What Kind Of Diet Do You Feed Your Cat?

[KalicoKitten]

All my kitties are a bit too young for 2 meals a day and I can't do 3 with my schedule so I let them free feed. I'll probably schedule 2 meals a day when my youngest reaches 6 months old. I feel blue wilderness dry food, switching the flavors slowly between bags so that they have a variety and don't get sick of the same food over and over again. I just don't feed them the salmon flavor. I don't like giving fish as a main protein to cats. I do give them wet food 1-2 times a day and with the wet food we'll buy a big pack of whatever, really, as long as it's a pate. (Something I've been told is that any wet food is better than even the highest quality dry food, and also that pates are better than shredded because gravy has a lot of starch.) We've fed Sheba, Authority, and are currently on the Friskies Classics Paté Poultry Favorites because at least 1 of the flavors doesn't have fish in it. I may go with Fancy Feast (Classics Paté) next, although I've heard that's addictive so I'm not so sure about that..

I haven't really run into a problem with my cats over eating from free feeding yet though. They don't seem to be in a rush to eat since they've been indoors for either all of their lives or since very young and they know the food is always there. I may just keep free feeding them if no problems arise. I know experts don't recommend it but if there's no problem then I don't see why not.

 

[tuffsmom]

Fancy Feast wet 3 Oz can 2X daily. I add about 2 tsp water to each meal since Tuff won't drink water. 1 tsp Fromms dry as bedtime snack. His black coat shines like patent leather and he is one happy cat. I suspect he has some Bombay in him. Sheds very little.

 

[cheesycats]

My cats get a crap load of all kinds of stuff. Working in a petstore I tend to buy most higher quality food that clearance out in bulk so I only buy cat food every few months or so. I also enjoy visiting other smaller pet stores to see what they offer. Right now my cats are eating a mixture of Natural Balance Wild Pursuit chicken and quail, merrick backcountry game bird, and solid gold indigo moon. I’m only feeding these right now because I got a large bag of each (three bags of the wildpursuit) for around 50$ all together. They hated the wild pursuit though. I ended up donated two bags of it. The other bag was mixed with the other two foods. However they hate this mix and individually they aren’t really fans of each food in general. Probably won’t be repurchasing any of them again. I also have three smaller bags in rotation I give randomly which include whole earth farms duck and turkey (which I don’t like much but they gobble like candy) natures variety chicken raw boost, and petvalus instore brand in the grain free variety. Those three foods are my cats favorite dry foods. I’m super excited to try tikis new born carnivore too.
I also feed a wide variety of canned. Mainly Ive been feeding natures variety, merrick, soulistic, tiki cat, petvalus brand, and the Natural Balance Wild Pursuit. I have also fed wellness core, and selects. I will probably go back to those now that the core no longer has carrageenan in it. I try my best to avoid fish and carrageenan but sometimes the deals are too hard to pass since I’m always trying to stock up and go longer amounts of time without buying food. I’ve also fed halo, earthborn, red barn, weruva, chicken soup for the soul, holistic selects, and wild calling among others. It’s a lot but my female cat will starve herself if I don’t offer different food every time. I once bought 6 cases of soulistic chicken that were clearanced and she loved it for the first day. Then no one would touch it out of four cats after about three days. I ended up donated the last five cases. It was a true tragedy lol. I have really spoiled felines.
They also get fed raw on occasion. Mostly natures variety instinct. My female likes it. Not so much my male but I’m happy he likes canned food at least.
For treats I give them a wide variety too. I’m going through my last batch of greenies. I will no longer be purchasing these. I feed they do not help with cleaning their teeth and they’re the only thing in their diets now that contain grains. But I bought a big tin of them a couple months ago and feed sparingly. They like them but og well lol. They also get blue buffalos new crunchy wilderness treats (not big fans tbh), I’ve tried dr Foster and smith dental treats (female won’t even touch. Even if I mix them with something else. Nope not happening), fruitable treats, and some soft treats I got from petvalu buy one get one a couple months ago. They like these the best. Can’t get them to eat pure bites anything. They like friskies the best of course but they only get those when they’re being kitty sat by someone else lol.

 

[grooverite]

The boys get raw since Tom had all his blockages and surgery, but I've seen people have good results with Dave's restricted diet. It's on Chewy and I think the main protein is pork.

Thank you for the info!

Fancy Feast wet 3 Oz can 2X daily. I add about 2 tsp water to each meal since Tuff won't drink water. 1 tsp Fromms dry as bedtime snack. His black coat shines like patent leather and he is one happy cat. I suspect he has some Bombay in him. Sheds very little.

I just ordered FF on Amazon. They had a good deal so I went for it. I've been adding 1 tsp of water to their wet meals since I now know that Urethal blockages happen mainly from lack of water in a cats diet. I don't understand why this is more common knowledge??!? I would of never given my cats dry food had I known from the beginning!

 

[_spadekitty]

Currently feeding my boy Lotus, Wellness, and Canidae wet food. He gets about 6 oz total a day. He has a poultry allergy which cuts out a lot of food (especially dry), so he eats a lot of beef, pork, and salmon.

 

[riley1]

We just switched to an all wet diet. She was on all dry for 9 years before I found this site, then I went to a 50/50 diet for a while and now dropped the dry when my last bag ran out.
Right now I am feeding some cases of food I had left from Chewy before we made the switch to all wet. These are Merrick Rabbit, ProPlan True Nature, FF classics and some 4health I bought from Tractor Supply.
When I run out of these though, we will be moving to some cheaper brands because I can't afford to feed all wet with these brands.
I'm looking at Friskies, FF and Dave's as my new rotation. I might keep some 4health if we are in the area of Tractor Supply anyway.

Are you aware of this site? catinfo.org Breakdown of canned foods. Really helps me with fosters.

 

[riley1]

Didn't know any better with my first boy but my girl gets Rad Cat & Primal raw. 5 oz fed 4 times per day. Three meals of Rad Cat & one of Primal. I would not use Primal at all but I want 4 different proteins per day and I don't want beef or venison. The Primal is rabbit. She loves raw and looks wonderful! Be careful with commercial raw; they can pack a lot of fat into their products! Here is a site I just love; gives a breakdown of all canned foods. catinfo.org I also love Chewy's. They don't have raw but I order all the canned food for my fosters from them. There prices are usually pretty good, free shipping over $49 and delivery in 1-2 days. I asked Chewy's about returning something I ordered by mistake. They said we will credit you but give the unwanted food to a shelter & reorder what you want. What a great company to deal with!

 

[abyeb]

Embarrassingly enough, Charlie is on an all-dry diet. I would love to get him on an all-wet or combination diet, but he just refuses to eat wet food.

 

[riley1]

Embarrassingly enough, Charlie is on an all-dry diet. I would love to get him on an all-wet or combination diet, but he just refuses to eat wet food.

The catinfo.org site has suggestions for switching.

 

[stephanietx]

We feed grain-free wet but we do give grain-free dry as "snacks" and treats. I have one kitty who cannot tolerate a completely grain-free diet, so he gets Rx food, but we mix it with grain-free food. Our current rotation is Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain (canned and dry), EVO chicken & turkey, and Natural Balance Wild Pursuit Chicken, Turkey & Quail.

 

[MissMolly08]

Are you aware of this site? catinfo.org Breakdown of canned foods. Really helps me with fosters.

Yes, I've read a lot on that site.

 

[NewYork1303]

We have three cats that all have their own favorites. Carrot loves dry food, but we don't want him to eat just that. Still he gets cranky if he doesn't have any (as in he screams and paces the house). Angua's favorite is canned food, she'll eat just about any flavor or brand. Ruby's favorite is the raw frozen. It took a while to get everyone else to eat it, but she loved it from the very beginning.

Since they all like different things they get an early morning meal of canned food, followed by a small meal of dry food. When I get home from work they get another wet food meal. Right before bed they get their frozen raw food.

We use:

Nature's Variety Instinct dry food
Fancy Feast, Sheba, and Weruva canned food
And Nature's Variety Instinct raw food

 

[sabian]

I feed Manny Purina Cat Chow Naturals with Vitamins and Minerals indoor or Purina One indoor dry food as a free feed 24/7 and 1/3 can of wet food for a treat at night usually Iams Purrfect Delights or Purina Fancy Feast Medley's. Have tried Surely Fancy Feast and he likes that as well as Whiska's Purrfectly Chicken. Whiska's he liked the broth but didn't eat all the meat. I only got it because I had a coupon...lol...and thought it would be worth a try. I've thought about a raw diet with chicken parts. To be honest I think I could feed this guy seaweed and dirt and he would lick his bowl clean. I've only had him 6 months so still checkin things out but, he's a lean mean poopin machine!

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

Snoop eats Green Pea and Duck LID food. It is what I found would stop the explosive diarrhea. For awhile he ate dry in the mornings and wet in the evenings. Then he suddenly decided to stop eating the wet. I am searching around now and trying to decide whether to try a different kind of wet food. I am very hesitant to do so.

 

[Evelina]

In my case, I have a three month old kitten and he gets four small servings a day. In the morning I give him dry food, Orijen or Acana and in the other three servings he gets wet food.
Usually it’s Feringa and Lily’s kitchen but sometimes it’s Granatapet or Thrive.
If you guys have any suggestions or believe I am doing it wrongly feel free to comment me and help me improve.
What other wet and dry food brands are good for kittens?

 

[Neo_23]

In my case, I have a three month old kitten and he gets four small servings a day. In the morning I give him dry food, Orijen or Acana and in the other three servings he gets wet food.
Usually it’s Feringa and Lily’s kitchen but sometimes it’s Granatapet or Thrive.
If you guys have any suggestions or believe I am doing it wrongly feel free to comment me and help me improve.
What other wet and dry food brands are good for kittens?

What you're feeding sounds good to me -all very high quality foods! I have never heard of the wet foods you mentioned. Are they European brands?

 

[matt1991]

my boy only likes dry food sadly and pure gravy packages so i give him the gravy packs on weekends as a treat and i do feed a few ally cats like frozen salmon fillets i had n freezer half cooked so its somewhat raw

 

[Evelina]

What you're feeding sounds good to me -all very high quality foods! I have never heard of the wet foods you mentioned. Are they European brands?

Yes, there is a UK website that sort of expanded and it is selling in Germany, Italy and France too, as well in Spain where I currently live, it's called zooplus. What are the most famous wet food brands in the US?

Feringa is a German brand, these are ingredients for Kitten variation:
http://media13.mediazs.com/bilder/f...68_pla_feringa_nafu_kittenhuhn_kalb200g_2.jpg
Turkey with Pumpkin & Catnip:
72% turkey (heart, meat, liver, neck), 25.9% stock, 1% pumpkin, 1% minerals, 0.1% catnip

Chicken & Veal with Carrots & Dandelion:
45% chicken (heart, meat, liver, stomach, neck), 27% veal (heart), 25.9% stock, 1% carrots, 1% minerals, 0.1% dandelion

Lily's Kitchen is a UK brand and the design on the can is adorable <3:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.lilyskitchen.co.uk/usercontent/img/col-6/3114.jpg
Content:
Ingredients:
Chicken (30%), pork (21%), trout (10%), beef (4%), salmon oil, chelated minerals.
Additives
Nutritional additives:
Vitamin A (100 IU/kg), zinc chelate from amino acid hydrate (40mg/kg), copper chelate from amino acid hydrate (2mg/kg), manganese chelate from amono acid hydrate (1.6mg/kg), calcium iodate, anhydrous (0.78mg/kg).
Technological additives:
Carrageenan (5.3mg/kg).

Granatapet is German again
https://uploads.petsexpert.de/resize/products/2016/10/19/5807466e1a0b8_400x400.jpeg

And these are the ingredients:
Poultry meat 72% (incl. muscle meat, heart, liver), poultry broth 25%, pomegranate kernels 1%, salmon oil 1%, minerals 1%


Additives: Vitamin D3 200 IU, Taurine 1500 mg, Zinc (zinc sulfate, monohydrate) 15 mg, Manganese (manganese (II) sulfate, monohydrate) 3 mg, Iodine (calcium iodate, anhydrous) 0.75 mg.

And finally Thrive Kitten (Chicken Breast (70%), Chicken stock, Sunflower Oil, Vitamins & Minerals.)
https://thrivepetfoods.com/media/ca.../9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/_/b_1.jpg

 

[Neo_23]

They look pretty good! I like that they give you the exact percentages in the ingredients list.

I would say here the most popular brands are fancy feast and friskies haha. They are not very good. But we have higher quality grain free brands too (some popular ones are Weruva and Wellness). They’re just not as popular imo.

 

[Evelina]

They look pretty good! I like that they give you the exact percentages in the ingredients list.

I would say here the most popular brands are fancy feast and friskies haha. They are not very good. But we have higher quality grain free brands too (some popular ones are Weruva and Wellness). They’re just not as popular imo.

Yeah I like the percentage info too!
I heard about Friskies, I don't like it very much because of the high percentage of grain; but still, I think all raw is better than a mix of quality dry/wet food. Maybe in future I will consider all raw Even though the ratio of wet dry I feed is like 75:25, but still.