What canned food?

I am new to the site. I am looking for some options for canned food for my two cats. Piper is a 6 month old rag doll and Poppy is a 9 month old tabby rescue. Piper will eat absolutely anything, and is starting to get a bit fat. Poppy however is a tall lean cat and only weighs about 7 lbs. Both are healthy and my vet recommends feeding a diet of half wet, half dry. I feed blue buffalo dry. I tried the wilderness but poppy refused to eat it. Poppy loves the Blue buffalo dry food and will eat wet food, but prefers something heavy on the gravy. Right now I feed fancy feast but I prefer to feed a better quality. I need something with gravy, or else poppy will only eat half of it and waste the other half, or else Piper will sometimes eat it. 

Welcome, Rach3468. 

My kitten has fourteen kinds (various recipes of various brands) of canned kitten food that he is fed in regular rotation.  Of all those, the ones with the most gravy content are Science Diet Kitten Tender Chicken Dinner and Science Diet Kitten Homestyle Chicken Supper.  I stir additional water into all of my kitten's canned foods and then store them for a short time in the refrigerator while they become more like saucy foods.

The pouched Whiskas Choice Cuts Poultry Selections and Whiskas Choice Cuts Seafood Selections are packed with lots of gravy.  Those are indicated as food for either cats or kittens, so they are presumably not specially formulated for kitten growth.

Piper's weight problem may be related to the dry food component of her diet.  Her access to Poppy's food -- especially with gravy-y food -- could be a factor also.  Could you limit their eating to scheduled meals, and could you separate them for their feedings?

If you can get to a Petsmart store in the middle of the week -- not on the weekend -- you should find lots of selection among the canned kitten foods there.  As example, there is some canned Blue Kitten food.

It's great that your vet recommends some canned food in the diet An all canned food diet is even better than a half canned / half dry diet but do whatever works for your cats and budget Catinfo.org is a popular web site to learn more about cat nutrition.

For something higher quality with gravy, try any of the foods made by Weruva (typically sold at independent pet stores) and that company's lesser expensive Soulistic brand (this one is sold only at Petco). There's also Pride by Instinct and Tiki Cat.

If you add water to pate / loaf canned food to make "gravy" will your cat eat that?

How much food does each cat eat? Many people here feed their cats based on calorie needed daily rather than measured portion sizes. That helps keep weight in check. The general rule is 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. Your kittens are still growing a bit so I wouldn't restrict their calorie intake too much. How often do you feed?

MewtantMommy said:

Piper's weight problem may be related to the dry food component of her diet.  Her access to Poppy's food -- especially with gravy-y food -- could be a factor also.  Could you limit their eating to scheduled meals, and could you separate them for their feedings?

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This was my first reaction, too: that the dry food could be contributing to Piper's weight gain. Some gravy-based foods have lots of "empty calories" from carbohydrates, too. 

There are lots of low-carb canned foods, though, including many with gravies. Carb-intensive ingredients that we avoid include various forms of wheat, rice, corn, tapioca, potato, and peas, which are used as thickeners and fillers in lots of foods.

LTS3 mentioned Weruva, which has some good, moderately priced low-carb foods in its Cats in the Kitchen line that have no potato (our cats love their chicken shred foods), and Tiki, which our cats also like. Another brand they particularly love is Nutro Natural Choice: their minced chicken and sliced turkey are both gravy foods but don't have any carb-based stuff added. They get occasional pate "variety meals" (Hound & Gatos, Wellness Core kitten food, and Merrick LID) but really prefer the shreds.

One good place to start researching low-carb foods is the food chart on the Catinfo.org site that LTS3 mentioned. The chart is here. It's huge and rather daunting at first, and not all the information is up-to-date, but it's a tremendous resource. I used to consult it in the pet food store--the people who worked there all knew it, too!

I also agree with the thought of separate feedings: we do that for certain meals for our cats because one of ours is a little like your Piper!

Good luck!

These Wellness pouches have a lot of liquid gravy. My kittens like them. 

I feed the 9lives flavors, its made mostly with meat and their by-products, it is easy to find and I can buy it in bulk. I also feed Special Kitty canned cat food, Turkey and Giblet kind, also the Friskies, I prefer canned to dry, due to the lack of water and so many issues with my male kitties. My cats do like the Whiskas in chunks food with gravy, but they don't get it very much due to the carbs in it. I also feed them raw sometimes, from catinfo.org, Dr. Pierson's recipe.

If we're talking about stuff you can get from the grocery store, I can add my faves since my guys only eat the gravy & chunks kind of wet food.  But I'm not sure if any of these are "better" than FF (really FF is a decent food)

Sheba Cuts

Purina One Pairings

Purina One Healthy Metabolism

9 Lives

Luvsome (some are pates, so you'll have to check the ingredients - the "chunky" ones will have wheat gluten in the ingredients)

If you can get into a Petco or PetPeople or PetSmart, my guys like these chunky gravy foods:  (and I can say I feel these are all better than FF)

Nutro (Nutro MaxCat and Nutro Nautral Choice)

Soulistic (the green Karma Chicken and the orange chicken/pumpkin Harvest Sunrise)

Weruva Truluxe

Purina Pro Plan (and the Pro Plan Naturals)

Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline

Hello everyone,

  Anna, my stray cat, still is not eating like I would like her too, and I was wondering if any one has ever tried Blue buffalo? I have taken in a abused 5 year old lab recently also, that would not eat, and gave Buster some Blue buffalo and he is starting to eat. Just wondering if the cat food is also good.

donna

Franciscan said:

 
Hello everyone,

  Anna, my stray cat, still is not eating like I would like her too, and I was wondering if any one has ever tried Blue buffalo? I have taken in a abused 5 year old lab recently also, that would not eat, and gave Buster some Blue buffalo and he is starting to eat. Just wondering if the cat food is also good.

donna

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No, I have not but I've had good results with feeding Purina Kitten Chow to under-nourished kitties. It has more vitamins and fat to help them recover.  The kitten chow is in a yellow bag. I've not had any issues with getting them to eat it.

Nans.,

 Thank you for the input, I will look for it today when I go out for treats.

~donna