Vet Recommended Switching Food, Need Help.

[AntonioFlower]

Yesterday, we took our 2 year old cat, Izzy, to the vet because she has been throwing up once a week. He said it wasn't serious and told us it might just be hairballs and gave us Laxatone. He also said it might be because of some ingredients like dyes in the food we food her, Friskies wet food. We have also been looking into other canned foods that was a higher quality so we asked him what we should be feeding her. The only food they sell at their office is Hill's cat and dog food. It's pretty expensive for us but we decided that feeding her the best food we could was the best choice. After we bought it, I looked into it and found a good amount of bad reviews. Now we are hesitant on feeding her this but we decided to try it out to see if she likes it. Izzy didn't mind it but she also didn't go crazy for it like she does with Friskies, most likely because she is used to Friskies. So now I don't know if we should stick to Friskies, switch over to Hill's or go for other canned foods. Is there a brand that is recommended? We don't mind having to pay more for a higher quality of food. Just kind of lost here. I feel bad for buying Hill's without doing my own research first but for now, we will stick to Friskies as we try to figure this out. Any advice or recommendations is really appreciated. Thank you!

 

[kittyluv387]

Friskies and Hills are both not high quality. You want to look for low carb foods. I would consider lower carb foods to be higher quality.

https://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

What I personally feed:
Dr. Elsey's Pate - Chicken, Turkey
Hound & Gatos Pate - Chicken, Rabbit
Rawz Pate - Rabbit
Redbarn Naturals Pate - Turkey, Rabbit

I stick to pate because they are more bang for your buck. More calories for your money.

 

[AntonioFlower]

Friskies and Hills are both not high quality. You want to look for low carb foods. I would consider lower carb foods to be higher quality.

https://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

What I personally feed:
Dr. Elsey's Pate - Chicken, Turkey
Hound & Gatos Pate - Chicken, Rabbit
Rawz Pate - Rabbit
Redbarn Naturals Pate - Turkey, Rabbit

I stick to pate because they are more bang for your buck. More calories for your money.

Thanks! Last time we tried pate, Izzy didn't like it but I'll definitely look at the brands that you recommended. Much appreciated!

 

[IndyJones]

I think there's some foods that come in a stew formula

Wuvera is one such food go also makes stew

I'd avoid the chunky stuff if possible some companies use carrageenan (potential carcinogen) to hold it together.

 

[KarenKat]

We love Rawz here, but have a cat that doesn’t seem to like pates (and maybe doesn’t like canned food? He will eat cartons or pouches). We currently feed him Caru Stews (Chewy.com) and Au jous by Rawz - it’s a shredded chicken pouch. Seems pretty well received.

Olive seems to prefer pate, and we feed Rawz rabbit, rawz duck, life’s abundance (only available at lifesabundance.com) and Fromm Chicken and Duck. We also feed Stella and Chewy raw dehydrated nuggets

 

[lokhismom]

You could even try Fancy Feast Classic Pates. Grain free, low carb. There's also Merrick which is reasonably priced and better quality than Friskies

 

[BaileyCat]

Yesterday, we took our 2 year old cat, Izzy, to the vet because she has been throwing up once a week. He said it wasn't serious and told us it might just be hairballs and gave us Laxatone.

Many vets think throwing up once a week isn't serious. I don't get it. I will never get it. Would the vet want to throw up once a week? /rant

If you look at the ingredients of the Hills food, more then likely the ingredients are worse then most other canned foods. Don't be afraid to try other brands that are better... and cost a whole lot less!

If your cat doesn't like pate, try adding a bit of water to it. When I fed canned foods, that worked for my cats.

Good luck!

 

[EmersonandEvie]

If you want to stick with a "vet" brand, Purina ProPlan's True Nature line is pretty good. My cats all love it and I got it on a good sale on Chewy. You could also do the Fancy Feast Gourmet Natural line (no dyes) and see if she likes that!

 

[Talien]

Hill's is straight up garbage, the ingredients are comparable to what you'd see in the "bargain basement" foods like friskies, 9lives, and grocery store brands. I'd say I honestly cannot understand how ANY vet can sell that crap let alone recommend it with a straight face, but most vets will say things like "ingredients don't matter, only the nutrients do." The next time I hear that I'm going to ask what they think would happen if they tried to live on a diet of white bread and water with vitamins and supplements to add in the nutrients that white bread is lacking in.

If you want a good quality food make sure you look at the ingredients, the more plant based ingredients there are the worse it is to feed a Cat. If any of it's protein sources are plant based it's garbage that shouldn't even be sold.

One thing to remember is just because it says "grain free" on the label doesn't mean it's any good. A lot of grain free foods just use other plant based ingredients like peas or potatoes in place of the grains, which are just as bad.

Some food you could look into are Instinct, Tiki Cat, and Kasiks, which can be ordered from chewy. It's made in Canada so you probably won't find it in any pet stores in the US though.

 

[Bratcat31]

Certain makes/models of Petco's housebrand (Wholehearted) are pretty good. No artificial something or anothers and the macros are good. I'd have to get to my spreadsheet to give you the specifics on which ones though. I can do that later!

 

[maggie101]

Try cat food with pieces of meat or shredded to mix in pate. Or mix in pure bites freeze dried chicken treats crushed. The ingredients in Hills are not good. High in carbs. The more starches, higher the carbs.
I use Dr Elseys chicken and Turkey, Rawz, Hounds and Gatos, Miko, Canidae Pure Chaparrel Canyon duck chicken
No fish

 

[mizzely]

If they don't like pate, I'd try a shred style. Weruva, Whole Hearted (Petco) , Soulistic (Petco) , BFF, American Journey Landmark (Chewy), and Tiki Cat come to mind

 

[jen]

Last I looked Friskies classic pates were very low/no carb. Most under 5%. According to catinfo.org. I feed that to my cat sometimes. Although she prefers her Stella and Chewy raw nuggets, she loves eating them still frozen silly girl.

 

[Bratcat31]

Flavor, Form Factor, Age, Protein, Fat, Carb
Ocean Fish, Minced Adult, 63.89%, 13.89%, 1.67%
Salmon, Minced Adult, 60.00%, 12.50%, 11.00%
Chicken, Minced Adult, 52.94%, 14.71% 12.35%
Tuna, Flakes Kitten, 75.00%, 20.00%, 0%
Chicken, Flakes Kitten, 75.00%, 12.50%, 0%

All are Wholehearted brand. Petco does a 30% discount on first repeat delivery so it's really very affordable.