Food recommendations (overwhelmed)

Hello, 

I've been researching different brands of cat foods and I'm truly overwhelmed. We have a 1year old male and a recently adopted 6 month old female .  Our boy eats Katz n' Flocken Solid Gold dry and Friskies wet and he seems to like it very much and has no health issues whatsoever (the vet recommended Royal Canin but after reading the ingredients I chose not to feed him that).  Now I've been researching what brand should I feed our new addition and I don't know what to do.  The shelter recommended us Blue Buffalo Healthy Living dry and I bought her Blue Wilderness wet also, but after reading horror stories about the brand I don't know if I should change brands.

So I have to ask:

1. Should I switch my older cat to a healthier wet food?

2. What wet/dry brand shoud I feed my kitten? 

Any help will be appreciated.  We (my family) love them both to death and want them to live long, healthy lives.  

No dry food, for either one of them.

Easiest way to answer your question of "why" without my having to put up a wall of type, is to suggest that you read the front piece, and then the other sections of this website:

http://catinfo.org

First paragraph reads thus:

Diet is the brick and mortar of health.  This web page lays out some often-ignored principles of feline nutrition and explains why cats have a better chance at optimal health if they are fed a canned food diet instead of dry kibble.  Putting a little thought into what you feed your cat(s) can pay big dividends over their lifetime and very possibly help them avoid serious, painful, and costly illnesses.  An increasing number of nutrition-savvy veterinarians, including board-certified veterinary internists, are now strongly recommending the feeding of canned food instead of dry kibble.

The three key negative issues associated with dry food are:

1) water content is too low

2) carbohydrate load is too high

3) type of protein - too high in plant-based versus animal-based proteins

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Wet food is better than dry; even a low-quality wet food is better than a dry food. Dry food dehydrates your kitties and can lead to serious health problems including kidney disease, diabetes, and IBD.

You want to pick a food that is high protein/low carb and grain free. The same site @AutumnRose74 has linked to also has compiled information about the nutritional composition of many brands:

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

Budget brands that are OK include Friskies pate, Fancy Feast classic line and Sheba. After that there are several good choices, depending on how high of a price tag you're willing to consider. Some of the better brands include Hound and Gatos, Wellness, Dave's, By Nature, Nature's Variety Instinct, and Evo to start.

If you're open to a raw diet you should also consider that. Many owners swear by raw and say it has kept various diseases at bay and given a long life.

Welcome, NewbieCatMom!

I second AutumnRose74's suggestion of reading Dr. Lisa's site. It contains a ton of information about cat nutrition so there's a lot to digest ( ) but the points in the small quote--about feeding wet not dry, keeping carbohydrates low and protein high--sum things up pretty well.

I heard those same exact same things (along with avoiding grain and keeping phosphorous relatively low) from our vet when we adopted two ten-month-old cats in December. I avoid carrageenan, potato, and most fish, too, since our cats seem to be sensitive to them, plus they aren't especially good for cats anyway. Our vet advises against most fish except occasional salmon. Dr. Lisa's food charts, linked above, are a great place to start learning about the carb, protein, and phosphorous levels in various foods, too. (Blue Buffalo, BTW, refused to give her data.)

There are lots of good brands of canned food. Our cats get a rotation with Hound & Gatos (they only like two kinds, the ones with lamb), Wellness Core (the only brand I use with carrageenan), Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen, Nature's Variety Instinct, Tiki, and Nutro Natural Choice. I also feed them commercial raw food (Primal, Stella & Chewy's, occasional Rad Cat) every day. (These cats get bored with their food very, very easily so it's trouble if they don't get a lot of variety...) The foods I buy have a good range of calories, something that's worked out well as the cats have gotten to normal size (they were very underweight when we adopted them) and gradually started to eat a little less. The prices also vary a lot, though I've found that Tiki, which costs a lot per can, generally contains much more meat than lots of other shred-style foods.

I could go on and on and on about cat food, particularly since it's something I learned about the hard way, because of our previous cat's illness. Diet really can make a difference so it's great to hear you want to get your two eating good food from the start!

NewbieCatMom said:

 
Hello, 

I've been researching different brands of cat foods and I'm truly overwhelmed. We have a 1year old male and a recently adopted 6 month old female .  Our boy eats Katz n' Flocken Solid Gold dry and Friskies wet and he seems to like it very much and has no health issues whatsoever (the vet recommended Royal Canin but after reading the ingredients I chose not to feed him that).  Now I've been researching what brand should I feed our new addition and I don't know what to do.  The shelter recommended us Blue Buffalo Healthy Living dry and I bought her Blue Wilderness wet also, but after reading horror stories about the brand I don't know if I should change brands.

So I have to ask:

1. Should I switch my older cat to a healthier wet food?

2. What wet/dry brand shoud I feed my kitten? 

Any help will be appreciated.  We (my family) love them both to death and want them to live long, healthy lives.  

Click to expand...

Hi there,

Just to add a different perspective to what has already been mentioned ... Not all cats get bored with the same food. My cats for instance are rotated on 2 different brands and I serve only chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit and they are doing just fine. I don't feed beef or fish to my cats. What is important is to feed foods that your cats will like and actually eat. Don't feel you have to feed them a bunch of different foods just for the sake of rotation. Keep it simple and try and stick to 2-3 flavors. The Friskies is an okay wet food, but a better choice would be to rotate with Wellness Grain-free or Nature's Variety Instinct. Both are high quality wet canned that come in 5.5 ounce and 12.5 ounce cans. Of the Nature's Variety, the dog food is the exact same formula as the cat food, but is cheaper than the cat food. So, you could purchase the big dog food cans and save quite a bit. If budget is a consideration, you could also rotate in some Authority brand wet canned which is by-product free and low to no grains.

Some dry food is okay, but this should be secondary to a main diet of wet food. Ideally you want to go for a 80% wet canned and 20% dry. Dry kibble should be high in protein, low in carbs and moderate fat. Many grain-free dry foods contain a lot of carbs to make up for the grain that would be there in other brands. A couple of good grain-free choices that are low in carbs are Nature's Variety Instinct Grain-free which comes in chicken, rabbit, duck. And Orijen Cat and Kitten.

Thanks for the link!   There's so much information on the internet regarding "wet vs. dry" so I'm a bit confused by all of it.  Our vet recommended a dry food diet and Royal Canin, but I did not follow her advice of course.  I leave dry for them to eat during the day since she mentioned that cats like to nibble several times a day and I'm at work during the day.  I'll keep reading but wow, there is so much to learn.  

Here are a couple articles that are much shorter to read, written by one of our own members:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/what-makes-the-best-canned-cat-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/grain-free-cat-food-what-does-it-mean

If you are still confused after reading these, feel free to ask more questions.  That's what we're here for

After going through a bout of crystals with my female feline, and also reading the downright amazing info available at catinfo.net, I couldn't recommend an all wet diet with anymore conviction then i can muster.

Also agree no dry food. I do give mine literally a spoonful of grain free dry food for "breakfast" or he tries to eat the dog's food instead of his leftover wet food. 

I have searched for the best for the price I could get and Natural Balance has limited ingredient wet food that is grain free. It's about $32 for 24 - 6ounce cans. My cat needs one can a day. I can't find any grain free food for less than that.