Sigh. Decent quality food for my kitten?

After hours of research (including reading a few threads here) I have some questions and am hoping someone can recommend a food that overall fits what is best my kitten. Currently she's on Purina Kitten Chow and will finish the bag up before I change her over. She's also got a few random cans of stuff I've picked up for her to try, but none are near the quality I'm after so I probably won't buy them again. I bought them before I started doing research and found out so many facts about what's in those I almost don't want to feed them to her at all.

Bolding the more important parts, because text wall.

• As far as I know, she has no allergies.
• She eats literally anything I give her and so far so good, so I don't have to worry about her being a picky eater either.
• Dry, wet or a mix, it doesn't matter. I'd prefer wet for her main diet as I've read that wet is better by far and when you compare the prices per ounce of the best dry foods out there to canned food in general, it's cheaper to go with even the most expensive canned food, but I can't afford the most expensive of either kind. I work 12 hour nights currently though, so she needs to have some sort of dry food even if her main diet is wet for the days I work because I can't leave enough wet food out long enough that she would have enough to eat without it going stale before she could finish it.
• Ideally, it should cost under $30 per case/bag and will hopefully give me close to a month's supply. She's a kitten right now so a case of 24 3 oz cans or 12 5.5 oz (seems to be the typical) would go a long way with her. If the food is really good for the price I could be talked up to spending a max of $40.
• Bad things are said about carrageenan, so that needs to be avoided.
• No-name meat by-products and meal by-products are both bad by everyone's standards, but I'm confused about named by-products and "meal", such as chicken by-products or chicken meal. Opinions seem to vary, so if possible I do want to avoid them, but I might not be able to for what I can afford. If it's not that important to avoid them I'm willing to try a food with them in it if the other qualifications are met.
• Fish seems to have a lot of issues as well and is not part of a cat's natural diet, so I'd like to avoid that if possible.
• Are eggs fine? I haven't found anything on those, but I seem to remember hearing bad things about them before. Quite a few foods have egg in them so it's going to be difficult to avoid.
• Most people seem to agree tapioca is bad, so that probably needs to be avoided too.
• Lots of different sites claim lots of different things regarding grains (rice, potato and corn in particular) so I really have no clue what to think there. The general consensus seems to be peas/carrots/sweet potato/any type of squash is ok, but to avoid anything else. Problem is, most of those foods (if not all) have some other bad thing in them or are way out of my price range...
• Fruits appear to be neutral and just added filling that isn't important nor harmful, so it won't hurt if there's fruits in the food, but I'd like to avoid them if I can since it means she's being robbed of things she actually needs.

The only one I've found that seems to meet most of those standards is the Weruva Chicken w/ Gravy. However, I have read a lot of reviews saying it's way too liquidy and barely any meat compared to any other brand, which means it will not go very far at all if that's the case. Confirm/deny?

I think that about covers it. Thanks for any replies!

I feed raw, so I'm not much help with commercial foods.  However, there's a few things you mentioned that I can talk a bit about.  Eggs are very nutritious and we raw-feeders add egg yolk to their diet.  Eggs in the US are pretty safe, even raw.  Try an egg yolk a couple of times of week.  The lecithin in the egg yolk is also good for breaking up the fat that holds hairballs together in the gut.

If she'll eat anything you put in front of her, by all means feed her lots of different things!  You never know when a food recall may happen and she needs to eat.

I worked 12+ hours and fed canned, but not to a kitten.  So much processing happens to canned food that I personally don't worry about leaving out canned.  However, if she licks all the gravy and leaves the rest to dry out, then she didn't get much nutrition.  Maybe add some water to it as well as leaving out some kibble?  Or just kibble.

ShadowGX said:

The only one I've found that seems to meet most of those standards is the Weruva Chicken w/ Gravy. However, I have read a lot of reviews saying it's way too liquidy and barely any meat compared to any other brand, which means it will not go very far at all if that's the case. Confirm/deny?

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Confirm! That particular Weruva food is definitely very liquidy. It also has potato starch, which one of our cats has a problem with. If you'd like to feed chicken shreds, I highly recommend Tiki Cat chicken recipes: they are expensive but the cans are so crammed with meat I usually have to use a fork to serve the food. A lower-cost alternative is Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen foods. Our cats like those, too.

Originally Posted by peaches08  

If she'll eat anything you put in front of her, by all means feed her lots of different things!  You never know when a food recall may happen and she needs to eat.

I worked 12+ hours and fed canned, but not to a kitten.  So much processing happens to canned food that I personally don't worry about leaving out canned.  However, if she licks all the gravy and leaves the rest to dry out, then she didn't get much nutrition.  Maybe add some water to it as well as leaving out some kibble?  Or just kibble.

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I agree with peaches08 about serving lots of different things: our cats get bored with their foods very quickly so it's a necessity plus having lots of different foods around makes things easier when the store runs out of something. I don't worry too much about leaving food out, either, though I live in a relatively cool climate (Maine). One of our cats actually seems to like food that's been sitting around for a while, ick.

Other brands I feed are Nutro Natural Choice, Wellness Core (it does have carrageenan but they only get about a can a week), Hound & Gatos, and Nature's Variety Instinct, though I'm reducing that one or phasing it out since it's expensive and the cats don't always finish it. About half of their diet is commercial raw food, which is what they like best; it's also turned out to be very cost-effective.

Good luck and welcome ShadowGX!

You will find something in any commercial food that someone somewhere considers to have a questionable ingredient.  For high end foods that are moderately priced I like Hounds and Gatos and Wild Calling.  Hounds and Gatos has a very limited distribution, they only distribute to independent pet stores not the big box stores so you would probably have to order it online.  Hounds & Gatos does have multiple thickeners but no carrageenan.  Some people shy away from Wild Calling because they use the same processing facility as Evangers but I think it is a good food.

What you want is high protein/low carb  http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf  is a chart of most of the foods sold in the U.S. and shows the protein, carb, and fat percentages.  You want to go by the dry matter percentages.  You kind of have the watch the 'grain free' now.  It has become synonymous with good food.  Many companies started adding other fillers that push up the carb percentage but they can still say the food is grain free.

Denice said:

For high end foods that are moderately priced I like Hounds and Gatos and Wild Calling. Hounds & Gatos does have multiple thickeners but no carrageenan.

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Ahh, I almost forgot to ask about that! I saw a lot of people recommending H&G on this site, but then upon more research there were many reviews complaining about lack of consistency within the food (the food itself looking different each time) and about the excessive amount of thickeners used. It's actually very reasonably priced for the amount you get and lack of random filler ingredients (aside from the thickeners), those were just a couple concerns that I wasn't too sure about. Are either a big deal really? Specifically the consistency in appearance. If different bits of the animal are used in each can it may effect appearance to a point, but people weren't giving specifics in their reviews, just "it keeps changing, I don't trust it" basically.

ShadowGX said:

Are either a big deal really? Specifically the consistency in appearance. If different bits of the animal are used in each can it may effect appearance to a point, but people weren't giving specifics in their reviews, just "it keeps changing, I don't trust it" basically.

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I don't find so much with H&G that the appearance changes: our cats just don't like many of the flavors enough to split and finish a can. They do like the lamb a lot, though, and they'll do pretty well on the lamb/chicken/salmon as long as they don't get it more then a couple times a month. Chicken and beef, however, got knocked out of their rotation pretty fast. For the price, I certainly wish they liked it better!

It does have a different texture which I think is at least part of the reason many kitties don't care for it.  I have heard many people say that their kitties don't care for the chicken.   One of my kitties is allergic to chicken so I haven't tried that one.  My kitties like the lamb as well.  I think they could cut down on the thickeners and still have a pate type food.  

Denice said:

 
I think they could cut down on the thickeners and still have a pate type food.  

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They definitely could! I don't think our cats would eat H&G at all if I didn't add water and mix it into a slurry so they can lap it up.

I guess then I can probably try out the H&G beef and chicken flavors, the lamb is a bit more though. I found a site where I can order it per can rather than per case (though it is more expensive that way, of course) just so she can try it out. Even though she hasn't been picky so far, I'd hate to buy a whole case of each and then she decides she doesn't want to eat it no matter what I do to it.

Thank  you for putting so much thought into your kitty's food!

My kitty liked H&G rabbit, but hated the chicken.

If you can find it By Nature is a good brand. Their organic line has no carrageenan. Natural Planet is also good. I had less acceptance problems with By Nature and Natural Planet than I did with H&G.

http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/cat-food/organic/index.php

http://naturalplanetorganics.com/in...lanet-organics/canned-recipes/canned-for-cats

You'll want to introduce your kitty to different brands so it remains not picky. You are so lucky to have a cat that'll eat almost anything. I had one, too, and appreciated it every time she at least tried new food.

Raintyger said:

If you can find it By Nature is a good brand. Their organic line has no carrageenan. Natural Planet is also good. I had less acceptance problems with By Nature and Natural Planet than I did with H&G.

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Those are just a tad out of my price range for now, but I'll keep them in mind as an alternate when I can afford to spend a bit more as they seem pretty good. By Nature I had looked at before, but not at the organic because I noticed the other had carrageenan, so I skipped it over. Good info to know.

For now I did get a can each of the H&G chicken and beef from the first link in your signature and they should arrive soon. A bit cheaper than the other site I found and they didn't even have the beef for cat, so thanks for that! Shipping was a bit much for just a couple cans of food though, so to make the most of it I also got her some treats and the shipping stayed the same. Spoiled rotten she is...

Just an update since I'm back to searching again. I did get her one of each flavor of the H&G beef and chicken as I said I would. She didn't seem to care much for the beef (she ate it, but it took her a while), but she did like the chicken (which I had to mix with a bit of water as one poster suggested may be needed). However, the chicken made her poop smell really bad and she had horrible gas... so no more of that stuff.

When I was first browsing around for food I stopped at Petsmart and got a couple different ones for her, and she loved this one: Simply Nourish Chicken Stew

I checked out their other varieties and it's the only one with a decent protein content (10%), no fish, no weird "pasta" ingredient and no carrageenan. The concern though is the tapioca, because I read a couple different places that tapioca is not good. I didn't get a response before about that, so I'm hoping someone can confirm or deny this. There's also a lot of added vitamins, which I'm not sure about, because too many vitamins can be a bad thing.

They also have a few different dry foods I was looking at as well because I mentioned I wanted to supplement with dry. There is still the issue of lots of added vitamins.

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food/si...d36-20992/cat-36-catid-200004?var_id=36-20992

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food/si...d36-20991/cat-36-catid-200004?var_id=36-20991

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food/si...zid36-2556/cat-36-catid-200004?var_id=36-2556

Then there's Nature's Variety Instinct Beef and Chicken flavors that I've been looking at, which someone suggested above before. Again, lots of added vitamins, among other things that I have no clue about (tons of different veggies, most near the bottom of the list though). 3 things in particular standout and are near the top of the list: Tricalcium Phosphate (both), Flaxseed (chicken only), Ground Flaxseed (beef only) and Montmorillonite Clay (beef only).

ShadowGX said:

After hours of research (including reading a few threads here) I have some questions and am hoping someone can recommend a food that overall fits what is best my kitten. Currently she's on Purina Kitten Chow and will finish the bag up before I change her over. She's also got a few random cans of stuff I've picked up for her to try, but none are near the quality I'm after so I probably won't buy them again. I bought them before I started doing research and found out so many facts about what's in those I almost don't want to feed them to her at all.

Bolding the more important parts, because text wall.

• As far as I know, she has no allergies.
• She eats literally anything I give her and so far so good, so I don't have to worry about her being a picky eater either.
• Dry, wet or a mix, it doesn't matter. I'd prefer wet for her main diet as I've read that wet is better by far and when you compare the prices per ounce of the best dry foods out there to canned food in general, it's cheaper to go with even the most expensive canned food, but I can't afford the most expensive of either kind. I work 12 hour nights currently though, so she needs to have some sort of dry food even if her main diet is wet for the days I work because I can't leave enough wet food out long enough that she would have enough to eat without it going stale before she could finish it.
• Ideally, it should cost under $30 per case/bag and will hopefully give me close to a month's supply. She's a kitten right now so a case of 24 3 oz cans or 12 5.5 oz (seems to be the typical) would go a long way with her. If the food is really good for the price I could be talked up to spending a max of $40.
• Bad things are said about carrageenan, so that needs to be avoided.
• No-name meat by-products and meal by-products are both bad by everyone's standards, but I'm confused about named by-products and "meal", such as chicken by-products or chicken meal. Opinions seem to vary, so if possible I do want to avoid them, but I might not be able to for what I can afford. If it's not that important to avoid them I'm willing to try a food with them in it if the other qualifications are met.
• Fish seems to have a lot of issues as well and is not part of a cat's natural diet, so I'd like to avoid that if possible.
• Are eggs fine? I haven't found anything on those, but I seem to remember hearing bad things about them before. Quite a few foods have egg in them so it's going to be difficult to avoid.
• Most people seem to agree tapioca is bad, so that probably needs to be avoided too.
• Lots of different sites claim lots of different things regarding grains (rice, potato and corn in particular) so I really have no clue what to think there. The general consensus seems to be peas/carrots/sweet potato/any type of squash is ok, but to avoid anything else. Problem is, most of those foods (if not all) have some other bad thing in them or are way out of my price range...
• Fruits appear to be neutral and just added filling that isn't important nor harmful, so it won't hurt if there's fruits in the food, but I'd like to avoid them if I can since it means she's being robbed of things she actually needs.

The only one I've found that seems to meet most of those standards is the Weruva Chicken w/ Gravy. However, I have read a lot of reviews saying it's way too liquidy and barely any meat compared to any other brand, which means it will not go very far at all if that's the case. Confirm/deny?

I think that about covers it. Thanks for any replies!

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Just remember ANY wet is better than dry for her health!

Many people obsess about canned ingredients so they keep feeding dry, which is the absolute worst thing to do!

For now she is still on mostly Purina kitten chow with a couple cans of wet per week because she hasn't finished the bag and I haven't settled on a wet food yet, but she takes the older cat's food. I live with my parents atm and they have a cat who is exclusively on Purina indoor and they leave it down 24/7 so my kitten goes and eats it... I've begged them to only put it down when he wants to eat and then put it back up, "but it's too hard". They won't ever switch him to wet, that's for sure. If anything they'll start feeding him cheaper food.

For now she'll always have some dry and there's nothing I can do about it when I'm at work, and even when I'm home I can't stop her all the time. I do stop her when I can, though.