The long transition from kibble to something better...

Hey all, new face here.

My little guy is a rescue who came to me with a pretty easy palate and a fish allergy. He was raised by his fosters on kibble and anything meaty he stole from them, no joke, right off the plate the moment they turned around.

I moved him from regular commercial dry to grain free dry, then limited ingredient dry. From there, I moved to wet canned food. His energy level went up and his coat got even softer and shinier, and he will NOT leave me alone when it's time to eat.

However....

Moving him from wet food to carb-low/free wet food is proving to be a bit of a challenge. He's not too old, maybe four or so, but he was raised on regular commercial product, which likely was pretty carb-laden.  I have him carrageenan-free right now, and would like to move him to canned foods with a lower carb index, but he is proving far more stubborn at this than at any other dietary challenge.

Right now he eats the ONE Wellness that doesn't have carrageenan, Soulistic Good Kharma, fish-free Weruva, and Instinct LID. I want to keep him eating a variety of foods if I can.

He absolutely, positiviely, refuses to touch Hound and Gatos chicken. I find this odd, because he inhales chicken pretty much at any other time. I thought it was pates he hated, but he will eat a couple others with only moderate enthusiasm(which I can't recall, can isn't in front of me). I like the ingredient list for H&G, so I'm going to try the non-fish types and cross my fingers. 

He will inhale anything with starch in it. I want to wean him away from starch, and have no interest in feeding him fruits, vegetables, etc. I would really like to transition to raw, but he forages -- he will not finish any but the tiniest servings, and cleans his dish over a period of several hours. I suspect this is in part due to a digestive/esophogeal issue. Regardless of cause, I'm not sure I want to leave raw food out for hours. 

So, the question:

What carrageenan, fish, vegetable free foods can I expand his palate with, pates especially, to make it easier to move him to healthier alternatives? I'm thinking I want to get him excited about eating pates and slowly reduce the carbs until he's happy eating the good stuff.

Thanks!

Merrick Limited Ingredient Diet pates are awesome! I feed the chicken and turkey, but there are more flavors than that. No carrageenan either. 

My cats actually just started eating Rad Cat raw frozen recently, and they took right to it. I didn't think they would, but I tried giving them a couple small bites and they were screaming for more. They even like flavors that they don't care for in canned food. Even my picky little girl who never finishes her plate will inhale this. 

My cat has similar tastes. She prefers pates, but she absolutely will not touch Hounds and Gatos and I have no idea why. Nature's Variety Instinct is her favorite. She will eat Holisitic Select, which isn't perfect because it has all these powdered fruits in it, which is a little weird, but no grains, potatoes, or peas. (Theoretically they're there to feed healthy gut bacteria, but I haven't noticed a difference when she's eating that or something else, and I do notice a difference when I give her actual probiotics.) 

She also likes Whole Earth Farms, which have a good ingredient list, although some of the flavors do have peas and some don't.

See these threads for suggstions:

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

Don't go nuts abotu carbs. Just limit it to around 15% or so. The selection of food that meets a 0% carb criteria is very very limited.

A lot of good brands unfortuntely has some small amount of fruits and veggies These won't harm the cat at all IMO.

The brands we've found that the cats like and are low-carb (almost all under 10% dry matter, many lower), grain-free, potato-free, and pea-free are: Weruva Cats in the Kitchen, Tiki Cat Luau and Gourmet Carnivore, Merrick LID (I agree with Paiger8, our cats love these), Nutro Natural Choice, Bravo, and Hounds & Gatos (only lamb: our cats don't like the chicken, either). The one carb exception is a little Soulistic, but I drain most of the gravy to lower the carbs.

Our cats eat a lot like Paiger8's: they also eat Rad Cat (love at first sight) as well as a lot of Primal, which they also took to fairly quickly.

Good luck!

You might like Whole Earth Farms. The beef and duck pates are better than some other of their flavors, which contain some fillers. My cat loves the beef, and he is a kibble nut.
It's own by Merrick, so ingredients are almost identical, but prices about 50¢ less a can.

http://www.chewy.com/dp/115617

Yes my cats loooove Merrick Lid or regular pates in duck or chicken, Nutro Natural Choice chunky chicken loaf, tiki cat puka luau, Soulistic good karma, Soulistic chicken dinner in gelee (pate &!shreds), halo impulse Guinea hen and greens, pride rockstar rabbit

bonepicker said:

Yes my cats loooove Merrick Lid or regular pates in duck or chicken, Nutro Natural Choice chunky chicken loaf, tiki cat puka luau, Soulistic good karma, Soulistic chicken dinner in gelee (pate &!shreds), halo impulse Guinea hen and greens, pride rockstar rabbit

Click to expand...

We feed that one, too, I forgot to add it! It's pretty low-carb and the cats like it a lot.

I may have to stop the Soulistic for my cat -- he eats it with relish, but it doesn't sit well in his stomach. He often wants to cuddle right after eating if he doesn't feel too hot, and it's murder on my shirts.

The Merrick brands have an ingredient I'm not sure I trust -- alfalfa meal. It's basically fertilizer. I'm not sure my cat needs to be fertilized...

I'm going to pick up some Rad Cat and give it a try on him. I'll have to reduce the serving size so it doesn't sit out for too long and/or he doesn't scarf and barf, but I'm betting he'll hoover it up like a pro.