Please share your good ingredient dry food recs!

[spookzilla]

Go Solutions has a line of high protein foods that are very good quality, some are grain free.

 

[sivyaleah]

Another Orijen user for the dry portion of their diet. Tundra or Regional Red. Real protein sources are the first ingredients. I mix this with another kibble from Rayne Nutritional which is rabbit only. I had to do a novel food trial a while ago when we suspected one might have a food allergy and Rayne makes food specific for that need. No allergy to foods but she loved the kibble, but it was too low calorie for her particular needs. Mixing with the Orijen evens it out to a better calorie profile.

We feed wet and dry, both cats do drink water.

 

[OopsyDaisy]

My cats eat Orijen, and Acana are manufactured by the same brand.

I tried several before I got them on the Acana. It was the only one that they really seemed to like and it doesn't cause them any stomach upset. My vet said not to feed grain free to our cats or dogs. Some people swear by it though. I also had cats live into their twenties on plain old Friskies. At the shelters, they feed them whatever is donated or available. Maybe that's why they usually have diarrhea when you adopt them. It seems to me that the more choices there are, the more confusing it becomes.

 

[MeezeIfYouPlz]

No offense to your vet but this is a subject I'm passionate about, having a puppy that was at one time was literally fading away from a grain-inclusive diet. The vets (mine included) that believe our pets have to have grains are *usually* basing their opinions on a FDA report that was based on a badly flawed study (paid for by big pet food companies) that has since been thoroughly debunked. The FDA has since corrected their position but did so quietly, which they usually do after making a mistake.

 

[OopsyDaisy]

No offense to your vet but this is a subject I'm passionate about, having a puppy that was at one time was literally fading away from a grain-inclusive diet. The vets (mine included) that believe our pets have to have grains are *usually* basing their opinions on a FDA report that was based on a badly flawed study (paid for by big pet food companies) that has since been thoroughly debunked. The FDA has since corrected their position but did so quietly, which they usually do after making a mistake.

I hear you! No offense taken. To be honest with you, I believe it's all about making money. I mean, do cats actually eat grains in the wild? Not that I'm aware of. Our King Charles spaniel was on it for a year, he was doing fine, the vet took him off it. At our last cat wellness check, they asked what I was feeding them and told me that as long as it wasn't grain free, that was good. I'd heard so many good things about grain free.

 

[MeezeIfYouPlz]

I hear you! No offense taken. To be honest with you, I believe it's all about making money. I mean, do cats actually eat grains in the wild? Not that I'm aware of. Our King Charles spaniel was on it for a year, he was doing fine, the vet took him off it. At our last cat wellness check, they asked what I was feeding them and told me that as long as it wasn't grain free, that was good. I'd heard so many good things about grain free.

When we (vet and us) were all pulling our hair out trying to figure out why our pup was literally fading away I asked the vet about going grain-free. Her response was "Puppy must have grains!" After doing weeks and weeks of intense research I decided to give grain-free with limited ingredients a try. Our now year old dog is thriving, as is our older dog. The older dog had issues with hot spots and stinky ears before we switched to grain-free. The vet thinks it's something she did that turned our pup around and I let her go on thinking that. I'm old. I pick my battles carefully. My two dogs and three cats are all healthy, have perfect lab results and are happy. That's all I care about. Doctors, human or animal ones, are generally too busy to research subjects like nutrition much. They tend to only remember what is pushed under their noses to read. Money has a lot to do with what gets pushed under their noses.

 

[Babypaws]

When we (vet and us) were all pulling our hair out trying to figure out why our pup was literally fading away I asked the vet about going grain-free. Her response was "Puppy must have grains!" After doing weeks and weeks of intense research I decided to give grain-free with limited ingredients a try. Our now year old dog is thriving, as is our older dog. The older dog had issues with hot spots and stinky ears before we switched to grain-free. The vet thinks it's something she did that turned our pup around and I let her go on thinking that. I'm old. I pick my battles carefully. My two dogs and three cats are all healthy, have perfect lab results and are happy. That's all I care about. Doctors, human or animal ones, are generally too busy to research subjects like nutrition much. They tend to only remember what is pushed under their noses to read. Money has a lot to do with what gets pushed under their noses.

That’s fantastic news! I’ve lost full confidence in vets (even “human” doctors) over the past several years. They don’t seem to want to listen to us..I lost 2 cats because I listened to the vet..I’m so happy to hear your good Fortune

 

[iPappy]

No offense to your vet but this is a subject I'm passionate about, having a puppy that was at one time was literally fading away from a grain-inclusive diet. The vets (mine included) that believe our pets have to have grains are *usually* basing their opinions on a FDA report that was based on a badly flawed study (paid for by big pet food companies) that has since been thoroughly debunked. The FDA has since corrected their position but did so quietly, which they usually do after making a mistake.

I'm so torn on that study, I can see a heavy legume (often grain free) diet causing problems (especially in certain breeds prone to cardiac issues or DCM) but grain free diets don't always mean "heavy on legumes" and many speculate that the legumes are blocking the taurine absorption. It seems like they have been researching this for years but have come up with nothing definitive. A vet I know fed one of her dogs an organic, home made vegetarian diet and her dog lived to be 15+, and that diet included a lot of legumes, and virtually no meat.
My dog now has had grains on occasion, but she doesn't get them often. She was raised on a WSAVA food and did fine on it overall, but her #2's were absolutely lethal. This is a big deal with a puppy you're litter box training.

 

[OopsyDaisy]

When we (vet and us) were all pulling our hair out trying to figure out why our pup was literally fading away I asked the vet about going grain-free. Her response was "Puppy must have grains!" After doing weeks and weeks of intense research I decided to give grain-free with limited ingredients a try. Our now year old dog is thriving, as is our older dog. The older dog had issues with hot spots and stinky ears before we switched to grain-free. The vet thinks it's something she did that turned our pup around and I let her go on thinking that. I'm old. I pick my battles carefully. My two dogs and three cats are all healthy, have perfect lab results and are happy. That's all I care about. Doctors, human or animal ones, are generally too busy to research subjects like nutrition much. They tend to only remember what is pushed under their noses to read. Money has a lot to do with what gets pushed under their noses.

I agree 100%.

 

[MeezeIfYouPlz]

I'm so torn on that study, I can see a heavy legume (often grain free) diet causing problems (especially in certain breeds prone to cardiac issues or DCM) but grain free diets don't always mean "heavy on legumes" and many speculate that the legumes are blocking the taurine absorption. It seems like they have been researching this for years but have come up with nothing definitive. A vet I know fed one of her dogs an organic, home made vegetarian diet and her dog lived to be 15+, and that diet included a lot of legumes, and virtually no meat.
My dog now has had grains on occasion, but she doesn't get them often. She was raised on a WSAVA food and did fine on it overall, but her #2's were absolutely lethal. This is a big deal with a puppy you're litter box training.

I can only imagine. My only complaint about the Nulo food is that it gives our kitten horrid gas. I think it's the probiotics in the food. Pick Ollie up and get a free poot...every. dang. time! Thankfully it's only the kitten that has that issue with the food.

 

[Alldara]

No offense to your vet but this is a subject I'm passionate about, having a puppy that was at one time was literally fading away from a grain-inclusive diet. The vets (mine included) that believe our pets have to have grains are *usually* basing their opinions on a FDA report that was based on a badly flawed study (paid for by big pet food companies) that has since been thoroughly debunked. The FDA has since corrected their position but did so quietly, which they usually do after making a mistake.

Actually many new studies on dogs are showing that the "boutique" (grain free diets with legumes such as chickpea as the alternative filler) diets are correlated to heart disease in dogs.
The research is ongoing, as the link is correlation and not causation at the moment. They are attempting to determine the cause.

 

[iPappy]

I can only imagine. My only complaint about the Nulo food is that it gives our kitten horrid gas. I think it's the probiotics in the food. Pick Ollie up and get a free poot...every. dang. time! Thankfully it's only the kitten that has that issue with the food.

One of the cats at work turned into a walking gas bag on Taste of the Wild. She looked like Pigpen from the Peanuts with that little cloud following her around everywhere she went!

 

[OopsyDaisy]

One of the cats at work turned into a walking gas bag on Taste of the Wild. She looked like Pigpen from the Peanuts with that little cloud following her around everywhere she went!

Lulu and Ash had the most disgusting gas before I finally got them settled on this Acana. Short of buying some live mice, I think I'll stick with this!

 

[Alldara]

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that just like humans, cats and dogs are likely to have different diet needs based on genetics as well.

So we have all this evidence saying this cat did well on X and this cat did well on Y and it's a combination of lucking out on picking the right food for your cat's specific genetics and keeping up on check ups to ensure nothing new crops up.

My friend and I talked a ton about this because her cat, had two ER visits when origin changed the recipe and became 80% protein.

On the contrary, my late cat Lily thrived on the high protein diets. Nobel needs wheat free for wait loss but oat or rice is fine. Magnus can't have anything higher than 70% protein or he has digestive issues and Calcifer so far just cannot have Royal Canin dry food.

 

[iPappy]

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that just like humans, cats and dogs are likely to have different diet needs based on genetics as well.

So we have all this evidence saying this cat did well on X and this cat did well on Y and it's a combination of lucking out on picking the right food for your cat's specific genetics and keeping up on check ups to ensure nothing new crops up.

My friend and I talked a ton about this because her cat, had two ER visits when origin changed the recipe and became 80% protein.

On the contrary, my late cat Lily thrived on the high protein diets. Nobel needs wheat free for wait loss but oat or rice is fine. Magnus can't have anything higher than 70% protein or he has digestive issues and Calcifer so far just cannot have Royal Canin dry food.

The cat at work who was a gas bag on Taste of the Wild was the lone gassy one as the other cats did fine on it. One of my cats did poorly on dry food of any brand except the very good (and very expensive) Tiki Cat chicken, but I couldn't afford to feed that to everyone so if he needed supplemental snacks, he was separated at feeding time. He could not handle Wellness wet food at all, yet all the other cats handled it and are happy when I feed it. Several of my cats will puke up anything that contains beef. Lila will puke up certain types of fish, and Livie (for some reason) doesn't do well with dark meat turkey in larger quantities.

 

[OopsyDaisy]

The cat at work who was a gas bag on Taste of the Wild was the lone gassy one as the other cats did fine on it. One of my cats did poorly on dry food of any brand except the very good (and very expensive) Tiki Cat chicken, but I couldn't afford to feed that to everyone so if he needed supplemental snacks, he was separated at feeding time. He could not handle Wellness wet food at all, yet all the other cats handled it and are happy when I feed it. Several of my cats will puke up anything that contains beef. Lila will puke up certain types of fish, and Livie (for some reason) doesn't do well with dark meat turkey in larger quantities.

My goodness! That's a lot to handle.

 

[Antonio65]

At the shelters, they feed them whatever is donated or available. Maybe that's why they usually have diarrhea when you adopt them. It seems to me that the more choices there are, the more confusing it becomes.

Same at the shelter where I go, those poor kitties eat whatever is available and many of them have diarrhea

 

[txcatlover94]

That's totally fair. It's hard to know though what each individual considers to be "extra ingredients". For some that means things like rice and wheat. For others that includes things peas, corn, carrots, and even things like meat meals (which some people consider necessary) etc. Grain free usually just means supplimented with potato and pea flour, which is also not great for cats. I stick with rice personally, because it's in easy-to-digest foods for cats so isn't too bad.

I could recommend Arcana, but I've known even young cats that have trouble with the high protein. Mine like it though. Surprisingly, the cats I've known like this developed kidney issues later in life even on a mostly wet diet.

I no longer recommend Wellness, though it's considered a higher quality brand, same with Fromm if you're in Canada.

Go and Now come highly recommended; my cat and late cat didn't like them. Those may be Canada only brands. Orijen is good but again, it's even higher protein then Arcana so the same issue could happen.

My late cat liked Stella and Chewys freeze dried and FreshPet 'kibbles'.

I am also a fan of Instinct, but again, high protein causes issues for some cats. The boys didnt like the freeze dried peices in it.

This is very helpful, thank you so much! It's so hard to find the balance with cat food and knowing what works best for our cats.

 

[txcatlover94]

I'm sorry I don't have a better recommendation for you, but no dry food is good for cats. Dry food only causes health problems down the road and no benefits. I'm not speaking from the perspective of a vet, so take my words with a grain of salt. I personally don't think you should concern yourself with whether or not your cats will ever "accept" anything other than dry food. Who's controlling your life- you or your cats? I would say just start transitioning them to wet food now, mixing a small amount of wet food in with the dry food and work your way up.

Don't do just any wet food, though. Human-grade wet food is good, and human-grade raw is even better. Any pet food that's not human-grade will have its share of bad ingredients, such as excess carbohydrates and parts of diseased or euthanized animals.

I'm aware that technically no dry food is good for cats, but as I mentioned in my reply to Alldara, you can't say that they will for sure have problems because that's not true. I seriously have known cats to eat a poor diet of Friskies (one being one of our cats who lived into her 20s) and do just fine. Does that mean I want to give our cats Friskies or think it's great? No. But I do think, that while food can play a large part in our cats' health (I'm not discounting that), I think genetics and other factors can play a large part as well.

I will add, if not fully transition, our cats to wet food -I've already said that. But speaking from personal experience, it's not always easy to do, either. One of my previous cats would starve himself rather than eat good food, even if it were just a tiny amount mixed in with his regular food, and that's not good for them either.

 

[txcatlover94]

Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein dry chicken food truly is low-carb. The are no carby fillers so the dry matter carbs are only 2.77%. (Here's their chart.) We use Dr. E's as a topper and treat for one of our cats. It's very calorie-dense.

Do note that Dr. E's other dry foods have chickpeas.

I'll look into that, thank you!