Food Recommendations?

I've always gotten 9 Lives, as my cats really seem to enjoy it and it comes in really big bags (which is great for a 6 cat home). But I found out my one boy tested FIV + and may have some other positives after I get some tests done.. So I'd like to try and change it up and feed them a really good balanced food?
I'm honestly pretty new to cat nutrition when it comes to food and would like to start rotating out multiple brands for them to have a variety. So does anyone have any recommendations?

I also need something specifically to help my FIV boy gain weight, he's pretty thin. I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid now that I know he has FIV or if it's been a gradual change over the last few months. But I'd like something specifically good for him for weight gain and in general health.

Don't need weight gain for all my other kitties though, my one boy is more or less obese, so.. he doesn't need anymore weight gain. lol

So any recommendations would be greatly appreciated so I know where to look or start from when I head to the store later. Not interested in raw food diets though, just wet an ddry cat food options. Nothing overly pricey too hopefully, as my cats go through food like crazy and I have a Daycare Worker's income so- it's not a good combination.

One of the newer dry foods i have seen around local pet stores, and in Tractor supply looks pretty good, my mom is feeding it to hers, and they seem to be doing quite well is the Prey from Taste of the wild.

Turkey Limited Ingredient Formula for Cats - Taste of the Wild Pet Food

i can get pretty big bags of it for her from petsense or tractor supply. It will cost more than 9lives, but they will not eat as much either as it is a better quality. Taste of the wild has two other older formulas as well that you guys may like. a lot of cats do

Fancy Feast and friskies is good wet food to start with cats. its budget friendly, and most cats like it quite a bit. Try to stay away from the fish flavors, feed more other proteins.

I always try to go for the highest protein, moderate fat, low carb foods i can find. I think this helps fat cats slim down, and those that need to gain weight give an extra bit of wet too?

I do use the cat food data base to read up on foods available in my area, and in my budget. I dont think she has the new taste of the wild food on there yet, she does have the older ones, they are still good foods too.

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Within this thread is a discussion about calories, which should be helpful for two of your cats...one for weight loss and one for weight gain . Same thread also has some references to other threads about foods, both wet and dry. Win-win: Why Is My Miss Priss So Fat

Now, what I don't believe is in those threads is anything about adding egg yolks to add both nutrition an calories to your FIV boy's diet. IF you can get him to eat them, they are a very good source of both. raw or cooked, doesn't matter. Some people simply add them to their wet food, but since your cats aren't used to wet food, that might be problematic in the beginning. If you COOK it, you can give him the entire egg, even scramble it in a little unsalted butter to see if that will get his attention (who doesn't like butter?), and the egg white is full of protein, but not many calories.

To add to the advice about raw egg yolk, I get it as completely separated from the white as I possibly can, then let it break and put a little bit on a dish, every couple days or so. He likes it (not sure if some people will remember a tv commercial, but "Hey Mikey!" LOL).

I didn't get to go to any actual pet stores this afternoon, but I did pick up a few small bags of different dry food for them and some wet food. I got Purina's Friskies (Tender and Crunchy Combo) and Rachel Ray Nutrish (Indoor) dry foods. They didn't have much of anything else other then 9Lives, Meow-Mix or any really generic or cheaper foods at Walmart. Then I got some cans of Friskie's and Fancy feast wet foods, mainly the pate and two with the little meaty bits in it. They really ate up a can of that and I put some separate for my FIV boy in a quiet place for him to eat alone and he gobbled up about half of a can.

Hoping to get to Petsmart sometime soon to look at some more food options, maybe they'll have Taste of the Wild. Sadly I don't have any other pet stores near me locally.

I never knew about the egg yolks, so I'm excited to try it next time I feed my FIV boy, Sunny (Sunflower). I'm not sure if he'd be interested in the whole eggs scrambled though, so I'll definitely try the yolk next time.

Do you have a tractor supply near? they sell the taste of the wild. The friskies and fancy feast is good, its affordable for all the cats, and they will all benefit from wet. Heavy cats will often lose the weight without a lot of effort switching to a low carb wet food and very little dry.

I think so? I'd have to double check though on it. I've never really had the need for one before.

I've always fed my cats primarily dry food as that's jut typically what we did when I was growing up too. And I used wet food more as a treat or for helping with things like taking medicines and such. So I'm not sure how much I should be giving them per kitty? As I have 6 cats to take care of. Normally I've been feeding them in the morning and the evening, so twice a day with dry food. Should I do all wet food once a day for a meal for one of those instead? Or like as a middle meal during the day? I'm just not sure how I should divide it up ratio wise.

Also thanks to everyone for the links, they're super helpful.

Hi - I usually do a 2/3 wet to 1/3 dry, which would work out to two meals of wet and some kibble inbetween for you. I don't know if that's ok for you, so you could do one meal wet and one meal dry.
Regarding body condition, as long as you can feel a thin layer of fat over their ribs you're good.

I'm not too sure how much that is per cat though. ^^' Is it like half a can per cat or?

Oh, gosh, let me see if there's a conversion chart or something, from dry to wet...

Thank you so much. I'd hate to over feed or under feed. It's really hard to tell with six kitties sometimes what'd be alright lol.

This doesn't have a chart but it does have info that may help you;
Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food (canned, Raw, Or Homemade)

Here's another
Transitioning Free-fed Kibble Kitties To Timed Meals
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?
Feeding Cats In A Multi-cat Household: A Quick Guide

Thank you for the links!

You are very welcome! Let us know how things go

this may help with how much to feed. The foods you are using should show the calories on the label, so you can figure it up for each cat. Meals sound like the way for you to go, no free feeding. i would feed at least 2 per day, but 3 or 4 is better, just divide the calories up between how many meals you feed.
Feline Calorie Calculator - PetSci

Thanks for the help and that calculator is really helpful. I'll try to start getting them on set meals a day, probably like three. Instead of just letting them free feed and filling the bowls twice a day. Because I think free feeding may also be contributing to some stress like competing over the bowls or guarding throughout the day. So having a better set schedule with more bowls sounds a lot better.

Feeding each of them one meal of wet/canned food a day though is going to be a little rough budget wise, especially if I'm buying better quality dry foods for them to cycle around. Also heard it's not super great for dental health because of tartar built up if I feed them it too much? (Though I'm not sure)

And I'm really worried about my FIV cat's teeth and gum health, because I heard it's common for them to have mouth and dental issues.

But I'm going to try to feed them canned/wet cat food more then I have been. Maybe a little bit a day or a couple times a week as a full meal. Hopefully that'll be ok. Because It's solely me taking care of my cats and I don't make much weekly working in Daycare.

Grillby said:

Maybe a little bit a day or a couple times a week as a full meal.

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You're right, a little is better than none.

Copied from another thread from last spring titled budget friendly grain-free food;
My cat enjoys grain-free recipes from Purina Beyond, Purina Pro Plan True Nature, Iams Premium Pate, Whole Earth Farms, and Natural Value.
You might be able to switch back to wellness by buying the bigger 12.5 oz cans and feeding him half a can a day, stretching a case of 12 (about $30-40 online at places like chewey, jet, etc) to 24 days, thats what I do. I buy trader joes 5.5 oz cans (79 cents) and fancy feast small 3 oz cans (57 cents) as well to supplement that, along with some high quality brands if they're on sale (merrick, tiki cat, etc). Then I feed Acana dry food as snacks/occaisonally for lunch, its about $22 a bag where I am.

I don't know about the dental impact of wet food. There's a Vetri Science Perio Plus treat supplement - if you trust your vet you might run the ingredients by him/her and see if it might be of value.

Dry or wet, will not make a difference in the teeth. If you worry you may try learning to brush their teeth But dry will not help them and wet will not hurt.

I feed both wet and dry, wet is very good for cats, but cats can be healthy with either i think. When we feed dry we need to be extra vigilant about several good wide water bowls, clean them daily and fill with fresh cold water, filtered is best. a cat water fountain is good too. Feed the best you can, whether all wet, or a mix of wet and dry. You can buy the cases of frisky, the 5oz cans and split one can between two cats for a meal. Or if you shop your local stores you can often find sales, or the even larger cans that can make it more economical. Take your time, and as your budget allows start changing how, and what you feed. Slowly makes it less stressful for you, and them. you have already taken a great step by feeding some wet

I was actually thinking of brushing teeth, but he's so skittish. If I even try to mess with his mouth much he gets super fussy and hides. Good to know wet food wont mess up teeth though. I didn't see any larger cans though, but that does sounds a lot easier then buying a bunch of the small cans that are like .75 cents.

I'm always washing out the water bowls I have down for them, because they have a bad habit of getting stuff in them. lol So I'm always filling them up with fresh water a couple times a day. But thank you. I never really knew that anything was wrong with feeding solely dry food or that specific brand, because it's what I was grown up to seeing. So I'm really hoping to change it up now and make things better for my cats. It'll be small steps at first over time though, as I still need to pay to have them all actually tested for FIV now. But I hope it's definitely a step in the right direction for them.

Furballsmom said:

Purina Beyond, Purina Pro Plan True Nature, Iams Premium Pate, Whole Earth Farms, and Natural Value.

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I actually saw a couple of those brands I think, so I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for some of them next time. Thank you.