Food Recommendations

Hello everyone, I am hoping you all can help me out with some food recommendations/transitioning.

I have a four cat household and right now all of them eat Royal Canin SO. They used to eat it after my cat Angus got a total bladder blockage. Eventually I transitioned them over to Nutro because it was just so expensive. They were all fine until my cat Mattie ended up with a bladder full of stones. She underwent surgery, and they all again were transitioned back to SO.

I don't like feeding them all dry food only, and I don't particularly like feeding them the SO. From what I can understand from various forums and catinfo.org, for a dry food, SO (and other RX diets) don't even have really high quality ingredients considering the price you pay. After her bladder surgery, Mattie just kind of ballooned in weight, and one of my other cats, Pierre packed on some pounds eating the SO. I don't think they feel as full when they eat it. Mattie has also started throwing it up. 

However, I haven't had crystal and bladder issues while I've fed it, so from that aspect, it makes me feel pretty hesitant about changing it. My cat Pierre has an extremely sensitive tummy, so he throws up any and all canned food if he eats more than a miniscule amount (like a teaspoon or less is what he can tolerate). Angus wouldn't even touch canned food, and Mattie is extremely picky unless the canned food contains fish, so I just felt it was easier to stick with the dry SO.

I am feeling again like I'd kind of like to get them off the SO. My vet wanted me to feed Mattie a DIFFERENT RX diet food to try to help her lose weight, and she ate it, but it was a hassle to keep all the food separate and she really wasn't too wild about it. Plus it didn't come in big bags. I'm feeling overwhelmed by conflicting information (and occasionally, an overload of information) on cat foods so this is where I'm hoping you can help.

What I want to do is try to find a wet food Pierre can tolerate that Mattie will eat and transition them at this time to a partially wet food diet, with a high quality dry food that helps them feel fuller, and won't aggravate bladder stone formation (except for the fact that it lacks moisture of course). Then if that's a resounding success, I'd consider transitioning over to much more wet and less dry.

Is grain free good or bad (canned) for bladder crystals/stones? I know grain free doesn't mean low carb and 2 of my cats have weight issues.

Does fish have to be avoided altogether in dry and canned food?

What wet foods can be good for a very sensitive tummy?

Any recommendations on how to get Pierre to better tolerate wet foods so he can eat larger amounts without throwing up?

Does Pierre need an L.I.D. food or is that only useful for food allergies?

I know everyone has very low opinions of dry foods, and I understand why, but I need some help on that too. Is grain free dry the way to go? I've read about that causing crystal issues (or is it possibly just due to the dehydration)? I've been looking at Fromm's, Evolve, Wellness, Natural Balance... I'm open to suggestions or criticisms of any of these, dry or wet varieties. I hope I didn't post TOO much info. I tend to be wordy.

I appreciate any and all help you can provide. Thanks!

In my opinion with a cat with a history if urinary issues and several cats with weight issues, you have to get rid of the kibble all together. It's okay if its a transition, but there's not going to be a way to find a "good" kibble for a cat with urinary issues, they're all bad, and that's because they're all dry.

Catinfo has a great section about transitioning kibble addicts to wet food. You're going to need to buy several different brands/flavors/textures to see what your cats like/don't like. It's okay to rotate between high and lower end foods, but try to avoid lower end foods that have gravy.

On the lower end Fancy Feast classic line is decent, so are Sheba pates, there's also Tractor Supply's 4health grain free line. Nutro's pates would be fine but I'd avoid the gravy ones for a cat with tummy issues. Merrick's LID line is decent too. On the higher end tikicat, weruva, ziwipeak, feline naturals, all brands I like. You could also look at adding in some freeze dried raw foods like Primal, Stella and Chewy, Instinct Raw Market, or Northwest Naturals. Freeze dried raw foods are often great for kibble addicts because you can control how moist the food is, so you can help train your cat to eat moist foods. 

Cats with food sensitivities often do much better on higher quality wet foods, because they are bio appropriate. The wet food vomiting could either be a scarf-and-barf situation, or it could be the type of wet food you were feeding. Low end wet foods with gravy are loaded with wheat gluten which can cause vomiting in many cats. I think some fish is okay, but I don't feed any fish based foods, meaning foods where fish is the main ingredient, and i avoid low end fishy foods. Both tikicat and weruva have some foods wish fish in them, but they are higher end foods that tend to use better quality fish with more screening to avoid contamination. 

Relatively reasonably priced grain free wet brands with quality ingredients;

Natural Value

Purina Pro Plan True Nature Classic

Sheba

Triumph

Under the Sun

Nutro Max Cat

Also, the el cheapo Friskies 'Poultry Platter' is a decent grain free pate whose first ingredient is muscle meat.  Finally, if there is a Giant Food supermarket or Stop & Shop Supermarket in your region, check out the store brand 'Companion Wholesome Formula' flavors.  Grain free and less than a buck per 5oz can.

My cat has a history of struvite crystals and initially had to eat Royal Canin Urinary SO. Like your cats, my cat gained weight, started to throw it up and eventually just refused to eat it. With my vet's approval and monitoring thru follow up urinalysis, I switched my girl to a rotation of canned Natures Variety Instinct (duck and rabbit and canned Dave's Restricted Diet:

https://www.chewy.com/daves-pet-foo...gclid=CO6y8fu-hNECFUlqfgodQ4QIKQ&gclsrc=aw.ds


My cat really loves the Daves. Good luck!! I know how difficult it is to manage with a cat with Urinary issues.

Once a cat gets urinary issues you gotta throw the dry food out the window. Its terrible. Main thing is to get more water in their bodies.

I feed:
Pride by Instinct
Natures Variety
I love and you
Raw Food with extra water

Used to use Nutro Naturals but it started giving my boy diarrhea so took him off that brand.

Feel free to sneak in a little extra water in their wet food.

HelloMissKitty said:

My cat has a history of struvite crystals and initially had to eat Royal Canin Urinary SO. Like your cats, my cat gained weight, started to throw it up and eventually just refused to eat it. With my vet's approval and monitoring thru follow up urinalysis, I switched my girl to a rotation of canned Natures Variety Instinct (duck and rabbit and canned Dave's Restricted Diet:

https://www.chewy.com/daves-pet-foo...gclid=CO6y8fu-hNECFUlqfgodQ4QIKQ&gclsrc=aw.ds


My cat really loves the Daves. Good luck!! I know how difficult it is to manage with a cat with Urinary issues.

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I've been scouring chewy.com and never saw this particular food. I will definitely have to investigate this and see if Mattie might be interested. The other 3 are interested in almost everything so the tough thing will be finding what she likes.

missmimz said:

 
In my opinion with a cat with a history if urinary issues and several cats with weight issues, you have to get rid of the kibble all together. It's okay if its a transition, but there's not going to be a way to find a "good" kibble for a cat with urinary issues, they're all bad, and that's because they're all dry.

Catinfo has a great section about transitioning kibble addicts to wet food. You're going to need to buy several different brands/flavors/textures to see what your cats like/don't like. It's okay to rotate between high and lower end foods, but try to avoid lower end foods that have gravy.

On the lower end Fancy Feast classic line is decent, so are Sheba pates, there's also Tractor Supply's 4health grain free line. Nutro's pates would be fine but I'd avoid the gravy ones for a cat with tummy issues. Merrick's LID line is decent too. On the higher end tikicat, weruva, ziwipeak, feline naturals, all brands I like. You could also look at adding in some freeze dried raw foods like Primal, Stella and Chewy, Instinct Raw Market, or Northwest Naturals. Freeze dried raw foods are often great for kibble addicts because you can control how moist the food is, so you can help train your cat to eat moist foods. 

Cats with food sensitivities often do much better on higher quality wet foods, because they are bio appropriate. The wet food vomiting could either be a scarf-and-barf situation, or it could be the type of wet food you were feeding. Low end wet foods with gravy are loaded with wheat gluten which can cause vomiting in many cats. I think some fish is okay, but I don't feed any fish based foods, meaning foods where fish is the main ingredient, and i avoid low end fishy foods. Both tikicat and weruva have some foods wish fish in them, but they are higher end foods that tend to use better quality fish with more screening to avoid contamination. 

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone so far. There will probably always be a little dry food in their diet. We frequently do overnight trips and they'll need food for those times, but all of these kitties will pick wet over dry if given the choice, if I offer a flavor they like (and 2 of them will eat basically anything, 1 is relatively easy, and the one with urinary issues is picky). 

Right now I'm trying to go through some cans I had from the last time I tried to make this switch, when Angus was still around. I had to give up that fight though because he was so thin that he needed calories of any kind, and he wouldn't eat wet food unless I force fed it to him through a syringe (and I tried, never with any success in developing interest). Yesterday I opened up a 3oz can of duck, and 3 of the 4 loved it, and Pierre didn't throw it up. Today I opened a 3oz can of Sheba salmon and all 4 of them went nuts. Right now I'm just waiting to see if Pierre is going to keep it down. I'm trying to stick with pates for the most part. Easier to divvy up. I'll be sure to continue to avoid gravy foods for Pierre's sake. 

I have tried some freeze dried food, maybe duck?, in the past and I had trouble getting any of them to eat it. I bet Mr. Reese would eat it, but I doubt the other 3 would, at least whatever kind I had tried. I think the real trick here is going to be trying to find non-primary fish foods that Mattie will eat. She wouldn't even touch the duck I opened yesterday. One sniff and she turned around and walked away. I think I have some chicken or turkey that I'll probably try tomorrow. Wonder if I have a can of weruva in there that I can try.

I also want my kitties to feel full. Do you find they tend to feel full longer on the wet food vs. the dry? I really think that's why 2 of them gained so much weight from the SO. They started going through the bags quicker than they went through similar sized Nutro bags, and I don't think it was because they were just in love with the taste, lol.

Thank you so much for the suggestion of steering clear of gravy foods for sensitive kitties. I have been trying various brands of canned food, and the only one Pierre has thrown up was a can of Weruva shredded chicken in gravy. Everything else has been pate and he's had no difficulty. Here I thought all this time that he simply couldn't eat canned food at all!

I'm having a lot of difficulty getting Mattie interested in the canned food though. I've probably tried 10 kinds now, and she's only liked 3.

1 was from a company called "Simply Nourish." Turkey Recipe with Feta cheese and Sun-dried Tomatoes. Not sure if anyone else has tried that but she liked her plate clean. She hasn't been interested in any other turkey pates I've set out and I'm not sure if the feta cheese is really that good for her.

She also liked Sheba Salmon Pate. That doesn't say grain free but I don't think I saw grains in the ingredients. Salmon, meat by products, chicken, chicken liver and chicken by products were the top ingredients. She has not liked other brand salmon pates either.

The other she liked was Trout Formula from Under the Sun.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to transition her to wet foods that would be good for her if eating fish or cheese kinds are bad for her. I haven't given up yet, but I actually didn't expect quite this much difficulty finding something she liked.