Adopting My First Cat...pls Help Me Out Planning Her Diet!

niika

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Hi guys. I'm getting a rescue cat next week, she's an adult, a little underweight. I've owned a dog and I fed him a raw/homecooked diet due to his stomach issues- proper nutrition is something I'm really passionate about so I want to make sure I choose a good diet for her. The shelter said she's been refusing to eat dry food so they feed her wet, and after the research I've done I would choose to feed primarily wet anyways.

I've been lurking through forum posts on here and elsewhere on the interwebs and here are the brands I've seen mentioned and am considering:

-Nature's Variety Instinct
-Weruva/Cats in the Kitchen
-Hills
-Wellness
-Fromms
(I'd appreciate flavour suggestions as well, all these brands have several different options and idk if some are better than the others).

There were a couple other brands I've seen mentioned but these are the ones I can easily find in-stores in Canada. I don't really want to buy online. I was also considering feeding half dry food/half wet, or feeding primarily wet and leaving some dry food out, but I dunno if she would even eat the dry food. Dry food suggestions to mix in are welcome though!

Finally, is there anything else I should supplement in (particularily if I end up feeding solely wet food)? Some type of biscuits or something? Occasional meat or fish? Dental health is also something I'm concerned about...does anyone give bones (raw obviously to avoid splintering)? And what's the general opinion of those dental additives to water?
 
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cryptic

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Hill's is actually terrible food. "Vet recommended" but is really no better than your average tier food like IAMS or Purina.
Wellness Core... my cats hated it, but all cats are different. Would totally recommend Fromm, they make great stuff.

I feed my cats Royal Canin. One is Spayed Kitten formula, the other Savor Sensitive Adult. [not the best quality dry for how much it costs] but they're picky girls and won't eat much else. I also give them Blue Buffalo canned twice a day, one tablespoon each. As far as supplementing meals with other goodies, totally up to you. I give my cats an assortment of goodies, sometimes a bit of tuna, to store-bought treats, to fruit or dental aids. It depends on the kitty. I tried a raw diet and that totally backfired - they thought it was super when first getting eased into it, but after a few weeks wouldn't touch it anymore.
 
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niika

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I see, scratching Hills off the list then! I've done a bit more forum lurking and it seems like a lot of people are trying to eliminate dry food from their cat's diet altogether so I think I'll reconsider the half dry/half wet idea. The main reason I was thinking about it was to keep the price down but I think I'll be able to manage 100% wet food.

I'm thinking of starting off with Nature's Variety Instinct and later on rotating it with Weruva and maybe Fromm. A 5.5 oz can of Instinct Rabbit has 162 cals, and going off the 20cals/pound rule, she seems to be around 8 pounds so 1 can split into 2 servings each day should be good yeah? I'll ask about her weight for sure when I get her tho. I'll also supplement it with some freeze dried treats.

Can anyone recommend a specific line/formula from Nature's Variety? They have Instinct, Pride, and Limited ingredient cans. I also see a lot of people avoid fish, so I'm assuming their tuna and salmon formulas aren't the best choice. In terms of beef, chicken, lamb, duck, rabbit- are any of these particularily better/worse or does it not really matter?
 

cryptic

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Honestly flavor depends on the cat, usually. I may try a home-cooked recipe too, but my older one especially is so picky that I don't think she'd eat it. The kitten eats everything though. I'm not too familiar with Nature's Variety but just try what works! Sometimes it's a total experiment until you find something that works. That's what happened with Jinx (my one and a half year old) She refused/picked around most kibble until Royal Canin.
Best of luck :)
 

Neo_23

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Nature’s variety is a good brand. Their classic line is the best. Pride has more carbs and more veggie fillers but it’s not horrible if you want to give your cat different textures.

I would suggest feeding a couple of different brands at least. I think it helps with balancing your cat’s diet so they’re getting a variety of nutrients.

I feed Instinct Rabbit, Rawz chicken and turkey, and Nutro chunky chicken loaf (and kitten pate because mine is a little one). I chose these brands because they have the least gums/fillers and are decent with the protein-fat-carb ratio. Also none of the flavours I feeding have carrageenan.

I have fed Weruva cats in the kitchen in the past but it gave my kitten diarrhea and I don’t like that it has lots of gums. I have also fed Wellness, it is decent but my kitten wasn’t a huge fan. It also has too many veggie and fruit fillers.

Hills and Royal Canin are the two brands vets love to recommend but in my opinion they are both terrible. I would feed fancy feast classics before I would feed hills or Royal Canin. Speaking of which if you’re on a budget fancy feast classics, especially the turkey and giblets one is pretty decent food for the price.

I don’t have experience with Fromm but I hear it’s a good brand. It’s too pricy for me though.

If feeding dry food I would go with Orijen/Acana since you’re in Canada. I don’t feed any dry but I do give orijen treats.
 

Elena2915

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Hills is garbage any “Vet” food is
Avoid wellness it’s made by diamond
Diamond company has a bad reputation

Natures Variety is a good food but way over priced for what it is

Fromm is a good company but they put to many fruits and veggies into the food for my liking.

My suggestions-
KOHA
Wysong Epigen
Tiki Cat
Earthborn
The Honest Kitchen
EVO
 

Neo_23

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Oh and for dental hygiene I brush my kitten’s teeth at least once a week with chicken flavoured toothpaste (your vet should carry some). I don’t think the dental treats really work that much.. at least there is not a lot of evidence to show that they do.
 
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niika

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Hills is garbage any “Vet” food is
Avoid wellness it’s made by diamond
Diamond company has a bad reputation

Natures Variety is a good food but way over priced for what it is

Fromm is a good company but they put to many fruits and veggies into the food for my liking.

My suggestions-
KOHA
Wysong Epigen
Tiki Cat
Earthborn
The Honest Kitchen
EVO
Thank you for the suggestions, I like KOHA and Earthborn as they're both cheaper than Instinct and seem to be available in Canada. I also got recommended First Mate which is a Canadian brand, in stock like 5 minutes away from me, and also cheaper, so I might end up going with that one first instead of Instinct.

I have a question about rotating foods. I'll transition the cat over from whatever she's eating at the shelter to the new food, but how long should I wait before rotating? Do you guys like to do a different food every month or every week or?
 

Elfilou

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Congrats and great for you & your new family member that you are adopting! AND thinking about what the best diet is for her already!? What more could she ask for?

As you can see opinions vary greatly and what you feed really depends on your personal preferences, your budget, and most important of all - what your cat will eat. I do think a lot of people who feed raw also give their cats bones occasionally? I'm not sure - but I am pretty sure someone more knowledgeable about nutrition will fill you in on that. I couldn't imagine Elf chewing down on raw bone, but a cat with a crazy appetite or one that loves raw food, sure.

Anyway, to pick a food in general I recommend looking at the ingredients rather than brands and to do research as to what are good ingredients for cats and what aren't.

Good luck!
 

Summercats

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I have a new kitty from a shelter, that I have been trying food with. He seems to prefer non pates unless with lots of jelly. I tried a few brands with no adverse effects. The food in the shelter in terms of wet food was whatever was donated usually Whiskers or Felix. I am trying healthier brands but that are to his taste. I am in Europe so will not recommend brands as you will have different ones in Canada.
He is an adult which is easier to mix foods up a bit with than kittens I believe. I have three brands now in the cupboard that I alternate, usually by the day. He does fine and has no toilet issues.
I figure there is no perfect cat canned/packet food, so the mixing up alternates the negatives as well as positives of each brand.
 

crowen

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Eastern Canada or Western? The availability tends to be different.

For dry in Canada I also highly recommend orijen. Acana is a slightly lower price range that many like too. It's by a Canadian company in Alberta called Champion Petfoods. Orijen is some of the best dry kibble in the world imo (probably not America, they had to change the recipe there for some reason). They have freeze dried dog lines so hopefully they branch out the cat food to freeze dried soon as well.

For current freeze dried options I'd recommend feline natural. The availability of this in Canada depends where you are. It's by New Zealand company K9.

For cans it really depends on where you are, again, too. Feline Natural also has a great canned line but it's much easier to order online in Canada from homesalive.ca. Is there any reason for the aversion to order online? If you change your mind it would make it easy to try multiple foods or order in bulk with reduced shipping and I'd recommend that previous site highly for Canadian orders. KOHA should be similar in quality to feline natural as it's also from new Zealand and direct competition.
I also like Tiki Cat for cans, albeit don't have experience with their new stuff, and Almo for cans, but it's supplemental feeding only.

If it's of any interest Canada is also very good for commercial raw as coast to coast there are local producers. Ie I'm in western Canada and have access to Rockies producers in store like carnivora (saskatchewan) and nature's premium (alberta elk farm). I only mention this because its cheaper than cans on average as a result.
 

Neo_23

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I would ask what they’re feeding at the shelter and start with a small bag/can of that and then slowly add in a new can once your cat is settled into your home. You have to transition kibble very slowly (at least 7 days) but wet food I think can be transitioned faster. I usually do it over 2-3 days. I give my cat a little at first to make sure he doesn’t have any adverse reactions and then fully move him over. Once you’ve transitioned him to a few different varieties of can you can rotate them daily if you want. I serve different brands and flavours in the same day. It will really depend on your cat too and their level of sensitivity to food.

I also agree that you should look at ingredients and protein-fat-carb ratio when selecting food. A lot of the very high end cans actually have not so good ingredients. Catinfo.org has great information about nutrition and a handy chart that lists the calorie ratios for popular wet food brands.
 

Elena2915

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Orijen is the holy grail of dry of and cat food.

However they only make a dry food for Cats. The company doesn’t make any wet food, however does make freeze dried dog food which when rehydrated turns into a wet food type slurry.
But they don’t make that for Cats.


Primal is another good brand
 

Neo_23

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My only problem with orijen is that all of their products have fish. I wish they would have non-fish wet and freeze dried food.
 

_spadekitty

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I love Wellness! And so does my cat! He only eats the Beef and Salmon flavor, but thats because he had a poultry allergy and Beef and Salmon is the only formula with no poultry. He loves it, he eats mostly that and Lotus, but Lotus is a brand made right here in California so it's probably no available in Canada.
Wellness recently want caranegeen free, so that's a big plus.
Cost wise, I spend about $40-50 a month on wet cat food; he eats no dry. Not sure what you'll be spending in Canada but just a general idea. He only weighs eight pounds so he doesn't need too much food, he gets either a whole 5.5 oz can or half of a 12 oz, depending on calories/what I bought that month.

I think Fromm is a good option, just a little high in carbs. My cat also likes Weruva and I think its a good brand, they just have a lot of fish flavors so be careful of that. Too much fish can lead to problems later with your cat getting too much mercury.

And Nature's Variety is a great option! Very high quality food, just a little pricey. My cat likes the Beef flavor. They have some novelty flavors like rabbit and such that I'd stay away from-it's good to save things like that in the event that your cat develops an allergy and needs some less common proteins.
 

ailish

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Of what's on your list, I feed my cat Fromms and Instinct. I have given her Weruva which she likes. I think Weruva is pretty low in calories and Instinct is high, so watch the amounts. The first time I gave her Wellness was the first time she ever threw up, so I don't use that, but that's not exactly a scientific decision. I like varying the food a lot, so if I were you I'd pick any and everything you think is healthy that she likes. Just beware, cats change their likes quite suddenly!
 

KalicoKitten

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I also see a lot of people avoid fish, so I'm assuming their tuna and salmon formulas aren't the best choice. In terms of beef, chicken, lamb, duck, rabbit- are any of these particularily better/worse or does it not really matter?
I like to feed poultry and rabbit. Mostly just basing on what a cat could actually catch haha. Beef and Lamb are there for cats who have allergies to poultry or rabbit, but I don't quite believe their digestive systems are built for red meats. Rabbit is a bit more expensive so I only buy it every once in a while, Duck is a bit higher in fat, but I don't think that's a problem if you feed from a cycle of different flavors (remembering to slowly transition). I do wonder why you didn't list Turkey as an ingredient though. I'm guessing it's because dry foods usually don't have turkey as a flavor, although wet foods do and my cats seem to like it just fine. Thanks for rescuing and have fun with your new furry friend :thumbsup: Welcome to the TheCatSite family!
 

LTS3

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This may be helpful about Canadian brands of food:

Modestly Priced Canned Cat Food In Canada
What's The Best Wet Cat Food Brand For A Fussy Eater
Canadian cat food


Can anyone recommend a specific line/formula from Nature's Variety? They have Instinct, Pride, and Limited ingredient cans. I also see a lot of people avoid fish, so I'm assuming their tuna and salmon formulas aren't the best choice. In terms of beef, chicken, lamb, duck, rabbit- are any of these particularily better/worse or does it not really matter?
Seafood is ok once in awhile :agree: Just feed mainly meat and rotate in some seafood every once in awhile.

The NV Instinct Originals line is a good one to start with. It's pate / loaf style. The LID line is mainly for cats with food allergies / sensitivites but a healthy non-allergic / sensitive cat can eat the food :agree:. LID foods just have a single protein source. Example the LID rabbit only contains rabbit while the Originals rabbit also includes pork liver. Pride is textured food (flaked and minced) in a little gravy.

You can sign up on the NV web site to get coupons by email. There's usually a coupon every few months or so.

It's fine to switch up different textures of food. Some cats like the variety. Other cats prefer only pate and others only textured in gravy / sauce.

Koha is pretty expensive, around $2 US a can. It's probably a little more than that in Canada.
 

KittyKat184

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I am also a new cat owner, to be precious, kitten owner lol
I feed him Instinct by Nature's Variety Grain-Free Chicken Formula Canned Cat Food and Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Chicken Formula Grain-Free Dry Cat Food.
He is 4.5 months. I feed him a 5.5 can and 1 tbsp dry per day, approximate 300 calories and he is doing great :biggrin:
 

lalagimp

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I am also a new cat owner, to be precious, kitten owner lol
I feed him Instinct by Nature's Variety Grain-Free Chicken Formula Canned Cat Food and Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Chicken Formula Grain-Free Dry Cat Food.
He is 4.5 months. I feed him a 5.5 can and 1 tbsp dry per day, approximate 300 calories and he is doing great :biggrin:
We do this with the girls. They get Dr Elsey's cleanprotein chicken kibble along with 1 5.5 oz can of Nature's Variety Instinct chicken per day. They have also eaten the duck formula in the past. These two options give a great bang for your buck because they are so calorically dense with a high percentage of actual animal protein. 1 cup of the cleanprotein is over 500 calories and the NV is 200 calories per can.
They eat whatever they need for the day and maintain their weight just fine. Don't buy the cans per can at the store, go online and buy the case. It's about $25, but is as low as $23 with autoship. I actually discount my own cans depending on how many paid surveys I have taken with other companies or points I've banked to cash out on a rewards program. MyPoints just let me cash out $15 to Amazon so I used that on a case of cat food. Baker St Solutions sends me $5 for amazon every survey I qualify for, and complete for them.
If you ever find a defective can let Nature's Variety know and they will replace it. We had a swollen can this month that exploded when bf opened it and was soupy. I called a number, got a human, and gave them the info from the can - I'll be seeing something in the mail.
Also, if you order something from Chewy.com that doesn't work out, reach out to their humans - they will usually issue a replacement or a refund.
 
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