Friskies wet (picky eaters)

furmom101

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I feed my cats (4 cats) one can of friskies in the morning (for them to share) and one in the evening (again, for them to share) with dry kibble left out 24/7 for them eat throughout the day. (As of now its the turkey and cheese friskies as I have read to stay away from seafood.)

I only recently started feeding wet - Due to one having UTI's and research showing it's a must for their health.

Here is the thing... They are picky! They will only eat the stripped gravy type of food, and so far only friskies! Anything else and it just sits and ruins! No fancy feast, nothing!

Does anyone else feed an ok/average wet?

They were getting 100% dry Wellness core. I had just switched them on that for a few months when one cat got his first UTI. I took them off the wellness core because I heard it caused UTI's and even now that I know it probably had nothing to do with the switch to wellness core (and more so being on all dry) I'm terrified to put them back on it. This all happened very recently so along with the friskies wet I also got them friskies dry (which I know isn't the greatest at all and is a "no no" at the time I was limited with my pickings. It was that or 9 lives.) and was thinking of switching them to purina ONE dry. So any opinions on that is also welcome!

Short version - Friskies wet twice a day with Purina ONE dry throughout. Thoughts? (Both options together stay in my budget.) When I was feeding only dry they had a top brand (Wellness Core) but with adding wet in the mix I needed to down grade the dry. Thanks!
 

vball91

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Any canned they get will definitely help add more moisture which is critical. So right now it seems your cats are getting half wet (1/2 can of wet each) and half dry. That isn't too bad if they are good water drinkers. If they are not, I would recommending adding more wet if you can.

Moisture content aside, the next issue is quality of the foods. The pate styles of Friskies are much better (higher protein, lower carbs) than the other varieties. Try mixing a little pate into the flavors they do like and increase the pate portion gradually. Yeah, Friskies dry is not good. Purina One is slightly better. If dry is going to be half their diet, I would recommend the best dry you can afford (animal proteins high in the ingredient list with as few grains/starchy vegetables as possible.
 
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furmom101

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Thank you! I don't know why I didn't think of mixing! I've had to do that before with other picky pets.

I know Purina ONE isn't top quality. (I thought it was about average) Anyone have the ingredients for that food?

I saw it mentioned in another post, which is what had me researching it. Any brands you would recommended in that price range? I think a 16lb bag is 20-22 bucks.

I use to only buy wellness and blue products. Then the UTI happened and now I'm just trying to get them on more wet less dry. I'm thinking of getting the fancy feast classics and mixing it with the friskies 25/75 then 50/50 and so on. I've read the FF classics are a lot better. They just weren't interested in them. But mixing is def a great idea! Thanks again!
 

vball91

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While the Purine One chicken and rice has chicken as the first ingredient, rice, corn gluten meal, wheat flour, whole grain corn and soy protein isolate are among the next seven ingredients. It's a high carb food, as most dry foods are.

The best dry foods I know of are Wysong Epigen 90, Young Again Zero Carb and Ziwipeak, none of which fit in your budget unfortunately. Personally, I would feed all canned pate Friskies over a half wet/half dry diet. While the Fancy Feast is slightly better (no carbs), I am not convinced it's worth twice the cost of Friskies.
 
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furmom101

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Thanks for those ingredients. Before this I didn't buy foods with by product meals or unnecessary fillers. So I'm really new to the while "average" cat food products. :/
 

vball91

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Wellness Core is decent. It uses peas and potatoes in place of grains, so it's still too high in carbs for cats, but the ingredients overall are much better than Purine One.
 

Willowy

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Eh, I don't think Fancy Feast is so much better than Friskies. The ingredients are comparable, the main difference being that FF doesn't have rice like Friskies pate. If cost is an issue I'd just recommend sticking with Friskies pate foods. You can get the big cans (13 oz) for further cost savings.

There is a difference between by-products in canned foods and by-product meal in dry food. Also, think about it in this way---cats are obligate carnivores. Therefore you want as many animal ingredients in their food as possible, even by-products are better than plant ingredients. So when you see ingredients like:

Meat by-products, water sufficient for processing, chicken, poultry by-products, rice (canned Friskies Country Style Dinner)

with only one plant ingredient in the top 5, that's better than:

Ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, ground wheat, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal (dry Friskies Grillers)(only 1 meat ingredient!)

Chicken, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour (dry Purina ONE chicken and rice)(only 2 meat ingedients!)

plus the canned food has a lot of water which is important for a cat with urinary issues. If you can, I think they'd do better with all canned food, but if you think they need a little dry, look for something with a lot of meat in it. Wellness CORE is good but maybe go for the turkey formula because the original has a ton of fish, and that can cause trouble for some cats with urinary issues.

Oh, yes, I switched my cats to all canned food (mostly Friskies but some Dave's or Evo occasionally) and they're doing a lot better (less barfing, shinier coats, less smelly litterboxes, better muscle tone, etc.), even though I fed a variety of mid-to-high-quality dry foods. So I am of the opinion that cheap canned food is better than even a good-quality dry food.
 
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furmom101

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Thanks for laying out the difference in those ingredients! It is very much appreciated!

I'll be taking everything you guys told me with me in mind when I go shopping! Again, a really big thanks!
 
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