Best Dry Food Brand?

[teen(cat)mom]

Peter Parker has had issues with his urinary tract since he was 2 months old (he'll be 1 this month). The doctor finally had me switch him to Hills Prescription Diet Urinary Care from Purina Indoor but it made him really sick after a few weeks so they wanted to try Royal Canin SO instead. Before I made the new switch I did a ton of research and saw Royal Canin is basically just crap so I only put him on RC for wet food and went with Blue Buffalo Wellness Indoor Dry. He's been doing great but now I'm seeing a ton of complaints for BB. I did a bunch more research contemplating if I should switch dry food again and came down to Evo and Wellness Core. I know Orijen was reviewed very well too but it contains a lot of fish. I also heard good things about Taste of the Wild. With all the research I've done I still feel like I've hit a brick wall! Does anyone have suggestions or experiences with any of these? Also any suggestions if Wellness is a good wet food? I have my other cat on that one. Thanks!

 

[Ceracera]

I dont have a cat with uti but i feed wellness core kitten dry (mixed with merrick) and core pate wet, and its going good so far. The kittens' coats are a lot softer than when they were at the breeder.

But they dont seem to be picky eaters. So far every pate flavour ive tried has been a hit.

Though once i did have wellness, nutro and merrick dry on the same plate and they gobbled up the merrick portion first. That works for me cause merrick is the cheapest high-protein food where i live. Wellness is the most expensive.

I also have fancy feast wet in my rotation. But they get soft poops with that one, which never happens with wellness.

Ive heard good things about instinct and bought a bag of instinct original. I plan to open that up next month. Instinct by Nature's Variety Original Grain-Free Recipe with Real Chicken Dry Cat Food

Ive look at orijen, but it seems to be really high in fat?

 

[WhiteWolf]

As for dry food, EVO is really good and my cats liked it. Wellness Core is also good but none of my three cats would touch it. I do consider Orijen and Nature's Variety Instinct to be high quality dry foods as well. I don't trust Taste of the Wild dry foods for the same reason I don't trust Blue Buffalo, quality control issues.

My four year old cat had a bacterial infection and struvite crystals a couple months ago so all of the cats are now on wet food only which I would highly suggest you consider as well. I feed mostly Wellness Core now and rotate through a few other brands too. I would feed EVO cans but one of my cats can't have beef liver.

 

[Harborlily]

I'm very happy with taste of the wild venison. I have 3 male cats (youngest is 4 mo and the eldest is 15y) and they all do really well on it. I free feed a 1/2c daily and they have friskies pate or fancy feast classic twice a day (about an oz each) or instinct raw. I need to keep cost down and health up and this has worked.

I did a ton of research and tried quite a few before settling. My cat hated wellness and earthborn and evo

 

[thehistorian]

Honestly, the best thing for all cats, especially cats with any kind of urinary tract issues, is a strict wet food diet.

 

[SinisterKisses]

Yes, I have to back up what thehistorian has said. I have a one year old male with serious urinary issues, and I have been doing a TON of research on both urinary issues and dietary requirements because of it. We've just switched all our "kids" over to a raw diet as a result (after feeding kibble previously), but even if you're not comfortable with that I'd recommend putting your kitty on a canned food diet. Kibble will likely do him more harm than good, regardless of what you switch to.

 

[Frank Muller]

WHISKAS belongs to packaged food, ensuring food safety for your cat. WHISKAS is manufactured in a modern technological line with two types of dry food and wet food, packed in a variety of sizes to suit all your needs. Depending on your cat's taste, you can choose a dry or wet WHISKAS product or both.

 

[teen(cat)mom]

Thanks for all the suggestions! As for a wet food diet, I would love to completely switch him but he's a bit too picky. I already feed him a very small amount of dry food during the day compared to wet but he's always been weird when it comes to eating canned food. He has no problems with dry but with wet he chews it almost as if it were a gummy candy and he hates it but is making himself eat it, no matter what brand I've tried. This makes him not really want it so I have to add a ton of extra water as he eats and even then he still leaves half and won't bother with it unless I actually feed him with a spoon! I've mentioned the awkward chewing to the vet but she didn't seem like it really mattered. It's hard to switch him completely when he won't really eat it on his own. I guess I'll have to discuss it with our vet some more because they also still want him on the Royal Canin SO

 

[teen(cat)mom]

Yes, I have to back up what thehistorian has said. I have a one year old male with serious urinary issues, and I have been doing a TON of research on both urinary issues and dietary requirements because of it. We've just switched all our "kids" over to a raw diet as a result (after feeding kibble previously), but even if you're not comfortable with that I'd recommend putting your kitty on a canned food diet. Kibble will likely do him more harm than good, regardless of what you switch to.

I would definitely consider even switching over to a raw diet. Do you have any suggestions? I haven't done much research with that yet but I have heard about it so I'll have to look some more. I'd love to switch both of my boys over since it's a healthier and more natural way to go but I know my girl would never even think about looking at it let alone actually eat it

 

[himawari]

Like others have suggested, an all wet diet for both your cats would be the best solution since you'd also like to prevent your other cat from developing any problems. Orijen Regional Red only has I think two fish ingredients. There's also Feline Natural and Ziwi Peak which I believe is better than Orijen. Those three are the only dry foods I'm comfortable with due to ingredients and manufactoring. Maybe try raw as well? Or at least incorporate a bit of raw into their diet if you can't do an entire raw diet?

 

[SinisterKisses]

I would definitely consider even switching over to a raw diet. Do you have any suggestions? I haven't done much research with that yet but I have heard about it so I'll have to look some more. I'd love to switch both of my boys over since it's a healthier and more natural way to go but I know my girl would never even think about looking at it let alone actually eat it

Well we're VERY new to it as well! We've been feeding our three cats and three Chihuahuas raw for exactly one week now! Lol. I've received a lot of help from the members here in the raw food section, there's some really good information there. I did a lot of reading up on it online for about a week before we made the switch. There's a few different routes you can go. There's commercially made complete meals, which contain all the meat, organs, bone, vitamins, minerals etc. that a cat needs. These will come in two types - frozen raw, or freeze dried raw. We've gone the frozen route, but everything I've read says that freeze dried is just as good as frozen as long as you rehydrate it (some people will feed it as is, but for cats it's all about the moisture so rehydrating is important). These are brands like Stella & Chewys or Nature Valley Instincts. There's also commercially prepared "slurry" (I believe is the term!) which is basically buying chubs or blocks of ground meat, bone, and organ but that are NOT complete as-is, and you need to add supplements to get the minerals and vitamins a cat requires. And the third option would be to completely prepare your own meals from scratch - meat, organs, bone, supplements yourself. There's quite a lot of cat food "recipes" online for that option, but I haven't gotten into that yet. Because we're so new, we've started with commercially prepared complete meals to play it safe, but later on as we get more comfortable with it we may look at making our own. So far, our two youngest cats (one year old each) have totally taken to it which is GREAT, because one of them is our urinary problem boy. Our third cat is a senior, 12 years old who has never eaten raw before, and he didn't take to it "cold turkey" like the kittens. So for him, we're feeding canned food with about a tablespoon of raw mixed in to help him adjust to it.

 

[Oscar&Copper]

We do a combo wet food twice a day and free feed measured dry. Best dry I've found so far is the Taste of the Wild Venison. Every other food has given my one boy diarrhea. He came to us on Performatrin Kitten, we had free coupons for Hills Veterinary Kitten Formula, went through 2 bags of that, still no change. They loove Taste of the Wild and it's been good for their digestion. They do however have the stinkiest farts!! lol

 

[Ardina]

If you're considering raw, definitely make a thread over in the raw feeding forum. There are lots of knowledgeable, friendly members there who can help you out.

 

[thehistorian]

Thanks for all the suggestions! As for a wet food diet, I would love to completely switch him but he's a bit too picky. I already feed him a very small amount of dry food during the day compared to wet but he's always been weird when it comes to eating canned food. He has no problems with dry but with wet he chews it almost as if it were a gummy candy and he hates it but is making himself eat it, no matter what brand I've tried. This makes him not really want it so I have to add a ton of extra water as he eats and even then he still leaves half and won't bother with it unless I actually feed him with a spoon! I've mentioned the awkward chewing to the vet but she didn't seem like it really mattered. It's hard to switch him completely when he won't really eat it on his own. I guess I'll have to discuss it with our vet some more because they also still want him on the Royal Canin SO

Hmm, there could be several reasons for this. He sounds like a classic dry food addict and if that is the case there are some steps you can take to make him more enthusiastic about wet food. May I ask how you feed him? That is to say do you have scheduled feeding times?

I do. I feed my cats at 6AM, 12PM, and 6PM. The wait times between feedings make them voracious and they will happily eat just about anything. In particular, when I adopted my boy and girl three months ago, my boy was a pretty hardcore dry food addict but because of his weight and the potential for urinary tract issues, I placed them on mostly wet. At first he was really half-hearted about the wet food, but when I placed them on a strict schedule, he is quite hungry when I put the wet food down now that he happily eats it now.

So, I would suggest you try to get him settled into a schedule if you have not already. Then work wet food back into his schedule. Even if you never get him onto a 100% wet food diet, if you can get him onto a mostly wet food diet he will be so much better off.

Also, the brand of wet food can be a big issue, too. I know he has UTI issues, but I would consider giving a non-prescription wet food a try like Fancy Feast Classics and see how he takes to it. With cats, especially males, the most important thing is to get him eating a wet food - any wet food.

 

[_spadekitty]

I really like Acana dry food. Good price and good quality as well.

If you wanted to try a presciption diet you could try a Purina rx diet. I hear the ingridients for those are actually pretty decent, and since you were feeding purina indoor at one point I think you'd like them. I dont know the ingredients for their urinary diet or anything but I hear Purina rx diets are often a step up from royal canin/hills.

 

[lalagimp]

Sometimes the wet food issue is a texture thing. Some cats like pate, some shreds, some chunks. I tried to get Amalie to eat canned food (not very well) when she had a ton of dental work done, and she just wanted her kibble. So when she had struvite crystals I thought I would try her on commercial raw this time, and she wouldn't do it. Then I got Yue a dental cleaning and her gums were bloody so I put out canned food in a split dish in the girls' feeder. After a few days Amalie started eating it. She still eats kibble, but she's eating some wet food every day now. My only other option I thought I would try to get her to eat wet food was to do shreds like Tiki Cat because she loves cooked chicken when I'm sitting there eating fried chicken or chicken wings.

As for raw food: it varies from company to company and also depends on where you live. Rad Cat is usually at pet specialty stores and has a very simple formula. Nature's Variety is available in pet supermarkets, but contains fruits and veggies. Darwins has a really simple formula and is available online as a monthly sub. You can look up making it yourself from Catinfo.org or feline-nutrition.org and sourcing your meat. Then you can either make your slurry yourself or buy a pre-mix that you add to the meat so that the meal is complete in vitamins, iodine, calcium, and taurine.

I order rabbit from Hare-Today online. I get turkey thighs from the grocer. I mix my slurry. Then final product is portioned into ice cube trays.

 

[teen(cat)mom]

Like others have suggested, an all wet diet for both your cats would be the best solution since you'd also like to prevent your other cat from developing any problems. Orijen Regional Red only has I think two fish ingredients. There's also Feline Natural and Ziwi Peak which I believe is better than Orijen. Those three are the only dry foods I'm comfortable with due to ingredients and manufactoring. Maybe try raw as well? Or at least incorporate a bit of raw into their diet if you can't do an entire raw diet?

As of tomorrow I'm going to try and put them both on an all wet diet. Peter's still very picky and I don't think ready to make the switch cold turkey so I know I'm going to have to work on weaning him over. I haven't heard much of Feline Natural or Ziwi Peak so I'll definitely take a look at their wet foods. I'll also be trying to at least incorporate raw into their diet as well if not just switching them to that instead. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[teen(cat)mom]

Well we're VERY new to it as well! We've been feeding our three cats and three Chihuahuas raw for exactly one week now! Lol. I've received a lot of help from the members here in the raw food section, there's some really good information there. I did a lot of reading up on it online for about a week before we made the switch. There's a few different routes you can go. There's commercially made complete meals, which contain all the meat, organs, bone, vitamins, minerals etc. that a cat needs. These will come in two types - frozen raw, or freeze dried raw. We've gone the frozen route, but everything I've read says that freeze dried is just as good as frozen as long as you rehydrate it (some people will feed it as is, but for cats it's all about the moisture so rehydrating is important). These are brands like Stella & Chewys or Nature Valley Instincts. There's also commercially prepared "slurry" (I believe is the term!) which is basically buying chubs or blocks of ground meat, bone, and organ but that are NOT complete as-is, and you need to add supplements to get the minerals and vitamins a cat requires. And the third option would be to completely prepare your own meals from scratch - meat, organs, bone, supplements yourself. There's quite a lot of cat food "recipes" online for that option, but I haven't gotten into that yet. Because we're so new, we've started with commercially prepared complete meals to play it safe, but later on as we get more comfortable with it we may look at making our own. So far, our two youngest cats (one year old each) have totally taken to it which is GREAT, because one of them is our urinary problem boy. Our third cat is a senior, 12 years old who has never eaten raw before, and he didn't take to it "cold turkey" like the kittens. So for him, we're feeding canned food with about a tablespoon of raw mixed in to help him adjust to it.

Thank you so much! I'm going to check out some info on the raw diets in the raw food section as well as doing more researching with other websites. You were also already very helpful and informative I'll take a look around at some brands, since I'm sure I'll also start out with commercially prepared meals, and I'll keep your suggestions in mind. My youngest will be 1 next week so hopefully he'll take to it with no problem but I know he is pickier. My other boy is 3 and will eat just about anything I offer him so I know he'll be no issue! My 4 year old however is a big scaredy cat. She came in as a feral and alao gets bullied by our oldest male so she's afraid of everything and basically lives in my room. She's refused everything I've ever tried to offer her but her usual dry food. Hopefully both picky eaters will make things easy on me and just take to the raw diet! Thanks again for the help!

 

[teen(cat)mom]

Hmm, there could be several reasons for this. He sounds like a classic dry food addict and if that is the case there are some steps you can take to make him more enthusiastic about wet food. May I ask how you feed him? That is to say do you have scheduled feeding times?

I do. I feed my cats at 6AM, 12PM, and 6PM. The wait times between feedings make them voracious and they will happily eat just about anything. In particular, when I adopted my boy and girl three months ago, my boy was a pretty hardcore dry food addict but because of his weight and the potential for urinary tract issues, I placed them on mostly wet. At first he was really half-hearted about the wet food, but when I placed them on a strict schedule, he is quite hungry when I put the wet food down now that he happily eats it now.

So, I would suggest you try to get him settled into a schedule if you have not already. Then work wet food back into his schedule. Even if you never get him onto a 100% wet food diet, if you can get him onto a mostly wet food diet he will be so much better off.

Also, the brand of wet food can be a big issue, too. I know he has UTI issues, but I would consider giving a non-prescription wet food a try like Fancy Feast Classics and see how he takes to it. With cats, especially males, the most important thing is to get him eating a wet food - any wet food.

Yes I do have them on a feeding schedule. They eat twice a day and even after such a waiting period, he refuses to finish his wet food unless I feed him. Even when I feed him he seems like he doesn't want it and is only eating it because I'm putting it in his face. He's never been a big eater so I'm wondering if he's actually full or just doesn't care for the food but he's a pretty big guy so I don't want him eating too little. I tried a different brand with him tonight and he disliked that even more than the RC. I'm going to try some other flavors/brands as well as incorporating raw in his diet to see if I can find what he prefers. Thank you!

 

[teen(cat)mom]

I really like Acana dry food. Good price and good quality as well.

If you wanted to try a presciption diet you could try a Purina rx diet. I hear the ingridients for those are actually pretty decent, and since you were feeding purina indoor at one point I think you'd like them. I dont know the ingredients for their urinary diet or anything but I hear Purina rx diets are often a step up from royal canin/hills.

I'll look more into both of those brands, thanks! I've seen quite a bit about Purina when I was researching on the prescription and urinary foods but haven't actually looked much at it yet. After what I've read and seen from the royal canin/hills ingredients I'm definitely sure it's a step up!