warnings and trying to avoid future problems.  I never dreamed this would be so complicated. 
 

nocturnal-catz

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I recently found a good food for my 6 month old kitten (8 lbs). Though I don't feed her a 'kitten' only food I finally got her to eat properly by mixing Evo all stages with Wellness Core all stages. She is finally eating a good amount since we adopted her a little over 2 weeks ago. So I second trying to mix some of them together and see if that works for you.
 
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dianamc

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I recently found a good food for my 6 month old kitten (8 lbs). Though I don't feed her a 'kitten' only food I finally got her to eat properly by mixing Evo all stages with Wellness Core all stages. She is finally eating a good amount since we adopted her a little over 2 weeks ago. So I second trying to mix some of them together and see if that works for you.
I am so glad to hear that your kitten is 8 lbs.  I wasn't sure if Dandy was too heavy or not and she isn't due at the vet's for a whole year.  She is acting a little strange now though.

We are now wondering if the FF chicken is what is making her poop smell so bad :(  Or maybe it is the Weruva (could be).  She had both of them.  I was blaming the FF but it could be that starch or something, I guess. 

Thanks again and hope your 'kid' doesn't drive you so crazy.
 
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