Looking for healthy cat food

Myonlyone

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Hi all! Im new to this site and the thread so apologies if I make mistakes on posting.
I have a 10 year old Persian who is just like my daughter. I love her more than anything and want the best possible diet for her. Ive been feeding her wellness can food since she was a kitten. Ive tried handful of other brands like Weruva, Merrick, (got her sick, diarrhea &vomiting) Blue buffalo (vomiting) but she always likes wellness.

One of her vets suggested we transition to a raw diet but I wasn't convinced. Nonetheless, I got some raw samples but she didn't eat it. Last week, she got really sick. Vomiting and fever. Long story short, she spent 3 days in the icu and is looking better now. She is on antibiotics so we're taking it day by day. She had inflammation of gall bladder on her ultrasound.

I really wanna start her on better foods. She's allergic to chicken so is only eating turkey because wellness has chicken in everything. I feel bad that her can diet options are so limited right now. Her vet recommended some can food brands like Koha, Identity but Im noticing fillers and coconut oil in them as well. Im getting so frustrated. Its like a rabbit hole when it comes to trying to find good healthy cat food.

Id like to know if any of you make food at home for you cats and if have any easy recipes that you'd like to share. Also, what brand of wet food have you had good luck with. Ever tried raw food and has it improved your cats health?
 

maggie101

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I give my cats dr elseys,hound&gatos,tiki,weruva,instinct,health extensionsq. I cook ground meat and add ez complete. I leave food out too much so no raw
 

lisahe

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We feed our cats a combination of commercial raw food (freeze-dried Primal and Purpose), homemade cooked food, and canned/pouch foods. We feed them so many different kinds because they like a lot of variety and are a bit picky. They also have sensitivities to some of the ingredients -- agar-agar, potato, green-lipped mussels -- that are added to processed food.

We use the Alnutrin supplement to make the homemade cooked food. (I add liver and the supplement to cooked meat.) Like maggie101 maggie101 , I don't make raw food. In my case, I don't trust myself in handling! Both Alnutrin and EZ Complete (which maggie101 uses) will send samples if you want to try them.

We feed the cats a lot of canned chicken foods so my suggestions there wouldn't be very helpful for you! But both Primal and Purpose have freeze-dried foods with proteins like pork, turkey, and duck. (There are other options, though some of them are pretty expensive.)

What raw food did you try feeding your cat, M Myonlyone ? And was it freeze-dried, frozen, or fresh? Also, what's your cat's name? :)
 
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Myonlyone

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We feed our cats a combination of commercial raw food (freeze-dried Primal and Purpose), homemade cooked food, and canned/pouch foods. We feed them so many different kinds because they like a lot of variety and are a bit picky. They also have sensitivities to some of the ingredients -- agar-agar, potato, green-lipped mussels -- that are added to processed food.

We use the Alnutrin supplement to make the homemade cooked food. (I add liver and the supplement to cooked meat.) Like maggie101 maggie101 , I don't make raw food. In my case, I don't trust myself in handling! Both Alnutrin and EZ Complete (which maggie101 uses) will send samples if you want to try them.

We feed the cats a lot of canned chicken foods so my suggestions there wouldn't be very helpful for you! But both Primal and Purpose have freeze-dried foods with proteins like pork, turkey, and duck. (There are other options, though some of them are pretty expensive.)

What raw food did you try feeding your cat, M Myonlyone ? And was it freeze-dried, frozen, or fresh? Also, what's your cat's name? :)

I think the one I tried was a sample of small batch. She didnt even like sniffing it. It could be because she's not accustomed to the smells yet so she didnt touch it. It was frozen and individually packaged. I also tried Primal with the little nuggets. No luck.

I wish I could feed her more different kinds of proteins because all she eats is Turkey. I feel like a bad fur momma. I looked into hounds and gable and their ingredients look ok so far. Wonder if its ok to try a little bit of that for her while she's on antibiotics.
 

cindersue

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Have you tried Science Diet foods? They have fish flavors maybe some others. That’s what my vet recommended. I understand your concerns. I’m so sorry she has food issues. My 3 feline children are the world to me! Hard being a mom sometimes! Maybe your vet can suggest better options!
 

LTS3

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Most cats won't touch frozen or homemade raw because they don't recognize it as food. It smells and looks weird to them. Freeze dried raw is usually more acceptable to cats because it's sort of like dry food. Freeze dried food is supposed to be rehydrated in water before serving and it's sort of like a mushy pate consistency. You can feed freeze dried raw dry.

A home cooked diet is also more acceptable than raw to many cats. I think cats think they're eating yummy table scraps or something. There are resources here: Home-Cooked Cat Food Resources

There is no perfect commercially available canned food. Many have fillers of some sort, some worse than others. You can use this chart to sort by protein and other ingredient criteria: Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients
 

GuyandCat

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Hi all! Im new to this site and the thread so apologies if I make mistakes on posting.
I have a 10 year old Persian who is just like my daughter. I love her more than anything and want the best possible diet for her. Ive been feeding her wellness can food since she was a kitten. Ive tried handful of other brands like Weruva, Merrick, (got her sick, diarrhea &vomiting) Blue buffalo (vomiting) but she always likes wellness.

One of her vets suggested we transition to a raw diet but I wasn't convinced. Nonetheless, I got some raw samples but she didn't eat it. Last week, she got really sick. Vomiting and fever. Long story short, she spent 3 days in the icu and is looking better now. She is on antibiotics so we're taking it day by day. She had inflammation of gall bladder on her ultrasound.

I really wanna start her on better foods. She's allergic to chicken so is only eating turkey because wellness has chicken in everything. I feel bad that her can diet options are so limited right now. Her vet recommended some can food brands like Koha, Identity but Im noticing fillers and coconut oil in them as well. Im getting so frustrated. Its like a rabbit hole when it comes to trying to find good healthy cat food.

Id like to know if any of you make food at home for you cats and if have any easy recipes that you'd like to share. Also, what brand of wet food have you had good luck with. Ever tried raw food and has it improved your cats health?
I am a new Cat owner. My kitten (Guy) is almost 12 weeks old. He has been eating Wellness for Kittens, I am in the process to switching to Raw. He tried it for the first time last night and he cried for more.. Wellness through my limited knowledge is a better wet cat food then many of the popular brands...I still don't like some of the ingredients..I recently bought some Cans of Tiki Cat after dark wet. He seems to like it. I find the ingredients in After Dark a lot more acceptable to me. I would stick with Wellness if you're gonna feed Wet. When I looked at Merrick and Blue buffalo I was not impressed hence why I chose Wellness.

I think Wellness is one of your better options, take a look at Wellness and Science diet. Read the Ingredients and you will be shocked at the difference. I really dislike 95% of the options I have in terms of commercial cat foods. I find some many brands to be horrendous in terms of Quality. But I know cats who lived past 20 years old on Fancy Feast so what do I know :)

Maybe try a different Wellness to add if there is any available. He likes Wellness so seems like it could be something to add for variety.. But I would not switch to a science diet. I am not a Cat nutritionist but I think the Wellness is 100% better then Science diet. Take both foods and read the ingredients. I am not saying Wellness is Great but it certainly seems better then most of the other alternatives..
Hopefully this week Guy will be on his Raw diet full time. But until then I am comfortable Feeding Wellness and Tiki After Dark . I wish your Fury friend well. Happy Eating
 

MindyStClairesMom

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Most cats won't touch frozen or homemade raw because they don't recognize it as food.
I also thought this was the case with mine, but it turns out I expected them to accept the change too quickly. Apparently it takes a MINIMUM of 4 months -- and often longer. This YouTuber has good content on the subject: Caticles. I am not going to try raw again right now, but we are moving my 3 formal ferals off of dry (one is resisting me).
 

lisahe

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I also thought this was the case with mine, but it turns out I expected them to accept the change too quickly. Apparently it takes a MINIMUM of 4 months -- and often longer. This YouTuber has good content on the subject: Caticles. I am not going to try raw again right now, but we are moving my 3 formal ferals off of dry (one is resisting me).
I guess we've been very lucky with our cats and raw food. Then again, we got them started on it back when there was Rad Cat, which was (according to the three we've fed it to) the best raw food ever. I'm very sorry it is no more. Even our previous cat, who was very sick in her last months and who'd been a hardcore dry food and Fancy Feast eater forever, went for it on the first try. And then the two cats we have now loved Rad Cat from the start, too.

I don't know what you've tried with your cats but, with Primal, they won't eat the frozen stuff but love the freeze-dried pork and turkey. They also really love Purpose (chicken and turkey). The only frozen foods they've enjoyed have been Rad Cat (sigh!) and Stella & Chewy's "Stella's Selects," which I cut when the pandemic hit but keep meaning to bring back!

It can take some experimentation (trial and error) to figure out what your cat will and will not eat. I hope you're able to find something your cats will like.
 
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