What food do you use and WHY:)

[momofmany]

Mine ate Science Diet for years. After getting an education from this site, I've switched them over to Wellness (thanks Sharky!) Chicken (they won't touch the Salmon). They get free fed dry.

Canned food is a different matter. They won't touch anything but (don't hit me) Friskies and even with that they are overly particular about their flavors. I split 2 small cans between 11 of them at night. The other 2 cats won't touch wet at all. Trust me, I've tried all the brands and they turn their sweet little noses up at them.

 

[auntie crazy]

Allen, Rachel and Meghan share 5.5 oz of wet in the am and another in the pm, 20 different flavors/brands in regular rotation. I chose these foods because of their high-quality ingredients, lack of fish (only the Solid Gold has any) and/or lack of grain (most are grain-free):

Solid Gold Gourmet
Innova & Innova Evo
Wellness "Turkey", "Chicken", and "Beef & Chicken" (all 3 are grain-free)
Merricks "Cowboy Cookout" "Turducken" and "Thanksgiving Day Dinners"
Natural Balance: "Venison and Green Pea", "Indoor", "Ultra", "Chicken & Liver", "Turkey & Giblets"
Nature's Variety: all six flavors

Since these guys are still kittens, I also give them a half cup of Innova Evo kibble mixed 50/50 with Nature's Variety Raw Instinct kibble to share before bed. Again, I chose these two based on their ingredients list.

 

[panther pride]

I give our three cats Innova EVO/Orijen dry mix, with Innova EVO wet. One also gets Raw. They are thriving and all have silky coats and activeness for their ages.

BINDI: This kitty likes Innova EVO/Orijen mix and EVO wet/ NO RAW.

TOM; He eats dry Orijen/EVO mx mostly but I've see him eat wet EVO, he'll go for raw but aways throws it up.

LEOPALORN: This one eats mainly Raw/ but eats wet EVO also

 

[white cat lover]

I am currently feeding:
Twitch, Lily, & Damita - Fromms Duck a la Veg dry & various wet
Dory, Molly, & Ophelia - Nutro MAX cat Chicken(UTI health)
PJ & Punky - Eagle Pack Kitten

 

[renzie]

my cats really enjoy chicken liver! i give em some every weekend.

by default though, i mix up dry whiskas or friskies with the wet- that's how they like it!

 

[babbittd]

I recently switched from Evanger's canned to Merrick's canned and it seems that my kittens love both equally as much. This is good, because I think the Merrick's is better for them. When you open the can, the contents are not all in one huge chunk and they do not contain menadione sodium bisulfite like the Evanger's chicken does.

 

[reddicequeen]

I see Sharky has been helping alot of us feed our cats *

I currently have both of mine on Wellness canned due to Remy's bladder problem. No more dry.
He is doing much better. I would feed them raw but...I am afraid I will end up harming them in some way. It seems complicated.

 

[shay's human]

When I first joined this board I knew very little about kitty nutrition. My current food choices are now based on the knowledge I have gained from this board on that subject. A big thanks to all you food and nutrition gurus!

These are the wet foods I try to keep on hand that my 2 will eat:

Innova
Innova Evo
California Natural
Wellness Turkey
Wellness Chicken
Wellness Beef & Chicken

These are a stand in when I run short on the others (decent quality and readily available):

Natural Life Chicken & Turkey
Natural Life Lamaderm
Natural Life Chicken & Veggie

I am going to give the new Nature's Variety Instinct wet a try when I can pick some up.

Right now they both get 1/8th of a cup of Nature's Variety Raw Instinct dry daily, but they rarely eat it and once I finish the bag, no more dry for them.

 

[aussie_dog]

Every one of my animals is on RAW (1 dog and 3 cats). WHY do I feed it? Well, I personally believe that RAW is the best you can feed a cat or dog, so I drooled at the thought of feeding it for ages until I could afford it (and felt comfortable enough in the knowledge that I wouldn't kill them, lol). Molly needed it, though. For the first year and a half that we had her, she had daily diarrhea, due to not being able to digest the carbs in the kibble she was eating (anything from California Natural to Timberwolf Organics, Felidae to Orijen). I decided to finally try RAW and see if that would work, so I decided to put all the cats on RAW while I was at it. Buffy refused to touch it, so I compromised and put her on a canned diet instead. But Willow and Molly dug in and since then, Molly has actually had firm poops and every poop is virtually scent-free, unlike the murderous stink-bombs from before. Willow didn't need any improvements, but she's doing great on it as well. Buffy has since learned that raw meat is actually very tasty and while she hasn't needed any improvements either, I've noticed her coat has gotten even silkier to the touch, and she looks forward to meals now (so it's easy to round her up when she sneaks outside; just call her and she'll come a-runnin' lol)

The girls have been on RAW for a few months now and we're all just loving it. Buffy's still a little difficult when the formula isn't chicken or turkey (whenever the store runs out of the chicken formula of Pets Go Raw that I feed, I have to feed the beef, and while Willow and Molly dig in, Buffy refuses to touch it. She won't touch the Bison formula of Arusha either. When she gets this way, I have to put her back on canned until the store restocks the chicken, lol).

My dog recently went onto RAW just last week, and he's doing great. Surprisingly, he hasn't gone through the detox period (diarrhea for a week as the body expells itself of the toxins from the kibble-fed diet) like most dogs usually do, but he's got a belly of steel, thanks to my constant experimentations with so many food brands and formulas, dry and canned, lol. But just wait, he'll start having massive diarrhea tomorrow, and it'll get all over the house. Just you wait...

 

[jenny1124]

I feed Princess Nutro Natural Choice Kitten Formula dry and less than 1/4 a can per day of Nutro Natural Choice Adult wet just for some added moisture and as a bit of a treat.

I feed Nutro because of Sharky's suggestions and because it is the highest quality food that I can get locally.

 

[princess0924]

My cats eat IAMS because there picky eaters and thats the only one i could get them to eat lol. Once in awhile i give them some wet food, fancy feast only wet 1 they will eat. There as bad as a kid with food lol

 

[wildflower79]

For dry food Gizmo is on Nutro Max Roasted Chicken, primary because it's low in magnesium. I've had to cut back on the amount I'm feeding him though because he needs to lose a couple pounds but other than that he's been doing well on it.

For now the only canned food I feed him California Natural. I've tried every canned food under the sun and so far this seems to be the only one he'll eat.

 

[bazkitty]

Of my five, three are on Royal Canin SO for urinary issues. I hope to get them off of it before long and hopefully not have any problems.

The other two are eating Serengeti dry and canned, wellness (grain free only) and EVO ....why? All are grain free, and they are doing extremely well on them. I've seen such a big difference since switching from Chicken Soup that you would think they are different cats!

 

[greenvillegal]

This is surely a helpful thread!

What is RAW? I've seen that a lot of people have their cats on it and have never heard of it before. Please feel free to point me to another thread if necessary.

I just switched to wet food at sharky's recommendation due to the high water content that would fill my overweight cats up better. I was using Iams, which I have also heard some negative things about, so I'll probably get one of the more frequently posted dry foods for their daytime nibbling. I am planning to do one can each of Meow Mix in the morning and one can each at night. Then during the day I was going to leave maybe 1/4 cup each of some dry food.

 

[dizzydesi]

All of mine are on Nature's Variety raw. Cats are obligate carnivores so I went that route simply because it seemed to be the closest I could get to their natural diet. I'm pleased with their health [no vet visits except annual checkups in two years] and the improvement in weight control and appearance.

 

[laureen227]

i use Chicken Soup brand both for wet & dry. it's the best i can find for what i can afford, & also the cats like it.
i also supplement the wet with a homemade mix made from a recipe Sharky sent me that i've altered somewhat.

 

[ryanjay]

24 inside cats and i don't know how many outside anymore(20 is my guess...) all eating friskies dry at the moment. the insides get friskies wet daily. I had them on royal canin dry but right now I had to cut back to get a few strays fixed so I went to the only grocery brand I have used long term when I first got cats(96-99 or so) and had good results. once the outsides are all spayed agin probably go back to royal canin dry or rc and friskies mix

 

[novemberflowers]

I feed them Royal Canin Babycat and Iams Kitten.....I liked the RC because of how little the pieces were, and was switching to Iams when they outgrew the Babycat because it was recommended to me by several people with happy, healthy cats. My girl seems to prefer Royal Canin, though, so I might need to try the Royal Canin kitten formula even though it's a little pricey. Maybe offer both foods to them in different dishes.

For wet food, they like Fancy Feast (actually, they LOVE the gourmet chicken flavor). I tried a couple other foods, but they only eat a little bit of it and then make digging motions on the floor (i guess that means they think it is gross).

 

[deljo]

My babies eat Purina One, & Purina Natural for dry food. The wet is Whiskas and Fancy Feast. One eats mostly dry and the other mostly wet. I put about an extra spoon of water in the wet and the dry eater will drink all the liquid. She also drinks water. Their coats are shiny and except for a occasional eye problem, which the vet treats with an antiobitic and Duralac, there are no health problems. They are full of life and happy.

 

[okuda]

Originally Posted by greenvillegal

This is surely a helpful thread!

What is RAW? I've seen that a lot of people have their cats on it and have never heard of it before. Please feel free to point me to another thread if necessary.

Yes I would like to know this too.

Now if our kittys where rats I would be able to tell you the best kinda food as I used to keep them lol!

As a new kitten owner I don't really have a clue. The rescue had the boys on Science diet kitten food (dry) and they gave us a couple of bags.
I have kept them on this for now, mainly because I don't want to make Winston's upset tummy worse by changing foods. I want to wait till he is healthy.

I have given them a sample of Chicken Soup FTPLS dry kitten mix and they *LOVED* it. So once he is well I think I might change to this.

I don't think they really enjoy the Science diet much, plus to me, it just looks like Koi fish food!!

Btw, I would like to know why people don't like feeding their cats food with fish in .. what is the reason for this?
I ask because I have these little tuna kitten treats which they devour!

Also, IYO ~ having been there and done it with kittens, what dry food do you feel is best for them?