What food do you use and WHY:)

[auntie crazy]

My five eat the following canned (no dry here):

Solid Gold Gourmet ('cause they'll always eat it)
Innova Evo 95% Duck (grain-free)
Nature's Variety Instinct Duck (grain-free)
Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit (grain-free)
Go! Natural Chicken-Turkey-Duck (grain-free)
Chicken Soup, Adult (they love it)
Chicken Soup, Kitten (they love it)
Wellness Core (grain-free and they love it)
Wellness Chicken (grain-free)
Wellness Beef & Chicken (grain-free)
Wellness Turkey (grain-free)
Natural Balance Ultra (they like it)
Natural Balance Indoor (they like it)
Natural Balance Duck & Green Pea (they like it)
Natural Balance Turkey & Giblets (they like it)
Natural Balance Chicken & Liver (they like it)
Felidea Chicken-Turkey-Lamb-Ocean Fish (very seldom - just for additional variety)
California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice (very seldom - just for additional variety)

 

[tuxedokitties]

Felixia, Sylvestra and Mr. Underfoot:

Canned: I feed Wellness grain-free and occasionally Fancy Feast (the flavors without soy or wheat gluten).

Why: Wellness doesn't have any ingredients that upset Felixia's super-sensitive stomach, and it's a good quality food (many of the other good foods have tomato ingredients, which upset her tummy). The Fancy Feast flavors without soy or wheat gluten also don't bother her, and while the ingredients aren't ideal (I could do without the nitrates), it's good for stimulating the cats' appetites and providing some additional variety when they get picky.

Dry (free-fed to supplement canned, but diet is primarily canned): Wellness salmon or Authority sensitive stomach.

Why: They're the only dry foods I've found that don't upset Felixia's stomach & make her vomit, and that the cats will eat.

Oreo, our urinary crystal/stone cat, gets Waltham S/O prescription diet.
Why: I don't ever want him to get another urinary blockage, and it seems to be working well for him. The other prescription urinary diets upset his stomach, but s/o doesn't.

Tiger Lily, our feral, gets Authority sensitive stomach dry, because it seems to work well for her - she likes it, and it doesn't give her diarrhea as some other dry foods did.

 

[carolina]

I feed bot of them a mixture of Orijen, Wellness Core and Nutro Complete Care Indoor Kitten.
I was feeding Nutro and transitioned to Origen, but Lucky didn't like the no-grain food too much... So now I am veeeeryy slowly Increasing the Origen and decreasing the Nutro.
Bugsy was on Inova Evo, but unfortunately I could not find it

, so I switched him to Nutro/orijen/wellness core. He has been having lose stools, but is getting better. Since they free feed, they eat from each other's plate... It is hard to control.
Nutro was my choice before this forum, then after much research I found Orijen the best choice of no grain, no by-products, and good ingredients vitamisn - I like that is it made of 75% high quality meat... I use it today for the familiar flavor she likes. Wellness core was a second option for no grain quality food, but it is more costly, so I am sticking to orijen (she doesn't see any difference in between wellness core and Orijen).

 

[wellingtoncats]

My adult cats eat Royal Canin Persian 30. The biscuits are great for their flat faces, high in fat and they love it.

For my spay & neuter they have Gourmet tinned food to supplement their dry and also sometimes [every other day] raw beef. We have to feed wet food because my 9 year old boy has had some teeth out.

My kittens get fed Nanny Goat Lane Goats Milk [up until 5 weeks old] , Royal Canin Babycat [up until 10 weeks old], Royal Canin Persian Kitten [up until 4 months] and then finish their kitten cycle on Iams Kitten - of course their main food as kittens is raw beef.

 

[mimosa]

I feed my cats raw and the occasional can.

I feed them this way because cats have evolved to be obligate carnivores (which means they need only prey), and I respect that. So I feed a diet adapted to the cats' needs and do not expect the cats to adapt to a certain other diet.
Cats in nature eat wet food, with little or no vegetable material (cats often choose not to eat the digestive tract of their prey animals), without preservatives. The food comes in a big chunks that clean the teeth and massage the gums.

We mainly feed ground raw mix, quail, pigeon, mice and chicks, because most of these foods are the same size as natural prey animals.
Other meats can be fed too but bones of bigger animals might be too hard to eat, and cats need to eat bone too.

Apart from reading scientific information on cats nutritional needs, what really convinced me was the effect of changing the cats from a premium dry food to raw; silkier coats, less shedding and as a result less hairballs, less waste in the litterboxes, cleaner teeth, etc.

 

[missmyra]

Hi Everyone,
I was having a problem getting my cat to eat her "special" diabetes food from the vet -- you might know the two I mean: Purina DM and Hills MD. She ate Hills just fine for about 2 years, then refused to eat it any more (I was shocked and scared, this is a cat that LOVES to eat!!!) so I changed her to the Purina. She ate that for about a week and then stopped. Deperate, I came to this site, and was directed to the Feline Diabetes forum, where I finally was given the solution. Apparently, there are cat foods that are superior in quality and similar or lower in cost available at pet stores that are just fine for a diabetic cat. Here is a link I have found extremely valuable, regardless if your cat is diabetic:
http://www.catinfo.org/
Now my cat is eating like a ravenous monster, and I have seen NO increase in diabetic symptoms. If anything, she is looking healthier than ever. She eats Wellness (no grain formulas, can only) and Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys, just about any flavor is good. These are high protein-low-carb-low-fat wet foods that do not spike up her blood sugar. They have less fillers and more high quality protein than the "vet-prescribed" foods.
--MissMyra

 

[devanagara]

I free-feed my cat Mony Blue Spa Selects Indoor Cat Formula, and she really seems to like it, even the small black disc-shaped "LifeSource bits" that some cats seem to snub.

Every morning for breakfast she gets a portion of a can of cat food. Her favorite is Natural Life Ocean Fish and Veggie Platter. She's been meowing for more all day!

 

[layitdown]

Ricky Bobby gets dry food and a can of wet per day, split into 2 feedings, breakfast and dinner.

For dry right now he is eating Diamond Naturals Active Cat. I feed that because it is of decent quality premium, a great price, and I plan on mixing it up and rotating his dry every few months.

For wet he gets a great variety:
Natural Life
Felidae
Natural Balance (Grain free varieties that I can find)
Nutro
By Nature Organics
Brandon Farms
Eagle Pack Holistic
I feed those because, well he isn't a picky eater at all so I pretty much can feed him whatever flavor I choose and he scarfs it down without hesitation. None of them have byproducts and I am really liking the by nature organics and brandon farms becuase they are grain free at a great price.

I'm trying to find more grain free varieties. It's so easy to feed him though because he is not picky at all, so far he's gladly scarfed down whatever I put in front of him, loving each one as much as the one before.

I also feed him raw meaty bones every now and then, just as a treat/small meal.

 

[miss_c]

Both my cats primarily eat Science Diet Indoor Cat dry- as much as I'd love to feed them wet food primarily or in addition, we kind of came to the decision that an all dry diet is less harmful than vomitting multiple times a day :/ The big one is dry only, but I supplement the little one with the Indoor cat wet food, since she doesn't have the same gastro problems as the big one. They both get measured amounts twice a day.

 

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by miss_c

Both my cats primarily eat Science Diet Indoor Cat dry- as much as I'd love to feed them wet food primarily or in addition, we kind of came to the decision that an all dry diet is less harmful than vomitting multiple times a day

well, i'd agree with that! what types of dry have you tried, btw?

 

[miss_c]

Well, because we're in Australia, there's not the same range of the higher quality stuff that there is in the States, so we've done Purina Pro Plan weight loss, PPP hairball, Science Diet adult, SD hairball, SD sensitive stomach, Hills Prescriptives Z for food allergies, and finally settled on the Indoor Cat stuff. It has larger pieces which forces her to chew it up more, which helps, and the combo of that and the slightly different formulation to the normal stuff has cleared up the stomach problems big time

 

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by miss_c

Well, because we're in Australia, there's not the same range of the higher quality stuff that there is in the States, so we've done Purina Pro Plan weight loss, PPP hairball, Science Diet adult, SD hairball, SD sensitive stomach, Hills Prescriptives Z for food allergies, and finally settled on the Indoor Cat stuff. It has larger pieces which forces her to chew it up more, which helps, and the combo of that and the slightly different formulation to the normal stuff has cleared up the stomach problems big time

i was just curious. i think the best food for your cat is the one they tolerate well.

 

[miss_c]

Originally Posted by laureen227

i was just curious. i think the best food for your cat is the one they tolerate well.

I agree, plus she def didn't seem very happy when she was getting sick all the time

I felt bad because sometimes, even when I know she certainly wasn't doing it on purpose, it's hard not to get a bit mad when you find cat puke in your shoes :/

 

[cruisermaiden]

I free feed Kirkland Chicken & Rice Maintenance Formula dry and I give them each 1 can of Friskies wet (various shredded flavors) daily.

I switched to the Kirkland because I felt the ingredients were better than the other foods available in the same price range and both boys do very well on it. I just don’t have it in my budget to go up to the prices of super premium foods.

I use Friskies canned food as it agrees with both of them and they like it.

 

[dachweiler]

I use Purina ONE Sensitive Systems for all 4 (ages 3-15) of my cats. I have been feeding it to my 15 yr old since it came out on the market. They all love it; and have never had any health problems at all. The reason I first started using it was that I was complaining to my vet about cat poop (amout/smell).
They only eat this food and their poop is quite small & barely smelly!

 

[sakura]

I've posted before in this thread but thought I'd post again because now we have a 3rd cat.

Henry eats Natural Balance dry food and wet food. He's about 8 or 9 months old and I didn't want him on a kitten food, but I didn't want him on an adult maintenance food either. Natural Balance is the cheapest wet food at our feed store and, unlike our other 2 cats, he loves it. He gets 1/4 cup of Natural Balance dry in the morning and then 3 oz of Natural Balance wet plus a few more kibbles at night.

Matilda and Chloe are eating Wellness Indoor dry. I'm not sure that I will keep them on it. It's a fine food, but it's expensive. I wanted a food that would help with hairballs but it's not really the time of year that they get them and I still have hairball gel somewhere anyway. The wet food they eat these days is Chicken Soup. They each get 1/4 cup of the Wellness Indoor in the morning and then 3 oz each of Chicken Soup at night.

 

[javern]

My cats love Purina One Sensitive, they also eat Petguard Venison and Hills Science Feline Mature

Originally Posted by dachweiler

I use Purina ONE Sensitive Systems for all 4 (ages 3-15) of my cats. I have been feeding it to my 15 yr old since it came out on the market. They all love it; and have never had any health problems at all. The reason I first started using it was that I was complaining to my vet about cat poop (amout/smell).
They only eat this food and their poop is quite small & barely smelly!

 

[littleraven7726]

Dry food: We're kind of all over lately with what the cats eat. I have a mix of Iams Healthy Naturals and Iams Digestive Care and Royal Canin Active Mature. I'm also mixing in California Natural Chicken & Rice, Purina One Urinary Health, & Purina Cat Chow. I'm unsure which way we'll go when we need to buy again. My senior guy has pretty much stopped eating all premium foods and wants Purina.

We may end up on a mix of Pro Plan and ONE.

Wet food: due to budget constraints just Friskies, but they split 1 can 2x a day.

 

[cats4sky]

i was feeding the shredded friskie wet food to my cats, and im going to keep doing that but i was recommended some better brands so i bought a few cans of authority from pet smart and they love it. So i decided what im going to do is alternate with friskies and some of the better brands as well.

 

[rang_27]

Originally Posted by Javern

My cats love Purina One Sensitive, they also eat Petguard Venison and Hills Science Feline Mature

I'm glad to see some people feeding Purina One Sensitive. My cats seem to have developed some sensitivities and I wanted to know if Purinal One was OK. With 4 I really can't afford to feed the vet perscribed food forever ($30 for a 5-6 lb bag). I have them on it until their tummies relax, but maybe I'll try Purina One after a while.