My cat Astrid is the pickiest cat I have ever met - and she was feral! She will only eat two flavors of one brand of wet food, one dry food, one freeze dried raw (dry only, not when rehydrated), and three kinds of treats. Once she finds something she likes better than whatever I tried last, she will usually stop eating the last food. Luckily, with the dry food, that meant upgrading to a better, healthier food. Unfortunately, she won't budge on the canned food she eats currently and I'm just not 100% happy with it. I'd really like her to eat healthier.
I am picky in that I strongly believe that the majority of health problems cats face as they age are linked to dietary issues, so I would like her to eat a diet that is as healthy as possible. And to me, that means a biologically appropriate diet. So I only feed her canned foods whose protein sources come from poultry or rodents. She does not get beef, pork, venison, or any variety of fish. (Well, I had to budge on dry and use one that includes fish, but that means I definitely don't want to be feeding canned food with fish as well.) Of course, I also do a lot of reading on what pet food ingredients are "bad" and read my labels carefully, so I try to avoid the big bads like carrageenan. Really, I'm looking for foods that include as few ingredients that a cat would not naturally consume as possible - no fillers ! Not just grain free foods, but nothing that's full of things like potatoes and peas either. Unfortunately, since Astrid is so picky, I'm having to budge on some of this. I want her to eat the healthiest food on the market, but I think I just need to settle for healthier than what she's currently eating, at least for now. (I will not budge on biologically appropriate protein sources though.)
Right now she eats Nutro MAX Chicken Supreme Entree and Savory Duck Chunks in Sauce. They aren't the worst foods on the market, but there are things I don't care for that I would like to weed out if possible. Beef liver, potato starch, wheat gluten, and pork plasma are the main ingredients I don't like.
I thought that the texture was the issue with the other foods I've tried, that she didn't like pates or shreds, but I've since found foods with that processed chunk texture that the Nutro MAX has and she didn't touch them. So I'm willing to try any textures at this point. Her favorite protein sources seem to be chicken and rabbit.
Foods I've tried, that I can remember (probably missing quite a few):
- Naure's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Duck
- Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey
- Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit
- Nature's Variety Instinct Duck
- Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken
- Nutro Perfect Portions Turkey Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Chicken Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Turkey and Liver Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Chicken and Liver Recipe
- Nutro Chunky Loaf Chicken Dinner
- Nutro Chunky Loaf Turkey Dinner
- Nutro Sliced Turkey Entree
- Nutro Minced Chicken Cuisine
- Applaws Chicken with Duck *
- Applaws Chicken *
- Grreat Choice Chicken Flaked Appetizer *
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Duck
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Chicken
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Turkey
- Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau
- Tiki Cat Koolina Luau
- Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore Chicken with Turkey
- Wysong Epigen Duck
- Wysong Epigen Rabbit
- Wild Calling Rabbits Burrow
- Weruva Cats in the Kitchen Chicken Frick 'a Zee
- Merrick Backcountry Duck Recipe
- Merrick Backcountry Chicken Recipe
- Koha Guineafowl Stew
- Fussie Cat Chicken with Duck
Foods I have on hand that I will be trying soon:
- Weruva Cats in the Kicthen Fowl Ball
- Weruva Cats in the Kitchen Pumpkin Lickin' Chicken
- Weruva Truluxe Peking Ducken
- Merrick Backcountry Turkey Recipe
- Wild Calling Cabin Fever
- Evanger's Rabbit
- Evanger's Duck
- Tapa Chicken and Duck *
Foods I don't yet have but really want to try:
- Halo Impulse Rabbit
- Halo Impulse Quail
- Halo Impulse Chicken
- Hounds and Gatos Chicken
*I am aware that these are not complete foods, they would not be fed on their own if she liked them.
Before these things are recommended:
- A slow transition doesn't work. No matter how little of a new food I try mixing into her Nutro MAX, if something else has "contaminated" her normal food she won't touch it. This cat would rather starve than eat something she doesn't like, even just a taste.
- I cannot currently feed raw, as much as I would love to. I think that would be the ideal option, given that she was feral and likely survived on rats, mice, and shore birds (she lived on the beach). But a lot of change is coming in our lives in the next couple of months, and I don't know what our situation will be like. The way she is, I'd be afraid she'd like the raw so much she'd refuse to go back to any of her old foods if I needed to.
tl;dr: Are there any foods that are healthier/higher quality than Nutro MAX you can think of that are not on any of these lists that I could try?
I am picky in that I strongly believe that the majority of health problems cats face as they age are linked to dietary issues, so I would like her to eat a diet that is as healthy as possible. And to me, that means a biologically appropriate diet. So I only feed her canned foods whose protein sources come from poultry or rodents. She does not get beef, pork, venison, or any variety of fish. (Well, I had to budge on dry and use one that includes fish, but that means I definitely don't want to be feeding canned food with fish as well.) Of course, I also do a lot of reading on what pet food ingredients are "bad" and read my labels carefully, so I try to avoid the big bads like carrageenan. Really, I'm looking for foods that include as few ingredients that a cat would not naturally consume as possible - no fillers ! Not just grain free foods, but nothing that's full of things like potatoes and peas either. Unfortunately, since Astrid is so picky, I'm having to budge on some of this. I want her to eat the healthiest food on the market, but I think I just need to settle for healthier than what she's currently eating, at least for now. (I will not budge on biologically appropriate protein sources though.)
Right now she eats Nutro MAX Chicken Supreme Entree and Savory Duck Chunks in Sauce. They aren't the worst foods on the market, but there are things I don't care for that I would like to weed out if possible. Beef liver, potato starch, wheat gluten, and pork plasma are the main ingredients I don't like.
I thought that the texture was the issue with the other foods I've tried, that she didn't like pates or shreds, but I've since found foods with that processed chunk texture that the Nutro MAX has and she didn't touch them. So I'm willing to try any textures at this point. Her favorite protein sources seem to be chicken and rabbit.
Foods I've tried, that I can remember (probably missing quite a few):
- Naure's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Duck
- Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey
- Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit
- Nature's Variety Instinct Duck
- Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken
- Nutro Perfect Portions Turkey Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Chicken Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Turkey and Liver Recipe
- Nutro Perfect Portions Chicken and Liver Recipe
- Nutro Chunky Loaf Chicken Dinner
- Nutro Chunky Loaf Turkey Dinner
- Nutro Sliced Turkey Entree
- Nutro Minced Chicken Cuisine
- Applaws Chicken with Duck *
- Applaws Chicken *
- Grreat Choice Chicken Flaked Appetizer *
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Duck
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Chicken
- Merrick Limited Ingredient Turkey
- Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau
- Tiki Cat Koolina Luau
- Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore Chicken with Turkey
- Wysong Epigen Duck
- Wysong Epigen Rabbit
- Wild Calling Rabbits Burrow
- Weruva Cats in the Kitchen Chicken Frick 'a Zee
- Merrick Backcountry Duck Recipe
- Merrick Backcountry Chicken Recipe
- Koha Guineafowl Stew
- Fussie Cat Chicken with Duck
Foods I have on hand that I will be trying soon:
- Weruva Cats in the Kicthen Fowl Ball
- Weruva Cats in the Kitchen Pumpkin Lickin' Chicken
- Weruva Truluxe Peking Ducken
- Merrick Backcountry Turkey Recipe
- Wild Calling Cabin Fever
- Evanger's Rabbit
- Evanger's Duck
- Tapa Chicken and Duck *
Foods I don't yet have but really want to try:
- Halo Impulse Rabbit
- Halo Impulse Quail
- Halo Impulse Chicken
- Hounds and Gatos Chicken
*I am aware that these are not complete foods, they would not be fed on their own if she liked them.
Before these things are recommended:
- A slow transition doesn't work. No matter how little of a new food I try mixing into her Nutro MAX, if something else has "contaminated" her normal food she won't touch it. This cat would rather starve than eat something she doesn't like, even just a taste.
- I cannot currently feed raw, as much as I would love to. I think that would be the ideal option, given that she was feral and likely survived on rats, mice, and shore birds (she lived on the beach). But a lot of change is coming in our lives in the next couple of months, and I don't know what our situation will be like. The way she is, I'd be afraid she'd like the raw so much she'd refuse to go back to any of her old foods if I needed to.
tl;dr: Are there any foods that are healthier/higher quality than Nutro MAX you can think of that are not on any of these lists that I could try?
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