Which One Would You Choose?

[ScarlettGatsby]

I feed my cat wet and dry food. Her dry right now is the Chicken Soup brand. It's just what I bought when we first adopted her and needed something fast. It had good reviews and the cost wasn't too high.
I like the food fine, but I would like to switch to something I can buy at a locally owned pet store.

Looking at what they carry, I'm trying to decide between these 3 options.

I've selected the flavors that have duck cause I know she likes that protein.

Merrick Perfect bistro Duck and Turkey

Acana Regionals Grasslands

Fromm Wild Game

I think these all seem pretty comparable price and quality wise, and am having a hard time picking between them.


And yes she eats good quality wet food, and she drinks plenty of water.

Here's a pic to show her off.

 

[amethyst]

Maverick and Fromm are suppose to be good brands, with Acana it depends on where you live. If you live in Canada it's still good, but the US plant has been having issues, the recipes are not the same, and some cats are ending up sick.
I would also be careful about feeding a cat duck, it's high in fat as well as protein, so you will need to watch to make sure she doesn't end up overweight. Of the three choices, the Merrick has the highest protein, lowest calories per 100g and the lowest fat. I've been using catfooddb.com to get a comparison of foods, it's an unbiased site that just gives you the rundown of facts. I hope that helps.

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

I make sure she is getting the right amount of calories so I'm not worried about her over eating. If anything she doesn't eat enough and it's been hard to find food she likes for wet food.

That's too bad about the acana. I live I the US.

 

[orange&white]

I think you could rotate the three products. With dry food, you do have to transition slowly by mixing the last of the previous food into the new food over about a week. Still that protects you against having your kitty addicted to one product if there are changes in formulas, recalls, or if the food is discontinued.

 

[destinyz12]

Definitely the Merrick duck & turkey for best ingredients. It has hardly any fillers, unlike Fromm which has way too many fruits and vegetables in my opinion, including cranberries which can be toxic to cats if too much is consumed, and it also lists cheese, but doesn't even say what type. Too many questionable ingredients. And like some said, Acana in the U.S. has changed formulas and made some cats sick so I don't know if I'd trust them for now.

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

Okay I'm leaning towards the Merrick now.
I like the idea of Fromm cause it seems like a great family owned company. I did wonder about the cheese, why put cheese in cat good?! They are in Wisconsin so maybe they just add it to everything lol. They say on the website that it's local Wisconsin cheese.

She eats mostly merrick for her wet food and they seem very good quality.

I might try rotating Fromm and Merrick, I like that idea.

 

[Willowy]

The US has a massive oversupply of milkfat stored away; Americans like skim milk too much . So it's being sold to pet/livestock feed companies for cheap. It's just another fat source, I wouldn't let it be a deciding factor either way.

Get a small bag of each and let the kitty decide! If she doesn't like it, it doesn't matter what you think .

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

Get a small bag of each and let the kitty decide! If she doesn't like it, it doesn't matter what you think .

Very true lol
The Fromm has a 2 lb bag so I'll probably try that first.

 

[destinyz12]

Yes, Merrick has been a very good, consistent brand in my experience so far, even with the Purina buy-out. They actually improved some of their ingredients since then. My cats love the Merrick Purrfect Bistro wet food trays, and I'm getting ready to transition one of my cats over to their dry food-the Merrick Limited Ingredient Diet chicken. I was feeding her Canidae Pure Elements chicken dry food which is also a good one, but she decided she doesn't like it anymore and tries to steal the kittens food now. The Duck/turkey one you've listed here looks like something I'd be interested in trying in the future as well.

 

[zed xyzed]

She is so cute!!

 

[Linda Dwyer]

I always fed Orajin but when I got my bengal his breeder was feeding Fromm duck ala veg. He refused to eat the orajin so I got him the fromm, he's done wonderful on it and fromm also makes a wet food different flavors you can try. Orajin is a 5 star food but if they won't eat it its useless. Fromm is a 4 star food and they love it

 

[lalagimp]

I wouldn't feed Merrick.
Pretty sure Purina bought them two years ago so that's a nope for me.
Fromm is highly recommended on many cat food review sites.

 

[Linda Dwyer]

I won't feed anything made by purina, they use rendered meat in their foods and the thought of them eating euthanized dogs and cats and dead and dying animals and road kill doesn't sit well with me

 

[Willowy]

I won't feed anything made by purina, they use rendered meat in their foods and the thought of them eating euthanized dogs and cats and dead and dying animals and road kill doesn't sit well with me

4D animals are only allowed in lower-quality ingredients such as meat by-product meal or meat and bone meal. The higher grade foods should not contain those ingredients.

 

[Linda Dwyer]

you may be right but I'm not taking any chances

 

[laura mae]

Merrick Bistro gets a paws up from my cats who can have some dry. I serve it as a side dish to their wet food and they love it. I've tried the Fromm's before and it's absurd. It looks like a bag of freeze dried vegetables and not one single cat recognized it as food. They also rejected Oriijen.

I have three cats on the lean side and the extra calories from the dry seems to help them finish their wet food. It's like having the alternative texture keeps them interested in their whole meal.

Merricks has decent ingredients for dry food. The ingredients are about 10 steps up from Purina which has quite a few grains in it. Merrick seems to have retained its better level of ingredients in both its canned and dry foods even if they are now owned by Purina, which I don't happen to buy into the story that they are in the business of harming pets. Purina DOES NOT PUT EUTHANIZED dogs and cats in their food. The company who apparently did do that was a "small, family owned pet food company" called Evangers who had something in their dog food that killed some dogs recently because of the presence of the drug used to put pets to sleep. Evangers is like the poster child for "small company isn't necessarily better" as far as pet food is considered because they've had many problems over the years.

I'm not sure how many small brands we buy actually have their own manufacturing and to what extent they rely on larger plants who process several lines of food, both boutique and grocery store brands.

In the early 2000s when the Chinese sourced wheat gluten was actually melamine that poisoned and killed cats all over the country, it was interesting to see that Iams, Nutro, Diamond, and I think it was California Natural were affected. All are just fine today, apparently. Several grocery store brands and the higher end brands were all processed in the same plant, while others got their ingredients from the same plants. The recall swept over a huge range of food, but you know who was not affected? Purina.

That said, lower quality foods should be watched for by-products which can be bone, feathers, etc. which can be hard on kitties who tend toward constipation, or a problem when "ash" levels have to be watched.

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

This is all very new to me, I've only had a cat 2 months!
There is so much conflicting information everywhere it gets really confusing.

I have never heard of the euthanized dogs being put in pet food. That's horrifying.

 

[orange&white]

This is all very new to me, I've only had a cat 2 months!
There is so much conflicting information everywhere it gets really confusing.

I have never heard of the euthanized dogs being put in pet food. That's horrifying.

If you ask for opinions about food at TheCatSite, you gets lots of 'em.

Trust your instincts. You've done good research and are looking at the better brands of food. Buy a small bag and see what your cat likes. Try to get two to three brands in rotation.

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

Thanks Orange&white!
I'm not really worried. It's interesting to read all the different opinions really.

 

[ScarlettGatsby]

And I mean the conflicting information is everywhere, not just in this thread. All over!