Want to switch not sure what to look for

[Magicwildwolf69]

Hey everyone haven't been posting a lot lately but i've been reading and trying to keep up.

I have been thinking a lot lately (and driving my fiance crazy) about switching the cats to a different wet food. They are getting frisky's canned food and reading a lot of stuff on here i realize that its not the best for them. I'm actually going to petco tomorrow to see what my branch carries (i'm in ct) but i have no idea what to look for in the ingredients it all looks so confusing. any suggestions?

[Magicwildwolf69]

and just read something about how purina is one of the other brands of cat food that uses other parts of pets in food????

i know dry food isn't recommend by everyone but i leave a little out during the day for them is there a "good" dry food i could get that doesn't have all this stuff in it i don't want them eating. i feel like i'm just waking out of a bad dream finding out about this stuff

[rainbow]

I am not the best person to give you advice on cat food. Both of mine eat Friskies or Fancy Feast and are supplemented with Orijen dry kibbles.

I know that it is preferred to feed them wet food only and hopefully I will be able to do that eventually.

The better brands of wet food are the grain free ones like Wellness or EVO. Growler and Sugarcatmom have excellent information and I am sure they will reply soon.

[growler~GateKeeper]

Wellness, Nature's Variety, Innova, Evo, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Halo, California Naturals, Merrick are all great brands, some grain free some are not. Start by seeing if your store has any of these, if there is a smaller pet specialty store in your area you may have better luck there.

[Khari]

i have no idea what to look for in the ingredients it all looks so confusing. any suggestions?

I know how confusing it is to look for cat food. I have been feeding my cats a vet recommended cat food forever. Then I came to learn about ingredients in cat food and realized the stuff was crap for my cats. I have since switched my cats to a raw diet but on occasion if I have to feed them canned I am now feeding them Wellness grain free.

When you are looking look for canned grain free. And make sure their is mostly meat in the first 4-5 ingredients. And taurine must be an ingredient.

Good luck and let us know what you have decided on.

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by Magicwildwolf69

I'm actually going to petco tomorrow to see what my branch carries (i'm in ct) but i have no idea what to look for in the ingredients it all looks so confusing. any suggestions?

I'm pretty sure Petco is now stocking Wellness, so that would be one of the good ones to look out for. Choose the flavours with the little yellow triangle in the corner that says "grain-free".

Otherwise, here is some info on what to look for in a decent commercial canned product: http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm

For dry, more and more companies are jumping on the grain-free bandwagon, with Innova Evo being the first and probably lowest in carbohydrate content. Others are Orijen, Wellness Core, Merrick's Before Grain, Solid Gold's Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain, Timberwolf Organics Serengeti, and Blue Buffalo's Wilderness. Ideally you can feed entirely wet, or at least mostly wet, but if for whatever reason you have to have some kibble options, it might as well be grain-free. However, anyone whose cats have kidney or bladder/urinary tract issues should absolutely try their hardest not to feed any dry.

Hope that helps.

[Chaser]

I can tell you from personal experience that if you are switching to a grain-free wet food go very SLOWLY! My cat was used to eating Merrick's wet (regular, with grain) and one day I gave him a can of Blue Buffalo Wilderness, wanting him to be on grain-free food. My dogs get different kinds of canned food all the time with their regular kibble so I figured wet food for a cat didn't really require a transition period either. WRONG. Came home to three piles of the worst kitty diarrhea I have ever seen in my life...all over my carpet. Lesson learned.

I got the impression that the BB Wilderness is an awfully rich food, and I think they were affected in the recalls, so I'm looking for a new grain-free to try now. Companies I would trust for my dogs are Wellness Core, Innova EVO and Horizon Legacy....so I'd suggest giving those a shot if you can find them.

[Magicwildwolf69]

wow thanks guys! I'm in a city area where there are mainly just named pet stores. so going to hit petco first because i trust them a bit more then a couple of the others that are in my area .

I mainly just leave out dry for free feeding during the day as i'm gone anywhere from 12 to 9 at night (really werid work schedule) i know you can leave out moist during the day but serena is my little piggy she will eat it all if the others walk away she eats that she's a bit overweight as it is and i'm working on that as well but she doesn't really eat much of the dry just the other two and they don't seem to eat a lot just spend a few minutes at it and then off they go back to sleep.

well off to do my shopping and to see what i can find i'll keep you updated