Are there any other types of canned food out there?

Ive been feeding my cat wellness core her whole life now. I was wondering if this brand is still one of the best for wet food? I was concerned on switching after reading about carrageenan. Money is not an issue. Which is the best canned food of them all and why? I heard about natures variety instinct but people seem to have mixed reviews about the protein on amazon. Im confused and would like your advise, thank you. I do plan on eventually switching to raw food but school studies is taking up most of my time.

There are lots of options out there! The "best" is hard to determine objectively, especially because the label can only tell us a limited amount about the ingredients in the food, and a lot depends on the cat and what they prefer! I used to feed my cat Wellness CORE as well and I also switched because of the carrageenan. Now I feed her a variety of canned foods. She prefers pate style so that is what I'm most familiar with. She absolutely LOVES Nature's Variety Instinct, any of the protein varieties. I feed her the LID because they have fewer fillers than even the regular line. They still have to put peas in everything, and I have no idea why. But aside from that it seems like a pretty great food.

Other foods that I've tried with my cat that I liked are Holistic Select, Hounds and Gatos, and Whole Earth Farms. The Hounds and Gatos looks wonderful from the ingredients, but she really does not like it and that's a mystery to me. Holistic Select is very well received, though. It has a bunch of ingredients for "prebiotic support" that are probably not that necessary, but they're low on the list so I'm pretty happy with the quality of that food. And it's actually significantly less expensive than Wellness and Nature's Variety. Whole Earth Farms grain free pates have a pretty good ingredient list as well, and my cat is a fan.

This blog has gone into much more depth than I've been able to ranking various food's: http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/

It's still just one person's opinion, and ultimately it comes down to what you and your cat feel is best, but it can definitely get you started.

If you want and really don't mind spending the money, there are also a lot of prepackaged commercial raw diets available. 

Wellness is a perfectly good brand to feed

The best food is the one your cat will eat If your cat is doing fine with Wellness then there is no reason to change the brand. You can certainly rotate in another brand or two for variety.

Nature's Variety Instinct is a good brand, IMO. I keep some cans on hand for my cats. I mainly feed raw. I also keep Weruva on hand as well.

Here are some threads that discuss brands of foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/291133/...nan-grain-free-wet-foods-to-feed-to-your-cats

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum

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

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/291497/best-canned-food-brand

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/265689/my-cats-wont-eat-the-best-canned-cat-foods

I also used to feed our cats Wellness Core but stopped, primarily because of the carrageenan. Our cats love the Wellness Core kitten food and I still buy it as an occasional treat but I just don't feel comfortable feeding carrageenan all the time. I agree with the others that Nature's Variety is good food (though I don't think the vegetables are a good ingredient) but our cats just don't like it enough to make it worth the money.

We feed our cats about 60% raw food, 40% canned foods. The canned brands they eat are: Tiki Cat (expensive but very good food in shreds and chunks), Weruva Cats in the Kitchen cans (mid-priced chunks), Nutro Natural Choice (minced, sliced, and chunky pate; some have carrageenan so watch the labels), Hound & Gatos (pate; the cats only like their lamb), Bravo (duck/turkey pate and turkey "fricassee," which they especially love), Merrick LID, and a couple Soulistic foods with shreds (I drain lots of the tapioca-thickened gravy from some of those). In terms of ingredient quality, I think Tiki's the best and our pickier cat especially likes it, so it's worth the money.

All those foods were chosen because the cats will eat them and they don't have: grains, carrageenan, menadione, potato, peas, other starchy vegetables that raise carb levels, or a lot of fish. We only feed occasional fish. I'm also trying to cut back on the various gums that are put in food. But that's even more difficult than getting rid of carrageenan.

As Molly92 mentioned, there are some good commercial raw foods available: we feed the cats mostly Rad Cat and Primal and they love both. If you shop around, they can be more cost-effective than some canned foods.

Good luck!