Cat Food

My kitten Tigger was recommend by his vet to go on a grain-free diet. The vet recommended some brands. (Wellness, Innova, California Natural, Taste of the Wild, and one other.) Currently, I have been feeding him Wellness Core which is clearly labeled grain free. Other recommended brands I looked into getting my kitten were the Taste of Wild and California Natural. Does anyone know if those are grain-free? These ones are not clearly labeled grain-free and in their ingredients looks like they contain rice etc so I am not sure cause that to me is not grain free but then I am confused as to why my vet recommended them...Hope someone can help me out and give me an answer because those other brands are cheaper and so if I can make the switch it would make my wallet happier!

I feed wellness core to my kitten, but currently switching to Evo. They are both grain free. If the little one likes wellness core keep him on, it is grain free and it was probably just over looked by the vet.

Can anyone tell me the difference between wellness kitten and wellness core kitten (other than price)? I just switched my baby from rc babycat, which she avoided like the plague, to wellness kitten. She devours it, but I want to make sure she has the best nutrition.

toddypu said:

Can anyone tell me the difference between wellness kitten and wellness core kitten (other than price)? I just switched my baby from rc babycat, which she avoided like the plague, to wellness kitten. She devours it, but I want to make sure she has the best nutrition.

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Wellness Core generally is richer and has higher protein levels than regular Wellness. If your cat has no problem with Core (due to its richness some cats may not do well on Core), that is preferred.

There are links on the Wellness site with the ingredients and analysis. I'm not sure if this is regarding dry or wet, but the CORE wet comes in 5.5 oz. cans and has fish in it. My cat didn't like it. The Wellness Kitten Formula only comes in 3 oz. cans and is what Dandy (6 mos.) still eats.
The Kitten Complete Health dry has rice (she eats this one at night) and the CORE Kitten has potatoes and peas.
(I made a post with links but got extra spaces and discarded it)

I believe that rice is not technically considered a grain, so pet food manufacturers can add rice, peas and potatoes and other other starchy vegetables and still claim it's "grain-free." If you truly want low to no carb foods, stick with a meat, organs, broth and vitamins only food like EVO, Hound & Gatos, Tiki Cat chicken varieties, etc.

I believe that rice is not technically considered a grain,

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. . .I'm not sure what else it would be? Rice is pretty unmistakeably a grain.

It's true that grain-free foods do tend to have a lot of starchy veggies, and potatoes can cause inflammatory issues in some people/cats, so I'm not convinced that grain-free food is always better. Look at the meat content; that's what's most important. If a food with oats has more meat than a food with potatoes and peas, I'm gonna go with the food with oats.

Thanks for all the input. Keeping my Tigger on Wellness Core for now.

Rice is supposedly very digestible. I would personally pick rice over the addition of some other fillers like corn or wheat. I don't think those are common in wet food though (except for wheat gluten) Grain free doesn't mean starch free as you've discovered. It just means it does not have wheat, corn, oats, rice in it. Pea flour is supposed to be novel enough that kitties with sensitive digestive systems aren't supposed to be adversely affected. However, I think it is entirely possible that they would be.  You just have to keep a close eye on your cat to see if the kitty is one who would be or not.

My cats have never liked California Natural. hey are okay with Innova. Wellness and Wellness Core is very limited in what they will eat of it.  California Natural, Evo, Innova are all made by Natura pet foods  http://www.naturapet.com/

California Natural has a grain-free dry, I don't know about canned.  As 'trendy' as grain-free is, if it doesn't say it, it probably isn't.  With canned you also need to beware of carrageenan and too much fish (often used even if not the main protein).  Do you know if the vet specifically wanted you to avoid grains or was just trying to get him on lower carbs??

Vet recommended grain free as little Tigger was having trouble digesting the food he was previously given by the pet store he was bought from. Tigger's stool is rather large for a kitten and smelly. Due to this he recommended grain free as is believed to be a healthier diet and he also put Tigger on a probiotic chew to have once a day. The food the pet store had him on was nutrisource which is what I began feeding him when I brought him home. Now he is on wellness/wellness core grain free. The change of food and probiotic chew combined seem to be helping but not a great deal. Not sure what's gonna happen next.

I prefer wellness and Taste of the Wild brand for my cats but now I switch to Merrick that is entirely grain free brand.

Have you tried a human probiotic instead? I'd prefer to use human probiotics such as Natural Factor's () instead of pet probiotic chews because of the other ingredients that may be in it.

I agree with what people say about if grain-free is low carbohydrate. I think grain-free is good, but there should be a "no-starch" trend too, honestly. Even better, just no-carbs. This link (http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf) has a list of many commercial canned foods and list the percentages of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. I found it to be a great resource when I was still feeding Lox all canned. Because of all the other factors in canned food (BPA, carrageenan, starchy vegetables, cost) I switched to raw. 

If only cats can talk we can find out what's upsetting their stomach.  

pinkman said:

 
Have you tried a human probiotic instead? I'd prefer to use human probiotics such as Natural Factor's () instead of pet probiotic chews because of the other ingredients that may be in it.

I agree with what people say about if grain-free is low carbohydrate. I think grain-free is good, but there should be a "no-starch" trend too, honestly. Even better, just no-carbs. This link (http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf) has a list of many commercial canned foods and list the percentages of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. I found it to be a great resource when I was still feeding Lox all canned. Because of all the other factors in canned food (BPA, carrageenan, starchy vegetables, cost) I switched to raw. 

If only cats can talk we can find out what's upsetting their stomach.  

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I agree on the starches too. I actually do worry some about the can liners. 

As an fyi to people wanting to try raw, my recent rescue guy, a former stray, took to freeze dried raw immediately. I selected it because you add water to it and it was a way to get more hydration to him. He will have nothing to do with raw-tried Rad Cat and ended up cooking it to get him to eat it. The other cats won't accept any raw at all. Several enjoy cooked meat though. So it can be an expensive transition to try to get them to give it a try.

As for probiotics, I had a great deal of success with Animal Essentials brand and then recently started with the Petsuperfood Digestion. That one has a lot of B vitamins in it and a smell that the Animal Essentials did not. And so the kitties aren't as oblivious to the Petsuperfood and will avoid it if they can. I'll probably switch back to Animal Essentials.

Lauren65, you said you feed your cat taste of wild. My vet recommended that brand as well. I looked at it but not sure if it is grain free. Online says yes but on the dry food packages themselves it does not say grain free like most other grain free foods do. I'm sure it is if online says just that grain free print on the package makes me feel better I guess ha

You can look at the ingredient list to see if there are any grains . Taste of the Wild is grain-free but is also fairly high in plant ingredients. It's a decent food but not super high-quality, IMO. Not that many dry foods are :tongue2:.