Am I making a bad choice?

I've made countless posts about what I feed my cats, to the point where some of you are probably tired of hearing about it! I would just like to know though if I am doing the wrong thing when it comes to feeding them. I have a long history of trying to please both of my picky cats. I have finally settled on some canned foods that both of them will actually eat and that my IBD cat will keep down. I have been told my another poster that one of the foods I am feeding (Halo) is bad for my cats because it is too high in fat.

So, what does everyone think of Halo Spot's Stew wholesome lamb, Pride Rockstar Rabbit, and Pride Lucky's Lamb? Concerns have been raised about the clay used in the Pride foods and the vegetables in the Halo. Will these foods be bad in the long run? Should I transition them to something else?

I also continue to leave out Blue Basics duck DRY food for them. My male cat is still a dry food addict. Although he does eat the canned foods mentioned above, he still much prefers the dry and will eat at most about a fourth (or less) of a 3 ounce can at a time. This is good for him though, because he has completely snubbed 99% of the other canned foods I have offered him. He would probably eat more canned if I took up the dry, but now my vet is saying that I need to continue to feed them some dry. She thinks that feeding only wet is bad for their oral health. My female cat with IBD is not a dry food addict anymore (she used to love the dry duck food) and has gotten to the point where she only wants canned. My vet has told me to keep leaving some dry out for her anyway and and to try to get her to eat some. This contradicts everything I have heard.

I guess trying to feed half dry and half wet could be a good compromise, but I don't know. I was thinking that if I continue to leave out some dry, I might switch from the Blue (which is getting a bad rap lately) to Acana Grasslands. The first couple ingredients are duck, which my boy seems to love, and lamb--which they both like. It does have several kinds of fish listed though, which I have heard is a bad thing. Also, I have never feed them Orijen food, but they both love and devour the Orijen treats.

So what do you think of the canned and dry foods that I mentioned above? Do any of them pose a potential risk to my cats?

Speaking to feeding a combo diet of wet and dry...

I think this is a good compromise. I feed this way myself (helps keep my budget down a bit.) My only suggestion to this would be to not free-feed the dry. Offer it as a meal; or, make sure you are only feeding a set amount each day (you may already be doing this.) on a whole, each of my cats gets 3-5 oz of wet with 1/4 cup of dry each day. All food is picked up at night.

As for fat content...
With picky eaters, I think there comes a time you have to compromise. With my pickiest, my first goal was to get her on a grain-free food (she was only eating FF and ProPlan gravy varieties.) Once I accomplished this, my goal was to get her to eat a food without carrageenan. I've since been able to do that. My compromise...she will only eat foods containing mostly fish. I'm still trying to find a food with primarily poultry in it that she will eat; but, that may never be the case. Her sister is the exact same way, though far pickier.

So, you may end up having to compromise on what they are eating. Does the current food meet your primary demands? If yes, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can always try something new here and there to reduce the total fat they are eating; but, this may also not be something your kitties are going to do.

Tabbysia said:

I have finally settled on some canned foods that both of them will actually eat and that my IBD cat will keep down.

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This is a goal that many try for and can never reach. You are happy with the foods and the cats like and eat them. Sounds like a good plan to me.

If you keep looking for the perfect food, you'll never find one. Just concentrate on feeding food that is high protein/low carb and whose protein is from meat sources. From there you'll have to decide what evil you're willing to live with.

That dry food cleans teeth is a myth, so don't cling to dry food because of that.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/does-dry-food-actually-clean-your-cats-teeth

http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/does-dry-food-clean-the-teeth/

Tabbysia said:

I have a long history of trying to please both of my picky cats. I have finally settled on some canned foods that both of them will actually eat and that my IBD cat will keep down

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This is what's important, not what another member tells you you should be doing. Keep in mind that we're lay people here, not vets or pet nutritionists. Just because somebody gives advice with a lot of conviction doesn't mean they're an expert or necessarily right. If I'd followed some of the advice I got from a few members, our IBD cat would be suffering from severe malnutrition or possibly dead by now. Seriously.

Our last cat was a dry food fanatic I never managed to get to eat an all-wet diet. He thrived on a combination of wet and dry for nearly 14 years, despite having severe heart disease (HCM). Our current cat gets canned or cooked for his main meals, but two snacks of dry food a day on the advice of a certified animal nutritionist, not for his teeth, but to slow down his digestion. There's no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all diet".

That particular poster has been spamming up the internet shilling for Science Diet (really, Google the username. This is not the only forum he/she has been on). I wouldn't take anything that person said seriously. He/she is either paid by Hill's or just likes advertising for free :tongue2:.

It's really all about what your cats do best with. Especially if you have a cat with special needs (like IBD). Others can make recommendations, but what really counts is what you see with your own eyes .