Best recommended cat food?

I'm considering changing cat foods as I'm just not pleased with the performance of my current one. What are your picks for the best food? Why do you like this food?

I went ahead and moved this to Other Pets. ;)

Are you looking for a general cat formula? I think I use the Purina One Hairball food with great success. Of course, I can't remember and I'm too tired to walk and find out......sorry :oops:

Royal Canin, Blue Buffalo, really any of your higher end foods with no by-products, preservatives, "meals", etc. I love Wellness, but sometimes it can be a bit rich for animals not used to it, so best to switch very slowly. I use the Wellness Senior for my rats :) and they love it.

The best food I have ever fed my cats or dogs when I had them was Natural Balance. Its not as expensive as the other brands but its great food for them.

There are some others like
Chicken Soup
Filidae
Innova
Merrick
Solid Gold

I use Science Diet for our cat. It's a hairball formula; since I have started using it, I swear he has had none; he used to be infamous for hacking them up. Also, I noticed his litter box fills up much slower than when I fed Meow Mix.
My mom also uses this brand for her two dogs and cat; we all have great results and healthy animals.

Gotta be one of the most controversial subjects out there, LOL.

I feed Science Diet Adult dry kibble to the seething masses, and canned Science Diet prescriptions (k/d, i/d, and a/d) to our ancient kitty who requires more maintenance.

I also meal-feed, since I have several cats who would really pack on the pounds if I let them. It's a bit of a pain, since they beg all day between meals but they stay nice and lean. About 1/3 cup per cat per day is a good volume for my kids. At 1/2 cup a day, my big male went from a healthy 10lbs to 14lbs and jiggled when he walked. Since obesity in cats is a primary cause of diabetes, this was not acceptable! The volume of food I give them now seems ridiculously small but they've been on it and maintaining healthy weights for the last three years.

I firmly believe that a diet with more digestible content reduces the stool output, which is important to me since I have enough cats that litterbox duty is a real pain. I also have clean skin, silky coats, no pesky allergies, and few hairballs.

I would be comfortable feeding Royal Canin, Felidae, Solid Gold, Innova, etc...they're just out of my budget range when I'm going through 10+ pounds of food a week and I can get the Science Diet through work for about half of retail price.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Royal Canin, Blue Buffalo, really any of your higher end foods with no by-products, preservatives, "meals", etc. I love Wellness, but sometimes it can be a bit rich for animals not used to it, so best to switch very slowly. I use the Wellness Senior for my rats :) and they love it.

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good choices

I feed Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul to my cats and Kitten's Soul to my ferrets.

I've used Nutro Natural Choice for years and it is a great product. The cats have far less hairballs and vomiting then with other foods. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by jglass38

I've used Nutro Natural Choice for years and it is a great product. The cats have far less hairballs and vomiting then with other foods. Good luck!

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Such a good daddy!

-adam

I have had experience with Nutro, I fed it to my dogs back home.

I have friends that swear by Science Diet, Solid Gold, Royal Canin and Felidea. One even is crazy about the BARF diet though that is way too time consuming and costly for me and one still swears by Purina Cat/Kitten chow. Gotta love diversity.

Personally after looking at what is best available in my area and what I have experience with I might go with Nutro Indoor Kitten. I am NOT a fan of the 'MAX' line of Nutro products, not at all but the natural line I've liked.

Thank you all for your input.

Now, another question. Do you feed an all dry diet, an all wet diet or a mixed diet?

I myself tend to feed a mixed diet.

Stripe was on Nutro Max Senior for a loooooong time and did very well on it. Now that I only have younger cats (5 yrs and 2 yrs) they all get the Iams Multi Cat. I used to buy the hairball/wt mgt formula combo, (Checkers was putting on wt.) but I can't get BIG 20# bags of that in our area. I'm still having occas hacking up ball problems, but I give them the Petromalt laxative to compensate since the FOOD isn't doing it.


After having fed Meow Mix, Purina and aaaaall the others, the extra expense is worth it to have less to clean in the box, and the STINK!! after their potty breaks isn't near as bad as when I used to feed my cat the cheaper, grocery
brands.

Only the garage cats get the canned and dry. Indoor cats get dry. If an occas. treat, I'll give a scoop of canned or the free samples of moist. I do give all of the cats a few pieces of roast turkey on the holidays, but that's the only ppl food they get. Pesky b/c of her jaw, gets the A/D, milk, or canned all pureed up and mixed w/milk for the calories.

I have used the Royal Canin, and liked it, but for some reason we fell into the SDiet and stick to that now. The best food we ever fed was a natural, organic feed that we got from my friend's shop for awhile, but honestly it was too expensive and we were buying bags every other week; the SD fits the bill!
We occasionally feed canned beef-type food to Inky as a treat (anything with fish makes me want to vomit and gives him fishy breath..) However rarely, we do give him a little tuna fish if we are making a sandwich, or Mark will pour the water out of the tuna can over Inky's dry food; he loves that! He oddly refuses to eat anything not canned that's people-food; he won't eveneat steak, chicken, etc.. the only thing I caught him at once, was lapping up chicken broth from a bowl of soup I had; he stopped and bolted under the bed when I saw this. Someone taught him well in a former home, I guess..

I fed Nicky kitty Royal Canin Mature...he seems to like it. He's going to be 13 years old soon....his favorite activities include sleeping, sleeping and sleeping, all preferably on or near mommy. =)

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Originally Posted by cassandra

I fed Nicky kitty

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Cute name! We always call our guy "Inky Kitty." :D

I feed nutro natural choice indoor cat food. I feed dry all the time and use the pouches of wet cat food for the occasional treat.

Abady & Wysong.

K~

My kitten was eating Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lovers Soul but that just gave her the liquid STINKING runs (how she got her nick name *Stinks*) and after a 2 months and many vet trips I switched her food and she has been fine ever since. Also that stuff is way to expensive and she didn't seem to really care for it!

I switched her over to Science Diet and she gobbles that right on up. Also we feed her boiled chicken here and there too.

Well I decided on Nutro Indoor Kitten Natural Choice for now.
With Shilohs adoption I did get a coupon for a free 4lb bag of premium food so if this doesn't sit well with them I'll use that to sample something else.

Well, if that doesn't work out for you... I've been feeding both my girls IAMS since they were kittens. They're 2 and 3 yrs old now. Zero hair balls, only 1-2 BMs a day, and they're both healthy & sassy! :P