Comparing Wet Foods

[GOODFELLA]

I am very confused about the brand names, There are many of them even in specialised pet stores. all of them claim that their brand is better. I bought from pet smart in house brand Simply Nourish and Authority. The petstore near my home has pewrfect bistro.

 

[1 bruce 1]

I am very confused about the brand names, There are many of them even in specialised pet stores. all of them claim that their brand is better. I bought from pet smart in house brand Simply Nourish and Authority. The petstore near my home has pewrfect bistro.

Remember that marketing is creative and competitive. No brand is going to say "Feed this food!! It's the fourth best brand on the market!" =P
Ignore the labels, ignore the buzzwords like "natural" and "healthy" and "entree", etc., and read the ingredients and find something you feel is suitable and try it out =)

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi GOODFELLA , @1bruce1 is exactly correct.
If you haven't already, when you have a chance take a look at the three databases that are mentioned and linked to in this thread, so, go back to page one of this discussion and look at post #4, then post #13 and post #26. The post numbers are in the upper right hand corner of each post, so in other words this post is #43. The links are in a orange-ish color.

Then look at the other posts in this thread - there are a lot of good suggestions being given. Hopefully this all helps, --the Pet Food Guide provides a good place to start regarding bad additives and which brands have them, although keep in mind that the last update for this chart was Nov 2017 and some manufacturers have made changes since then, so keep an eye on the ingredient lists of whatever you decide to purchase.

Additives that people typically do not like are agar agar, carrageenan, the various glutens(such as wheat gluten, etc), menadione bisulfate which is a synthetic vitamin K, and some people find that their cats don't do well with the starches (pea starch, potato etc), or they try to avoid grains, or some vegetables.

Other ingredients that aren't liked but can be found in cat foods are artificial colors, sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, BHT, BHA, Ethoxyquin, sodium selenite - selenium, sodium, glucose, sucrose, corn syrup, propylene gycol, propyl gallate. Rendering products are a challenging additive/ingredient since the consumer has no real way of knowing by looking at a label - I'm hoping that someone else creates a database we can use since I heard back from the people at Cornucopia regarding the Pet Food Guide, and they're not going to continue maintaining it. Reviews . com has a cat food page that might be of use.

It is up to you as to what you can afford, what concerns you the most versus the least (for instance @duckpond won't buy anything with spinach or agar agar, and I try very hard to avoid menadione) but if you have a finicky cat, and even if not, the VERY most important thing is what will your cat eat - that is the best food.

Many members try and offset the bad additives by rotating foods, some expensive with some that is not, some with one bad ingredient, then the next day or two feeding something that doesn't have that bad thing but might have something else.

The idea is to give the cat's system a better chance to deal with bad stuff. Also, a variety can help if the manufacturer discontinues a favorite brand, which happens more frequently than it should.

With all that said, if after reviewing all this information you and your cat(s) are ok with those three brands you purchased, then that is what you should continue to do.

Hang in there!!

 

[sabrinah]

American Journey gets my vote as a pretty good, very affordable dry food. My cat absolutely loves the Chicken&Turkey. I also use Instinct and Dr. Elsey. In total 3 brands, 4 flavors get rotated through and I'm always on the lookout for more! I like to have backups upon backups when companies change their formulas and my cat can't tolerate it anymore.

 

[Animal Freak]

Hopefully they agree!!!!
I'm all for rotation and letting them know that various foods are "food", but sometimes they do have preferences. Some of my cats prefer ground foods and others prefer non-ground. We feed raw, but aren't above giving canned foods too, and our cats that like non-ground foods like pate's in chunks. A few like shreds or "gravies" and some really ignore grinds for chunks, etc.
One of my girls goes insane for any chunks of meat but will ignore chunks of meat for canned food so long as it's shreds or a gravy style. She'll leave pate for the others, but will casually eat grinds (we feed grinds to ensure everyone gets good bone/organ ratios) and needs a bit of coaxing to eat them.
Cats are strange on good days and weird on bad days, but I love them, even at their weirdest. =)

It is interesting how cats can have their favorites. Personally, I've never had any of them reject a food based on if it's pate, shreds, etc. Or flavors for that matter. The only foods that have been refused are I think Meow Mix (I don't blame them. I don't even remember why I got it, but I got stuck with a case of it.) and a certain line of Friskies. Concoctions? I'm not positive, but I think that's what Frost absolutely refused to eat. But other than that, they were relatively easy until Frost pretty much stopped eating. It got to the point that he either wanted dry or wet and it would change by the day so I could never keep up. Then he just didn't want either. He is eating more now that I'm trying new foods, but he still doesn't eat all of it and he doesn't discriminate on what gets left behind.

Cats are definitely strange, but in it the best way! Well, most of the time. Sometimes they're just strange. They're great no matter what though.

I am very confused about the brand names, There are many of them even in specialised pet stores. all of them claim that their brand is better. I bought from pet smart in house brand Simply Nourish and Authority. The petstore near my home has pewrfect bistro.

There's definitely a lot. I didn't realize there were so many different brands until I started looking into them. But, as already said, you can't trust the companies when they say they're the best. The best in what, anyway? I'm definitely no expert (or I wouldn't have had to ask for help), but I've gotten a lot of great recommendations and the people here often think of things I don't. I would definitely recommend looking at the links and maybe skimming through some of what I've been told. There's a lot to consider, but it does help.

American Journey gets my vote as a pretty good, very affordable dry food. My cat absolutely loves the Chicken&Turkey. I also use Instinct and Dr. Elsey. In total 3 brands, 4 flavors get rotated through and I'm always on the lookout for more! I like to have backups upon backups when companies change their formulas and my cat can't tolerate it anymore.

I think American Journey is going to be my main wet food and possible dry food too. Not completely decided on that, but it seems like a decent food for the price.

 

[1 bruce 1]

As far as general foods (be it dry, canned, wet, pouched, raw, home prepared raw, cooked, you name it), "best food" is such a subjective term.
If someone asked "what's the best breed of dog/cat", I'd have my strong opinions....which would clash hugely with the next commenter based on what we want.
Do we want an active dog or cat, a couch potato, a "thinker", a "trainable" type that does whatever they're told, etc? It so varies.
I think the same thing goes for food. My cats, collectively, are crazy about rabbit of any form except for one who eats it...but promptly pukes it up. Generally, rabbit or rabbit-based foods are not a bad thing for most cats...except for those who say "this doesn't agree with me."
Certain brands may produce a cat with a sleek coat and a conditioned body but the next cat might get fat or get a dull/dandruff-y hair coat, etc. The old saying "One mans trash is another mans treasure" holds true to pet foods IMO. Even if most cats do well on brand A". your cat might not. It doesn't mean brand "A" is bad, it just didn't agree.
Check out some of the internet talk on what the proper diets for humans are, and it's amazing....one species can thrive on such different types of diets based on how they look, how they feel, etc.!

 

[GOODFELLA]

Remember that marketing is creative and competitive. No brand is going to say "Feed this food!! It's the fourth best brand on the market!" =P
Ignore the labels, ignore the buzzwords like "natural" and "healthy" and "entree", etc., and read the ingredients and find something you feel is suitable and try it out =)

well about a month ago i found out why the ferral cat near my work ignores the milk i put for him.Cats don't like Milk

As far as general foods (be it dry, canned, wet, pouched, raw, home prepared raw, cooked, you name it), "best food" is such a subjective term.
If someone asked "what's the best breed of dog/cat", I'd have my strong opinions....which would clash hugely with the next commenter based on what we want.
Do we want an active dog or cat, a couch potato, a "thinker", a "trainable" type that does whatever they're told, etc? It so varies.
I think the same thing goes for food. My cats, collectively, are crazy about rabbit of any form except for one who eats it...but promptly pukes it up. Generally, rabbit or rabbit-based foods are not a bad thing for most cats...except for those who say "this doesn't agree with me."
Certain brands may produce a cat with a sleek coat and a conditioned body but the next cat might get fat or get a dull/dandruff-y hair coat, etc. The old saying "One mans trash is another mans treasure" holds true to pet foods IMO. Even if most cats do well on brand A". your cat might not. It doesn't mean brand "A" is bad, it just didn't agree.
Check out some of the internet talk on what the proper diets for humans are, and it's amazing....one species can thrive on such different types of diets based on how they look, how they feel, etc.!

I would imagine the Goal is to reach a balanced diet so the cat maintain a level of wellness. Its for a human is to eat variety of things to get sufficient level of Carb,Vitamin,Mineral,fat,protein,fibre and water. It get confusing when you take the original source vegetable, meat and diary and get canned food instead. Then there is the component of essential needs for cats that might be different from human. There is idea that is easy to come to and just continue using the same thing if its working but how much of the needs that provides is the question that we can find answer in long term. In my search some say its good to feed cat human food like corn and some few things, and some disagree based on the idea of cats being carnivore unlike human thats omnivore. My best pet for now is to feed her small portions and watch the poo and see that gives me the level of compatibility of a food.

 

[Furballsmom]

My best pet for now is to feed her small portions and watch the poo and see that gives me the level of compatibility of a food.

Thank you for researching and working to find what's best for your furbaby!

 

[GOODFELLA]

We feed ours Fancy Feast kitten for a month or so. They habe been on dry food for almost a year.
The kitten we just got that is very young, is on a mixture we make of Authority chicken wet and kitten formula

you haven't seen this site , it's very good

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

I recently got weruva and merrick from the best wet food there. she likes both of them equally but i think the lower fat is better for house cat