Cat Foods

Originally Posted by Slave2_Ragdolls

My 3 furrys eat Solid Gold dry only

The company has been making all natural foods for 30 years

The cats absolutely love it

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I think the stuff is addictive. Either that, or a lot more cats prefer lamb to chicken than commonly thought.

Some of my cats are on a wet food diet only, eventually, all will be on a homecooked diet. For now, those that are on dry kibble eat Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Weight Management recipe.

My cats on a wet food diet only are dealing with crf and/or diabetes, one just with idiopathic cystitis.

I believe a quality canned food or best option, an approved by your vet, homecooked properly supplemented diet.

My cats were on purina kitten chow and I switched them to nutro indoor kitten a couple months ago. I am very impressed! The vet had told me to keep an eye on meowser as he had been getting chubby, but now he's really slimming down! They get the dry kibble twice/day and canned nutro twice/day.

My 2 kitties absolutely LOVE Nature's Prairie! I feed raw 2x day and leave the kibble out for them to free feed on. Their coats are down right luxurious! And they are both a perfect weight. It's not cheap, but what a difference it has made to me!

I feed a variety of foods.

They are allowed to free feed on dry food. They mostly get Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul because it is by far the most cost effective of the super-premium brands. In the past few months they have also had O&M, AvoDerm, Nature's Variety, California Natural, Felidae, Innova, Wellness, and Nutro Max Cat.

Canned food is fed at least twice a day, somewhat more often if I am home during the day. They regularly eat Pet Guard, Innova, California Natural, and Felidae. Sometimes I will buy a case of Nutro for variety but not very often since it is not as good as the others and they don't like it as much. I buy Merrick sometimes but not too often since it is quite a bit more expensive.

In a pinch I will give them Purina One dry and Friskies canned from the grocery store since they seem to be the least of the evils available there. It's not something I do unless I am in a real bind but at least for a day or two it won't hurt them and they think Friskies is a real treat.

They also get raw chicken gizzards and sometimes raw turkey necks once or twice a week, for their teeth and gums. They love this.

Originally Posted by Rang_27

I feel dry (nutro natural), with wet as treats only. I've heard that the dry is better for their teeth and that a wet food only diet will lead to early tooth decay.

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After reading this article, you may change your mind It's written by a vet - click here

Mine are addicted to something called Petguard, which I haven't heard mentioned here yet. They're so spoiled, they won't eat anything else! They get dry food down all the time since Jordan's still a kitten and needs to eat more, and wet food at night (but not every night b/c it's so pricey).

Well, I've made the big decision tonight. Bijou and Mika love Merrick's and are not as fond of the Natural Balance, Nutro or Wellness. So this kitty meowmy is taking back all the less palatable ones tomorrow and trading them in for Merrick's for the babies.

I really want them to be happy with the wet food, so this is the way I will go. They are very fond of the Thanksgiving Dinner and Granny's Pot Pie (or whatever it's called - can't remember at this exact moment).

I have to admit it looks like something I wouldn't mind eating myself and that says a lot since I have a very sensitive digestive system and am fussy.

Thank you all so much for your responses.

They have been helpful.

We have started the boys on the Innova and once that is gone will probably try the California Natural. So far, the Innova is a big hit. They love it and can't wait for dinnertime.

I see many of you also feed a wet food diet and thanks for the catinfo link. I printed out that article so my husband can read it. He was wondering why I felt we needed to change the cats to a wet diet (with dry) and this explains it all.

We are using Purina Pro Plan for their dry food. I don't see anyone mentioning this food on this thread. Is it not good? I'm thinking we may want to switch their dry food as well... opinions?

Originally Posted by pinkdaisy226

Mine are addicted to something called Petguard, which I haven't heard mentioned here yet. They're so spoiled, they won't eat anything else! They get dry food down all the time since Jordan's still a kitten and needs to eat more, and wet food at night (but not every night b/c it's so pricey).

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Petguard is one of my favorites!

You can buy the canned food in big cans (like the size of soup cans) to save money and keep the leftovers in the refrigerator. That's what I did way back when I only had 3 cats. Now a can disappears in about 10 minutes!

Originally Posted by jeeveser

We are using Purina Pro Plan for their dry food. I don't see anyone mentioning this food on this thread. Is it not good? I'm thinking we may want to switch their dry food as well... opinions?

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Pro Plan is about on par with Eukanuba or Science Diet. I have heard that it is exactly the same as Purina One just with a different label, but I haven't verified that for myself.

In general it's definitely better than Cat Chow or Meow Mix, but there are much better foods available.

Originally Posted by semiferal

Pro Plan is about on par with Eukanuba or Science Diet. I have heard that it is exactly the same as Purina One just with a different label, but I haven't verified that for myself.

In general it's definitely better than Cat Chow or Meow Mix, but there are much better foods available.

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Pro plan isnt quite ideantical to one but very close... they both were in the grocery store once upon a time/.///

I put pro plan a notch above eukanuba and SD cause it doesnt have chemical pres and the corn and by products are not the primary ingrediant ( usually 4-10 place)

Originally Posted by semiferal

Petguard is one of my favorites!

You can buy the canned food in big cans (like the size of soup cans) to save money and keep the leftovers in the refrigerator. That's what I did way back when I only had 3 cats.

Now a can disappears in about 10 minutes!

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Petguard makes big cans???

Originally Posted by sharky

Petguard makes big cans???

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They do. You can ask the place where you normally buy it if they can special order it for you. Most places will gladly oblige though they might ask you to pre-pay if they don't think they could sell it to someone else if you are a no-show. Stores place orders with companies on a very regular basis and as long as the company carries the product it is really no trouble at all for a store to place a special order.

Originally Posted by sharky

Petguard makes big cans???

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Yes, 14 oz. cans for most flavors, not for all, i.e the rabbit and rice's largest available size (at least from my distributor) is 5.5 oz.

Originally Posted by semiferal

They do. You can ask the place where you normally buy it if they can special order it for you. Most places will gladly oblige though they might ask you to pre-pay if they don't think they could sell it to someone else if you are a no-show. Stores place orders with companies on a very regular basis and as long as the company carries the product it is really no trouble at all for a store to place a special order.

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Most, if not all, distributors will have at least a case minimum requirement per flavor, so for a retailer who doesn't expect any other customers on a particular size, you may need to agree to purchasing a case. Depending on the size of the cans, Petguard's smaller sizes come 24 cans to a case, the large 14 oz. come 12 to a case.

My girls get Nutro Indoor Weight Management for thier dry and Nutro pouches for thier wet food. Except Gizmo refuses to touch wet food! But Sasha loves it. So Gizmo gets her dry and I just watch to make sure she's getting enough water. Sasha eats a pouch of food in the morning and dry food at night. They love thier Nutro, as do my dogs.

Amber

Forgot to mention, while we were on the Petguard tandem... my cats will *only* eat the Chicken and Wheat Germ canned food. They will not touch ANY other kind of wet food, nor any other flavor. Okay maybe Jordan will because he'll eat anything, but Baylee and Max (when we had him) refused everything else!

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

Most, if not all, distributors will have at least a case minimum requirement per flavor, so for a retailer who doesn't expect any other customers on a particular size, you may need to agree to purchasing a case. Depending on the size of the cans, Petguard's smaller sizes come 24 cans to a case, the large 14 oz. come 12 to a case.

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'Tis true - you do have to order at least a case of cans. But if it's something you use regularly, you'll use it up eventually so you just need a shelf to store it on in the interim. Dry food you can almost always get by the individual bag.

Charlie is currently on Innova Lite (he needs a high fiber food for coilitis), but the vet has recommended he be on an even higher fiber food... She suggested Prescription Diet w/d it has 9% crude fiber, but it also contains BHA & BHT. Stay away from these preservatives. They can cause cancer in cats and dogs! I've found a website through a post on this site called PremiumFoodsOnline https://www.storesonline.com they also sell health products for people. Their are tons of premium foods on this site with the ingredient list for all of them. None of them have BHA or BHT. Good luck! I've decided to go with Royal Canin (Weight Control) it's the highest fiber count I could find 9% like the vet suggested.