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betsyhac

Healthy Canned Cat Food

betsyhac
12 years ago

Has anyone done any research lately on the most healthy canned cat food out there? I've been buying Wellness for my 5 cats, but lately, they're not satisfied with it. This worries me. I have 5 cats, and if they are all turning up their noses all of a sudden, it makes me wonder if the food formula hasn't changed and/or cost cutting hasn't made the food less than it used to be.

Comments (17)

  • User
    12 years ago

    If all five cats are rejecting the food at the same time, your worries may be very justified. In addition to the reasons you've already stated, I also wonder if the food is bad. Cats will usually avoid spoiled or tainted food more than dogs will. I'd return the unused cans and try something else but that's just me.

  • lucygoose
    12 years ago

    We use Wellness canned.....my 17 and a half year old is eating it....Good Luck!

  • petaloid
    12 years ago

    It would need to be a healthy canned cat food that your cats will actually eat.

    Mine like Trader Joe's brand and Science Diet, both pretty healthy.

  • betsyhac
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Someone mentioned Whole Foods brand. Does anyone know if this is quality food?

  • stir_fryi SE Mich
    12 years ago

    Healthy or not -- what difference does it make if they won't eat it?? My cat will only eat Friskees shredded canned cat food.

    My vet wants him to only eat canned because he is over-weight. I tried various better-quality canned foods -- he won't touch them!

    He likes the shredded texture (won't touch pate') and most brands do not offer this.

    It is possible your cats tastes have changed.

  • schoolhouse_gw
    12 years ago

    I tried to wean my older cat off of Fancy Feast and onto Evo but he didn't like it. The new, younger cat ate Evo for awhile but started to walk away. It only comes in large cans and I was always worried about spoilage. Sometimes I threw out half of a can at a time. The smaller cans of cat food always seemed like extra cost but I bought for trail some "B.F.F.", Tuna and Pumpkin, Tuna and Chicken, and Tuna and Shrimp flavors. Well, both cats LOVE the Tuna/Pumpkin. Plus my older one was having some health issues and I thought the pumpkin just might help. He cries for it! Just like he did for his Fancy Feast. I only serve two teaspoons each twice a day because they have dry Taste of The Wild available all day until 8:30pm.

    I went back and bought three more cans of the Tuna/Pumpkin. Still have the other flavors in the cupboard to offer. I think it is $1.39 for a 5.5oz. can which will last them two - three days depending upon how much I give them at each meal. They are inside/outside cats and their appetites vary.

  • oregpsnow
    12 years ago

    My picky princess likes Merrick Turducken, which is small pieces of meat. Their Before Grain pate is good, too. Blue also has some new Fancy Feast-like foods that she likes - but the ingredients are much better than FF. Petsmart has them. She used to eat only EVO and Avoderm pate but she must be getting adventurous as she gets older.

  • annzgw
    12 years ago

    Ditto what stir-fryi said. My gal eats on Fancy Feast and I think I've tried every brand that makes salmon and tuna. Forget her eating any other meat or anything with veges in it!

    At her yearly checkup last Sept. the vet was thrilled with her weight of 10 lbs & no extra fat. My cat is a long, tall manx and she eats only canned food.

  • 3katz4me
    12 years ago

    Mine eats Wellness canned - no problem. I'd like to feed him something less expensive but he has IBD and tired of his previous limited ingredient diet and he likes this and his digestive system is doing well on it. I noticed when I bought some last night that it's over 3x the price of the Friskies on the shelf. It better be healthy and high quality for that price. My mother would turn over in her grave if she knew how much money I spend on cat food.....not to mention all my other cat expenses.....including cat sitter when I travel.

  • oregpsnow
    12 years ago

    I think that times have changed - just like with people food. In the really old days pets and people ate natural, healthy food. They didn't have any junk. Then manufacturing and advertising came along and both pets and people ate a lot of garbage. Now the tide is turning - people and pets are too fat, have diabetes and other issues. I know I am eating MUCH better than I did in the past and I want my kitty to have the best food I can give her. Even if it is expensive.

    gibby - how is Tucker doing on his diet?

  • 3katz4me
    12 years ago

    Well Tucker and Mimi are both on a diet but I would say the results are that they have not gained weight. He goes nuts with his limited quantity of food. He now stalks the counters for food - something he never did before. I have a rubber suction type cover I put over dishes if there is some canned food left. If I leave it in the sink to dry after washing he gets up there and pulls it out and chews on it. If I don't watch him every minute he quickly swoops in and grabs foot out of the other cats dishes and runs off with it.

    So suffice it to say that he is not tolerating the weight reduction plan very well.

  • tikky
    11 years ago

    Do you think commercial food is healthy? I've looked through many reviews (http://www.pissedconsumer.com/consumer-reviews/animal-feed.html), and in most of them people tell about harmful influence of commercial food on pets' health. What is your opinion?

  • spedigrees z4VT
    11 years ago

    I've fed only home cooked food to my cat and dogs made with whole real ingredients, since 2007 when 40,000 pets died from melamine in commercial petfood. I will never buy commercial cat or dog food again.

    My picky 19 going-on 20 year old cat will eat only chicken, pulled from the bone and minced with calcium and other additives. Occasionally I can get her to eat a few bites of tuna, beef, or ham, but not for long. Cats surely have the most finicky appetites of all domestic pets, but arguing with them gets you nowhere! Especially with the older cats, it's more important that they eat, rather than what they eat.

    Commercial pet food, while not nutritionally ideal, used to be safe, and I raised many generations of cats and dogs on it into old age (all my cats, but one, have lived into their 20s). I never fed a single brand or variety, because the more variety in an animal's diet, the more likely one food will supply nutrients that another lacks. I fed a variety of brands and flavors.

    Now that companies can add obscure ingredients like corn gluten or wheat gluten from China, the chance has increased of a toxic substance being added deliberately to increase the alleged protein content while lowering costs. Cos don't need to declare exactly what is mixed into these gluten products or that they originate in China. Right now dogs are becoming sick and dying from some dogfood brands, but because the toxin in the foods is unidentified, there has been no recall. BTW I am talking about pet food still being manufactured in this country. They add ingredients from China, but aren't required to state the country of origin of their ingredients.

    I can't say enough bad things about the commercial pet food industry. I am only thankful that I stopped doing business with them before I lost a family member.

  • kitteh
    11 years ago

    You can learn to read the ingredients and check http://petfoodtalk.com/ - meat should be the first ingredient and no corn should be in the food

    My cats were raised on a varied diet with no free feeding and they eat anything - I switch between good brands and real meat when I can.

    Sometimes they do change the ingredients, and when our Petmart was bought out by Petco I noticed whenever I bought discount food now of any brand my cats got diarrhea even though the bag was not past the date - so maybe it wasn't stored properly or something. Petmart would always have a big cart of discount foods and I never had that.

  • shylock1
    10 years ago

    Wellness has two manufacturers of their cat food. One is identified by MW on the bottom of the can. The other is 7W. The MW (generally west coast) is a great product.
    7W is ugly inside, smells funny, and my cat will not touch it.
    The bad news: Wellness told me (May 15, 2013) that the 7W plant will become their only producer. I have already begun to wean my cat off of their product and I imagine many others are too.

  • betsyhac
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I KNEW IT!!! Thank you Shylock. Since I originally posted, many other formerly "premium" brands have had issues -- CA Natural, EVO, Innova.
    I am taking the homemade route. I may eventually segue into truly homemade or raw, but for the time being, I'm going to try either BalanceIt.com or felineinstincts.com.
    When I do give my animals human grade meat, they go crazy for it. This also tells me that the commercial stuff must be just crap. And not inexpensive crap at that. Sheesh.

  • msgal1964
    10 years ago

    Life's Abundance Premium Health Food for Kittens & Adult Cats provides the robust nutrition that cats need, meal after meal.

    This recipe was formulated by Dr. Jane Bicks, one of the nationâÂÂs leading holistic veterinarians, to address the needs of the whole body in order to promote the overall health of felines.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Healthy Cat and Kitten Foods