Back to your original question, I personally think that wet food is better than dry food. Especially if you plan to feed only one. All-dry diets can lead to loads of problems including cystitis. You can feed a half/half but I give them all wet. For brands, Friskies and Fancy Feast are 2 cheap options. People say that they're low quality, but I've been feeding my cats those all the time they've been with me, with no health problems. However, the Friskies "Classic Pate" are the only ones you should get, the "Tasty Treasure", "Grilled", "Sliced" ones are not as nutritionally good. I get Friskies 5.5 oz cans, 5 for $3 and Fancy Feast 3 oz cans, 5 for $3.75. Fancy feast is the higher quality one though. Wellness is an expensive, but high quality brand. Sheba is also decent.
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is one better than the other?
- Thread starter cuddly calico
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I feed my kitten pates. Fancy Feast, Friskies and some Sheba. All different flavors. I just vary them.
I feed my now 6 month old kitten a combination of Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey and Wellness Core Kitten (purple label), some of each mixed together for each meal. I know it's a bit of an odd combination (grocery store brand and premium brand), but having read what seemed to be every kitten food label on the planet, these were the ones I settled on in the interest of avoiding all grains (even brown rice) and minimizing the fruits and veggies as much as possible. These still both have some concerning ingredients, but ones that are very difficult to avoid in commercial cat food, so for me it's about choosing my battles I guess.
@KoolKatz - You pay 75 cents a can for Fancy Feast? You're getting ripped off. I can get it for as little as 55 cents.
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I feed an all-wet diet consisting of various brands. I avoid all fish flavors because the fish that tends to used for cat food has serious problems with contamination levels - tuna, salmon and tilefish (called oceanfish).
- Fancy Feast Classics
- Sheba - I'm actually phasing this out in favor of better brands
- Natural Balance - I've had so-so luck with Shelly eating this, depends on the flavor
- Wellness - she loves the chicken but doesn't like the turkey as much
- Dave's - just tried this the other night. Another winner, so will be buying this again.
The only brands I've tried that Shelly won't touch are Newman's Own and Tiki Cat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I feed an all-wet diet consisting of various brands. I avoid all fish flavors because the fish that tends to used for cat food has serious problems with contamination levels - tuna, salmon and tilefish (called oceanfish).
- Fancy Feast Classics
- Sheba - I'm actually phasing this out in favor of better brands
- Natural Balance - I've had so-so luck with Shelly eating this, depends on the flavor
- Wellness - she loves the chicken but doesn't like the turkey as much
- Dave's - just tried this the other night. Another winner, so will be buying this again.
The only brands I've tried that Shelly won't touch are Newman's Own and Tiki Cat.
Remember that some cities are more expensive to live in, NYC being one of them.
I don't think that cat food for different ages makes a lot of sense, not a difference. I feed my 4-month-olds Fancy Feast Classics, and they're fine. They just need pate-ish food.
@peaches08 Yeah, it is sadly very expensive in NYC.
Sometimes different products make a difference too. I live in a resort area (5 star and 5 diamond), yet I can get chicken thighs on sale for $0.99/lb and snow crab legs $6.99/lb. But beef? Sheesh. Yuck-quality hamburger will run you $4.99/lb. Insane.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #29
This is all helpful information. I'm leaning towards getting my kitten that brand called Blue (I think it's called Blue). I visited my kitten again today, (forgot my phone and iPod, no pics, sorry).Kyo has started eating bits of kibble already. My aunt is feeding him Purina kitten chow. Is blue a brand worth paying for, or is there a better one for less?
Blue as in Blue Buffalo? It's a pretty good brand, but is facing some controversy right now over misleading ingredient labels. For what it is, I think you could find something better and at a better price for both wet and dry varieties.
Do you have a set of requirements a specific brand needs to meet? For example, grain-free, corn-free, soy-free, gluten-free? Under $___?
Do you have a set of requirements a specific brand needs to meet? For example, grain-free, corn-free, soy-free, gluten-free? Under $___?
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #31
Corn free definitely!
It depends on what's around in your area too. If you go to something like a Petsmart and are just looking at dry food even with just the requirement of no corn, it makes your list that much shorter:
- Blue Buffalo - any of their recipes $5-$10/lb
- FreshPet $6/lb
- Hills (Ideal Balance) $3/lb
- Innova $5/lb
- Nutro (Natural Choice) $6/lb
- Nutrience $4/lb
- Organix $6/lb
- Simply Nourish $3.50/lb
- Halo $6/lb
- Wellness $3-$7/lb
Those are just the names and rough prices I skimmed off the website (the Canadian one came up for me by default, your prices may vary.. would likely be cheaper) that did not contain corn. From there, you'll want to prioritize what's best next. I like to see a handful of meats before any grains or starches appear, so in my case I would put foods with potato starch or tapioca within the first row of ingredients lower on my list. Since not all stores carry all advertised foods, it may just be a matter of taking the prices you see per pound with the brand names and looking at each bag or formula in-store.
Most wet cat foods don't contain corn, but some brands do. Wet labels tend to be much shorter and easier to read too, and even some cheaper wet food won't make or break Kyo's health. A lot of people here feed Fancy Feast and Friskies because some of them are grain free, and still high in protein and high in moisture.
Higher protein is good, but if you see things like corn or soy (or their glutens or meals) high on the ingredient list, chances are companies are trying to pawn those plant-based protein sources off as part of the guaranteed analysis - it's not lying, it's just not conducive to cat nutrition. I don't think I've seen a dry food with anything lower than 30% protein.
You can use this calculator to see how high a food is in carbs. The food I prefer to feed, Petcurean's Go! is ~13.5% carbs whereas a cheap food like Whiskas is ~36.5% (though it's hard to tell exactly if ash isn't listed). There's an article to explain how it's calculated here:
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis
Something huge to factor in is: what does the cat like? You can be as brand-loyal and spend as much money as you want, but no dollar sign will be big enough to convince your cat to eat something he vehemently doesn't want to! You can always try smaller bags of food and see if Kyo ends up preferring one over the others, or a certain mix of them. If you end up choosing one more expensive food and one less expensive food, you may be able to cut costs by mixing his desired foods which in the end, will both be relatively high quality.
- Blue Buffalo - any of their recipes $5-$10/lb
- FreshPet $6/lb
- Hills (Ideal Balance) $3/lb
- Innova $5/lb
- Nutro (Natural Choice) $6/lb
- Nutrience $4/lb
- Organix $6/lb
- Simply Nourish $3.50/lb
- Halo $6/lb
- Wellness $3-$7/lb
Those are just the names and rough prices I skimmed off the website (the Canadian one came up for me by default, your prices may vary.. would likely be cheaper) that did not contain corn. From there, you'll want to prioritize what's best next. I like to see a handful of meats before any grains or starches appear, so in my case I would put foods with potato starch or tapioca within the first row of ingredients lower on my list. Since not all stores carry all advertised foods, it may just be a matter of taking the prices you see per pound with the brand names and looking at each bag or formula in-store.
Most wet cat foods don't contain corn, but some brands do. Wet labels tend to be much shorter and easier to read too, and even some cheaper wet food won't make or break Kyo's health. A lot of people here feed Fancy Feast and Friskies because some of them are grain free, and still high in protein and high in moisture.
Higher protein is good, but if you see things like corn or soy (or their glutens or meals) high on the ingredient list, chances are companies are trying to pawn those plant-based protein sources off as part of the guaranteed analysis - it's not lying, it's just not conducive to cat nutrition. I don't think I've seen a dry food with anything lower than 30% protein.
You can use this calculator to see how high a food is in carbs. The food I prefer to feed, Petcurean's Go! is ~13.5% carbs whereas a cheap food like Whiskas is ~36.5% (though it's hard to tell exactly if ash isn't listed). There's an article to explain how it's calculated here:
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis
Something huge to factor in is: what does the cat like? You can be as brand-loyal and spend as much money as you want, but no dollar sign will be big enough to convince your cat to eat something he vehemently doesn't want to! You can always try smaller bags of food and see if Kyo ends up preferring one over the others, or a certain mix of them. If you end up choosing one more expensive food and one less expensive food, you may be able to cut costs by mixing his desired foods which in the end, will both be relatively high quality.
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #33
Thanks 
I'll check out the brands and see what he likes when I get him after the 21st.
I'll check out the brands and see what he likes when I get him after the 21st.With all due respect, when I see someone put down "New York" as their location, I don't automatically assume they mean NYC.
Pricing can also depend upon the store you are buying from. I see pricing for FF starting at 55 cents in Walmart up to 65 cents at Benson's Pet Center, a store that is specific only to my area and western MA.
Although New York is not all NYC, it is still expensive. At Petland Discounts, one FF can is 75 cents and a box of 24 is $16.32 (68 cents a can), and at Walmart, it's just 1 cent cheaper for an individual can, and they don't sell boxes. So Buying in bulk at Petland is cheaper for me.
