Debating Whether Or Not To Order This

[lisahe]

You're very welcome, Artistwolf! Yes, I agree that Fancy Feast pates are better than Friskies pates: I don't like the carbs that the rice adds to Friskies. Even so, I'd sooner feed a food with rice than a food with peas or potatoes, which seem to cause problems in some cats. I have nothing against byproducts, either, particularly given that lots of the raw foods I feed contain ingredients like bone and organs that are considered byproducts.

That transition worked easily for us... and your cat's might vary but the great thing for us was that one day the humans and cats completely forgot about the dry food!

 

[Willowy]

The pate foods are better than the gravy foods, except for the really high-end stuff. The gravy is high-carb and the chunks are usually made of soy protein.

 

[Artistwolf]

I totally agree with the whole by-products thing... I've never quite understood what the problem was with them! Oh, I didn't know potatoes and peas were problem-foods! I'll look out for those.

I'm sure that must be so rewarding! I can't wait to try this whole process out for myself

Willowy: Thanks for the heads-up! I'll be sure to get the pates then!

 

[lisahe]

Yes, potatoes and peas can cause problems for some cats: one of our cats vomits if she eats potato! I don't think such obvious problems are very common, though there are several other Cat Site members whose cats have similar reactions to potato. Cats' digestive systems just aren't made to handle vegetables.

What W Willowy says about "gravy" foods is true more often than not, so you really have to watch out. Even if the pieces in the food are actual meat and/or fish, the sauce is very often thickened with something carby. Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen pouch foods (these) are an example. The spurious, copious gravy is thickened with tapioca and the carbs end up in the 13-21% range, dry matter. (I feed an occasional pouch of the chicken/pumpkin food, drained, as a treat, because our cats love it.) And yes, it's even worse when the chunks in the food contain vegetable protein, as lots of Fancy Feast's and other brands' shreds do.

Since I mentioned them earlier: Nutro Natural Choice canned foods are an exception. Nutro only uses gums to thicken their foods that are labelled as having gravy. (Gums are another question! I don't like to feed a lot of them, but they're especially ubiquitous...) I called Nutro once to ask about carbs and they wouldn't give me numbers: they just referred to the carbs as "insignificant" (I think that was the word the rep used), something the ingredient list seems to bear out.

The bottom line on all of this is that it's very important to read labels carefully, to avoid anything carby and/or plant-based that's being used as a protein source, thickener, or filler. There are a few exceptions (Primal's raw food comes to mind: there are some non-carby vegetables, like kale, that are included for the nutrients but they're very low on the ingredient list and the foods are low-carb) but I generally regard vegetable matter being used as fillers.

 

[Tux_and_Thrasher]

Kieka: Thanks! So they would accept a return even if I opened one of the cans? That's really quite amazing of them. Yeah, that's what I thought—and I'm thinking that around here, they might only feed dry—I'm in a relatively small town (Cleveland, TN), so they probably don't have big budgets to spend on wet food. Oh, really, most cats prefer wet food? I've read a couple things about people struggling to get their cat to eat wet food and so I think I've unnecessarily scared myself there XD That's a big relief!

maggiedemi: I actually think we do have tractor supply stores around here! Never even thought of looking at any of those. We just moved to this town so I've never been in one of those places (in St. Louis, we haven't got any!). Oh, that's unfortunate; I was looking to avoid fish. Darn, I need to read those labels better. Thanks for that portion help! That was really confusing me. If I accidentally ended up feeding too much, would I more likely end up with a fat cat or would he just stop eating at some point? Just out of curiosity, lol.

I'm currently living about 30 minutes outside of Cleveland and I just wanted to let you know that Petco across from the mall currently has a nice selection of clearance cat food, mostly wet. I know because I stopped by last night. Anyways, the cashier said some of the food is hitting its expiration soon and some they just won't carrying anymore. The brands are pretty high end and I scooped up 15 cans for about $10. None of the food I got was expiring anytime soon and I was able to get a variety for my food snobby children.

 

[Artistwolf]

Ooh, thank you so much!! That's really good to know!

 

[misty8723]

The shelter I volunteer at and where I adopted Cricket feeds predominantly dry. One of the reasons is that they group cats in the rooms based on the food they are eating. If a cat has to have special food they have to isolate them in a room or condo by themselves. When I adopted Cricket the adoption counselor told me that she would never eat wet food. When she was new to the program they tried everything to get her to start eating, but she wouldn't eat the wet. Most cats I've seen snarf up the wet when you give it to them (they get wet if they are not eating), so that probably won't be a problem for you unless you get a fuss pot like mine. Over the past couple years, I've found 2 brands and 3 flavors wet she will eat - and both of them are mackerel! I guess you could bring a can with you and see if the rescue will let you try a little with your chosen cat to see if they will eat it?