Best Cat Food Brand?

Hi everyone,

I've always fed my cats (& dogs) Science Diet up until about a year ago.  I decided to change her diet & went with Blue Buffalo & she seemed to love it.  Unfortunately, about a month ago she had to be put to sleet due to kidney disease.  So, I just recently adopted a new kitten/young adult & I'm seeing all of these posts online about lawsuits with Blue Buffalo & people with sick pets.

So, my question is, what's the very best cat food available?  I know this is a bit of a subjective question but I'm just wondering what the more popular brands are?  I'm hoping to find something that's available locally at PetSmart or PetCo but I'm open to ordering from Amazon or Chewy if I have to.

Right now I start her day with a half can of moist & give her the 2nd half in the evening (I also add a little water to each so she'll get more moisture).  She also has a little dry out during the day to snack on.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Joey

Hello and welcome!!!  

The deciding factors in what food is best for your cats will be 1) What the cat will eat and 2) What you can afford. You can buy the fanciest, most expensive foods there are but if your cat won't eat them, they are worthless. I found this out the hard way. I have 3 picky eaters. 

Are you looking for a good dry and canned? If your cat does not have any allergies to any specific ingredients or proteins, as far as quality of product is concerned, I think that Orijen Cat & Kitten is the best dry food. This is not available at Petco or Petsmart unfortunately. It is at independent pet stores, Chewy and Amazon. It is very high quality. It does contain some fish but it is of quality. No garbage

I don't feed Blue Buffalo products. My two girls wouldn't touch them (Various canned varieties- no dry) and my boy Henry ate some but they came right back up. Some people feed it with no issues but I personally would never buy BB again. 

As far as canned is concerned, my cats eat mostly canned food with some Orijen C&K as a topper sometimes or if I will be out of the house for a day or so. The canned foods we have in our rotation include:

Friskies poultry pates (these are better than you might think if you stick to the pates) MANY cats like these a lot

Fancy Feast classics poultry flavors (see above note)

Sheba poultry pates (see above note)

Nutro Natural Choice- you can't go wrong with any of the textures (they have soft loaf (pate), chunky loaf, minced and sliced. available at Petco, Petsmart and online vendors like Chewy and Amazon

Nature's Variety Instinct chicken and limited ingredient diet turkey (this line is all pates) available at Petco, Petsmart , Amazon and Chewy

Pride by Instinct rabbit, duck, chicken and lamb (these come flaked and minced)- available at Petco (limited variety) and online at Amazon & Chewy

Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken - High quality shredded white meat chicken in a broth like gravy. Available in independent pet stores and online from Amazon and Chewy

Soulistic Good Karma and Harvest Sunrise (This is Petco's house brand)- GK is shredded white meat chicken in a broth like gravy and the HS is GK with bits of pumpkin. It is made by Weruva (see above) and is almost indistinguishable from the PLC mentioned above. Unlike the Weruva, it is available in a big box store (Petco)

Wellness cubed, sliced and minced chicken and turkey- available at Petco, Petsmart, Amazon and Chewy

Merrick pates- both regular and limited ingredient diet- available at Petco and online from Amazon and Chewy

Merrick Grammy's pot pie- . They have a whole line of foods like this a lot of cats love them but mine prefer the GPP. At Petco and online from Amazon & Chewy

As you can see, we have foods from every end of the budget spectrum in the rotation. This is because that is what they will eat. I don't keep ALL of these on hand all of the time. I rotate them in and out and always try to keep a good variety available. Picky eaters keep you on your toes. I would advise that you pick up a few cans of a variety of foods and once you figure out what the cat will eat that works with your budget, then go online and order in bulk. 

When ordering online, compare Amazon to Chewy and see who has the better deal. I think that they watch each other and adjust pricing accordingly. I open 2 tabs. One for each and see who has what then I decide. 

If you have Amazon Prime, you can use that along with the Subscribe and Save program to save even more. The S&S gets you free shipping whether you have Prime or not. The only difference is speed. If the items are Prime eligible, you get free 2 day shipping. If you don't have Prime, It's 3-5 days. Both Amazon and Chewy have minimum order amounts of $49 (unless you are a Prime member with Amazon) Both are great, reputable and both have fantastic customer service. I've ordered from both and will again. Many people here prefer Chewy but my heart belongs to Amazon      Chewy also has an autoship program that gets you discounts but I have never used it. 

The "best" one is the one that your cat will eat, that you can afford, and can find in the local stores without too much trouble

For canned food brands, see these threads for suggestions:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272192/affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292925/cheaper-canned-foods

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/313700/budget-friendly-can-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306947/your-favorite-brands-of-novel-protein-canned-cat-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/310250/new-brands-of-canned-cat-foods-including-gluten-and-wheat-free

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/312495/looking-for-shredded-meat-canned-foods-like-weruva

Here's a thread outside of TCS with a list of grain free brands.

I like Nature's Variety Instinct and Weruva. I actually feed the NV raw but I do keep canned food on hand for snacks and for tempting an inappetant cat to eat if needed.

Weruva and all the lines within the brand (BFF, Cats In The Kitchen, etc) are sold only at independent pet stores and online at various places. Soulistic, the inexpensive version of Weruva, is sold at Petco.

Petco sells Nature's Variety Instnct but the selection may be limited. Independent pet stores and online stores will have a full selection.

There's nothing wrong with a canned food brand like Fancy Feast or Friskies if that's all your cat will eat.

If you need dry food, Nature's Variety Instinct has some good dry formulas. Some people here recommend the Orijen dry food.

Don't rule out your local independent pet stores. You'll often find premium brands sold there and pet supplies and toys you might not find at a chain pet store.

Thanks so much for the helpful advice.  I decided to go with Orijen.  I found a great locally owned pet shop today (that I've driven past 100 times & never visited) & called to see if they carried it & they did.  Went in to get a 5lb bag of the cat & kitten & the shop owner also gave me a free 1 lb bag of the fish flavor to try & gave me a free carton of frozen organic goats milk that he said to offer as a treat in case her stomach is uneasy with the food switch.  (not something I was really interested in, but I figured I'd give it a whirl to see if she liked it).

He was so helpful & knowledgeable about all the different brands (& he carries just about every non grocery store brand except BB & Hills as well as frozen and raw foods).  I think I've found a new place for food & supplies...a little more expensive (but not much) than Amazon but so nice to visit a place just down the street where the people obviously care so much & want to look after customers & their pets.

In choosing knowledgeably and responsibly, there’s no proper substitute to educating yourself about ingredients and then comparing labels. Once you get the basics, this will become a lot easier than it sounds. And you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that matters are in your own hands. Otherwise, you’ll get more different answers than the number of people you ask.

Of course, you should stick to major brands and also provide some variety in flavors and manufacturers to enrich the diet and avoid creating a picky eater. Mixing with some water is also a good practice, but fresh, clean water should be available constantly nevertheless.

Has anyone tried the Evolve brand?  My local mega-market had it at a seemingly ridiculously low price for a "premium" brand.  The store price was less than half of the online price.  I read the ingredients, which seem to be very good.  I bought two 3lbs. packages of their chicken grain-free  formula.

Long time lurker first time poster. I wouldn't call that food premium, it's pretty high in dry matter carbs at like 41%, also 3rd ingredient is brown rice, followed by rice flour. It also has a bunch of less than stellar ingredients including: Brewers yeast, canola oil, dried kelp. You can find better middle of the road dry food than this or better yet buy cheap wet food as its a better option than premium dry.

The Evolve dry food package that I purchased is their Chicken /Grain Free formula.  I couldn't find an ingredients poster on the Evolve website, so maybe this formula is a pilot project, which might also explain its low price.  Compared to offerings by the big boys (Purina Beyond) there were very few Evolve products on the shelves of my market.

Hello everyone, I came across this site looking for information on good cat food with nutrition. All the cats I've always had have always eaten Royal Canin however my new kitten doesn't really like it and my other cat that I've had for about two years suddenly does not like the wet food either. They are OK with the dry food however I want them to eat more wet food so they get more water intake. I came across the soulistic brand and they love it although im not sure my kitten should be eating that. She constantly leaves her dish and wanders over to her sisters. I was so happy my picky eater like this new food so much however I did buy tuna flavor as well as some other flavors that have salmon etc. I did buy the chicken flavor and the chicken with pumpkin and they do like that as well. Since you all seem so knowledgeable would you be able to to advise me on what flavors or which foods from that brand I can actually feed them or if I'm better off trying The weruva brand which was equal in price when I checked chewy as I paid $1.49 for the Soulistic each piece, my query about the flavors or types to buy of the weruva are the same. I will also be ordering the origen dry that you all speak highly about. I have always fed Royal Canin sometimes science diet and at one point there was wellness being consumed but my vet has always recommended Royal Canin I'm not sure if that's just lack of knowledge that she always recommends that. I look forward to unwelcome all of your advice, thank you very much.

Weruva makes Soulistsic so the varieties are pretty much similar across the two None of the Weruva or Soulstic foods are labeled for kittens, just "all life stages". Some people prefer to feed kitten specific food to kittens but it's perfectly fine to feed some all life stages food.

In general, stick with meat based foods. Seafood should be limited to once in awhile meals. Some cats get addicted to eating it and will refuse to eat anything else, seafood tends to be low in protein, some sensitive cats may develop urinary issues.

There are suggested brands of canned foods here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/315347/best-cat-food-brand

My cats eat an all canned diet and the bulk of their diet is 4Health grain free canned (Tractor Supply brand). I mostly use their chicken dinner and turkey & giblets flavors. The chicken one is shredded and the turkey one is pate. It's very cost effective for a premium food (only $0.69 per 5.5 oz can) and my kitties love it.

The ingredients are excellent and it's fantastic quality for the price.

Crazy4Strays said:

My cats eat an all canned diet and the bulk of their diet is 4Health grain free canned (Tractor Supply brand). I mostly use their chicken dinner and turkey & giblets flavors. The chicken one is shredded and the turkey one is pate. It's very cost effective for a premium food (only $0.69 per 5.5 oz can) and my kitties love it.

The ingredients are excellent and it's fantastic quality for the price.

image.jpeg

• crazy4strays
• Feb 22, 2016

Click to expand...

I think tomorrow I'll look for one nearby (or relatively nearby - I think the closest one is at least a 45-minute drive away). I'd like to at least try this and see if my kitties like it.

By any chance do you happen to have the dry matter analysis on this?

Thank you! It doesn't happen to mention phosphorus on the label, does it? It cuts off a bit on the right side. I'm guessing not, guaranteed analysis often doesn't show phosphorus (but sometimes it does).

No, there is no analysis for phosphorus unfortunately.