Looking for wet food with chunks or large shreds

Hi there,

First-time poster.  I've been lurking here for awhile & have very much enjoyed the helpful, thoughtful and supportive posts on this site.

I'm looking for advice about high quality wet food with chunks or large shreds.  My girl Phoebe (the small one in the picture below) is not very good at eating wet food.  She licks & licks, only occasionally managing to get a piece in her mouth. She is just too dainty!  Pate-style food doesn't work at all. This is a problem because then she only eats wet food if she really likes likes it or is very hungry.  Otherwise, she just licks up any sauce or broth and waits until I put down the dry food. 

I'm currently feeding Wellness Chunky or Sliced and Pride by Instinct Flaked cans.  She manages to very very slowly eat this food.  However, I'm trying to stay away from too much fish, so there aren't that may flavors in my rotation and she is getting bored. 

I'm looking for some recommendations because otherwise it's just trial & error, as many of the pictures of the food don't really reflect the actual texture of the food inside the can.

Btw, Calvin, Phoebe's 13 pound plus brother, just hoovers up his food in a flash

Edited - Nevermind - totally missed that pate foods don't work. There goes my suggestion. Sorry!

No problem Paiger8.  It's true that standard pates don't work.  She just seems to end up pushing it around the plate instead of getting it into her mouth.  But perhaps watering it down into a gravy would work.  I will check out the Gravy Only thread.

My cat hates pate foods too! Let me suggest some solutions for you, friend...!

You can try Blue Buffalo Wilderness "Meaty Morsels" .. I give Olive the Chicken and Turkey flavor. He loves it... he will never eat pate food, and this does the trick. It also does not contain carrageenan, despite Blue Buffalo's other products that do contain it.  

.. Here's another brand by Blue Buffalo, but I'm pretty certain it contains carrageenan, though. Whether or not you choose to feed food containing the ingredient is your choice. I know Wellness contains carrageenan in pretty much all their foods except a few.

Tiki Cat is another great food. More specifically, the "Puka Puka Chicken" flavor. (They have other non-fish flavors as well! Especially in their line "Gourmet Carnivore" .. This is a really high quality food, and it's human grade. However, it's difficult to find it in stores, so expect to buy it mostly online. The good thing though, is that it's literally shreds of white chicken breast. You can scoop it up with your favorite saltine cracker and eat a can if you wish. lol

Soulistic is a great food, too. Some of their foods contain a lot of fish though.... :/ There's a few that do not contain fish however.

Hmmm...  You can try mixing your current pate food with Blue Buffalo toppers. It's chunks of meat with gravy... You can also try watering it down with warm water or fresh chicken stock, too. You can also try putting boiled (or raw...) chicken breast into the food, to make it more appealing. 

How about Weruva or Tiki Cat? Both have meat varieties besides seafood.

You might find something else using this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninga/sets/72157630596066364

Thank you Zylaai and LTS3.

I found some Tiki Cat Puka Puka Chicken and Gourmet Carnivore at the local pet store.  We're trying it out tonight.

When I open cans of food that look like Puka Puka Chicken, I start to wonder, "Couldn't I just make this myself by boiling & shredding chicken?  Surely, I can manage that, can't I?"

CowKittyMom said:

 
Thank you Zylaai and LTS3.

I found some Tiki Cat Puka Puka Chicken and Gourmet Carnivore at the local pet store.  We're trying it out tonight.

When I open cans of food that look like Puka Puka Chicken, I start to wonder, "Couldn't I just make this myself by boiling & shredding chicken?  Surely, I can manage that, can't I?"

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Our cats love Tiki and I hope yours do, too. It's very good food.

And funny you should mention wanting to make similar food. I remember there being a thread in the homecooked and raw section about replicating Tiki's Puka Puka chicken... I think it was about a year ago.

LisaHE said:

 
And funny you should mention wanting to make similar food. I remember there being a thread in the homecooked and raw section about replicating Tiki's Puka Puka chicken... I think it was about a year ago.

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Here's the thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/299385/...i-cat-chicken-puka-puka-luau-with-home-cooked

Remember, plain meat is fine as an occasional treat but not as a complete balanced diet If you want to try to make cat food, the Raw and Nutrition forum has info on how to do that properly.

Petco sells Soulistic good Kharma it is similar to tiki puka puka luau.

LTS3 said:

 
How about Weruva or Tiki Cat? Both have meat varieties besides seafood.

You might find something else using this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninga/sets/72157630596066364

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This link is awesome!!  THank you for posting!

Spring Naturals may be another option. I posted a picture of one can here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/310250/...cluding-gluten-and-wheat-free/30#post_3893499

Lotus Just Juicy has large shreds. Turkey is the one we use, simple ingredients, no carrageenan or gums - just agar agar used but even my IBD cat tolerates it well. The carrots are far and few and large enough to remove.

Make sure it's Lotus Just Juicy and not "Lotus" - their original line, completely different formulas.

LJJ (turkey):

Turkey, Turkey Broth, Potato Starch, Carrots, Calcium Lactate, Olive Oil, Monosodium Phosphate, Salt, Agar-Agar, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Betaine, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.

Well, there's also Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers--it's got a lot of gravy, a good bit of fat (if your kitty needs the calories), and it has chunks of meat. It also comes in several varieties, from beef and poultry to seafood. However, it doesn't have a whole lot going for it on the nutritional front, but if you're supplementing with nutritional dry food the cat should be just fine. (My babies won't eat pates either, and went on a hunger strike the last time I tried to feed it to them.)

I know that my cats adore any of the Blue Buffalo chunky foods. I mean, they really eat anything Blue Buffalo, but they really love the Meaty Morsels or the Grilled ones. They inhale those.

I'd like to recommend 4Health (Tractor Supply) brand Chicken Dinner in Gravy. It's grain free, carrageenan free, and my kitties love it! It's also only $0.69 per 5.5 oz can.

Thanks so much to everyone who replied to my original post.  I'll be trying some of your suggestions over the next few weeks.

LTS3 said:

 
You might find something else using this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninga/sets/72157630596066364

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Thank you so much for this link to SEE what's in the cans! Fabulous resource

Aly822 said:

 
Thank you so much for this link to SEE what's in the cans! Fabulous resource

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Sometimes if you do a Google Image search you might find an image of what's in the can.

The Flickr album doesn't have a lot of the new brands of food or foods sold at stores like Tractor Supply or other non typical stores. I was thinking it would be a good idea to set up a photo album here on TCS or on a photo sharing web site so that members can post pictures of what a can of food actually looks like Should a separate thread be made to discuss this idea?