Changing from dry to wet food?

Hi there, I've just joined the site, not being a regular user of forums I'm not sure if I'm posting this correctly. Anyway, I found my cat, Emmet, when I was walking to work one night a couple of years ago and he was a very young scrawny kitten. He came to work with me and been with me ever since. He was an indoor cat for around a year when I lived in a flat and I fed him dry food after trying wet food which created smelly welcome homes after coming home from work. Didn't really bother me but I had a girlfriend living with me at the time who used to pass comment, and after minimal research I decided dry food was better for his health anyway.
I moved into a friend's house about a year ago and started letting Emmet outside which is great because he is very playful and loves being out, sleeps on my bed at night though lol. I feed him either iams or Purina food which he likes but he is rather large and I would like to see him slim down a bit. I've been looking up about cats losing weight and discovered the general consensus to be that wet food is preferable to dry mainly due to carbs in the dry. My question is can anyone advise me on a good wet food to buy, I bought whiskas this morning even though I know it's far from 'good', looking at the ingredients. I don't mind spending money on decent food, my local pet shop only really seems to have premium brands in dry food though. If I know a good food to buy I can order it online

I'll have a moderator move this thread to the proper forum

I know many European members here on TCS buy from http://www.zooplus.co.uk/ Is that an option for you? I'm not too familiar with European brands of food but members such as @Columbine can suggest good affordable brands of canned foods.

I do know that Applaws is a decent canned and pouched food available in Europe. However, most of the available types are treat  / supplement only. Only the pates are complete diets that can be fed every day as meals. There's also dry food available.

LTS3 is right - Zooplus is a fantastic resource for quality wet food, especially if you have the storage space to take advantage of their value packs. I get the majority of my food from them. They have a huge range. The brands in my rotation are

• Bozita
• Catz Finefood
• GranataPet
• Feringa
• Thrive Complete
• Nature's Menu (not from Zooplus, but is available from here, Amazon and various other stores.
• Simply Holistic (Pets at Home own brand)
• Almo Nature Classics (not a complete food)

Animonda Carny (Zooplus again) is good too. Lily's Kitchen is decent as well, but rather expensive for what it is imo. Wainwrights (Pets at Home own brand) is also good, though the trays seem better than the pouches. Meowing Heads is another possibility, though that's another very pricey option.

That should be enough to get you started anyway Some (like Bozita) are pretty economical, while others (such as Thrive, Nature's Menu, Lily's Kitchen) are firmly in the 'luxury' price bracket. It's up to you what you want to spend - they're all good options

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions if you want - I'm always happy to help

Thanks LTS3 and columbine, this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for, i'l get on to zooplus and have a look for the brands you's have mentioned. Thanks again!

At the shelter I asked about food, they fed a mix of wet & dry in the morning, and dry in the evening.  So I thought I was good doing similar, then did a little research, found Liz's blog about best cat food, this site, and other information. The shelter fed Science Diet kibble and Friskies. When I asked for recommendations I could tell Science Diet wasn't a favorite among the staff. That's what got me started looking into cat food. 

At first I was doing the same routine, the slowly started reducing the dry (NVI LID Turkey), getting down to 50%, then 25%, and now I mix it in with the NVI LID canned turkey only. At the same time I was phasing out Friskies;  for NVI, Merrick, and Hound & Gatos canned. Will be looking into other canned foods to keep them happy.

One thing I've noticed is how Rayna's & Rhett's coats shine and appear brighter since going almost entirely to wet food, most of it being NVI.

As the original question seems to have been answered, I'll just give some additional relevant advice.

To avoid creating a finicky eater, you should feed him a variety of flavors from more than one manufacturers.

Avoid cheap, B brand products that can have inconsistent and often poor quality.

Wet food contains more protein that favors cats as carnivores. But it costs more, smells and doesn't keep.

Dry food is far more convenient, is suitable for continuous and toy feeders, and keeps for months. But make sure the cat gets enough water.

Probably optimum would be a mixed diet containing both the above varieties.

bobkater

Dry food isn't actually necessary for health - wet food is closer to a cat's natural diet. Having said that, many people feed a combination of the two for budgetary reasons, or even just because their cats love it!

I'd also say that some cheap brands have good ingredients - certainly, cost alone is no guarantee of quality. Reading the labels carefully is the only sure way to sort the good from the bad.

Ultimately, the best food is the one your cat will happily eat! Even the best food will do no good at all from inside the tin

Rayna and Rhett are lovely looking red dog, thanks for your advice and I have to say that even though it's only been a few days on wet food, I was looking at Emmet earlier and I have brief thought that his coat was looking just a touch more 'vibrant'.
I have been feeding pretty just wet food and a little bit of kibble, literally only a few bits

I am probably going to include a small amount of kibble, once a day, as he appears to enjoy it, and as you say columbine, it's all about wanting them to be happy!.
Bobkater, your certainly right about feeding different flavours, the only time Emmet has failed to eat well, I put down to boredom of same old thing, and I began to alternate the dry foods. I actually tried one bit of kibble out of curiosity once and was surprised at how bland it tasted

Going to try those foods you mentioned also red dog

emmet brown said:

Rayna and Rhett are lovely looking red dog...

Click to expand...

Thanks Emmet. Like many others have said the transition is trial an error, lol. I could tell they were getting bored with their food, so am in the process of introducing other animal proteins and brands. They're eating beef, chicken, duck, lamb, salmon, tuna, turkey. Up next is venison and pork. trying different brands too. They seem to eat everything if I mix something they're used to with it, and its not too long before they're gobbling it up. Sometimes they beg for something else when I serve up something new, but its not too long before they try it and eventually finish. Rayna the younger of the two seems to prefer Pates, Rhett is more open to variety.

Dropping dry kibble is a no brainer for me because of the expense of the better brands. Too expensive for something that is not 100% healthy.