Finding a good wet food

fogkitty · Aug 22, 2015

I recently got a one year old cat, my first cat, and am currently feeding him Authority pate turkey and giblets. It is a little expensive and has more fat than protein though it's low in carbs so I'm looking for a cheaper food that's more balanced. Fancy Feast classic seems okay according to the cat info site's cat food chart. Any wet food that's higher in protein, lower in fat and carbs, and not too expensive?

2cats4me · Aug 22, 2015

fogkitty said:
I recently got a one year old cat, my first cat, and am currently feeding him Authority pate turkey and giblets. It is a little expensive and has more fat than protein though it's low in carbs so I'm looking for a cheaper food that's more balanced. Fancy Feast classic seems okay according to the cat info site's cat food chart. Any wet food that's higher in protein, lower in fat and carbs, and not too expensive?

Fancy Feast Classic is good . My cats love it .. If you have a Tractor Supply in your area they have a couple of affordable options ..

4 Health canned foods are about .59 cents for a 5.5 oz can .

Paws & Claws ( similar to Friskies Pate ) is about .40 cents for a 5.5 oz can ..

Friskies Pate is appx .58 cents for a 5.5 oz can ..

Petsmart has Great Choice which is about .45 cents for a 5.5 oz can

LTS3 · Aug 22, 2015

fogkitty said:
. Any wet food that's higher in protein, lower in fat and carbs, and not too expensive?

Is there a reason why you want a low fat food? Fat isn't much of a concern unless your cat has pancreatitis. If you are concenred about weight, then you need to focus on calorie intake instead. The general rule is to feed 20 to 25 caloires per pound of ideal body weight daily. A 10 pound average cat needs roughly 200 to 250 calories per day.

Fancy Feast is ok but those 3 oz cans add up in cost over time. A brand that has 5 oz and large sized cans are better for the money.

fogkitty · Aug 22, 2015

2Cats4Me said:
Fancy Feast Classic is good . My cats love it .. If you have a Tractor Supply in your area they have a couple of affordable options ..

4 Health canned foods are about .59 cents for a 5.5 oz can .

Paws & Claws ( similar to Friskies Pate ) is about .40 cents for a 5.5 oz can ..

Friskies Pate is appx .58 cents for a 5.5 oz can ..

Petsmart has Great Choice which is about .45 cents for a 5.5 oz can

Ok thank you! My cat is FIV+ so trying to feed him the healthiest food possible is very important for him but it isn't always possible to get the best.

fogkitty · Aug 22, 2015

LTS3 said:
Is there a reason why you want a low fat food? Fat isn't much of a concern unless your cat has pancreatitis. If you are concenred about weight, then you need to focus on calorie intake instead. The general rule is to feed 20 to 25 caloires per pound of ideal body weight daily. A 10 pound average cat needs roughly 200 to 250 calories per day.

Fancy Feast is ok but those 3 oz cans add up in cost over time. A brand that has 5 oz and large sized cans are better for the money.

Thank you for your help!! I'm just looking for one with relatively more protein than fat. I'm not too concerned about weight and am feeding 200 calories per day since he isn't a very active cat. :-)

missmimz · Aug 23, 2015

I guess a lot of this depends on what your price point is. If you're looking at the same price point as say, FF or Friskies you probably wont do much better than you already are right now. If you can spend a little more look into something like Wellness or Nature's Variety Pride.

mscatmom · Aug 23, 2015

Wellness is mentioned a lot on this forum, as well as others I visit so it must be a reliable and quality product. However, it contains carrageenan which I have read a lot of concerning things about. Interestingly, the Fancy Feast Classics do not contain it.

Would be interested to know what others think!

missmimz · Aug 23, 2015

MsCatmom said:
Wellness is mentioned a lot on this forum, as well as others I visit so it must be a reliable and quality product. However, it contains carrageenan which I have read a lot of concerning things about. Interestingly, the Fancy Feast Classics do not contain it.

Would be interested to know what others think!

Here's a response from conscious cat about carrageenan vs FF.

"Fancy Feast may not contain carrageenan, buy it contains by-products and filers. High end premium foods may be more expensive, but since they’re better for your cat, they may save you veterinary expenses down the line. I encourage cat guardians to feed the best food they’re able to afford."

I would personally feed higher quality food with carrageenan in it than a lower quality food without it. I don't feed one brand exclusively, tho. My cats eat some wellness in their rotation.

franciscan · Aug 24, 2015

Good morning all.

*sigh* , seems like Anna is a finicky eater. I had gone to a store and they recommended Blue for cats. Now I know that I could go to 8 stores and get 8 different suggestions as to what food to give to Anna. So, would some of you please offer me what you give to your finicky eaters. I am looking for the BEST cat food for Anna, but at a good price. I also know that stores want to make a buck, so they are going to try to sell me a higher priced product.

thanks, donna

2cats4me · Aug 24, 2015

Franciscan said:
Good morning all.

*sigh* , seems like Anna is a finicky eater. I had gone to a store and they recommended Blue for cats. Now I know that I could go to 8 stores and get 8 different suggestions as to what food to give to Anna. So, would some of you please offer me what you give to your finicky eaters. I am looking for the BEST cat food for Anna, but at a good price. I also know that stores want to make a buck, so they are going to try to sell me a higher priced product.

thanks, donna

Are you looking for dry or wet recommendations ? It is not the best but my cats are super picky and will only eat Fancy Feast . They eat 90% wet but they get a small amount of kibble at bedtime , Wysong Epigen ..

runtonyrun · Aug 25, 2015

fogkitty said:
I recently got a one year old cat, my first cat, and am currently feeding him Authority pate turkey and giblets. It is a little expensive and has more fat than protein though it's low in carbs so I'm looking for a cheaper food that's more balanced. Fancy Feast classic seems okay according to the cat info site's cat food chart. Any wet food that's higher in protein, lower in fat and carbs, and not too expensive?

I recently did a great deal of reading and arrived at the same results that you did - I wanted to feed my cats wet food and the cheapest options were Fancy Feast and a store brand called Performatrin here in Canada. But here's the thing: from what I've read, you have to feed your cat about 1oz of wet food per 1lb of cat. So a 10lb cat will need to be fed 10oz a day.

When I went a bit further and did the math, I realized that even though raw food costs more per oz than wet food, you might actually need to feed your cat less raw food (in ounces) than wet. Cats apparently need 3-5% of their body weight in raw food, so that 10lb cat would need 4.8oz to 8oz a day of raw. So we decided on raw.

If anyone sees any mistakes in the info here please let me know.

LTS3 · Aug 25, 2015

runtonyrun said:
from what I've read, you have to feed your cat about 1oz of wet food per 1lb of cat. So a 10lb cat will need to be fed 10oz a day.

No 10 pound cat needs 10 oz of canned food a day

Growing kittens may need close to that much food but not adults. 5 to 6 oz a food daily for a 10 pound cat is more common. Many people here tend to feed based on how many calories their cat needs to maintain ideal body weight than on ounces of food. The general formula is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. Canned food brands vary widely in calorie content. Some are under 100 calories for a 3 oz can, others are closer to 200 calories for a larger sized can.

Raw fed cats do eat about 3 to 5% of their body weight but there may be exceptions. My 10 pound Aby eats 4 oz of raw daily, around 200 calories. He's super active and probably burns a lot of calories but will only eat enough to fill his tummy. Anything more goes uneaten.

runtonyrun · Aug 25, 2015

I was going with what the Fancy Feast website says: "Feed an average size adult cat 1 can per 3 ½ pounds of body weight daily. Feed up to twice this amount to kittens. Pregnant or nursing cats may require two to four times their normal feeding." Each can is 3oz so that's 3oz for every 3.5lb of cat.

Performatrin also says 6.6oz of feed per 7lb of cat, source.

It does sound like a lot and I can't imagine my cats eating all of that.

franciscan · Aug 26, 2015

Anna seems to only want her little bit of cream and wet food, although I do leave out dry food for her so she can "munch" during the day.

~donna

parsleysage · Aug 26, 2015

runtonyrun said:
I was going with what the Fancy Feast website says: "Feed an average size adult cat 1 can per 3 ½ pounds of body weight daily. Feed up to twice this amount to kittens. Pregnant or nursing cats may require two to four times their normal feeding." Each can is 3oz so that's 3oz for every 3.5lb of cat.

Performatrin also says 6.6oz of feed per 7lb of cat, source.

It does sound like a lot and I can't imagine my cats eating all of that.

Overweight cats in America are the norm and it benefits cat food companies to sell more cans!

I am currently feeding my 8.25 lb girl 6 oz a day and my 9-10 lb boys 7-7.5 oz per day. I think it's pretty telling that raw-fed cats eat far less than that (although similar calorie levels). Still need to transition to raw feeding........

picklespepper · Aug 26, 2015

Americans are lucky that they can find such good deals and have more options open to them. For instance, I can't get Earth Holistic canned food here in Canada. It looks really good and the prices seem reasonable--those though are American prices. If I was ever in the States on a shopping trip I'd have to pick up some cat food. Even with the exchange rate it'd still probably work out to less. The cheapest quality canned food I can find is $1.99 for 5.5 oz. Most are more! Amazon.ca is having a sale on Weruva where it works out to $1.65 which is AMAZING (nearby pet store charges about $2.50 a can) but I don't have another $40 to plunk down on cat food right now. Just spent nearly that much on ordering a case of Tiki Cat (nearby store doesn't sell it).

Due to budget reasons I am padding out my kittens' diet with grocery-store varieties as well. My rural grocery store doesn't sell Fancy Feast so I bought some Presidents' Choice (by-products but no corn or rice) and some Whiskas pate. Any experience with those? My cats are pigging down on some Whiskas right now. I liked that it didn't have any corn or rice in it. They all have carrageenan though. I didn't buy the Friskies (only other available brand) because they all have rice in them. But they don't have carrageenan. So don't really know what is worse....

As for the amount - my old cat never ate as much as the recommended amounts and she wasn't a small cat. I would say she was in the 12 to 15 pound range. She had a bit of tummy flub but was otherwise muscular and active (she was an indoor/outdoor cat). I would feed her a small scoop of kibble and about half of a 5.5oz can each day. I'm still figuring out amounts for my kittens right now but between the two of them they seem to be going through about 1/3 cup of kibble and half to three-quarters of a 5.5oz can a day and I let them eat as much canned as they want at each meal.

sweetpea24 · Aug 29, 2015

Cats should not eaf low fat food. They need high protein and thus a higher amount of fat than dogs would need. Fat helps digestion of nutrients.

lisamarie12 · Aug 29, 2015

missmimz said:
Here's a response from conscious cat about carrageenan vs FF.

"Fancy Feast may not contain carrageenan, buy it contains by-products and filers. High end premium foods may be more expensive, but since they’re better for your cat, they may save you veterinary expenses down the line. I encourage cat guardians to feed the best food they’re able to afford."

I would personally feed higher quality food with carrageenan in it than a lower quality food without it. I don't feed one brand exclusively, tho. My cats eat some wellness in their rotation.

This is true re: Conscious Cat but Ingrid is also very anti carrageenan and will only recommend premium foods without it.

http://consciouscat.net/2012/03/22/the-best-food-for-your-cat/

lavendertiger · Sep 9, 2015

I have five cats and two are geriatric, oddly they are less picky than the younger ones. All but one of my cats gets medicine or supplements in his or her food. The old cats get Cosequin and fish oil, two younger cats take powder for struvite crystals, one younger cat is apparently the cause of the stress causing struvite, not a recipient. Like others in this forum I can't seem to get my cats to agree on flavors which would make my life easier.

So far Sheba beef pate is a household favorite. I like Performatrin from the newly opened Pet Valu very close to my home. They enjoyed both flavors purchased. They love Friskees, but tend to puke it up so that won't get the meds in them.

Any thoughts on Sheba? They used to eat Fancy Feast until I decided the iodine in the fish based foods were a problem for my 18 year old cat. Taking him off fish flavors has helped him have more energy and improved his coat. Salmon is a favorite though and is puked up less than tuna flavors. They like chicken and turkey, but not consistently between brands. I have tried Natural Balance, Halo, Sheba, Performatrin, Purina Beyond. Also, pate is far better tolerated and enjoyed than formed foods.

They are all of reasonable weight. For whatever reason my American cats are not overweight even though I provide high quality kibble all day.

2cats4me · Sep 9, 2015

Lavendertiger said:
I have five cats and two are geriatric, oddly they are less picky than the younger ones. All but one of my cats gets medicine or supplements in his or her food. The old cats get Cosequin and fish oil, two younger cats take powder for struvite crystals, one younger cat is apparently the cause of the stress causing struvite, not a recipient. Like others in this forum I can't seem to get my cats to agree on flavors which would make my life easier.

So far Sheba beef pate is a household favorite. I like Performatrin from the newly opened Pet Valu very close to my home. They enjoyed both flavors purchased. They love Friskees, but tend to puke it up so that won't get the meds in them.

Any thoughts on Sheba? They used to eat Fancy Feast until I decided the iodine in the fish based foods were a problem for my 18 year old cat. Taking him off fish flavors has helped him have more energy and improved his coat. Salmon is a favorite though and is puked up less than tuna flavors. They like chicken and turkey, but not consistently between brands. I have tried Natural Balance, Halo, Sheba, Performatrin, Purina Beyond. Also, pate is far better tolerated and enjoyed than formed foods.

They are all of reasonable weight. For whatever reason my American cats are not overweight even though I provide high quality kibble all day.

I think Sheba is excellent but my cats hate it . I wish they would eat it . They love Fancy Feast but I recently stopped feeding it because it was making them sick although I have not figured out why . Right now they are eating Iams Pate , Iams Filets ( which I have to mash with a fork ) , Great Choice , Blue Buffalo Flaked Chicken . For some odd reason they will not eat canned foods in 5.5 oz cans . I can't figure that one out ..

Finding a good wet food

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