Looking to upgrade to better quality food; need suggestions.

waddle

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My kits are 15 and 11-12, both female. The 15 yo has IBS and is on prednisolone. The 11-12 yo doesn’t have any diagnosed conditions, but has had loose stools in the past when fed beef or chicken. She may have had an issue with pork as well (Can’t remember if it was just my male cat or both that had a problem with it.)

I have just recently gotten them into eating wet food, as they were never that keen on it in the past, but I currently have fancy feast gravy lovers and would like to switch to a better quality food. They probably won’t eat pate.

I realize they are probably now addicted to this junk food! Any recommendations for a wet food in gravy or flake form that I can get in turkey, rabbit, and fish? I know it’s best to limit the fish as well so I feel like turkey is my main option, but so many foods have chicken in them even if they’re not listed as a chicken flavor. They used to eat a dry food made from rabbit, and are now on blue basics limited ingredient turkey and have both done fine on those.
 

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Krienze

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I'm actually afraid of Blue Basics, to be honest with you. I stopped feeding Isabel the small cans of it and switched her to Fancy Feast instead because of everything coming out about animals getting sick on Blue. My animals eat 4health usually but... i'm not so sure i'm too keen on them anymore either =/

I heard Tikicat is really good but from what I understand Fancy Feast isn't that bad if it's what your cat will eat.

Your cats are beautiful by the way!
 

*kara*

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Agreed with Krienze. FF classic pate are some of the better foods out there. Blue has too many sick pets to be coincidence...

I also feed Iam wet and Nutro wet (similar to Sheba in the USA)
 
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waddle

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Has there been an issue with the blue basics dry food? That’s all they’ve had, not the wet.

I might try the tiki. Im afraid they won’t eat pate so I’m looking for something in gravy or broth.
 

molly92

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Agreed, I used to work in a pet store and Blue has a sketchy reputation. Dry and wet food both. It's pretty clear they'd rather eat the cost of the occasional recall than upgrade their quality standards.

Tiki cat is one of the best non-pates, but all of their flavors have either chicken or fish.

You might try poking around the Wellness brand. Something like this or this. I don't love the peas in the ingredients, but otherwise the ingredients are pretty solid. There is chicken broth I believe, but if your cats don't have any problem with "poultry broth" and "meat by-products" in Fancy Feast that definitely contain at least some chicken, then they should be fine.

If you do want to try a pate or two and see if they'll like it, that will expand your options a good bit, and probably be just a bit healthier. But there are some cats who just won't touch pate.
 
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waddle

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Those wellness ones do look better. I’ll see if I can buy just one can of each locally to see if they like them.

looking for a better dry food option, I ran across the taste of the wild prey limited ingredient turkey. Might be better than the blue basics? Not sure if the amounts of lentils in it is better or worse than the peas and potatoes in everything else. Have also looked at the Merrick limited ingredients diets but they had mixed reviews as to whether cats would eat them.

My IBS kitty is due for her checkup in a few weeks so I’ll see if the vet notices anything indicating a problem with the switch from the Rx rabbit food to the blue basics turkey (I had talked to her about switching last year as the Rx food is $$$ and really not great quality either.)

It seems like it’s impossible to find a food that doesn’t have some problematic ingredients, plus trying to avoid chicken. It’s possible it might be fine but when my older kitty got the IBS dx the vet wanted to get her on a LI diet, and when I tried a bag of an Rx food that had chicken in it, my other cat had digestive issues, so I just try to avoid it.
 

molly92

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It is so hard to avoid any chicken at all! I definitely sympathize.

The Taste of the Wild LID is not the worst dry food out there, but it's still really heavy on carbs. Better options would be Orijen Tundra, or Wellness CORE Turkey and Duck. Those are around 40% protein, which is about as good as you're going to get for a dry food. But, keep in mind even those are still too high in carbs for comfort, and it's best to keep their diet to mostly wet food if at all possible.
 

Talien

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Has there been an issue with the blue basics dry food? That’s all they’ve had, not the wet.

I might try the tiki. Im afraid they won’t eat pate so I’m looking for something in gravy or broth.
Dry food itself is bad no matter what brand it is, it's terrible for Cats and only exists because it's convenient for people. Most prescription foods are also garbage whether it's wet or dry, way too many vets buy into the "ingredients don't matter, only nutrients do" line of thinking and prescribe foods that end up causing digestive issues or making them worse.

Tiki Cat, non-pate, in broth or gravy? They pretty much only make Fish and Chicken varieties but there are a lot of them to choose from at least. Some of the seafood varieties contain various gums, so if any of your Cats have issues with those you'll want to read through the nutritional info. The "after dark" varieties are the best quality, but it's all Chicken.


There are several commercial raw foods that some pet stores or even supermarkets carry that have a Rabbit variety, like Instinct and Stella&Chewy's. You could check with places near you and see if they have any of them and give that a try.
 

ladytimedramon

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Koha has limited ingredient, chicken free in pate and "shred" (its more of a ground texture with gravy).
 
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waddle

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The Koha line looks promising! I am going to see what I can find at the local pet stores to see if they will eat it.
 

daftcat75

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Krista has IBD and suspected GI lymphoma. She does well on Rawz rabbit pate. And recently, I’ve been mixing it with their rabbit and pumpkin pate because that’s an easier flavor to find. It’s expensive. It’s hard to find. But it’s cheaper than vet bills.
 
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waddle

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They are giving two enthusiastic paws up to the koha duck formula. I picked up four Koha pouches, one of the wellness cans, one of the tiki fish cans, and a couple bff pouches for them to try.
 
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waddle

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Do I need to worry about stomach upset with the different foods? I know when you switch dry food you should mix the old and the new for a while.
 

Talien

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Do I need to worry about stomach upset with the different foods? I know when you switch dry food you should mix the old and the new for a while.
Same with wet foods, slowly introduce anything new or they might start throwing up.
 
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