As a pet parent, I want to best for my cat like any other parent. Currently my cat is on Almo Nature wet food and Royal Canin Siamese. He has eaten Meow Mix for most of his life since I never realized how bad it was for him. Once I realized how horrible it is for their bodies, i immediately switched to a better cat food. I don't know too much about finding the best cat food or what to look for ingredient wise, but I would love to get something that isn't loaded with junk. My cat is very picky, so it is difficult to find him a food that he loves. He does enjoys Almo Nature, but I've also heard that Applaws and Bonzita are a better option. So I was wondering which wet food would be the best. As for the Dry food, he is currently eating Royal Canin Siamese which he loves to death and I have seen great results. However, I've heard that Taste of the Wild would be a better alternative since it doesn't contain wheat or corn gluten. I was wondering how much Taste of the Wild is better and if the difference is really that significant. My cat loves the Royal Canin Siamese food greatly, so I would hate to take it away from him. However, if Taste of the Wild is a lot better for him and can make him healthier, it is something I would love to try.

We feed our two Maus on Bozita  and Taste of the Wild. The Bozita wet food comes in many different flavours so you can try a few to see what your cat likes best, we are lucky as our cats will eat any flavour   The Call of the Wild dry food they are on is' Venison and Smoked Salmon' we order the food from a site on the internet called  'Zooplus'  These two products were recommended by a very good Sphynx breeder that we know.

The problem with both Almo Nature and Applaws is that they're supplemental, not complete, cat foods. The same is true of Feline Porta 21. Thrive Complete is very similar to Almo Nature and Applaws, but like the name says, it's complete, so a better choice. The one problem with it is there's not much of a selection if you want to avoid too much fish, as recommended. You can get chicken breast, chicken breast and turkey, as well as chicken breast and liver.

Bozita is a complete cat food. Two other complete foods you could look at are Animonda Carny and Catz. They're paté, unlike the Thrive.

Zooplus also has a Dutch website: zooplus.nl, with a number of different grain-free foods.

This site http://www.catinfo.org/ written by a vet talks about feline nutrition in a general way which should help you to figure out which foods are better. Most of the foods she lists in her chart are probably not available to you, but it does give general guidelines of the nutritional profiles you are looking for.

vball91 said:

 
This site http://www.catinfo.org/ written by a vet talks about feline nutrition in a general way which should help you to figure out which foods are better. Most of the foods she lists in her chart are probably not available to you, but it does give general guidelines of the nutritional profiles you are looking for.

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Thank you for trying to help me ! Unfortunately the site you gave me says this:

Sorry, "www.catinfo.org" does not exist or could not be found

jcat said:

The problem with both Almo Nature and Applaws is that they're supplemental, not complete, cat foods. The same is true of Feline Porta 21. Thrive Complete is very similar to Almo Nature and Applaws, but like the name says, it's complete, so a better choice. The one problem with it is there's not much of a selection if you want to avoid too much fish, as recommended. You can get chicken breast, chicken breast and turkey, as well as chicken breast and liver.

Bozita is a complete cat food. Two other complete foods you could look at are Animonda Carny and Catz. They're paté, unlike the Thrive.

Zooplus also has a Dutch website: zooplus.nl, with a number of different grain-free foods.

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It sucks that Almo Nature isn't a complete cat food since it is high quality and is healthy. I wonder if it would be bad to feed my cat a supplemental cat food since he also get's dry food to snack on during the day. Or would it be better to stick with a complete cat food, even though he gets dry food? Thank you for letting me know Applaws wasn't a complete food. That's a shame I should avoid too much fish since that's my cat's favorite type of food. He goes crazy over fish rather than beef or chicken. Just wondering, why is it not ideal to feed them too much fish?

a bit

I love Zooplus and use it almost every time I want to purchase something for my cat. Thrive looks like a good cat food, but it is pretty expensive, especially when I think the other cat foods are just as good, but cost less. I really like Bonzita, Animonda Carny and Catz. The all have high protein and real meat instead of bad things like bi products. All of them cost much less than Almo Nature which worries me a little since I hope they match up to the same quality. Which one would you recommend for being the best?
 

Sorry about all the questions and concerns. I don't have much experience in buying good quality cat food. I just want the best for my baby, so he can live long and happy. Especially since he spend so many years of his life eating food that appearently was garbage

Katocats said:

 
We feed our two Maus on Bozita  and Taste of the Wild. The Bozita wet food comes in many different flavours so you can try a few to see what your cat likes best, we are lucky as our cats will eat any flavour

  The Call of the Wild dry food they are on is' Venison and Smoked Salmon' we order the food from a site on the internet called  'Zooplus'  These two products were recommended by a very good Sphynx breeder that we know.

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Bonzita looks like a nice change, although I don't know too much about it. Hopefully my baby would like it since he is super picky. I love Zooplus and I always use them when buying cat products! The only Taste of the Wild types I see on Zooplus are Rocky Mountain Feline and Canyon River Feline, I'm not sure which one would be the better choice. The only problem with trying Taste of the Wild is that the smallest bag they have is 2,27 kg and that is 20 euros. Pretty pricey for only 2.27 kg. So the best option would be to go for the 6,8 kg which is 40 euros. Much more reasonable and you get more for you're money. The problem is I don't know if it's something he would enjoy, so I'm a bit worried on what I should do.

Thank you for trying to help me vball91 ! Unfortunately the site you gave me says it does not exist or it could not be found.

jcat said:

The problem with both Almo Nature and Applaws is that they're supplemental, not complete, cat foods. The same is true of Feline Porta 21. Thrive Complete is very similar to Almo Nature and Applaws, but like the name says, it's complete, so a better choice. The one problem with it is there's not much of a selection if you want to avoid too much fish, as recommended. You can get chicken breast, chicken breast and turkey, as well as chicken breast and liver.

Bozita is a complete cat food. Two other complete foods you could look at are Animonda Carny and Catz. They're paté, unlike the Thrive.

Zooplus also has a Dutch website: zooplus.nl, with a number of different grain-free foods.

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It sucks that Almo Nature isn't a complete cat food since it is high quality and is healthy. I wonder if it would be bad to feed my cat a supplemental cat food since he also get's dry food to snack on during the day. Or would it be better to stick with a complete cat food, even though he gets dry food? Thank you for letting me know Applaws wasn't a complete food. That's a shame I should avoid too much fish since that's my cat's favorite type of food. He goes crazy over fish rather than beef or chicken. Just wondering, why is it not ideal to feed them too much fish?

a bit

I love Zooplus and use it almost every time I want to purchase something for my cat. Thrive looks like a good cat food, but it is pretty expensive, especially when I think the other cat foods are just as good, but cost less. I really like Bonzita, Animonda Carny and Catz. The all have high protein and real meat instead of bad things like bi products. All of them cost much less than Almo Nature which worries me a little since I hope they match up to the same quality. Which one would you recommend for being the best?
 

Sorry about all the questions and concerns. I don't have much experience in buying good quality cat food. I just want the best for my baby, so he can live long and happy. Especially since he spend so many years of his life eating food that appearently was garbage

Katocats said:

 
We feed our two Maus on Bozita  and Taste of the Wild. The Bozita wet food comes in many different flavours so you can try a few to see what your cat likes best, we are lucky as our cats will eat any flavour

  The Call of the Wild dry food they are on is' Venison and Smoked Salmon' we order the food from a site on the internet called  'Zooplus'  These two products were recommended by a very good Sphynx breeder that we know.

Click to expand...

Bonzita looks like a nice change, although I don't know too much about it. Hopefully my baby would like it since he is super picky. I love Zooplus and I always use them when buying cat products! The only Taste of the Wild types I see on Zooplus are Rocky Mountain Feline and Canyon River Feline, I'm not sure which one would be the better choice. The only problem with trying Taste of the Wild is that the smallest bag they have is 2,27 kg and that is 20 euros. Pretty pricey for only 2.27 kg. So the best option would be to go for the 6,8 kg which is 40 euros. Much more reasonable and you get more for you're money. The problem is I don't know if it's something he would enjoy, so I'm a bit worried on what I should do.

It's odd that the catinfo link isn't working for you. There are a couple of problems with feeding fish. To quote from that vet's site:

Fish - I do not feed fish to cats for the following reasons:

high allergy potential (manifested as skin allergies or inflammatory bowel disease, and possibly asthma)

toxin/mercury contamination

PBDEs (fire retardant chemicals) - PBDEs are potent thyroid disruptors

often high in phosphorus and magnesium

highly addictive - the cat will not eat anything else

If you want to feed a fish-based food as a treat, please limit it to once or twice a week. (I do not feed any fish to my cats.)

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It's impossible to say what food is "best", because that depends on your cat and what she will or can eat. Our Mogli has IBD and food allergies, so he eats prescription canned food from Vet-Concept. He can also eat Catz food as long as there's no grain or chicken in it, so he gets a little Catz veal or lamb once or twice a week.

Are there any small online shops in the Netherlands that would send you samples of the Taste of the Wild?

Supplemental food really isn't meant to be fed every day, even if you're feeding dry in addition.

jcat said:

It's odd that the catinfo link isn't working for you. There are a couple of problems with feeding fish. To quote from that vet's site:
It's impossible to say what food is "best", because that depends on your cat and what she will or can eat. Our Mogli has IBD and food allergies, so he eats prescription canned food from Vet-Concept. He can also eat Catz food as long as there's no grain or chicken in it, so he gets a little Catz veal or lamb once or twice a week.

Are there any small online shops in the Netherlands that would send you samples of the Taste of the Wild?

Supplemental food really isn't meant to be fed every day, even if you're feeding dry in addition.

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Thank you for letting me know about the fish, I had no idea it was so bad. It is true that my cat is pretty addicted to it, but he eats chicken and other meats as well. I will start feeding him less fish though. Well by "best" cat food, I mean which cat food is superior to the others. Since the ones I listed all have no grains and are complete cat food, I'm wondering which one has high quality protein, the content is made up mostly of real meat, good vitamins, a low level of carbohydrates, taurine, and things like that. I've been looking at the labels of all three foods and I'm having a difficult time deciding which one. Mostly because I've never understood how important it is to pick a cat food without grains, corn, or by products. His whole life I fed my cat Meow Mix which is one of the worst cat foods I've heard. So now i'm trying to find out which cat food is better and not make the same mistake again. My cat has no food allergies or anything like that, so he can eat pretty much anything. I'm sorry to hear about Mogli. Hopefully he is doing well on his prescription.

I haven't found any small online shops in the Netherlands that are willing to send me a sample of Taste of the Wild unfortunately. It's also difficult to find ones that carry Taste of the WIld since it's an American food.

Thank you for clarifying! I didn't know supplement food would be bad if it was paired along with dry food.

A lot of people feed more than one brand to keep their cats from becoming fixated on just one food. You never know whether a food will become unavailable due to a recall, your cat will get sick of it, the recipe will change, or your cat will need prescription food later for a health reason. Variety is good as long as you introduce a new food slowly by mixing increasing quantities in with the old. There's no need to choose just Bozita, Carny or Catz, unless your cat doesn't like one or more of them.

Our last cat insisted on different brands. He got all of the brands listed above (complete and supplemental).

jcat said:

A lot of people feed more than one brand to keep their cats from becoming fixated on just one food. You never know whether a food will become unavailable due to a recall, your cat will get sick of it, the recipe will change, or your cat will need prescription food later for a health reason. Variety is good as long as you introduce a new food slowly by mixing increasing quantities in with the old. There's no need to choose just Bozita, Carny or Catz, unless your cat doesn't like one or more of them.

Our last cat insisted on different brands. He got all of the brands listed above (complete and supplemental).

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That does sound like a good idea. I also thinking it will help to make sure a cat doesn't get bored of his food. My cat is starting to get tired of Almo Nature which might be a good thing so we can put him on the other foods that are complete. It also is good if one food gets recalled. Next time I order from Zooplus, I think I will try getting a variety of Bonzita, Carny, and Catz to see which one he likes and to give him some variety.

Hi, can you tell me where you buy Almo Nature wet cat food in the USA? I'm moving from London and can't get a reply from Almo Nature headquarters. My cats eat classic pouches if chicken fillet, in addition to Royal Canin dry adult food. I've been emailing and filling out the webform on their US site, but get no response. The store locator option doesn't work. It says their products have been available since August 2013 in the USA.
http://www.almonature.us
Thanks for any help.

Taste of the Wild. Royal Canin is another of the big brands that use by-products, fillers, and grains like Hills, Iams, Science Diet, and Purina.

I avoid those brands like the plague.

Taste of the Wild does not contain by-products and is grain-free. If you consider some carbs as fillers, then yes, you could say that TOTW contains fillers. However, most grain-free dry and wet foods will contain carbs in lieu of grains that would be there in other brands.

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/products/cats/dry_food/rocky_mountain_feline_formula/

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.co..._food/rocky_mountain_feline_formula_in_gravy/

Hello,

Sorry for the delayed response, I didn't notice I had a new post. Being from the U.S., I never seen Almo Nature in any store. I believe it's only in Europe since it comes from the UK. I checked online at Petco and Petsmart, but they don't have it available. I did however find it on the U.S. Amazon, but it's very expensive and in my opinion not worth it. Don't get me wrong, Almo Nature is a wonderful food for cats and has really good ingredients, but I learned that it's not the best since it isn't considered a "incomplete" Cat food.Some people on the fourm told me it isn't good to always feed a cat a incomplete cat food since they miss out on nutrition and it doesn't give them everything they need. I've heard that Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Merrick, Natural Balance, EVO, Innova, and Natures Variety are all really good cat foods. They are Grain-Free and I believe they are complete cat foods.

meowmars007 said:

 
Taste of the Wild. Royal Canin is another of the big brands that use by-products, fillers, and grains like Hills, Iams, Science Diet, and Purina.

I avoid those brands like the plague.

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I heard that Royal Canin and the other brands used By-Products and fillers from the people on the fourm, but I had no idea that Taste of the WIld also used them. Thank you for letting me know. It really is difficult finding a good quality cat food. Do you know if the Applaws dry food is good or if it has anything bad in it? I need to buy my cat a new dry food since his Royal Canin Siamese is almost gone, but it's difficult trying to find the best dry food for him when there's so many horrible ones. If the Applaws isn't good, I would really appreciate if you could give me a recommendation on a good dry food.

oneandahalfcats said:

 
Taste of the Wild does not contain by-products and is grain-free. If you consider some carbs as fillers, then yes, you could say that TOTW contains fillers. However, most grain-free dry and wet foods will contain carbs in lieu of grains that would be there in other brands.

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/products/cats/dry_food/rocky_mountain_feline_formula/

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.co..._food/rocky_mountain_feline_formula_in_gravy/

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I had no idea that Taste of the Wild had wet food! Too bad they don't have them in the Netherlands or on Zooplus. I know that TOTW is Grain-free and that's what made me interested. I really like all the nutrients it provides. The one thing that concerns me with TOTW is the ingredients list. First off I see a lot of veggies which I'm not sure how good that would be for a cat. Secondly, the Rocky Mountain Feline Formula has Roasted Venison & Smoked Salmon shown for the main component/flavor. But if you look in the ingredient list, Chicken meal is the first thing to pop up which is strange since Chicken isn't the main flavor. The Roasted Venison & Smoked Salmon unfortunately don't come for a while down the list which makes me unsure about the food. I've heard that good quality dry foods should always list the main meats first and not somewhere down the list. Now I'm still learning how to tell if a cat food is good quality and which ones to avoid, so I'm not totally sure if I'm right or worrying for nothing. I do wonder how good the Applaws Dry Food is though since it looks like is good quality, but I'm not sure.

Quote:

jenniator said:

 
I had no idea that Taste of the Wild had wet food! Too bad they don't have them in the Netherlands or on Zooplus. I know that TOTW is Grain-free and that's what made me interested. I really like all the nutrients it provides. The one thing that concerns me with TOTW is the ingredients list. First off I see a lot of veggies which I'm not sure how good that would be for a cat. Secondly, the Rocky Mountain Feline Formula has Roasted Venison & Smoked Salmon shown for the main component/flavor. But if you look in the ingredient list, Chicken meal is the first thing to pop up which is strange since Chicken isn't the main flavor. The Roasted Venison & Smoked Salmon unfortunately don't come for a while down the list which makes me unsure about the food. I've heard that good quality dry foods should always list the main meats first and not somewhere down the list. Now I'm still learning how to tell if a cat food is good quality and which ones to avoid, so I'm not totally sure if I'm right or worrying for nothing. I do wonder how good the Applaws Dry Food is though since it looks like is good quality, but I'm not sure.

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Hi Jenniator :

TOTW does contain carbs such as veggies and some fruits, but as I mentioned in my previous comments, I think you will find that most grain-free dry and wet foods will contain some veggies in lieu of grains that would be there in other brands. Unless a company can offer 95% meat protein in a canned or wet food, it has to contain something to replace the grains and in most cases this is in the form of carbs. Some more than others.

You mentioned Blue Buffalo in your list of good foods .. If you take a look at the following link to a list of ingredients in the BB Adult Indoor food, you will see a few veggies and fruits in this food : http://www.bluebuffalo.com/cat-food/bc-indoor-health-chicken

The MEAL sources in the TOTW, are the Ocean Fish and Chicken. The Roasted Venison and Salmon ARE meat sources in the TOTW, and not flavors.The venison and salmon are about 7th on the list and compliment the meat source which I think is a good thing. If the Venison and Salmon were higher on the list, this would mean that there would be a greater amount of these ingredients in the food, but then the price would be much higher, guaranteed. In this food, the MAIN meat is chicken. Depending on the source of chicken, chicken meal may in some respects, be providing more benefits that chicken as an ingredient. To give you some understanding of chicken meal, here is an explanation :

Chicken meal, according to AAFCO, is the dry rendered product from a combination of clean flesh and skin of a chicken that is derived from whole carcasses of chicken. NO feathers, heads, feet and entrails. The Chicken meal process involves taking a chicken roaster and grinding it up, mixing everything together including muscle, skin and bones. The water content averages around 70%, along with 18% protein and 5% fat. Now take this ground chicken and carefully dry it to a moisture level of 10%. The protein content is now 65% and the fat level is 12%. This product is chicken meal.  So basically what you are getting with chicken or other meat source meal, is a dehydrated form of meat protein.

Depending on what your budget is, TOTW will be a decent reasonably priced grain-free canned and dry food versus feeding something like RC, IAMS, Purina, Science Diet, Hills, which do contain grains such as corn and wheat in most of the varieties.

jenniator said:

 
I heard that Royal Canin and the other brands used By-Products and fillers from the people on the fourm, but I had no idea that Taste of the WIld also used them. Thank you for letting me know. It really is difficult finding a good quality cat food. Do you know if the Applaws dry food is good or if it has anything bad in it? I need to buy my cat a new dry food since his Royal Canin Siamese is almost gone, but it's difficult trying to find the best dry food for him when there's so many horrible ones. If the Applaws isn't good, I would really appreciate if you could give me a recommendation on a good dry food.

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Just to re-clarify, TOTW does NOT contain by-products. If it did then it would have to say so. I am not familiar with the APPLAWS food as it appears to be based in the UK, and so can't offer much insight there. One of our members @IrinaSaK, might be able to help you more in this case. Ultimately, a high protein, low carb food will be the best. I find out of all the available diets, Nature's Variety, maybe Hound & Gatos, might be your best bet, that is if you can source these foods where you are.

Hope the above helps at least to answer some of your concerns.

Taste of the Wild is a Diamond product and Diamond has had same recalls (including TOTW), so this is why it is not considered a good dry food now.  I have only used a bag of TOTW and I was not impressed, nor where my cats. I mean they ate it, but two of them would eat anything. The third did not touch it.

Applaws dry food has these ingredients:

Dry Chicken Meat (min. 59%), Dry Potato (min 4%), Chicken Mince (min. 9%), Poultry Oil (min. 9%, source of Omega 6), Poultry Gravy (min. 3%), Beet Pulp (min. 3%), Dry Whole Eggs (min. 3%), Brewers Dried Yeast, Salmon Oil (source of Omega 3), Minerals, Cellulose Plant Fibre (min. 0.4%), Sodium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Seaweed/Kelp, Cranberry, DL-Methionine, Potassium Chloride, Yucca Extract, Citrus Extract, Rosemary Extract.

It seems ok, it does not have as many carbs as other dry foods and the cats did tolerate it ok.

Out of the grain free dry foods, I have also used Happy Cat Duck, Porta 21 chicken and Acana Grasslands. They were all ok, as an ok dry food can be. They ALL have veggies and other weird ingredients like rosemary extract or green tea extract. Unfortunately, this is what dry foods offer.

Royal Canin is even worse. Here is RC Siamese:

Poultry protein (dried), vegetable protein isolate*, maize, wheat, animal fat, corn gluten feed, rice, animal protein (hydrolysed), beet pulp, minerals, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, yeast hydrolyzate (source of mannan-oligo-saccharides), borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein).

I am barely feeding kibble now, more to bribe them to get out of the kitchen and to make Harley run after the kibbles I throw, but after I am done with this I will not feed kibbles again. I am pretty sure cats should not have wheat, corn, rice, soya (even if it is oil) and 80% or more of the ingredients are unnecessary and useless for a cat.

Well, MANY foods have been recalled at one point or another : Wellness, Natural Balance, EVO, Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin, Champion (makes of Orijen and Acana), etc. These recalls usually involve dry food more so than wet canned.

I don't believe that a recall makes a particular food, bad. It depends on how many recalls have taken place. It depends on what the recall was for. Many of the better companies take responsibility in doing voluntary recalls in recognizing and fixing problems before they cause serious harm to pets. Always a good idea to research recalls when looking at different foods.

oneandahalfcats said:

 
Well, MANY foods have been recalled at one point or another : Wellness, Natural Balance, EVO, Blue Buffalo, Champion (makes of Orijen and Acana), etc. These recalls usually involve dry food more so than wet canned.

Many of the better companies take responsibility in doing voluntary recalls in recognizing and fixing problems before they cause serious harm to pets. Always a good idea to research recalls when looking at different foods.

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In my part of the world, where cat food is Whiskas, Cat Chow, Royal Canin and Gourmet, it is kind of hard to find out about recalls. I was following TOTW facebook page and this is how I found out. I guess it is bound to happen when you have a poorly regulated industry and when the quality of the ingredients are definitely not human grade.

I am starting to have serious questions about the way pet food is not only made, but also delivered. As I order all cat food from zooplus (it comes form Germany to Romania), I am pretty sure now that there are no serious rules regarding pet food transport - my last order arrived almost frozen, the cans were so cold. It was not a problem, but what will I do this summer, when there will be 40 C degrees (104 F)?