New to wet food, love some advice

Babypinkweeb

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With our recent 2nd cat addition, I've thought about making the switch to wet food. My resident cat has always had dry, and has a weird way of eating that makes him a slow grazer (*more on that later). He is 11 this year, and while he's always been super healthy by every vet he's seen, I want to be more careful about his nutrition now I've learned a lot. New cat eats almost everything without complaint, so that's pretty easy.

I'm not really familiar about ingredients and bad things to look out for, but I'm trying to avoid peas/fish as best I can. Currently they've loved these, and just trying to figure out which I should pick as the "main food".

Wellness Chicken Pate - Has gums and cranberries. I read it's apparently high on phosphorus.
Pure Vita Chicken/Turkey - Has gums and Menadione listed as last ingredient.

I'm not sure which is the lesser evil.
I haven't had any luck trying to buy Dr. Elsey as I heard they're having supply issues. I have Farmina/Rawz/Tiki cat in line for testing next but after calculating price per oz, they are a bit pricey to be an everyday food for my budget. They don't seem to like chunks or shreds. If there are other wet food in pate texture, with comparable price per oz & few questionable ingredients, I'd love to know!

(*) He mostly licks and pushes the food around in his plate, rather than a lick & munch I see other cats do (including new cat). I've tried various deep bowls/shallow bowls/plate with rim/flat plate, and he does it with every type, elevated or not. I'm not sure if anyone else has had a cat with weird eating habit like this. He often drops food, and if I hand feed him he doesn't munch/chomp it out of my hand, but kind of licks at it. Multiple vets he's seen in his life has never found any dental issues or swallowing issues. He's at a healthy weight (used to be a bit chubby).
 

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People have been recommending tiki cat and weruva to me, tiki cat has pates :) I just ordered some off of amazon along with the shreds.(can let you know how it goes with my kitty if you want.) Yes they are expensive, believe me I hesitated while ordering... but they seem to have quality food and a lot of people are very fond of them. Also you mentioned menadione as an ingridient, almost all the tiki cat foods WITH FISH contain menadione. The after dark doesn't, as it is mostly chicken. I was told menadione was needed to make a complete diet, in very little amounts, but to stay safe since I'll be feeding with dry(which already has vitamin k) I chose to not get the ones with menadione in them.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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Check out the Fancy Feast Classic line and their Gourmet Naturals line!
I'll look into their ingredients!

People have been recommending tiki cat and weruva to me, tiki cat has pates :) I just ordered some off of amazon along with the shreds.(can let you know how it goes with my kitty if you want.) Yes they are expensive, believe me I hesitated while ordering... but they seem to have quality food and a lot of people are very fond of them. Also you mentioned menadione as an ingridient, almost all the tiki cat foods WITH FISH contain menadione. The after dark doesn't, as it is mostly chicken. I was told menadione was needed to make a complete diet, in very little amounts, but to stay safe since I'll be feeding with dry(which already has vitamin k) I chose to not get the ones with menadione in them.
I couldn't find after dark at my local stores, but just the tiki cat puka chicken is about $3.5-4/day for my girl who is 6lbs and trying to gain weight. I think if I fed both of them tiki cat it will end up being $10 or more a day which will be $300+/month which feels kind of high for my current budget. I might have calculated something wrong bit this is estimation based on prices I could find. When my financial situation improves I'd love to feed them the good stuff!
Get what your cat will eat. Some starve themselves if they don't want to eat it. And make sure you rotate it out.
So far they eat anything that's more of a pate texture (tried 6 different flavors) so that helps haha! I got lucky. My kibble boy is already starting to prefer wet than dry in his meals.
 

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Have you explored catfooddb.com yet? I found it really useful when I used to feed a lot of wet food. I usually recommend Against the Grain for people on a tighter budget because their food is pretty highly rated and not quite as expensive as Tiki After Dark (especially since their oz per can are always less than average). The chicken samba is 1.04 for a 2.8 oz small can on chewy and it has 9/10 paws of catfooddb.

These are the ingredients:
chicken, water sufficient for processing, pumpkin, tricalcium phosphate, palm oil, tapioca, taurine, xanthan gum, vitamins (vitamin e supplement, niacin, vitamin a supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin d3 supplement, pantothenic acid, riboflavin supplement, choline chloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin b12 supplement), minerals (ferrous sulfate monohydrate, zinc sulfate heptahydrate, manganese sulfate monohydrate, copper sulfate pentahydrate, dicalcium phosphate, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate monohydrate, sodium selenite)

I'm not sure if they have a pate, but my cats enjoyed their formulas a lot. If that's still too expensive there are some flavors/types of Fancy Feast that are actually pretty highly ranked. They do have a tendency of adding fish to almost every single flavor though.
 

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I'll look into their ingredients!



I couldn't find after dark at my local stores, but just the tiki cat puka chicken is about $3.5-4/day for my girl who is 6lbs and trying to gain weight. I think if I fed both of them tiki cat it will end up being $10 or more a day which will be $300+/month which feels kind of high for my current budget. I might have calculated something wrong bit this is estimation based on prices I could find. When my financial situation improves I'd love to feed them the good stuff!

So far they eat anything that's more of a pate texture (tried 6 different flavors) so that helps haha! I got lucky. My kibble boy is already starting to prefer wet than dry in his meals.
Yeah I paid about 40 something bucks for 2 12 cases, if your on a budget I really wouldn't recommend it. I have been using sheba perfect portions which is 89 cents for 1 which includes 2 portions but they are only about 30-35 calories which mean you would have to feed multiple a day.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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Have you explored catfooddb.com yet? I found it really useful when I used to feed a lot of wet food. I usually recommend Against the Grain for people on a tighter budget because their food is pretty highly rated and not quite as expensive as Tiki After Dark (especially since their oz per can are always less than average). The chicken samba is 1.04 for a 2.8 oz small can on chewy and it has 9/10 paws of catfooddb.

These are the ingredients:
chicken, water sufficient for processing, pumpkin, tricalcium phosphate, palm oil, tapioca, taurine, xanthan gum, vitamins (vitamin e supplement, niacin, vitamin a supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin d3 supplement, pantothenic acid, riboflavin supplement, choline chloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin b12 supplement), minerals (ferrous sulfate monohydrate, zinc sulfate heptahydrate, manganese sulfate monohydrate, copper sulfate pentahydrate, dicalcium phosphate, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate monohydrate, sodium selenite)


I'm not sure if they have a pate, but my cats enjoyed their formulas a lot. If that's still too expensive there are some flavors/types of Fancy Feast that are actually pretty highly ranked. They do have a tendency of adding fish to almost every single flavor though.
I haven't read into this brand so thank you! I browsed the site before but didn't have time to check out everything yet.

That looks pretty good except maybe the gum and tapioca! The price seems just a little higher for the calories, but I'll keep it in mind for testing. The chicken&pumpkin samba I saw is about $0.015/calories vs pure vita turkey $0.008/calories.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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Yeah I paid about 40 something bucks for 2 12 cases, if your on a budget I really wouldn't recommend it. I have been using sheba perfect portions which is 89 cents for 1 which includes 2 portions but they are only about 30-35 calories which mean you would have to feed multiple a day.
Yea, I'm trying to calculate price per calorie as well since I noticed some foods have much lower calorie and end up costing more. The price for the Pure Vita and Wellness in my post is ok for me, not really looking for something cheaper necessarily. I guess I was just wondering if there were any options out there I haven't heard of that has similarly few bad ingredients and similar price per calorie. I'll include the better more expensive stuff as a weekly treat of course. Thank you for the recommendation and I'll look into that as well!
 

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I haven't read into this brand so thank you! I browsed the site before but didn't have time to check out everything yet.

That looks pretty good except maybe the gum and tapioca! The price seems just a little higher for the calories, but I'll keep it in mind for testing. The chicken&pumpkin samba I saw is about $0.015/calories vs pure vita turkey $0.008/calories.
That's a good point. I didn't think to look at the calories.

I don't personally worry about tapioca but I can understand why some people do. The Pure Vita does seem to have agar agar, natural flavor and no good source of omega though. (Although to be honest, omega is also missing from the brand I posted above as well as many Tiki formulas too.) I see they're using kelp but cats can't absorb omegas effectively from this like humans can.

Out of curiosity, have you gone down the home-cooked or raw rabbit-hole yet? It's not for everyone and takes a lot of research to do it properly, but it's very cost effective and you can avoid a lot of the nonsense fillers these companies like to add. That was a great solution for us and I got the cost down to about 2.50 (American) per day per cat. If I only fed chicken it would be about 1.00. I definitely understand anyone's hesitation though as it does take a lot of preparation and research.
 
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Babypinkweeb

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That's a good point. I didn't think to look at the calories.

I don't personally worry about tapioca but I can understand why some people do. The Pure Vita does seem to have agar agar, natural flavor and no good source of omega though. (Although to be honest, omega is also missing from the brand I posted above as well as many Tiki formulas too.) I see they're using kelp but cats can't absorb omegas effectively from this like humans can.

Out of curiosity, have you gone down the home-cooked or raw rabbit-hole yet? It's not for everyone and takes a lot of research to do it properly, but it's very cost effective and you can avoid a lot of the nonsense fillers these companies like to add. That was a great solution for us and I got the cost down to about 2.50 (American) per day per cat. If I only fed chicken it would be about 1.00. I definitely understand anyone's hesitation though as it does take a lot of preparation and research.
I agree with everything you said! I didn't know about the omega, like I said I am still learning about all this. But I'll say I probably now know more about cat food health than my own food! 😂 It's hard to find a food around $0.01/calorie or less without most of the stuff I'm trying to avoid, so for now I'm allowing certain things like gums even though it's not my favorite.

I know of the benefits of raw but at the moment I'm not sure if I can commit to the research and upkeep yet. Since I just adopted my 2nd cat, and is still transitioning my resident cat to wet, I've out it off for now. However I've looked at some freeze dried raw like Stella&Chewy but I think the cost is higher. Eventually when my income and life schedule is improved more I'd love to do some hard research and try it out! I just feel foolish I've fed some pretty bad kibble to my resident for the last 10 years but he's been such a trooper in terms of health.
 

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I agree with everything you said! I didn't know about the omega, like I said I am still learning about all this. But I'll say I probably now know more about cat food health than my own food! 😂 It's hard to find a food around $0.01/calorie or less without most of the stuff I'm trying to avoid, so for now I'm allowing certain things like gums even though it's not my favorite.

I know of the benefits of raw but at the moment I'm not sure if I can commit to the research and upkeep yet. Since I just adopted my 2nd cat, and is still transitioning my resident cat to wet, I've out it off for now. However I've looked at some freeze dried raw like Stella&Chewy but I think the cost is higher. Eventually when my income and life schedule is improved more I'd love to do some hard research and try it out! I just feel foolish I've fed some pretty bad kibble to my resident for the last 10 years but he's been such a trooper in terms of health.
Yeah omegas are not required for cat foods. I have a cat with fish allergies that can only tolerate pharma grade fish oil, so any food with regular fish oil was out of the question. This led him to develop a lot of dandruff. :( I also feel like I know way too much about my cats' diets as well...it's gotten to the point where vets don't even know what I'm talking about sometimes hah.

Stella and Chewy's is great but very expensive. Home-cooked is second best to raw and very cheap, especially since if you're cooking the meat, you can buy it from the grocery store and just add a basic supplement. It makes it really simple.

And don't feel foolish. I fed kibble for a long time even after seeing it's affects on cats. When I was a kid I lost two cats that were around age 10 to diabetes and they were basically fed Science Diet dry and Friskees wet their whole lives. It took me a long time with my own cats to come around. Actually, if I'm being completely honest what originally made me cut out dry kibble was my cat Morty's sudden reaction to it. He began vomiting anytime he ate it, so I had no choice. After that I spent years trying to find the best wet food and eventually moved to raw and home-cooked. Anyway, I completely understand needing to take things slowly for both your sake and your cats. Hopefully you can find something affordable that works for all of you!
 
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Yeah omegas are not required for cat foods. I have a cat with fish allergies that can only tolerate pharma grade fish oil, so any food with regular fish oil was out of the question. This led him to develop a lot of dandruff. :( I also feel like I know way too much about my cats' diets as well...it's gotten to the point where vets don't even know what I'm talking about sometimes hah.

Stella and Chewy's is great but very expensive. Home-cooked is second best to raw and very cheap, especially since if you're cooking the meat, you can buy it from the grocery store and just add a basic supplement. It makes it really simple.

And don't feel foolish. I fed kibble for a long time even after seeing it's affects on cats. When I was a kid I lost two cats that were around age 10 to diabetes and they were basically fed Science Diet dry and Friskees wet their whole lives. It took me a long time with my own cats to come around. Actually, if I'm being completely honest what originally made me cut out dry kibble was my cat Morty's sudden reaction to it. He began vomiting anytime he ate it, so I had no choice. After that I spent years trying to find the best wet food and eventually moved to raw and home-cooked. Anyway, I completely understand needing to take things slowly for both your sake and your cats. Hopefully you can find something affordable that works for all of you!
I will definitely look into home cooked though. I guess in terms of supplements it's a bit daunting for me but I definitely want the best I can afford to do for my fur babies. Our fridge isn't the biggest but I trust myself more with cooking something than raw.

My boy showed preference for dry due to his weird eating habit so he can eat slow and graze without worrying about the wet food drying out or getting gross. However with the transition I've found some wet food he really likes, even leaving his kibble on the plate but cleaning the wet! Baby steps but I'm happy I finally learned more about cat nutrition.
 

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I will definitely look into home cooked though. I guess in terms of supplements it's a bit daunting for me but I definitely want the best I can afford to do for my fur babies. Our fridge isn't the biggest but I trust myself more with cooking something than raw.

My boy showed preference for dry due to his weird eating habit so he can eat slow and graze without worrying about the wet food drying out or getting gross. However with the transition I've found some wet food he really likes, even leaving his kibble on the plate but cleaning the wet! Baby steps but I'm happy I finally learned more about cat nutrition.
I personally just use a premixed supplement so I just have to weigh the meat and weigh the supplement. It makes it so much easier compared to buying the 8 different supplements and weighing each of them out. It's also less about fridge space and more about freezer space, but nonetheless I understand your reservations with raw. You should just do what works for you and your cats! A lot of people swear by raw, but I personally think wet is a perfectly acceptable option. As a 10 year vegetarian and 4-5 year vegan it was a very uncomfortable experience for me that took me a while to adjust to. The biggest contributing factor for me was honestly the money. I just couldn't afford 2.50 a can anymore for wet, especially with three cats.

Lots of cats are grazers! My Morty likes to snack throughout the day, probably 15 times on average. The nice thing about wet (compared to things like raw) is that it can be left out much longer. Raw is a pain when you have a grazer, unless they really like what they're eating. Morty was like this with pork...because he's weird. :rolleyes:
 
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I personally just use a premixed supplement so I just have to weigh the meat and weigh the supplement. It makes it so much easier compared to buying the 8 different supplements and weighing each of them out. It's also less about fridge space and more about freezer space, but nonetheless I understand your reservations with raw. You should just do what works for you and your cats! A lot of people swear by raw, but I personally think wet is a perfectly acceptable option. As a 10 year vegetarian and 4-5 year vegan it was a very uncomfortable experience for me that took me a while to adjust to. The biggest contributing factor for me was honestly the money. I just couldn't afford 2.50 a can anymore for wet, especially with three cats.

Lots of cats are grazers! My Morty likes to snack throughout the day, probably 15 times on average. The nice thing about wet (compared to things like raw) is that it can be left out much longer. Raw is a pain when you have a grazer, unless they really like what they're eating. Morty was like this with pork...because he's weird. :rolleyes:
The premix supplement you mention, is it ok to use with home cooked as well? I'd love a link if possible, just to start learning. Of course I will also slowly dig thru the home cook forum as well. I learned a lot, thank you!!
 

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The premix supplement you mention, is it ok to use with home cooked as well? I'd love a link if possible, just to start learning. Of course I will also slowly dig thru the home cook forum as well. I learned a lot, thank you!!
No problem!

I'm not sure what country you're from, but I'm assuming Canada since Pure Vita is a Canadian brand. Personally I use Alnutrin, but only because one of my cats has an allergy and needs special fish oil. Alnutrin requires addition of liver and fish oil. They have versions for bone, no bone, as well as directions for using it with cooked meats (so obviously no bone). Basically, I cook my meat up, and then mix it in a food processor with the alnutrin, oil and water. It must be added after cooking. Again, do not cook bones. I buy pre-ground meat from Hare-today, but only because I have a huge freezer so it saves me money. Less than 5.00 a pound for pork is a steal, although they only ship to the US. I've heard that local butchers can also be a cheap option for a lot of people as well.

Know What You Feed Your Cat - Shop Online

What would be easier for you since you didn't mention any allergies would be something like E-Z Complete. Be aware that it is twice as expensive as Alnutrin.

Food Fur Life Store

With E-Z Complete you don't have to add any fish oil or liver. Just mix it in with cooked meat. The upfront cost seems like a lot, but it makes A LOT. Basically, you pay a lot in the beginning and save money in the end. If you are unsure just calculate the cost of the meat, the E-Z, and the shipping and divide it by the total pounds of meat used for the entire supplement package, and multiply that by how much you feed per day. For example: Meat is 5.00 per pound. E-Z makes 24.2 pounds for $55.00. Maybe shipping is $5.00. 5per/lb*24.2lb= $121 is how much you would need to spend on meat for the entire package. $121+$55+$5=$181. 181 dollars to make 24.2 pounds. 181/24.2= 7.47 per pound, then 7.47*.33lb =2.46 per cat per day. My cats need about .33 pounds each per day, but that will vary depending on their weight. Here is a good calculator. Also, sorry if that was confusing.

Raw Food Feeding Calculator | Hare Today

There is also a supplement that is sold Canada (not that the others aren't, I'm not really sure). I have never used it and I'm not sure if it requires liver. From what I see they have a few different versions.

TCfeline Premix

Finally, this link from feline-nutrition helped me a lot. It gives a basic recipe, and also gives you alternative to their recipe (like using a premix).

StackPath
 
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No problem!

I'm not sure what country you're from, but I'm assuming Canada since Pure Vita is a Canadian brand. Personally I use Alnutrin, but only because one of my cats has an allergy and needs special fish oil. Alnutrin requires addition of liver and fish oil. They have versions for bone, no bone, as well as directions for using it with cooked meats (so obviously no bone). Basically, I cook my meat up, and then mix it in a food processor with the alnutrin, oil and water. It must be added after cooking. Again, do not cook bones. I buy pre-ground meat from Hare-today, but only because I have a huge freezer so it saves me money. Less than 5.00 a pound for pork is a steal, although they only ship to the US. I've heard that local butchers can also be a cheap option for a lot of people as well.

Know What You Feed Your Cat - Shop Online

What would be easier for you since you didn't mention any allergies would be something like E-Z Complete. Be aware that it is twice as expensive as Alnutrin.

Food Fur Life Store

With E-Z Complete you don't have to add any fish oil or liver. Just mix it in with cooked meat. The upfront cost seems like a lot, but it makes A LOT. Basically, you pay a lot in the beginning and save money in the end. If you are unsure just calculate the cost of the meat, the E-Z, and the shipping and divide it by the total pounds of meat used for the entire supplement package, and multiply that by how much you feed per day. For example: Meat is 5.00 per pound. E-Z makes 24.2 pounds for $55.00. Maybe shipping is $5.00. 5per/lb*24.2lb= $121 is how much you would need to spend on meat for the entire package. $121+$55+$5=$181. 181 dollars to make 24.2 pounds. 181/24.2= 7.47 per pound, then 7.47*.33lb =2.46 per cat per day. My cats need about .33 pounds each per day, but that will vary depending on their weight. Here is a good calculator. Also, sorry if that was confusing.

Raw Food Feeding Calculator | Hare Today

There is also a supplement that is sold Canada (not that the others aren't, I'm not really sure). I have never used it and I'm not sure if it requires liver. From what I see they have a few different versions.

TCfeline Premix

Finally, this link from feline-nutrition helped me a lot. It gives a basic recipe, and also gives you alternative to their recipe (like using a premix).

StackPath
Thank you so much for this!! And it's not confusing at all, this is extremely helpful!! I will bookmark this for future reference. I am located in US, but I think these can be shipped here. Cooking meat and adding supplement mix definitely makes this feel a lot more doable, so I will do my research for now while letting the kitties become full wet food feeders.
 

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Thank you so much for this!! And it's not confusing at all, this is extremely helpful!! I will bookmark this for future reference. I am located in US, but I think these can be shipped here. Cooking meat and adding supplement mix definitely makes this feel a lot more doable, so I will do my research for now while letting the kitties become full wet food feeders.
No problem. There's also this sub-forum if you have any questions, as well as the handy search button for past threads. A ton of people here feed rare and/or home-cooked, so there are a lot of people that would be more than happy to help if you find yourself with any questions.

Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food
 
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