Tasty, cheap grain free kitten dry food recommendations

I know, I know, everyone here tends to hate dry food.

I intend to feed primarily wet food or wet food altogether once she's older and eating a bit less. I feed my kitten a truckload of wet food, but she's always hungry. And I will not wake up every hour of the night to open a new can lol. She eats her dry when I am asleep, or not home for a while at school. She is about 14 weeks old now, and she barely weighs a thing. She eats like a fatty though, sometimes 12-15 oz a day of wet food a day, but most days she averages about 6-9 oz of wet food and a handful of dry food. (I think a growth spurt is happening soon!)

I am currently feeding her Sheba pates in chicken and turkey flavors, because they are affordable and have no grains. I bought Whole Earth Farms Grain Free Kitten Food Chicken flavor. She hates it. She acts like it's pure doo doo. I would like a brand that she might think is tasty and will actually eat! I brought her to my father in laws house and she started eating their dog and cat food! They were feeding Friskies cat food and Ol Roy! So maybe she just has cheap taste? Does my dry food taste too healthy? lol.

I don't want to buy more expensive dry food, if she is just gonna hate it. I would get rid of the dry altogether, but I'd have no life! Or sleep for that matter! Haha. She already wakes me up around 5 am wailing for food and I get up and feed her every time. I feed her the wet around 3-5x a day currently and leave a small amount of dry out by her water dish. I've even tried making the dry seem more appealing by putting chicken bone broth (no sodium, garlic, onion!) it and she just acts like I'm stupid. She does give in and eat it though sometimes, but never when I'm around. Probably because I'm the giver of the pates *eyeroll*. 

I'm also on a bit of a budget as I'm in college, so I don't want to spend way more than I did for this particular food. It was $15 for a 6lb bag. 

Tips? Ideas? Brands?

Is there any way/place to get free/cheap samples? 

Also sorta OT, but related Question:

Am I fostering bad behavior by waking up at whatever ungodly hour she decides to wail on top of my chest for some food? Like I don't want this to be a lifelong behavior. I would die. I am not a morning person!

Hi, and welcome to TCS

There's nothing wrong with feeding some dry food if that's what works for you and your kitten. At such a young age, it's vital that she gets as much food as she needs, and having kibble available for snacking is by far the easiest way to achieve that.

I can't make brand recommendations as I'm not familiar with US brands, but I do know that it's worth going onto manufacturer's websites and (first of all) seeing if they offer samples. Certainly many brands over here do. Even if they don't have samples listed, it's worth emailing/calling them and asking. In my experience most manufacturers will either send you out some samples or will send you a money off coupon. (Tip - it helps if you say how wonderful their food is/looks. Flattery can make all the difference :winkblue: ).

Where possible, it's better to go with a higher protein kibble (bearing in mind that cats are obligate carnivores ), but my number one ingredient to avoid is artificial colouring. It's pretty easy to spot this, even without scouring ingredients lists - basically, multicoloured food is almost certainly artificially coloured. Other than that, the best food for your kitten is the one that she will happily eat! The best food in the world is useless unless it gets into the cat![article="0"][/article][article="33544"][/article][article="29707"][/article][article="33149"][/article][thread="307130"][/thread]

The best way to deal with her walking over you at night is to feign sleep. If she learns that walking over you in bed earns her food or cuddles, she WILL keep doing it. Just ignore her as best you can. Once she learns that walking over you gets her nowhere she'll stop.[article="32827"][/article]

Thanks for the links and the very thorough response! I will be reading over these threads.

It's not even so much walking on me though, as sitting on top of my chest and screeching (HA HA HA). She at least stopped waking me up by biting me or ripping my hair out. She is very good about stopping when we say NO, aside from this. I've just been giving her her wet food in the kitchen and shutting the bedroom door until I'm ready to wake up that day for now.

I've just been wondering if I should even give the wet food until I wake up 8-10 am, or if that's mean. She has dry food anyway. But she expects the wet food super early now (5am ish), which I guess is my fault. She gets wet food before we lie down for the night, which is usually around 12-2 am in our household. 

I've been debating about trying to find another "quality" food in the meantime, or if I should just mix her current dry that she doesn't like with some meow mix or friskies, which is super tasty according to her. Ugh.

Eventually I will need a new dry brand though, that hopefully she will find scrumptious. I will contact some companies and see if I can get some coupons or samples. I've been working on an instagram account for my kitty and she is steadily gaining followers. So maybe I can entice with some free advertising, lol.

She's certainly got you wrapped around her little claw :lol3:rincess: Have you thought of trying earplugs?! (Seriously, I know several members here have resorted to that with their demanding rulers :bigwink: )

Another solution might be an automatic feeder. Whilst there's no reason that she NEEDS wet food at 5am, it might well make life easier for you. That way, madam would get her 5am feed and you'd (hopefully) get your sleep. It should be perfectly possible to retrain her though...it'll just require a little patience and persistence on your part....not to mention some acting skills :lol3:

The reason these cheap kibbles are so appealing is that they are coated in a substance called animal digest (a form of highly processed liver, which really seems to be kitty crack). Purina FortiFlora is a probiotic, but the primary ingredient is animal digest. It can be a very useful topper when transitioning from one food to another, as most cats go wild for it. (It's also a godsend for getting sick cats to eat.) You don't need to feed the recommended quantities as you want it for flavour rather than any therapeutic benefit. It's definitely worth a try - especially if it means you don't have to chuck a bag of perfectly good food. Treats like Purebites can be crumbled into powder,and they can make great toppers for fussy eaters too

Lastly, do be aware that sudden changes of food - especially kibble - aren't the best idea. A more gradual transition is always better if you want to avoid upset tummies For this reason, mixing the old kibble with this new one is definitely a good idea. I'd think in terms of a full transition taking around a month.

My cat Simone is relentless about getting food. I never give in. Neither does she. There are nights that she dances on my arm pricking her claws into my arm, pawing at my face and sometimes bites my nose. She hates to be picked up and so I can usually get her to leave me alone by gently putting my hands on either side of her as if I'm going to pick her up. She scampers away.

I think that having some dry for snacking at night is perfectly okay too precisely for the reasons you are stating.  While you can rotate wet food pretty freely, dry food transition needs to be slower or your cat is going to have loose stool. 

I have tried all the high end wet foods and dry foods for the snacking too. Try to steer clear of the ones that have food dye in it and look for the kibble with meat as the first ingredient. Larger bags are often overall more economical too.  Keep a chip clip on the bag to keep it fresher. 

Snack kibble for my cats have ranged from Wellness Core (they hated it) to Wellness Chicken and Rice (not fans but they would sometimes eat some of it). Purina has a few choices that have meats at the top but also some undesirable grains but it is just a small snack so its not going to hurt them as long as the emphasis is on the canned. I would put small amounts in a bowl so they do not pig out on it and then refuse the canned food. Maybe put a couple of small bowls out in different parts of your place so there's a bit of a "hunt" for the food too. 

Laura Mae said:

My cat Simone is relentless about getting food. I never give in. Neither does she. There are nights that she dances on my arm pricking her claws into my arm, pawing at my face and sometimes bites my nose. She hates to be picked up and so I can usually get her to leave me alone by gently putting my hands on either side of her as if I'm going to pick her up. She scampers away.

I think that having some dry for snacking at night is perfectly okay too precisely for the reasons you are stating.  While you can rotate wet food pretty freely, dry food transition needs to be slower or your cat is going to have loose stool. 

I have tried all the high end wet foods and dry foods for the snacking too. Try to steer clear of the ones that have food dye in it and look for the kibble with meat as the first ingredient. Larger bags are often overall more economical too.  Keep a chip clip on the bag to keep it fresher. 

Snack kibble for my cats have ranged from Wellness Core (they hated it) to Wellness Chicken and Rice (not fans but they would sometimes eat some of it). Purina has a few choices that have meats at the top but also some undesirable grains but it is just a small snack so its not going to hurt them as long as the emphasis is on the canned. I would put small amounts in a bowl so they do not pig out on it and then refuse the canned food. Maybe put a couple of small bowls out in different parts of your place so there's a bit of a "hunt" for the food too. 

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Some great tips here :bigthumb: The only thing I'd say is that kibble DOES go off. If you go for a bigger bag with just one cat, the best thing to do is to keep some out and freeze the rest. That way it won't go bad before you finish it

I have had success with these supermarket brands of grain free kibble;

Evolve

Purina Beyond

Also, I recently purchased but have yet to open 'Canidae Pure Elements' kibble and' Nutro Indoor Adult' kibble.  I bought them through jet.com and the prices were very reasonable.  I have also seen grain free formulas from 'Under the Sun' and 'Diamond Naturals' selling for much less than competing products.  Under the Sun recently changed its cat food formula and at least one pet shop in my area is selling the old formula 15lb bag for less than 20 bucks.  What was said up-thread is true;  I wrote to a pet food manufacturer and I was rewarded with multiple discount coupons.  Happy Hunting!