High Quality Dry vs Low Quality Wet

Hey all,

I have posted a few threads about my new kittens Pickles and Pepper and how Pickles seems to be much smaller than her brother and is pretty skinny.  Not emaciated, but definitely thin.  I figured she wasn't crazy about the kibble I was buying but she was eating it (and her brother steals her food too).

Anyways, I started a plan that I call "Let's Make Pickles Fat" (not really, but she needs to gain weight).  So I bought some grain-free canned food and some kitten formula to mix in.  She seems to like it.

However, now she won't touch the dry food at all.  It's a grain-free kibble so fairly high quality and not cheap.  Pepper still eats it even if he prefers wet.  I don't mind the fact that Pickles only wants to eat wet and I know many here will say it's better.  The reality is, though, that I can not afford to feed exclusively grain-free canned food.  Where I am, the starting price is $2 for a 5.5oz can.  Most of the big names cost more.  Wellness, for instance, charges nearly $3!!!

If I'm going to feed Pickles exclusively canned would it be OK to mix in some Friskies and store brands in?  I'd still buy the good stuff, of course.  I'd just need to pad it out with the foods with by-products and fillers.  Or should I try to encourage her to eat more of the grain-free dry?  The high quality kibble is too costly to experiment with different brands and flavours.  Pickles is still too skinny for me to "tough love" her into eating the dry.

I think that ultimately you need to feed what your cat is willing to eat. If she wants wet food, then feed her wet, even if that means feeding some lower quality wet food mixed in with some higher quality foods. You might also consider ordering online. Chewy.com has great prices and super fast shipping (also amazing customer service). 

PicklesPepper said:

I don't mind the fact that Pickles only wants to eat wet and I know many here will say it's better.  The reality is, though, that I can not afford to feed exclusively grain-free canned food.  Where I am, the starting price is $2 for a 5.5oz can.  Most of the big names cost more.  Wellness, for instance, charges nearly $3!!!
If I'm going to feed Pickles exclusively canned would it be OK to mix in some Friskies and store brands in?  I'd still buy the good stuff, of course.  I'd just need to pad it out with the foods with by-products and fillers.  Or should I try to encourage her to eat more of the grain-free dry?  The high quality kibble is too costly to experiment with different brands and flavours.  Pickles is still too skinny for me to "tough love" her into eating the dry.

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Yes, in fact lots of people feed their cats several brands because it gives their cats more variety. We do because our cats get bored easily,

Personally, my approach would be to look first at cheaper foods that might have byproducts but don't have grain or carby vegetable fillers like peas or potato... it's meat protein that a growing kitten needs! There are quite a few of those, but if that failed--since cats can be fickle and unpredictable--I'd add rice, peas, or potato before grain if I couldn't find enough to keep the cat happy. Fancy Feast Classics, some of the Sheba foods, and certain store brands that have byproducts but none of the grain or carby vegetable fillers might be good places to start to get more protein into Pickles. In the end, though, as missmimz said, a lot depends on what your cat is willing to eat.

I also have to say that $3 for a can of Wellness sounds very high! I buy occasional cans of their Core kitten food for our (now-adult) cats, as a treat, and I'm certain it's never been over $2. One store (of course it's the one I don't like!) even sells it for considerably less.

Anyway, good luck!

Thanks.  I live in a rural area and only have 2 pet stores within a 45 minute drive (and both happen to be in the same mall, go figure).  Though one I think focuses mainly on Science Diet, Royal Canin and Purina.  They also sell actual pets there so not a whole lot of focus on food.  The other store is a Pet Valu.  It's where I do most of my shopping.  There is a Global Pet Foods in the big city but it's 1 1/2 hour drive.  I used to live in a bigger city and preferred Global Pet Foods over Pet Valu due to prices and customer service.  

I'll have to pick up some of the cheaper canned food then.  I like to avoid anything with corn or the first ingredient as unnamed meat by-products.  I didn't know about the potato and peas because even the quality stuff has them and will advertise them as a plus (thinking specifically of Natural Balance). 

And Chewy.com looks amazing but I'm outside of the States so no luck!

PicklesPepper said:

 
Thanks.  I live in a rural area and only have 2 pet stores within a 45 minute drive (and both happen to be in the same mall, go figure).  Though one I think focuses mainly on Science Diet, Royal Canin and Purina.  They also sell actual pets there so not a whole lot of focus on food.  The other store is a Pet Valu.  It's where I do most of my shopping.  There is a Global Pet Foods in the big city but it's 1 1/2 hour drive.  I used to live in a bigger city and preferred Global Pet Foods over Pet Valu due to prices and customer service.  

I'll have to pick up some of the cheaper canned food then.  I like to avoid anything with corn or the first ingredient as unnamed meat by-products.  I didn't know about the potato and peas because even the quality stuff has them and will advertise them as a plus (thinking specifically of Natural Balance). 

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It sounds like you're in Canada! Have you tried Go foods? (I'm not sure about the prices...)

Yes, peas and potatoes are both used quite a lot as thickeners and fillers now: they're grain-free but still add carbohydrate calories to the foods. Sometimes the pea ingredients are "split," so a food might have multiple forms of pea (e.g. "peas" plus "pea protein"). I just skip any foods with peas and potatoes. And, yes, it's sad that the pet food companies use those ingredients, which aren't really the best for cats, to appeal to human buyers!

I have heard of "Go" but the prices are comparable where I live.  I've looked up some Canadian online stores and some of the brands are a bit cheaper there but not enough to make up for shipping costs....unless I order a butt-load at once to get the free shipping.

The other issue with feeding wet is what to do when we go away for the weekend.  With our last cat we would just leave a huge tub of dry food out and a big tub of water and that was good enough.  (for longer trips we'd have someone check in once or twice to refill the buckets).  You can't do that with wet.

I have to say though, I am noticing Pickles is already starting to fill out a little.  Not much but I can feel a difference already.  Slow and steady.

Well, I ordered a pack of Tiki Cat off of Amazon.  They were having a sale and free shipping.  I ordered a small pack of Weurva's "Cat in the Kitchen" pouches to be able to qualify for the free shipping but it was still cheaper than buying from the store.  And it saved me the gas for the 45 minute drive to get to the shop and back.  And our store doesn't carry Tiki Cat and I've heard so much about it.  My husband is bringing home some cheap stuff from walmart today to help pad out the food budget.  And the fact only Pepper will eat the kibble now -- and even then only about 1/4 cup for the day -- so we will save money there too.  Might make the switch to a high class kibble like Orijen if we can get away with that little.