Best Dry Food For Multi-cat Household

[squince]

Howdy -

First, if there's another thread this is supposed to go -- I'm so sorry! I'm not here often, so am not good at navigating though I did look to see if there was a general thread.

I have 5 cats, all rescues! They range from about 1 - about 5. Tuxedo, Buff, Calico, Tortie, two blind, 4 female, 1 male. So I've got a bit of everything!

They do split a couple cans of Fancy Feast twice a day, but every time I need to buy dry food, I find myself in a black hole of trying ot find the best kind out there for them.

So I used to have the kiddos on a mixture of Hill's Science Diet Oral and Wellness. Now they've been on Natural Balance - LID for quite a few months. It's going fine. But I just feel like it's boring to them. They eat it, but I just question if it is a good fit for them.

Is there a Top list that people swear by? I've considered switchign them to the Purina ONE True Instinct, or Hill's Science Diet. Blue Buffalo scares me with all the recalls in the past, it's just not something I'd feel okay with feeding mine.

Thoughts? Direction?

 

[squince]

I should also add, I don't want to completely break the bank, but I do want to feed them a higher quality food!

 

[Kieka]

Natural Balance LID is an affordable and decent food. You could try switching up the flavors and see how they react. Only Natural Pet has a store brand food that is fairly good and not super expensive. Chewy has a store brand called American Journey that looks good too that also is reasonably priced.

It is a good idea to have a little variety so your cats don't get stuck on a food and it goes out of production or changes. I've mixed different foods together in the past too. Just make sure any changes you make are slow to prevent tum y problems.

 

[squince]

Okay! Maybe I'll just stick with that brand and just buy different flavors here and there to see how they react.

 

[KarenKat]

I fed the Natural Balance LID Green Pea and Chicken for a long time. My cats did really well on it. Now we have a chicken sensitive cat, so we are on Nature's Variety Instinct LID Rabbit (much more expensive).

I love that the LID dry foods have fewer ingredients, but I hate that a lot of it is peas. Natural Balance tends to be high in carbs, so just keep it in mind if any of your kitties struggle with weight. Other than the carbs, I really liked the food.

 

[squince]

I wonder if that's why my Tillie has gained weight quickly, she tends to eat more of the dry.

 

[KarenKat]

Could be. If you are looking for another kibble for variety or to mix in, maybe find something lower in carbs (hard to do for dry). Mixing it in with the Natural Balance could let you find something a little more expensive but lower in carbs.

 

[squince]

What are the thoughts on:
Purina ONE Tender Selects Blend Adult Dry Cat Food?

 

[Kieka]

That one is not a good option. Rice is the second ingredient so it likely would add to any weight problems. Plus you'd have to buy more for your cats to be satsified.

 

[KarenKat]

Still pretty high in carbs, too. Also, both the Natural Balance and the Purina One you linked get their protein mostly from plant-based foods (NB uses peas, Purina One uses corn gluten meal). Ideally you want something with meat. Purina One lists chicken, but I read that once they remove the water from the chicken to make the kibble, it may not be the first ingredient anymore.

Try looking up the foods on this site: CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

It tells you the carbs in the food so you can try and compare.

 

[squince]

Gotcha! Thanks! Okay! I'm sticking with Natural Balance. And just hoping Fancy Feast is okay, it's more of a treat for them. They get about 1/3 of a can in morning and at night.

 

[Stinky15]

Gotcha! Thanks! Okay! I'm sticking with Natural Balance. And just hoping Fancy Feast is okay, it's more of a treat for them. They get about 1/3 of a can in morning and at night.

The "classic" varieties of Fancy Feast are lower in carbs.

 

[CalliopeUno]

I did a ton of research on this recently before adopting my cat and concluded that 1) I'm obsessive compulsive
2) I'm indecisive
3) I wanted to avoid grain
4) I wanted the first several ingredients to be poultry or fish
5) I wanted high protein, like +- 40%, and relatively high fat +- 18%
6) I wanted to avoid companies with a history of more than one recall, prefer none
7) low in carbs- and prefer those to be in peas, lentils, cranberries for urinary tract health, etc
8) bonus might be probiotics, tho I'm not convinced that having them in a daily diet does not make them less effective when you really need them, like to repopulate the gastrointestinal tract after antibiotic therapy - so those I waffle on
9) I wanted to be able to still afford to eat after feeding the cat.
SO THE WINNERS WERE:
NULO
CRAVE
I and LOVE and YOU (even tho the name is ridiculously sappy)
SHENANDOAH (sold at my local pet store, not sure any big boxes carry it)
Because I am indecisive my cat currently eats a blend of 2 of the above (Shenandoah and ILY) plus some Rachel Ray Nutrish I bought pre-research (But it's actually actually not bad) and a little Hill's Science Diet they sent home with him from the humane society.
He's happily eating it all tho likes the blend with the I and Love and You Chicken and Duck better than the one with Salmon. I was indecisive there too and bought both flavors bc Chewy's had the 3.4 lb lb sizes on sale for $5 plus 40% off first shipping so how could I not?
Now I'll never know exactly what he likes best but am confident all of it is good for him. The only problem might be if he becomes allergic to something in one of them and then it will be trial and error to find the culprit.
GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY HUNTING

 

[CalliopeUno]

Oops and I didn't buy it bc I have too much cat food now but as mentioned Chewy's new AMERICAN JOURNEY has a good list of ingredients, good balance of protein, fat, carbs, and they're offering it at low introductory prices

 

[mikameek]

I prefer to feed Nulo or TikiCat but I also feed Blue and Whole Earth Farms (the cheaper brand of the Merrick company) dry food mixes. I don't like feeding dry as much because I prefer for my girl to eat wet food since she isn't as into drinking water like she should. But she doesn't like her wet food as much, so we have our dry food so she at least gets food in her.

Nulo is MY FAVORITE. My vet did tell me that the cats she's seen on it do tend to have bigger bowel movement sizes. Mika did have that for a time but when I mixed the Nulo with the Whole Earth Farms, that fixed her bowel size.

 

[10009891]

I use CRAVE pate mixed with the expensive stuff. CRAVE has high meat protein and it's sold at Walmart, Target, and Kroger. But even that can be expensive. $12.99 for a few some containers of wet food. The kibble form causes my cats to do number 2 more often and odor intensity.