Premium vs. Ultra-Premium Cat Food

[subconsciousme]

My best advice is to ask your vet.

One of our cats has food sensitivities. Therefore, she cannot have any poultry or grains.

We were recommended a food that was outside our budget (Royal Canin Duck). So we opted for Natural Balance Salmon and Green Pea--and while it doesn't resolve the problem completely, it helps about 95% and we can afford it on a regular basis.

 

[sweetpea24]

While I applaud companies like Natural Balance, Wellness and others which created limited ingredient foods, it doesn't mean that the ingredients have not come into contact with other ingredients that may cause your cat's sensitivities or allergies. Companies like Medi-cal, only make their hypoallergenic formulas on Mondays and prior to that, the factory is cleaned thoroughly so no remnants of other ingredients are present before making the food. I am not a big fan of medi-cal (but I think I'm more so than I am of Hills) but in this respect, this is a huge advantage. I'm not saying go buy a bag of Medi-cal Hypo food, just putting it out there. As for the aforementioned companies, I'm not sure if they make their limited ingredient formulas at different factories or do something similar toMedi-cal. I work with a vet who worked in the Medi-cal plant so she has firsthand experience.

 

[Columbine]

Just adding a few articles that may help you make informed cat food choices [article="29707"][/article][article="31089"][/article][article="0"][/article][article="31127"][/article][article="32669"][/article][article="31120"][/article][article="31801"][/article][article="32765"][/article][article="29646"][/article][article="22434"][/article][article="31714"][/article][article="31141"][/article]

 

[plan]

I'm a big fan of the Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry food, but I feed wet 2x a day, and put the BB dry in Bud's dry-only food bowl overnight, so he can snack and have food to tide him over until morning. That keeps him happy, and prevents him from waking me up.

This is only anecdotal, but with Bud I do notice a difference in his coat when he's eating the Blue Buffalo Wildnerness. I really cannot get over how great his coat looks right now.

As for wet food, Sheba is reasonably priced, has good ingredients, and comes in those "perfect portions" containers that eliminate waste if you have a cat who doesn't like leftovers. For wet food, I feed Sheba, Blue Buffalo, Nutro, and occasionally Fancy Feast classic. Bud will only eat pate, but YMMV depending on your cat.