Grain-free dry food?

Hello,

Are there any grain-free dry food fro cats?

I though that Royal Canin was a good choice, but many of its kinds has maize as their first ingredient, and some have chicken "by-products"!

I managed to find one kind of Royal canin (for sensible cats) which did not have maize as its first ingredient.

It is quite expensive where I live. The small bag is around 25 $. But I'll got for it if it is good for my kitty.

Is this a good choice? Or do you recommend other brands that are healthier?

I'm against feeding  feed dry food, but put it as standby solution. My cat has been waking me up during the early morning this week. He keeps meowing and jumping, and never stops until I feed him.

I know I should not let him enslave me and dictate his timings, but I don't want to have him starving.

I just want to leave a small quantity for him to munch in case he gets hungry. The headache is killing me, I need to an uninterrupted sleep.

I understand about the early-morning wake-up calls! We started to have that problem, too, after weaning our cats off dry food, which I also left out at night. They stopped demanding morning food after I started feeding them an evening meal (maybe around 6 or 7 p.m.) plus a high-calorie food (they split a small can of Nutro Natural Choice, which they love) just before bed.

I put our cats' last wet meal of the day down right when I go to bed. I used to do it at our dinner time, so anytime between 4:30 and 8pm, but Mo would yowl and whine, and he's relentless with my boyfriend so I split their dinner into two meals and the second portion goes out closer to 11pm.

I really, really, really like Petcurean's Go! Free+Fit dry. Kismet gets a palm-full of those in a rollable Kong so she has something to keep her busy and moving throughout the night. I won't feed any food, wet or dry, that has ANY corn in it. The way I see it, it's a waste of money because it's filler and it's marketed as protein, neither of which are really applicable for cats.

If you have a Petsmart near you, my cats enjoyed Simply Nourish Source before they were switched to wet food. It is corn, wheat, and soy free. Grain free.

Chicken and Turkey Formula:

Ingredients: 
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Dried Potatoes, Dried Peas, Canola Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flaxseed, Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Salt, Vitamins (Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pantothenic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Dried Carrots, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite)

Guaranteed Analysis: 
Crude Protein (min.) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min.) 18.0%
Crude Fiber (max.) 5.5%
Moisture (max.) 10.0%
Calcium (min.) 1.2%
Phosphorus (min.) 0.9%
Potassium (min) 0.4%
Magnesium (min.) 0.05%
Zinc (min) 175 mg/kg
Selenium (min) 0.3 mg/kg
Vitamin A (min) 30,000 IU/kg
Vitamin E (min) 350 IU/kg
Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min) 2.0%
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) 0.5%
Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C) (min.)*100 mg/kg
Methionine (min) 0.62%
Lysine (min) 1.2%
Taurine (min) 0.2%

Rabbit Formula:

Ingredients:

Rabbit, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Dried Potatoes, Dried Peas, Dried Chicken, Canola Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Potato Protein, Flaxseed Meal, Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavors, Fish Meal, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Dried Carrots, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Ascorbic Acid), Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Pantothenic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Salt, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate and Taurine
 

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min) 18.0%
Crude Fiber (max) 5.5%
Moisture (max) 10.0%
Lysine (min) 1.2%
Methionine (min) 0.62%
Calcium (min) 1.2%
Phosphorus (min) 1.0%
Potassium (min) 0.7%
Magnesium (min) 0.05%
Zinc (min) 175mg/kg
Selenium (min) 0.3mg/kg
Vitamin A (min) 15,000 IU/kg
Vitamin E (min) 200 IU/kg
Taurine (min) 0.1%
Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min) 2.5%
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) 0.5%
Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) (min) 100mg/kg

I feed purvita. And nutrisource now has country select. Also grain free. I have to special order it from the fleet supply store. But its cheaper then the pet stores and they have a coupon.

The best dry foods I know of are Wysong Epigen 90, Young Again Zero Carb and Ziwipeak.

Epigen 90 is extremely high in protein, over 60%.  I wonder how they do that.

I leave out Orijen dry through the day and night but at the same time, I do give 2 servings of wet grain free (before bed and timed feeder set at 4 or 5 am). It keeps my cat from waking me. He does eat again later in the morning when I change out the dry.

Sorry for being away that long.

Thank you for your replies.

I found Natural Balance where I live.

I turned out that my cat is not hungry, he still would wake me up even if he has dry food in his plate.

He's bored and wants to play! I guess my kitty is a morning person ... I mean a morning kitty LOL.

Thanks form me and my Lulu.

For me, simple ingredients are the best when it comes to dry food. I have tried Orijen and Fromm but Orijen was too rich and Fromm had way too many veggies and carbs and plant based proteins. I finally gravitated to Canidae Pure Elements because the only two plant elements in it are potatoes and peas. No pea protein, no potato protein, and no other plants. the rest are meat ingredients - so because I have to keep Enya on some dry I use this food. I think it is highly underrated but hey it is up to human care giver discretion.

P.S. a 4 pound bag of Canidae Pure Elements is only 12.98 where I live. Fed as only part of the diet, it will last a long time. The 8 pound bag is about 24 or 25 dollars. Compare that to Blue Buffalo or Natural Balance that is either full of way too many plants or has only one animal protein source and then a high carb plant based protein that makes up the bulk of the food.