Your thoughts on cat food

[tweets_4611]

My mom brought one of the kittens she had to me at school over the summer. She also brought me some kitten food. Then my aunt gave me some canned food for the kitten.

So I had 9 Lives "The Growing Years" dry food, and I think it was Fancy Feast canned food. I would like to switch my kitten to something a bit better, or at least have a better planned out diet for him. I'm out of the canned food for now...I just gave him a can once in a while or mixed some in with his dry food.

Also, I am picking up another kitten this week (the new guy will be about 9 or 10 weeks old). I have seen some food for 'multiple cat homes' but I can't see how having more than one cat should be any reason to change foods. Litter I can understand, but is there any noticeable advantage to getting a multiple cat food?

I guess I'm just looking for what you guys all think about what a good brand/type of cat/kitten food is. I have been doing some research, but I would like some personal experiences as well. ^_^

[Bettacreek]

I personally like the Castor and Pollux Adult Ultramix dry and Avoderm canned, but I haven't done much research on the kitten foods. There may be better canned foods than Avoderm, but I haven't checked it out too much, I just switched from a Nutro Natural Choice formula because they changed their formula.

[jglass38]

I used Royal Canin for a while and they liked it. I switched to Wellness for the cats and the dog and have been thrilled. The cats aren't throwing up all the time like they used to. The dog is healthy as a horse (or dog). I like the list of ingredients in Wellness.

[elevatethis]

I switched mine over to Spa Select (available at some petsmarts), it claims to use human grade ingredients and no corn-based fillers.

I noticed a pretty dramatic change in her activity level, as well as a much more full coat. She doesn't vomit as often, either.

I think that Purina and Nine Lives and all the grocery store brands use a lot of fillers and processed crap that are not good for your animals. The natural brands cost 2x as much, but are worth it IMO.

[tweets_4611]

Thanks for the input so far! ^_^ I know I don't want to stick with the 9 Lives stuff, but I don't want to just switch to something else without knowing a bit more about it....and I still have a good several days before I run out of food

In comparing foods, I found the Natura Evo has canned food that is "95% beef" or "95% chicken and turkey/ duck/ venison" (which ever of those three). Has anyone messed with these highly concentrated foods? I don't really see a down side to them, but it almost seems like they would be missing something in the diet if they are just trying to get as much meat in the can as possible...

[Michelle.C]

Some of the best cat foods are Innova, Felidae, Wellness, Premium Edge and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. However, our cats hated, and I do mean HATED Innova and Felidae. Often, they wouldn't eat at all, if it meant eating either of those brands.

They really seem to like the Chicken Soup, it's one of the better cat food (nutrition wise) and it seems like they really like the way it tastes.

[Bettacreek]

Cats are obligate carnivores. Meaning that whatever their WHOLE meat diet (including guts, bones, etc) doesn't give them, they can produce with what it does give them. Whole chicken would be fine with other ingredients (cats don't eat one sole prey item in the wild). Carbs are worthless to cats, so rice and such in a cat diet are simply fillers.

[tigerlily]

I just switched over to Evo and LOVE it! My cat has way more energy, even at 11 years old, and is throwing up much less if at all. None of the hairball control formulas worked nearly as well. She also eats much less of it as well. I couldn't be happier.

[icygirl]

Do you guys know when wet food VS. dry food is appropriate? When I was a kid my parents fed a mixture of wet and dry, but then one of my cats used to just pick out the wet food and leave the rest. Thoughts on that?

[catawhat75]

I feed Evo- cats love it! My oldest, who always had a sensitive stomach, is now throwing up about once a month, when it used to be closer to every few days. I would love to switch to raw but it is just not possible so Evo is the best I can buy. It is expensive, but you feed less (and they poop less!).
As for feeding wet, I used to only give it as a rare treat but mature/senior cats need more moisture so they get a can once a day between the three of them now.
Other than Evo, Wellness is a great food. You can go to www.dogfoodanalysis.com and see how different foods are ranked. Usually the highest dog food brands are the best cat foods as well.