Adding in premium foods

I am new to this forum and I have been reading through a lot of the posts on food in the past couple of weeks and I have some questions. First of all, I just adopted two kittens, brothers, mittens and oreo. They are about 9 or 10 weeks old right now. These are the first cats I have had on my own, although growing up we always had a cat. We had always fed out cat Kit-n-Kaboodle and she lived to be almost 17 years old and never really had any health problems. Before coming to this forum, I hadnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t even realized that there were cat foods out there beyond what grocery stores and petsmart sold. Boy do I feel naïve now (and am feeling awful for the 17 years we fed our cat kit-n-kaboodle) My mom still thinks kit-n-kaboodle is totally fine and is working on switching our 3 new cats off of Iams kitten and onto kit-n-kaboodle, now that they are old enough, even though I have told her she should do better after reading stuff in this forum.

I am currently in the process of switching my kittens from the food their foster mom had been feeding them (Meow Mix dry and Sophisticat canned) to Eukanuba kitten dry and Iams kitten canned. I know that these are among the best out there in terms of grocery store/petsmart foods, but I am hoping to perhaps mix in some better foods as well. I am a student, so I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know if I can afford to switch them entirely to premium cat foods (although if they do actually eat less, it might not be much more expensive), so I am wondering exactly how to go about incorporating some other foods into their diet as well.

I see the posts of other people who have like 5 different premium foods that they feed their cat and I am just wondering how to go about doing that. I know that when changing foods, you want to do it gradually over a week or two, but how do you add many different foods and keep them eating many different foods at once without the risk of potentially upsetting their digestive systems? Do you begin mixing them together until they are used to both and then serve them individually? Do the people who feed their cats a variety of dry foods give them a mix of different foods at one time or do you give one kind one day, another the next? Basically, I am picturing perhaps feeding my kittens Eukanuba and Iams 5 days of the week and a premium cat food or two, the other 2 days of the week (or the equivalent if it is better to mix them together). Does anyone have any idea what would be the best way to go about getting into this type of feeding routine for them without potential digestive problems?

Also, I have read through many posts about different foods and peoplesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] opinions of what foods are best, so I wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t ask about that, but is there any particular place where people have found premium foods to be the most inexpensive? Online through the companyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s website? More upscale pet stores?

Also, one more question. When I was looking in the pet store at food ingredients after reading on here about some of the ingredients that are in cat foods, I came across Blue Spa Select cat food. It looked like it is a pretty good food, and after looking on their website, this seems to be the case. Has anyone had any experience with this food? If it seems like it might be okay, I would be tempted to go with that and Nutro Natural Choice dry and Nutro Max canned since I can get them at petsmart only 5 minutes away. Does this seem like it would be reasonable?

Thank you for all of your advice!

I use multiple wet foods but with dry you need to keep similiar ingrediants or keep them continually mixed... Iams and Eukanuba are made by the same company and are nearly identical ingridiants.. The blus spa is good reading but I feel to many grains.. I did max for my oldest and it served her well since before she got friskies..She is now on a wt cat/ dog and human diet( this is vet approved) ... My younger cat is on a mix of feline caviar ( I found it to be a near cross between natural choice and max ) and Evo( I am not happy so far).. It depends what you are seeking .. if it is a no ground corn , no by product no chemical preservatives I have the above plus some others... If corn is okay and you want to avoid by products Petsmarts authority is very good ( I put it ahead of Iams and Eukanuba ) The spa is made by blue buffalo and is good if you dont mind double the proportion grain to meat...If this is clear as mud just say so..lol

Hi, great questions. I think I'd choose a line that you can afford and like, and then just vary some flavors within that line (re canned food), at the most, some folks do mix two dry or rotate, after checking that their cats can eat each of the two they've chosen with no gas/stool etc. issues.

Petsmart is one of the best places re price, imo, overall, even though they don't carry all the brands I like, they do carry, as you mentioned Nutro Natural, plus Natural Balance, their own brand Authority (which is respectable I think).

Blue Spa as I recall contains garlic, and if you've been reading through the other posts here, or do a search on garlic, you'll know that though not everyone feels this way, I simply will not feed garlic, just as I would not onions, to my cats.

Re best prices ever...it's a question of shipping costs re the online stores, but overall good prices and a huge selection, can be found at www.petfooddirect.com, and it's worth your checking out.

Hth, my dinner just came off the grill, so keeping this short!

I feed my cats Nutro. Cause it's everywhere and is on the cheaper side. If you go on their website, you can sign up and they send you coupons and a frequent buyer card where you get a free bag if you buy 10 ( I think). The pet store next to me had 3 off coupons attached to the bags also, so the 3 lb bag was only 5 $-that's pretty cheap. I don't think you should do what you want to do, though. Because cats have sensitive digestive systems, if you feed 5 days one food and then 2 days another food, that might give them digestive problems. When you switch foods, you are supposed to do it slowly. I know people that rotate foods after 3-4 month, but each time new food is introduced slowly. So, I would just say stick with one food and feed that-one kind for dry, and one kind for wet. Then, after a few month, you could slowly switch, and rotate, if you want.

I don't have any problems rotating wet foods on a daily basis. It's the dry foods that cause digestive upset and need to be switched gradually.

Nutro is a pretty good food. Don't know anything about Blue Spa.

Every once in a while they will stop eating their food and want a different one. My female doesn't want premium food and eats for wet fancy feast and nutro natural. My male will only eat Innova. For Dry I only give premium food and that is Innova Evo . My cats love it they will not eat any other dry food. I know a student's budget is tight, but at least you care enough to ask. I buy my cat food at a local pet feed store. You can try shopping around and finding a cheaper price than online. I personally wouldn't recommend IAM's It is not a good food. I can only say good luck and congrats on the cats.

Thank you all for your great answers. I am glad to know that it is only switching dry foods that is likely to cause problems. I might see about mixing some of another dry food in with their Eukanuba on a permanant basis perhaps. I think I will try some other kitten canned foods from other brands as well, since now I know that will not be likely to make them sick. I want to give them variety, but in many brands I have seen, it looks like canned kitten food only comes in one flavor, so it is nice to know that I could give them variety by using a couple of different brands. The next time I am in petsmart, I will check out Nutro, Max, and Authority to see how I might be able to work some of their canned food in. Thanks!!

I would advise you to be careful when using a variety of canned foods just as you will be careful with adding new dry, it *can* cause upset...some canned foods are richer, some contain ingredients that don't sit well with a kitten or cat. I realize one poster said they have seen no problem, but I wanted to caution you that sometimes it does cause a problem.

Try one new food at a time, in a small amt., see how they respond, and if it's favorably,use that in a rotation with other canned foods you know they have no adverse reaction to.

My 2 cents