Hello!
We adopted a kitten about 3 weeks ago. Things have been eventful! We absolutely love her Her name is Winnie.
I've been stressing out over food.
I also have an 86lb dog whom I suspect may have a chicken allergy, and have been attempting to change her food for... a year. She is loyal to a single brand in a single flavor and though she might eat new kibble once, never again. She will go days without eating, and while she may eventually eat it, each time it is with such reluctance that I feel awful feeding something she so obviously hates. (The brand she loves is Simply Nourish Chicken & Brown Rice, by the way. It took us a long time to find a food she'd eat with little reluctance.)
What does this have to do with my kitten... I'm just worried of ending up in the same situation, and I know that you can't really refuse food to a cat like a dog! She is already showing signs of being picky.
Right now, Winnie is eating Fancy Feast - the kitten classic pates in chicken or turkey, or the Natural Gourmet kitten pates in chicken. With that I mix in Tiki Cats Chicken & Egg dry kitten, and Whole Earth Farms kitten dry. I pretty much feed her this mixture whenever she is hungry, so several times a day. I also add a few teaspoons of hot water to the mix. I'm feeding 2 dry foods because I originally bought the whole earth...and then wanted to try the tiki.. but she won't really eat the tiki by itself. So I put a bit of the WEF in there, and then she doesn't seem to care. I put a bowl of just the dry out overnight, as well, and she'll usually take a few nibbles of that before the sun comes up.
I've also gotten a few containers of the Sheba perfect portions pates, in the chicken/ turkey, but these are not kitten foods so I probably won't get them again until she doesn't need so much food. I have also gotten the iams perfect portion kitten. I've also tried purina pro plan kitten & pure balance pates, but I bought them before I knew carrageenan was a really questionable ingredient and probably won't get them again.
I'd like to have a rotation of food in case a situation like my dog arises, enjoying meal time, recalls, shortages etc! I have a few other foods on order from Chewy to try out - I would like to go into the store and by single cans to try out but with covid and me being high risk, I haven't been able to, so trying new things have been a bit limited - I don't want to buy a 24 pack and have it go to waste. I have Simply Nourish Essentials Chicken pate for kittens, Tiny Tiger beef / chicken pate, and I also ordered a small bag of Dr Esleys Clean Protein..super expensive but as I am doing a mixture it is more affordable. These aren't here yet but will be soon.
But, I just checked catfoodDB and besides the Esleys and Tiki, the food I've bought really doesn't have good ratings. I saw Fancy Feast and Sheba recommended a lot here, so I felt good purchasing them, and now hope I haven't messed up, since these do seem really 'addicting'! Fancy Feast only getting I believe a 3/10 was really concerning. I don't have the budget to do 100% 'premium' food, especially wet, and have found with my animals a reluctance to even eat it to begin with, but I don't want to feed something that will make them sick either. I already have times where I have to waste half a can of wet food because Winnie just stops recognizing it as food after it has been refrigerated, even if I add more water, microwave, add milk, etc. The Sheba, in particular, was an absolute refusal after refrigeration, wouldn't even sniff it off my finger despite scarfing down freshly opened packs. The Fancy Feast, at least, makes it to 24 hours before she doesn't want it anymore USUALLY. I can't imagine having to dump out 1/2 a can of a very expensive food.. my husband would kill me!
So... advice? Should I stop the FF? Why does it have SUCH a low rating.. or is catfoodDB not where I should be looking? I am self aware and know I am probably making too big a deal out of things... but I have health-ptsd for my pets after my very special pitty passed away a few years ago from a horrible disease (autoimmune hemolytic anemia)...while that had nothing to do with food really, I still stress heavily over all food/vaccines/topicals etc. It's exhausting!
We adopted a kitten about 3 weeks ago. Things have been eventful! We absolutely love her Her name is Winnie.
I've been stressing out over food.
I also have an 86lb dog whom I suspect may have a chicken allergy, and have been attempting to change her food for... a year. She is loyal to a single brand in a single flavor and though she might eat new kibble once, never again. She will go days without eating, and while she may eventually eat it, each time it is with such reluctance that I feel awful feeding something she so obviously hates. (The brand she loves is Simply Nourish Chicken & Brown Rice, by the way. It took us a long time to find a food she'd eat with little reluctance.)
What does this have to do with my kitten... I'm just worried of ending up in the same situation, and I know that you can't really refuse food to a cat like a dog! She is already showing signs of being picky.
Right now, Winnie is eating Fancy Feast - the kitten classic pates in chicken or turkey, or the Natural Gourmet kitten pates in chicken. With that I mix in Tiki Cats Chicken & Egg dry kitten, and Whole Earth Farms kitten dry. I pretty much feed her this mixture whenever she is hungry, so several times a day. I also add a few teaspoons of hot water to the mix. I'm feeding 2 dry foods because I originally bought the whole earth...and then wanted to try the tiki.. but she won't really eat the tiki by itself. So I put a bit of the WEF in there, and then she doesn't seem to care. I put a bowl of just the dry out overnight, as well, and she'll usually take a few nibbles of that before the sun comes up.
I've also gotten a few containers of the Sheba perfect portions pates, in the chicken/ turkey, but these are not kitten foods so I probably won't get them again until she doesn't need so much food. I have also gotten the iams perfect portion kitten. I've also tried purina pro plan kitten & pure balance pates, but I bought them before I knew carrageenan was a really questionable ingredient and probably won't get them again.
I'd like to have a rotation of food in case a situation like my dog arises, enjoying meal time, recalls, shortages etc! I have a few other foods on order from Chewy to try out - I would like to go into the store and by single cans to try out but with covid and me being high risk, I haven't been able to, so trying new things have been a bit limited - I don't want to buy a 24 pack and have it go to waste. I have Simply Nourish Essentials Chicken pate for kittens, Tiny Tiger beef / chicken pate, and I also ordered a small bag of Dr Esleys Clean Protein..super expensive but as I am doing a mixture it is more affordable. These aren't here yet but will be soon.
But, I just checked catfoodDB and besides the Esleys and Tiki, the food I've bought really doesn't have good ratings. I saw Fancy Feast and Sheba recommended a lot here, so I felt good purchasing them, and now hope I haven't messed up, since these do seem really 'addicting'! Fancy Feast only getting I believe a 3/10 was really concerning. I don't have the budget to do 100% 'premium' food, especially wet, and have found with my animals a reluctance to even eat it to begin with, but I don't want to feed something that will make them sick either. I already have times where I have to waste half a can of wet food because Winnie just stops recognizing it as food after it has been refrigerated, even if I add more water, microwave, add milk, etc. The Sheba, in particular, was an absolute refusal after refrigeration, wouldn't even sniff it off my finger despite scarfing down freshly opened packs. The Fancy Feast, at least, makes it to 24 hours before she doesn't want it anymore USUALLY. I can't imagine having to dump out 1/2 a can of a very expensive food.. my husband would kill me!
So... advice? Should I stop the FF? Why does it have SUCH a low rating.. or is catfoodDB not where I should be looking? I am self aware and know I am probably making too big a deal out of things... but I have health-ptsd for my pets after my very special pitty passed away a few years ago from a horrible disease (autoimmune hemolytic anemia)...while that had nothing to do with food really, I still stress heavily over all food/vaccines/topicals etc. It's exhausting!