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Best Dry & Wet Food for 7 and 10 year old Felines
- Thread starter elsamarie
- Start Date
Oh boy. Well, technically raw food is the very best and healthiest. Raw fed pet owners will sing the praises of the diet: cats are healthier, more active, have glossier fur, have smaller and less smelly waste, etc. And I definitely agree. You can either buy preprepared raw food in pet stores, or make your own. Making your own is less expensive and you can tailor it to your cat's specific needs very closely, but it does take work and you need to be very diligent about getting the right amount of each animal part and supplements for your cat to have a balanced diet. Personally I have yet to feed raw for a few reasons, but I probably will in the future.
If you're not ready to take the leap into raw, an all wet diet is much better than dry. Even some wet is better than none. Cats do not drink nearly as much water as they need on their own, relying mostly on their food, and dry food is only 5-10% moisture, whereas wet food is 70-80%, which is very close to a cat's prey in the wild. Just as staying hydrated is really important for people for just about every health issue conceivable, it's the same for cats. Especially for urinary tract and kidney issues that are very common in cats.
Because every cat is different in health issues and preferences, what works best for one owner is not necessarily going to be the best food for your cats, so learning how to read ingredient lists and evaluate the quality of the food is key. Ideally, meat should be the first ingredients. Meat by-products are not a good sign, but meat meal (like chicken meal) is very good. Grains, potatoes, rice, starches, anything with vegetable-based carbohydrates are just fillers and are not going to do anything good for your cat. Vegetable based proteins like peas and beans are also useless, as cats are obligate carnivores and rely on the proteins in animal tissues, which are different from plant proteins. Also, fish is not a good main ingredient because of mercury levels. An occasional bite of tuna fish is fine for most cats, but it should not be the main part of their diet.
For very detailed guidelines on how to feed raw/how to find the best food for your cat, http://www.catinfo.org/ is very helpful!
I've been feeding Wellness CORE Indoor and Turkey and Duck to my cat, 1/2 can of each a day, but I'm going to try transitioning her to Holistic Select canned because I'm worried about the carrageenan in the Wellness. It's used in a lot of cat foods, but it's been linked to IBD and lymphoma, and also it's very expensive when you compare it to other foods calorie for calorie. Otherwise it had really great ingredients and my cat really liked it. The Holistic Select looks good for us because she's had issues with constipation and it has ingredients that are meant to give prebiotic support, so I'm hopeful. I tried Tiki Cat before, but it wasn't my cat's favorite and I started seeing black specks in a lot of the cans which made me nervous so I decided it wasn't worth the price, either. A lot of people and cats do like it, though. Other popular healthy brands are Weruva, Nature's Variety, Merrick, and Hounds and Gatos. And I'm sure those aren't the only good ones, they're just what I know of. You can sometimes find them in pet stores, but I order from Chewy.com so I don't have to lug cans of cat food around, and their prices are usually comparable or better.
If you do need to feed some dry for whatever reason, the same rules for ingredients apply, and the same brands are usually pretty consistent, although you do need to double check the ingredients for any new flavor you try.
Tips for transitioning to a new food: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade
If you're not ready to take the leap into raw, an all wet diet is much better than dry. Even some wet is better than none. Cats do not drink nearly as much water as they need on their own, relying mostly on their food, and dry food is only 5-10% moisture, whereas wet food is 70-80%, which is very close to a cat's prey in the wild. Just as staying hydrated is really important for people for just about every health issue conceivable, it's the same for cats. Especially for urinary tract and kidney issues that are very common in cats.
Because every cat is different in health issues and preferences, what works best for one owner is not necessarily going to be the best food for your cats, so learning how to read ingredient lists and evaluate the quality of the food is key. Ideally, meat should be the first ingredients. Meat by-products are not a good sign, but meat meal (like chicken meal) is very good. Grains, potatoes, rice, starches, anything with vegetable-based carbohydrates are just fillers and are not going to do anything good for your cat. Vegetable based proteins like peas and beans are also useless, as cats are obligate carnivores and rely on the proteins in animal tissues, which are different from plant proteins. Also, fish is not a good main ingredient because of mercury levels. An occasional bite of tuna fish is fine for most cats, but it should not be the main part of their diet.
For very detailed guidelines on how to feed raw/how to find the best food for your cat, http://www.catinfo.org/ is very helpful!
I've been feeding Wellness CORE Indoor and Turkey and Duck to my cat, 1/2 can of each a day, but I'm going to try transitioning her to Holistic Select canned because I'm worried about the carrageenan in the Wellness. It's used in a lot of cat foods, but it's been linked to IBD and lymphoma, and also it's very expensive when you compare it to other foods calorie for calorie. Otherwise it had really great ingredients and my cat really liked it. The Holistic Select looks good for us because she's had issues with constipation and it has ingredients that are meant to give prebiotic support, so I'm hopeful. I tried Tiki Cat before, but it wasn't my cat's favorite and I started seeing black specks in a lot of the cans which made me nervous so I decided it wasn't worth the price, either. A lot of people and cats do like it, though. Other popular healthy brands are Weruva, Nature's Variety, Merrick, and Hounds and Gatos. And I'm sure those aren't the only good ones, they're just what I know of. You can sometimes find them in pet stores, but I order from Chewy.com so I don't have to lug cans of cat food around, and their prices are usually comparable or better.
If you do need to feed some dry for whatever reason, the same rules for ingredients apply, and the same brands are usually pretty consistent, although you do need to double check the ingredients for any new flavor you try.
Tips for transitioning to a new food: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade
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Wet food from Petco without grains or carageenan:
Merrick LID
Natures Variety Instinct
Nutro Natural Choice (most cats LOVE this one)--- especially the chunky loaf and the slices
Soulistic
Sheba (Some by-products, but still good and very cheap)
Merrick LID
Natures Variety Instinct
Nutro Natural Choice (most cats LOVE this one)--- especially the chunky loaf and the slices
Soulistic
Sheba (Some by-products, but still good and very cheap)
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Nope! I just have the one right now, and she was eating all wet in her foster home before I got her, so she was already used to it. She also needs to lose weight, so I'm keeping her to very strict portion sizes and she gets fed twice a day. She also gets freeze dried treats (Orijen wild boar is her favorite).
Hm, just from looking at what they have on their website, all of Nature's Variety's kibble options are my favorite.
For wet, all the Nature's Variety options look pretty good (aside from the fish flavors), as do the Wellness Healthy Indulgence pouches and Wellness Signature Selects. I hadn't heard of Whole Earth Farms before but those also look good.
I'm not an expert though, this is just my opinion based on the research I've done on my own. Good luck!
Hm, just from looking at what they have on their website, all of Nature's Variety's kibble options are my favorite.
For wet, all the Nature's Variety options look pretty good (aside from the fish flavors), as do the Wellness Healthy Indulgence pouches and Wellness Signature Selects. I hadn't heard of Whole Earth Farms before but those also look good.
I'm not an expert though, this is just my opinion based on the research I've done on my own. Good luck!
You can get Nature's variety instinct kibble, canned and frozen raw at Petco. Halo impulse is another good brand for canned.
I've also heard good things about Soulistic and Merrick LID, but haven't used either.
I've also heard good things about Soulistic and Merrick LID, but haven't used either.
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I feed Merrick chicken dry for treat. I feed wet Merrick chicken or duck pate. I mix it with Soulistic Good Karma (shreds), I also feed nutro natural choice chunky chicken loaf, Pride by instinct rockstar rabbit, Earthborne chicken jumble, red barn tricky chicky stew
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