Help choosing dry food

[john-cat]

So... I have been feeding my kittens multiple brand (mostly low-cost as my budget is quite limited): Royal Canin Kitten, IAMS for Vitality Kitten, Friskies Junior, lately Concept for Life Kitten and now that I'm running out of food I'm thinking in buying Taste of the Wild (Rocky Montain) but first I would like to know if the upgrade is worth it and since it's the first grain free food I buy if it's all around balanced.

Concept for Life Kitten Ingredients:
46% poultry protein (rich in chicken, partly dried and hydrolysed), rice, poultry fat, maize protein, 3.5% dried beet pulp (desugared), linseed, 1.5% lignocellulose, 1.1% salmon oil, 0.7% sunflower oil, sodium chloride, brewer’s yeast (dried), egg (dried), 0.2% chicory inulin, 0.2% yeast extract (dried, rich in beta-glucans and mannan-oligosaccharides), potassium chloride, 0.02% Yucca schidigera (dried), 0.02% glucosamine, 0.01% chondroitin sulphate

Taste of the Wild Rocky Montain Ingredients:
Chicken meal, peas, sweet potatoes, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pea protein, potato protein, roasted venison, smoked salmon, natural flavor, ocean fish meal, DL-Methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract.

 

[Krienze]

Dr Elsey's is REALLY good. My cats love it. Looks like it's close in price to Taste of the Wild (we feed that to our dogs but I know very lil about it for cats.)

We used to feed tiki essentials, too, and really liked it.

Def stick with one brand though. As I'm learning myself, kittens poo quite messily when food is altered too much x.x

 

[john-cat]

Unfortunately, since I don't live in the US, I don't have access to such a wide variety of brands. I looked at several threads here and most of the recommended budget brands are not available in my country (Portugal) or in most of Europe. I'm basically limited to the brands available on Zooplus.

 

[Krienze]

Unfortunately, since I don't live in the US, I don't have access to such a wide variety of brands. I looked at several threads here and most of the recommended budget brands are not available in my country (Portugal) or in most of Europe. I'm basically limited to the brands available on Zooplus.

Are you unable to use chewy there? =( that's awful, i'm sorry its so limited for you

 

[minish]

Generally, you can check for these indicators for better dry food:
If first few ingredients are real meat (written as beef, chicken liver.. Etc) instead of what they call "meal", it's better
If it's grain free, it's better (but they put peas and potatoes instead of maize, so not ideal but I haven't found any dry food without starch)
If it shows meat percentage, and it's above 70%, it's better

So far, I have used origen, acana (us or Canada but imported to Europe), farmina n&d (Italian) and fitmin purity (don't know origin country but its best for meat percent). All are decent brands I can find in Turkey so I guess you can find these in Portugal too.

 

[LTS3]

Are you unable to use chewy there? =( that's awful, i'm sorry its so limited for you

Chewy.com does not ship internationally.

V verna davies can probably suggest some good European brands you can find on ZooPlus. Amazon's UK site or other European site may be another option to by food, How to Shop at Amazon from Portugal – Portugalist

 

[Krienze]

Chewy.com does not ship internationally.

what! really?? I had no idea!

is amazon something hard to find these foods on too? =(

sorry op. =(

 

[verna davies]

Have a look at Feringo, Thrive or Wild Freedom. The prices are pretty good and Zooplus sell them all.

 

[john-cat]

What about Applaws? Should I consider this one? It's cheaper and doesn't look to bad:

Dried chicken meat meal (62%), chicken mince (17%), potatoes, yeast, beet pulp, juices from the chicken (1%), salmon oil, vitamins and minerals, dried egg, cellulose from plant fiber (0.03%), sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, seaweed / Kelp, cranberries, DL-methionine, potassium chloride, yucca extract, citrus extract, rosemary extract.

Is it better than Taste of the Wild?

 

[verna davies]

Product Recall on Applaws UK Dry Cat Food - Applaws UK

I would think twice about Applaws at the moment.

 

[LTS3]

what! really?? I had no idea!

is amazon something hard to find these foods on too? =(

sorry op. =(

From Chewy's FAQ page:

Do you ship to P.O. boxes, APO/FPO addresses, or international addresses?

No – at this time we are unable to ship to P.O boxes, APO/FPO addresses, and international addresses. We currently only ship within the contiguous US.

Amazon's international web sites do sell food but, as with most everything else, things may be unavailable. What may be available may be sold by third party sellers (basically someone buying the food at a store or somewhere and then listing it for sale on Amazon) and may have a jacked up price.

 

[Telstar]

Unfortunately, since I don't live in the US, I don't have access to such a wide variety of brands. I looked at several threads here and most of the recommended budget brands are not available in my country (Portugal) or in most of Europe. I'm basically limited to the brands available on Zooplus.

The best kibble available here is Leonardo Fresh. I use the duck variety.
LEONARDO® fresh Duck | 4 kg | 757025 (leonardo-catfood.com)
Fresh duck meat (43%); Fresh poultry meat (42%); Pea flour; Amaranth; Marine zooplankton, ground (Krill, 1.7%); Egg, dried; Fish meal from sea fish, dried, hydrolysed; Poultry liver, hydrolysed; Chia seeds; Brewers’ yeast, dried (0.4%), and other functional stuff.

I don't think Zooplus carries it (yet?), but you can find it on other pet stores. You can also find Orijen, but it is currently overpriced for unknown reasons. I use the Regional Red only in my rotation, and if I remember correctly, 6 years ago i made the transition from Hills kitten to that around 8 months of age.
More recently there have been several issues with Champions Petfood, last time I fed Orijen to my cat was in 2019 (without issues).
There are other brands which are pretty good, but not sure what's available in Portugal. The pandemic and other stuff like brexit have made a lot of problems in the availability and price of good cat food.

Keep in mind that the transition from cereal-based kibble to a meat-based one should be gradual, over at least 15 days.

 

[Telstar]

I have tried Acana Grasslands and Orijen Cat & Kitten (chicken based) over the past 6 years but they were poorly appreciated. My cat is super picky... I have learnt that he hates lamb, quail, rice, dairy, and all vegetables. YMMV.