Grain Free Cat food: Newbie question

I've been reading all about grain free cat foods on this site, and found many recommended.  However, is there a "brand" or "type" of grain free to AVOID?  Any that are consistently sub-par?  

We need GRAIN FREE WET PATE here for my megacoln baby.

May has poo-issues, so we're working with the vet on grain free, and she said to give her a "variety" from different manufacturers to see how she tolerates them, and check off the list the ones she doesn't like, so I want to learn from other's trial and error on the site here.  You have much knowledge to share, clearly.   

It's going to be different for every person but personally, I avoid grain, gluten, corn, rice, potatoes, and anything else that is too filled with fruits and veggies. I look for meat as the first and main ingredient. The easiest way to do this is to feed wet, if you aren't already. With dry food, it's almost impossible to eliminate all those things, because most dry food has a lot of fillers in it. And since fillers aren't really needed in a cats body, it goes straight through and into the litter box.

Especially since you're playing around with brands/types of food right now, wet food is going to be better. Cats have a hard time switching dry food, so it has to be done really gradually. 

Is your cat constipated, or having soft stools?

CallieMayLily said:

 
I've been reading all about grain free cat foods on this site, and found many recommended.  However, is there a "brand" or "type" of grain free to AVOID?  Any that are consistently sub-par?  

My one baby has poo-issues, so we're working with the vet on grain free, and she said to give her a "variety" from different manufacturers to see how she tolerates them, and check off the list the ones she doesn't like, so I want to learn from other's trial and error on the site here.  You have much knowledge to share, clearly. 

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What brands have you tried so far? I have 3 picky eaters whose diet is about 95% canned foods and dry food that is used as a topper or occasional snack. The brands that we have had the most success with are the following:

Friskies pates

Fancy Feast Classics (pates)

Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken (shredded white meat chicken in a broth like gravy)

Soulistic Good Karma and Harvest Sunrise (Soulistic is Petco's house brand and is made by Weruva. Good Karma and Paw Lickin Chicken are almost indistinguishable from one another. 

Pride by Instinct duck, rabbit, chicken and lamb (these come flaked and minced)

Nature's Variety Instinct chicken and LID turkey (both pates)

Sheba pates

Wellness sliced, cubed and minced chicken and turkey

Merrick pates (both regular and LID) and some of the other varieties like Chicken Divan and Grammy's Pot Pie. I believe that these are both minced.

Whole Earth Farms pates and minced varieties. These are found at Petco and are made by Merrick.

I will not feed my cats Blue Buffalo or Royal Canin for 2 reasons. One being that I believe that they are both overpriced junk and the second reason is that my cats will NOT eat them. My Henry did eat some BB once and then proceeded to give it right back to me- all over the living room rug. The girls will not touch either.  I also don't feed any Halo foods because they do not like them. There are actually a lot of foods that my trio of divas will not eat. 

I'd suggest going to a local big box pet store like Petco or Petsmart depending on what is near you and grabbing a small amount of a wide variety of foods for your baby to try. This is what I did. Variety is the key. Mine very rarely eat the same food 2 meals in a row. Actually it's almost never. If you have a Tractor Supply Company near you, they have a grain free line of their house brand 4Health that is recommended by a lot of people here. 

The dry food that I feed is Orijen Cat & Kitten. I feel that it is hands down the best quality dry food out there. It is expensive so keep that in mind. It might be the most expensive dry out there but the quality is outstanding. Since I don't feed much dry, a 5 pound bag lasts us a while. 

Probably should have prefaced this with:  I need GRAIN FREE WET cat food (I changed it above--lol).  My brain is going a million miles a minute today (sick hubby at home, too).  

Baby May was diagnosed with megacolon last year and until now has done well on Lactulose, but lately, it's not worked well for her, so the vet suggested a trial run of grain free.  She said she's seen some good luck with that, and in a little over two weeks it's seemed to help May for sure.  

So far, we've tried grain free Iams, Purina, 4Health, Wellness, BB, and TOTW.   Baby May won't eat TOTW or Iams other than to lick the juice off it and walk away.  Her favorites thus far (in order of her favorite-->less favorite) are:  Purina, 4Health, BB, Iams, and TOTW.  That said, I have NOT used "Beyond" but instead used Purina in a royal blue can.....can't remember the full name just now.  

I also grabbed a bag of 4Health Gran Free dry when I was at Tractor Supply, just to see what the "difference" was, and she eats it far better than her Royal Canin that was prescribed by her vet.  However, she eats so little of dry kibble anyhow, it's not that important to her overall diet.  (less than 1/8 cup per day is what I give her and she has left overs).  I think she just likes to crunch on stuff sometimes.  

So, as long as the meat and broth are the first three/four ingredients and the protein level is high, I look for the fewest vegetables and I"m good to go?  Seems simple enough.

My cat used to have persistently soft, bloody stools, with rare bouts of constipation. Through many months of trial and error (my vet's not great), I finally sorted out my kitty's tummy problems. He's been doing well for many months now! I wrote quite a long post about what I did to solve my kitty's problem, here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/319911/constipation-issues/60#post_4022646.

HTH!

Thanks for that link.  I read what you wrote and i hadn't even considered things like rabbit or duck (I'm not sure I"ve seen those here in the US in my region, but I added it to my list to watch out for.  Thanks again.

I made a spreadsheet of grain- & carrageenan-free canned foods that you can find here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/319516/grain-carrageenan-free-foods

The spreadsheet was really for my own personal reference, so I marked the varieties that I keep an eye out for when I'm out shopping.  I avoid fish/seafood flavors, and try to choose foods with high protein & low carb percentages... and of course, price is a factor as well.

Piggybacking on Paiger's point...

isn't it annoying how manufactures splash the phrase "Grain Free" on their labels, but in the next breath on those very same labels prominently "brag" about how their "premium" product includes rice, oatmeal, barley etc.  Well, I was a flop at  high school biology but the last time I checked, rice, oatmeal and barley were indeed grains.  Potato is a root vegetable that is also a grain (as is corn).  Sweet Potatoes, while not a grain, are very similar to standard potatoes.

Oops, just noticed that you're not looking for raw brands. Sorry! 

Orijen manufactures biologically appropriate kibble from novel protein sources (quail, buffalo, venison, etc). I think you can buy this online and have it delivered.

I used this chart (http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf) to inform my tinned wet food purchases. Although most of the good brands aren't available where I am, I just needed to follow the advice in pgs 1-3 and 32-35. Apparently, carb content shouldn't exceed 10% (and the chart also explains how you can calculate carb content). You should be able to find some of the better brands, where you live, since the chart is based on U.S. brands.

Best of luck with your kitty.

I love 4Health (Tractor Supply) brand wet food. It's cost effective and good quality. 

Lovine the chart!! I saved it for later.  Also, I think the reason rice, barley, and oats are ok is that they're considered easily digestible overall (hence the baby cereal with the same  contents).  

Don't quote me on that, but I'm thinking that is the reason.  

I had been feeding Fancy Feast at first, then she stopped eating it.  Maybe that's why she didn't have an issue before now since apparently the classic type is also "grain free" by these standards......or so the label said.  It's never a dull moment with May's bowel habits, for sure. 

Interesting on the barley and oats.

I feed some regular 4Health canned cat food and it's not grain free, but the only grain that it has in it is barley. The reason I feed it is because it's 99 cents for a large (13ish oz) can, so it's cost effective for my multi cat household. The ingredients are pretty decent and the first several ones are all animal sourced ingredients. 

Nature's Variety Instinct is grain free: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/ They're all pate except for the Pride By Instinct.

The orignal Wellness CORE and the regular Wellness Complete Health canned is grain free and pate: http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/features.aspx?pet=cat&att=1

Here's another chart that lists if a food contains grains or veggies or other stuff: The chart is several years out of date however. You'll have to check the pet food company web site or a site like Chewy.com for the most up to date list of ingredients.

There are TCS threads about grain-free canned foods: http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=grain+free+pate&type=35 It looks like most are for non-pate foods so you might have to do a bit of reading to find suggestions on pate foods.

I had to try a lot of different wet foods when my 3rd cat was diagnosed with kidney disease. They had mostly been eating Natures Recipe indoor dry and Friskies or Iams wet. He isn't that picky about texture, but the other 2 cats are mostly dry food and pate lovers. The only brand I truly avoid is BB because the dry food made my girl sick when they tried it a few years ago. Other brands I don't buy because of price or my cats won't like it's texture. 

This is from my trial and error. There's more, but this is specifically on the grain-free pates.

Wellness (Core, Signature Selects & regular pates)- 2 non-k/d cats wouldn't eat any of it. K/d cat liked a few of the regular pates at first and then quit eating them. 

Merrick (regular pates & LID pates) - All 3 started out liking these pates. They stopped eating it after I bought a case. I tried more single cans, just in case the case was bad and that's why they wouldn't eat it. No luck. They won't eat it any more. 

Whole Earth Farms (less expensive Merrick line) - None of my 3 cats will eat these pates. 

Halo - All 3 cats like Spot's Pates. They also like the Impulse line, but it has "garden greens" so not really grain-free. 

Nutro - My 2 non-k/d cats love the soft and chunky loafs. I wish they can in at least 5.5 oz cans. The Max Cat pates in that size, I don't think are grain free. But they like the chicken & lamb and chicken liver. The phosphorous is kinda high for the k/d cat, but he'd eat it if I let him.

Good luck!

CallieMayLily said:

Probably should have prefaced this with:  I need GRAIN FREE WET cat food (I changed it above--lol).  My brain is going a million miles a minute today (sic

Baby May was diagnosed with megacolon last year and until now has done well on Lactulose, but lately, it's not worked well for her, so the vet suggested a trial run of grain free.  She said she's seen some good luck with that, and in a little over two weeks it's seemed to help May for sure.  

So far, we've tried grain free Iams, Purina, 4Health, Wellness, BB, and TOTW.   Baby May won't eat TOTW or Iams other than to lick the juice off it and walk away.  Her favorites thus far (in order of her favorite-->less favorite) are:  Purina, 4Health, BB, Iams, and TOTW.  That said, I have NOT used "Beyond" but instead used Purina in a royal blue can.....can't remember the full name just now.  

I also grabbed a bag of 4Health Gran Free dry when I was at Tractor Supply, just to see what the "difference" was, and she eats it far better than her Royal Canin that was prescribed by her vet.  However, she eats so little of dry kibble anyhow, it's not that important to her overall diet.  (less than 1/8 cup per day is what I give her and she has left overs).  I think she just likes to crunch on stuff sometimes.  

So, as long as the meat and broth are the first three/four ingredients and the protein level is high, I look for the fewest vegetables and I"m good to go?  Seems simple enough.

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Try Whole earth farms, Merrick lid, sold at Petco. Also nutro natural choice chunky chicken loaf. Soulistic chicken pate and shreds dinner, blue can at Petco.