So Confused About Wet Cat Food

I am so confused about what wet food to feed our kitties..

We have 5 cats ages 5-12. They get access to dry food all day long, We have one that gets UTI's and she is our picky eater, therefore their dry food is the Hills Science Diet C/D Professional food that we mix with Wellness Healthy Weight dry food. The Wellness food has lots of cranberries in it so that is why I mix it with the vet recommended Hills Science food. 

To increase the amount of liquid they consume we have been feeding them wet food for the past 4 years. The wet food is like a treat for them it is not a main course for them but they get the wet food once a day. 

During our trial and error we found out they don't like pate's so we were feeding them Whiskar's pouches . They would only lick the liquid and ate a little of the food but not cleaning their plates.. At least they were getting some extra liquid in their diet.

 I have been a member of a online research group and every now and then I am asked to review a product based upon what they show me online. Every now and then they send me the actual product to test. Well about 2 months ago they sent me a Meow Mix wet food to test. The cats loved it!  Within 20 minutes everyone had eaten every bit of food in their dish!  The new product is not on the market yet nor can I tell you anything about the product  because its against company rules. Anyway we decided since they liked that product so well we would go and get some Meow Mix wet food for them. They have been enjoying the Meow Mix and licking their bowls clean. Since this is not given to them as their main meal, we have been splitting the 2.75 once container and giving put half in one bowl and half in another cats bowl so the quantity they are getting is not that much. 

Now the bad part is that I discovered tiny little bones in their Meow Mix food. I thought it was just the container I had opened but nope the other ones I opened had bones too! 

They like to eat the Meow Mix classic favorites box that has:

8 containers of Real Tuna& Whole Shrimp,

8 containers of Real Chicken and beef Sauce

8 containers of Real Salmon and crab meat.

They do not like the morsels only the tender variety of Meow mix

After researching online I discovered that giving fish food to cats is really bad for them. If it is so bad for a cat why do they make it. 

We went to the pet store and bought Meow Mix Real  Chicken and liver in sauce.We were thinking Ok the fish has bones in it lets try poultry instead They were not too crazy about this one.   

We are concerned about them developing crystals or getting UTI's if we keep feeding them the fish that they like. 

Any help you guys might have would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks for reading my post

Although Meow Mix isn't the best quality food, it is great that you are trying to get wet food into your cat's diet! I do agree that fish flavored cat food isn't very good for them on a day-to-day basis, but once a week or so would probably be fine. Have you tried Fancy Feast or Sheba? They are good quality foods that are budget friendly and I have heard that cats who like Meow Mix have liked them. Sheba is even grain-free and has meat as the first few ingredients. If you try Fancy Feast stick with the classic line.

one way to help increase water is to give your cat(s) nicer water!  Filtered water and fountains are a great way to encourage water drinking, whatever you feed.

We have tried two different types of fountains, both of which grew gross black mold inside the pumps. After seeing the black mold and getting fed up with having to take the pumps apart  to clean out the mold  daily we discontinued using them. It was about 3 years ago when we stopped using the pumps.

Plus we noticed our 7 yr old calico developed feline acne which  she never had before. The acne started while we uses the fountains as her water source. We thought the fact there was mold growth in the pumps contributed to her acne problem.  Discontinued using the pumps and she has only had one flare up of acne which occured about 2 years after we got rid of the fountain. And her flare up was very minor. 

Oh for those who are reading along. The best treatment I found for her acne was to steep green tea bags in luke warm water. Then hold the tea bag on their acne area which was always on her chin. Try to hold it in place for a minute. Then rub back and forth on the area a little bit to loosen the black acne yuck and within 2-4 days she was cleared up. We did this treatment twice a day once in the morning and once at night. 

FKHQ said:

 
We have tried two different types of fountains, both of which grew gross black mold inside the pumps. After seeing the black mold and getting fed up with having to take the pumps apart  to clean out the mold  daily we discontinued using them. It was about 3 years ago when we stopped using the pumps.

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Which fountains did you try?  It's odd that you had to clean the pumps daily.  I have the Petsafe Drinkwell Ceramic Pagoda fountain, and I take apart and clean the pump every two weeks or so.  I haven't noticed any mold issues, but only one of my furbabies will drink water (the fountain made no difference).  Coco, the one who has a history of UTIs, is the one who won't drink water.  So, we feed as much wet/raw food as possible, and I also add extra (filtered) water to their food to make it a "soupy" consistency.

FKHQ said:

 
Plus we noticed our 7 yr old calico developed feline acne which  she never had before. The acne started while we uses the fountains as her water source. We thought the fact there was mold growth in the pumps contributed to her acne problem.  Discontinued using the pumps and she has only had one flare up of acne which occured about 2 years after we got rid of the fountain. And her flare up was very minor. 

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What material was the fountain made of?  Plastic is a common trigger for feline acne.

FKHQ said:

 
Oh for those who are reading along. The best treatment I found for her acne was to steep green tea bags in luke warm water. Then hold the tea bag on their acne area which was always on her chin. Try to hold it in place for a minute. Then rub back and forth on the area a little bit to loosen the black acne yuck and within 2-4 days she was cleared up. We did this treatment twice a day once in the morning and once at night. 

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When we brought Callie home from the shelter, she had acne under her chin as well.  Our vet recommended using witch hazel on a cotton ball to gently clean the area.  It worked well.

dorimon said:

 
Which fountains did you try?  It's odd that you had to clean the pumps daily.  I have the Petsafe Drinkwell Ceramic Pagoda fountain, and I take apart and clean the pump every two weeks or so.  I haven't noticed any mold issues, but only one of my furbabies will drink water (the fountain made no difference).  Coco, the one who has a history of UTIs, is the one who won't drink water.  So, we feed as much wet/raw food as possible, and I also add extra (filtered) water to their food to make it a "soupy" consistency.

What material was the fountain made of?  Plastic is a common trigger for feline acne.

When we brought Callie home from the shelter, she had acne under her chin as well.  Our vet recommended using witch hazel on a cotton ball to gently clean the area.  It worked well

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The first one was plastic which we did not use very long because no one seemed that interested in it.  At the same time though we still had their old water bowl out for them to drink from just in case we had a picky drinker who would not drink from the fountain.  We decided to try the stainless steel Pioneer Pet bowl but with the mold issue we decided to discontinue the fountain methods. 

My guy didn't take to fountains....if that's ever the case with yours, add lukewarm or warm water to the canned food before serving. It seems to work well with my little guy. It becomes soupy but he loves it, and I know he's getting a good amount of water with every meal.

Ashekitty said:

Although Meow Mix isn't the best quality food, it is great that you are trying to get wet food into your cat's diet! I do agree that fish flavored cat food isn't very good for them on a day-to-day basis, but once a week or so would probably be fine. Have you tried Fancy Feast or Sheba? They are good quality foods that are budget friendly and I have heard that cats who like Meow Mix have liked them. Sheba is even grain-free and has meat as the first few ingredients. If you try Fancy Feast stick with the classic line.

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Just curious. Why is fish flavored food not good daily?

sailon said:

Just curious. Why is fish flavored food not good daily?

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http://www.thecatsite.com/a/can-i-feed-my-cat-a-fish-based-or-fish-flavored-diet
http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-fish-is-dangerous-for-cats/

Thanks for the links. Haven't noticed any adverse effects with my kitty, but will cut out the fish anyway. Can't hurt.

We do not serve Tuna to our cat, for fear of excessive mercury etc.  I am less concerned about salmon because I understand that most of the source meat for cat food salmon is from farm raised fish (that another issue in and of itself).  The cat regularly eats Sardine-based cat food, which she loves.  We'll probably try one of the trout-based cat foods in the near future.  I am hoping that farm-raised trout has no contaminants in it.

Best fountains ever. Worth the investment. 

https://www.thirstycatfountains.com/

sailon said:

Thanks for the links. Haven't noticed any adverse effects with my kitty, but will cut out the fish anyway. Can't hurt.

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Fish and fish flavored foods have been linked to hyperthyroidism, which will show up later in life. I can't say for sure, of course, but when my oldest cat was younger I fed him fish flavored kibble, for years, and he developed hyper-t at 13. 

I personallly believe that any wet food is better than 100% dry food. Meow mix, friskies, fish. I order 5 cases at a time from Chewy and rotate them every day so they don't get picky. Neither of mine like pate. I rotate between fancy feast, pro plan, nutro, and Sheba. They very rarely drink water. I put a small bowl of hard food for their midnight snack. I mix fish and poultry and beef flavors. Good luck!

chloe92us said:

I personallly believe that any wet food is better than 100% dry food. Meow mix, friskies, fish. I order 5 cases at a time from Chewy and rotate them every day so they don't get picky. Neither of mine like pate. I rotate between fancy feast, pro plan, nutro, and Sheba. They very rarely drink water. I put a small bowl of hard food for their midnight snack. I mix fish and poultry and beef flavors. Good luck!

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I would not touch the gravy fancy feast because it has artificial colors in it. These are known to be harmful and have no place in a cat food.

I don't like fancy feast because of its history and ties to menu foods.

Oddly neither of my guys will touch fancy feast. Probably just as well IMO.

missmimz said:

 
Best fountains ever. Worth the investment. 

https://www.thirstycatfountains.com/

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I saw these! They're so cute! Haven't purchased one of these...maybe in the future. I tried the catit flower fountain. That was such a fail...lol

yogakitty said:

 
I saw these! They're so cute! Haven't purchased one of these...maybe in the future. I tried the catit flower fountain. That was such a fail...lol

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I like them for a couple of reasons:

The ones I bought are large, so I don't have to refill them every 1-2 days. I live in AZ so in the summers any small fountains I'd have to refill all the time. The bowl space is large, so if you have a cat that doesn't like to drink from the stream of water they can just drink out of the bowl. Several of my cats actually do that, and so does my dog. And they have a lot of different designs, so if you want one that doesn't make any noise you can pick the ones that just drizzle rather than make a water fall noise. Plus, they're made well, with food safe glaze. I have 3 of them and I'm really happy with them. 

Noise free is best for a fountain otherwise you'll be running to the toilet every 5 minutes.