Iams, Fancy Feast or other grocery store canned food?

[rubysmama]

As a new cat mama, I'm trying to do the best I can for Ruby.   At the shelter she was getting Iams food, so that is what I'm still feeding her.   She is one food-obsessed little cat and I'm sure would eat non stop if I let her.

She weighed 3.08 kg when I brought her home from the shelter.   She'd been there about 1 1/2 months and had probably lost some muscle mass.  I've seen her getting stronger and able to jump higher since she's been home.  She goes back to the vet for her booster shot in 2 weeks so at least I'll know if she's gaining weight or not.

Currently I am feeding her 2 of the 3 ounce cans of Iams food - 1 each for breakfast and supper.   And 1/4 cup of Iams dry food (half before I go to work and half before bed).   Plus a few 2 calorie treats a day.    Like I said, she would eat more if I gave it to her.   Does that seem like a good amount of food?

And is the Iams canned food? I did buy a couple Fancy Feast chicken pate today to try her on. Between those 2 brands is one better than the other?

 

[catspaw66]

I think that how much they eat should be determined by their activity level also. If she is active, give her a little more unless she starts to gain too much weight.

There is a calculator on here somewhere that tells how many calories are in each food and how many calories your cat needs. If anyone knows where it is, could you please link it for this poster?

 

[ritz]

Fancy Feast Classic or Friskies Pate are decent grocery store brand foods.

Here is the link to a list of calories in food.  http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods   (My computer won't let me link directly.)

And as catspaw66 indicated, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak:  if he's gained weight and doesn't need to, then you should cut back on his food (I'd ditch the dry food--dry food is full of carbohydrates which cats don't need and generally contains more calories than wet).

And yeah I know what you mean by a food-obsessed cat:  I'm looking at one right now!  Do you know Ruby's background--feral?  stray?  Sometimes not having enough food early in life can pre-dispose a cat to being food-obsessed.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Congratulations on your new furbaby!

I think the amount you are feeding Ruby is probably plenty, although her next weigh-in will probably be the "tell-all", since I don't know how active she is, how old she is, whether she needs to lose or gain, that sort of thing.

Now, between the two foods, I would choose the Fancy Feast CLASSICS (needs to say CLASSICS on the can) over the Iams.  I say this because it appears that the Iams has some form of grains in it, and the Fancy Feast CLASSICS do not.  Now I did not look at every since can of Iams out there, but I did look at a few (on line), and every one I picked had grains (rice flour, that type of thing) 

 

[cprcheetah]

Here is a good list that has calorie contents of the foods:  http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf   Personally I prefer to avoid wheat gluten so only stick to the "Classic" Fancy Feast flavors in feeding my cats.  As for how many calories a cat needs it is 13.6x the ideal lean body weight in lbs+ 70, that's how many calories a cat should consume in a day.

 

[mservant]

There are a lot of disucssions here in the food forum and people have their own preferences, and ones that are good if you think your cat may have alergies. For basic advice on what to look for I'm attaching a couple of the links for articles here in the site in case you haven't found them yet.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-nutrition-a-recap

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

 

[rubysmama]

Thanks for all the quick replies!   Ruby is probably between 2 and 3 years old.  She was brought in to the shelter by someone who found her on the street.  She had broken teeth and other health issues.  No way to know how long she was on the street, or if she actually had a home / family.

I just compared the Iams chicken pate with the Fancy Feast pate.   Iams has a LOT more ingredients including rice flour, flax seed meal and a lot of added vitamins.    The Fancy Feast has way less ingredients, does say vitamins but not which ones.

Another question about only feeding wet food.  The vet gave me a sample of dry food for teeth - cleaning I presume.   Does dry food help keep teeth from decaying?

 

[mservant]

This article, from the Health forum agian, is pretty good and think it answers your question.  My boy is on a dry prescription only diet for his teeth but that is because he developed quite serious problems when he was under a year old.  O wish I could add more wet food and higher protein but keeping healthy gums and managing infection is the priority.  I do twice daily tooth brushingas well and if you introduce it with a young cat, or gently as advised on the forum and on most of the enzyme tooth pastes I think most cats are OK with it.  It makes a big difference if you think your cat builds up plaque on teeth.

 http://www.thecatsite.com/a/does-dry-food-actually-clean-your-cats-teeth

 

[cprcheetah]

I think that tooth decay is a matter of genetics.  I have a 14 year old cat who has eaten mostly canned food her entire life, she's never had her teeth cleaned and still has them all.  I have a 4 year old who needs to have her teeth cleaned and she's eaten a mostly canned diet as well.  My cat who refuses to eat canned food, so only eats dry and is about 7 years old is in need of a teeth cleaning as well.

 

[mservant]

I agree, there is definitely an element of genetics.  My boy has had issues since he was young, my girls both had all their own teeth and they were pearly white needles even when they were 17 and 21 when they crossed the RB!  They were fed on a general canned and kibble diet and never had their teeth cleaned in their whole lives!  If you see your cat's teeth with any build up of tartar or yellowing I'd start to go for tooth cleaning and a regular oral care routine and you can keep your cat healthier much longer than if you just left it to chance.  And if you see red gums or any bad breath it definitely needs attention (unless your kitten is in the process of loosing kitten teeth and adult ones breaking through)

 

[gravekandi]

I would suggest Fancy Feast Classics as well over IAMS. I prefer the ingredient list on FF. I would also suggest to feed mostly wet, like maybe 3 kibble meals a week? And to get a grain free dry. As for kibble cleaning teeth, I don't believe it too be true, look up on it and base your opinion on your findings, that's what I did 

 

[goholistic]

I just recently discovered Sheba pates, and the ingredients are actually comparable, if not maybe slightly better, than Fancy Feast. I know they've been around a long time, but the closet chain pet store (Petco) doesn't carry it and I actually found it at a nearby retailer (Kmart) by accident. My Caesar (once a kibble addict) went nuts over Sheba. They don't come in very many flavors, however.

Purina One Classic pates and Purina ProPlan Classic pates are also very similar to Fancy Feast.

I have nothing against Fancy Feast, by the way. I feed FF Classics to Caesar, as well, but just wanted to throw out other options that I have found very comparable to FF to add to the rotation. He gets tired of the same brand and flavors, so I rotate between brands.

 

[gravekandi]

 
I just recently discovered Sheba pates, and the ingredients are actually comparable, if not maybe slightly better, than Fancy Feast. I know they've been around a long time, but the closet chain pet store (Petco) doesn't carry it and I actually found it at a nearby retailer (Kmart) by accident. My Caesar (once a kibble addict) went nuts over Sheba. They don't come in very many flavors, however.

Purina One Classic pates and Purina ProPlan Classic pates are also very similar to Fancy Feast.

I have nothing against Fancy Feast, by the way. I feed FF Classics to Caesar, as well, but just wanted to throw out other options that I have found very comparable to FF to add to the rotation. He gets tired of the same brand and flavors, so I rotate between brands.

They also carry it at Walmart, PetSmart and now Sams club. 36cans for 14$ (at sams)

 

[rubysmama]

I can see changing Ruby's food is going to be a slow process.   I gave her the Fancy Feast last night for supper and she wolfed it down, like she does all food, but this morning she didn't wake me early looking for breakfast, which I thought was weird.  Then I found she'd thrown up over the night and had a bit of diarrhea, which she had when the shelter changed food brands.    Anyway she ate her IAMS no problem for breakfast, but she still seems a little out of sorts.

 

[raintyger]

Slowly switch Ruby by replacing the Iams in 25% increments every 3-4 days. So on the first day, 25% of the food will be Fancy Feast, then 3-4 days later, 50% Fancy Feast, and so on.

Even though her tummy's OK on Iams, I'd switch. Iams USED to be considered premium food, but the company got bought out a while ago and as other members have indicated, Fancy Feast classic line, Sheba, or Friskies pate are better choices nutritionally.

 

[gravekandi]

 
Slowly switch Ruby by replacing the Iams in 25% increments every 3-4 days. So on the first day, 25% of the food will be Fancy Feast, then 3-4 days later, 50% Fancy Feast, and so on.

Even though her tummy's OK on Iams, I'd switch. Iams USED to be considered premium food, but the company got bought out a while ago and as other members have indicated, Fancy Feast classic line, Sheba, or Friskies pate are better choices nutritionally.

I completely agree with this ^
A lot of cats throw up the food you give them if you don't transition them properly.

 

[rubysmama]

Ruby's feeling better now.  No further digestive issues today.  And still constantly looking for food!!!

I will do the food transition slowly as suggested, however, since I just bought a 24-can case of IAMS, it won't be for a couple weeks.   And if I add some of the Fancy Feast to the IAMS, how long can I keep the food in the opened cans?

About the Fancy Feast classic, I'm in Canada and I seem to recall seeing a message in another thread that "classic" is not on any Fancy Feast cans in Canada.  Therefore, do I just look for the cans with the least ingredients. The chicken feast pate I bought has chicken, chicken broth, liver, meat by-products, fish, artificial and natural flavours, calcium phosphate, guar gum, added colour, potassium chloride, minerals, salt, taurine, vitamins, sodium nitrate.

 

[mservant]

If you go gradually with the change over, and keep using up bits of the Iams for a while I'm sure it should be fine.  I found my cats got more tolerant to food changes as adults and it meant they got a bit of variety in their diet so I would hold on to a few cans to give Ruby when you run out of regular stuff as long as it's in date.  As long as you put the can straight in to the fridge and keep it cold it should keep for a day at least - I don't use wet food so hopefully some of the other posters will keep you up to speed on how they do - I used to find with foods I gave my other cats it varied how well it kept depending on brand. Remember not to give wet food to your cat straight from the fridge, you need to warm it slightly so it's at room temperature.

 

[raintyger]

You can keep wet food in the fridge for 2 days at least. 3 is possible, but check by sniffing first. You probably won't have much trouble since the Fancy Feast is 3 oz. cans. I don't know what the Fancy Feast line is called in Canada, but you are basically looking for pate style food. Pate style has less carbs. The other styles have gravy, and gravies are made from carbs.

You can either learn how to evaluate cat food from the guaranteed analysis,

https://www.atgpetnutrition.com/page.html?id=41&phpMyAdmin=a56932ab8666f5937726440a0e03f185

use this online calculator:

http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

or use Dr. Pierson's cat food charts to select cat foods that are nutritionally appropriate--

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

You want something with 10% carbs or less, grain-free.

 

[catspaw66]

Seal the wet food in a Ziploc sandwich baggie before you put it in the fridge, and microwave the cold food for 7 or 8 seconds before serving. I use a paper plate for warming and feeding.