Wellness Canned Food Quality?

Hey! So I have 4 young kitties at home and we love them to death. I want to make sure they are eating high quality food with good ingredients and a good mix between affordable and nutritious. I don’t want to feed any dry food just because they are all male cats and this will help reduce the risk of kidney and urinary issues, etc. With all that being said I am hoping to find something available in larger cans that they will actually eat and not walk away from. Fancy Feast is a winner in our household but I’m finding that they will eat more premium brands too. I have tried Wellness Pate before and I am wondering if this is considered a high quality canned food? It certainly doesn’t seem like the best of the best but is it adequate for what I am looking for and possibly a step up from Fancy Feast? It also comes in 12.5 oz cans which is a huge plus for the portions I have to feed my 4 babies!

Wellness has multiple lines of food so my best suggestion would be to check the ingredients carefully to be sure you know what you're feeding -- as with other brands, even within the same product line, ingredients can differ significantly.

We feed two kinds of Wellness Core pate: the kitten food and the turkey/duck food. Other Wellness Core foods have higher carbs, some because of potato, though I'm not sure what puts the beef/venison/lamb over the carb line I've set -- I guess it must be the gums. I definitely don't like that the kitten food (and the beef/lamb/venison, too) has chicken meal -- IMHO, at Wellness's prices, the food should be all muscle meat -- but our cats like it. They also like the beef/venison/lamb food so I may it occasionally as a treat.

Based on the numbers on the catinfo.org food charts, it looks like the Complete Health foods are all fairly low in carbs, though I don't like feeding carrots. (We all have our cat food quirks!) Personally, I'd say that "best of the best" and "high quality" and "premium" are relative terms, depending on the cat(s), the person(s) feeding the cat(s), said person's budget, and numerous other factors. We feed our cats canned foods that range from Fancy Feast and Sheba (decent supermarket foods) to Feline Natural (pretty expensive food from independent pet food stores).

Their food list is based on what the cats will eat and what I refuse to feed them, a long list of ingredients including potatoes, carrots, peas and all other legumes, carrageenan, grains, and other odd things I sometimes find on labels. (I also don't like feeding a lot of synthetic vitamin K or nitrites -- I only feed Fancy Feast flavors without nitrites. (There are so many ingredients I'm just not sure of!)) Those strictures eliminate a lot of foods, including, for example, the rather expensive Ziwipeak lamb or free-range chicken, which both have chickpeas! (Chickpeas are about the last thing I'd feed a cat who has a history of gas. I mean, really!) The big thing for our cats is to feed high protein and low carbs with the simplest recipes possible since our cats have weird digestive systems. I wish there were more decent foods available at reasonable prices!

It's a good food, especially for the cost of the larger cans. I think it's kind of above average as far as quality.

This is a good resource!
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Okay and today my girlfriend and I went to PetSmart and also MadCat Pet Supply and looked at some average and premium pet food brands and compared costs. I’ve done extensive research on cat food ingredients and so I’m educated in my approach. We came home with some Blue Wilderness to try since they have liked that in the past and it comes in large cans. I also got some Wellness Pate (not Core). That seems to be hit and miss between the four babies but they also have not had it before so it could be a transition issue more than anything. I also bought a small bag of Primal Freeze Dried cat food in “Nugget” form. I’ve heard of these and figured I would try them out. Now I know these are a little more expensive. If I added adequate water to the primal nuggets and then fed the babies some Instinct or other high end dry food would this be a pretty good diet? I could also mix in some canned food occasionally throughout the week? Anyone have some input on that plan? I appreciate negative criticism so don’t be afraid to be honest!

We feed Wellness - core for dry and the big cans for wet. The girls will eat all seven flavors I'm able to buy, but some are definitely a bigger hit than others. Chicken & beef is always a big hit.

It's not the best food, but it keeps the girls happy and fed.

It's so hard to say what is best. I currently feed everything from Tractor Supply's Fancy Feast copycat to Tiki Cat After Dark. However my senior Kitty Jasmine could only eat Friskies canned food at the end! So if it works for your budget and works for your cats, then it is the best I think it sounds like you have a good gameplan though!

I tried to get my cats to try a new food and they liked Wellness for a few days, now will not eat it. They tolerate Friskies and Fancy Feast, all pate. And some flavors, usually going OFF the one I just bought a case of. I have read, that if you can get them to eat any canned food, it is better than dry any day. Feeding my four sure keeps me on my toes. I have one who is sensitive to some foods that are fine for the other 3. I would like to feed them all the same food at the same time, but sometimes it just does not work. When I finally get the routine all set, and have to go away for a few days, my cat sitter ignores my directions and the way I set the cans. Next time I will have to take pictures of exactly what I want, when and leave them for her. She does love them all, tho.... I have to take that into account and they do not look underfed when I get home. LOL

Richard2121 said:

I also bought a small bag of Primal Freeze Dried cat food in “Nugget” form. I’ve heard of these and figured I would try them out. Now I know these are a little more expensive. If I added adequate water to the primal nuggets and then fed the babies some Instinct or other high end dry food would this be a pretty good diet? I could also mix in some canned food occasionally throughout the week? Anyone have some input on that plan? I appreciate negative criticism so don’t be afraid to be honest!

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We feed our cats a lot of Primal freeze-dried and they love it. It's definitely not cheap but it's very good food and if the cats will eat it, that's half the battle. It can take some time for cats to get interested in freeze-dried but just ask if you need idea on that! Northwest Naturals makes excellent freeze-dried food, too. We feed a fair bit of that as well.

I'm a "the more wet food the better" person but freeze-dried is flexible in a good way because you can easily up the water to give your cat more fluids if/when you have to feed dry food for some reason.

mizzely 's suggestion of Tractor Supply's Fancy Feast knockoff is a good one: I wish our cats liked it better! (I suspect they don't like it as much as FF because the ingredients are a little better! I think they check receipts to see what's most expensive so they can like that best. Unless, of course, I bought a lot of it.)

lisahe said:

I'm a "the more wet food the better" person but freeze-dried is flexible in a good way because you can easily up the water to give your cat more fluids if/when you have to feed dry food for some reason.

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I feed Sylvie mostly canned food but keep Primal pork nuggets, which she loves, on hand. I appreciate their flexibility for a different reason: When she has had her standard portion of canned food and starts bugging me for more, I can mash up and rehydrate a Primal nugget and offer it to her as a snack. If she wants more, I can give her another nugget or half-nugget. I find it much more convenient than having to open another can or dig into her next portion of canned food and throw off the "one can total per day" routine.

ALL three of my kittens (they are from the same litter) have severe digestive issues so many of the foods that people feed I can't. I feed primal. I goto the specialty stores to buy primal frozen. The freeze dried cost too much. Normally the frozen bags are 3 pounds and cost 19.99. I can buy 3 bags of the frozen (12 pounds) vs 2 of the freeze dried. I feed a rotational diet because I'm hoping they'll mature a bit and grow out of this. However they might not. I have one male in the litter. Since I don't have 350 a month I do feed some dry (Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Chicken) as feeding only high quality wet and raw runs me about 260-280 a month. I'm looking into making my own food.

Also look into tiki cat its low in carbs and pretty good.

GalaxyGirl said:

ALL three of my kittens (they are from the same litter) have severe digestive issues so many of the foods that people feed I can't. I feed primal. I goto the specialty stores to buy primal frozen. The freeze dried cost too much. Normally the frozen bags are 3 pounds and cost 19.99. I can buy 3 bags of the frozen (12 pounds) vs 2 of the freeze dried. I feed a rotational diet because I'm hoping they'll mature a bit and grow out of this. However they might not. I have one male in the litter. Since I don't have 350 a month I do feed some dry (Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Chicken) as feeding only high quality wet and raw runs me about 260-280 a month. I'm looking into making my own food.

Also look into tiki cat its low in carbs and pretty good.

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I really feel for you. I have one special needs cat that needs to eat 100% raw or else he'll get diarrhea. The other 2 do well on high quality canned. But I am going to start making homemade cat food soon because of the high cost of commercial foods. I'm sure homemade raw would be a lot more affordable to feed your 3 special needs kitties.