Advice requested about food for civvies

I hope no one minds me asking this on the boards.

Now that I'm living with civvies only and, when my final vet bills are paid, I'll have a bit more money to pay for better quality cat foods, I'd like to switch Bastian and Sage to something different.

Currently Bastian eats Friskies pates - lower carbs - and Sage loves Friskies shreds - which are, of course, medium carbs. They had both gained a fair amount of weight before I learned that even 1.5 cans of food a day was way too much. (Jester's eating habits when he kept losing weight no matter what he was fed was about two cans of food a day.) After slowly scaling that back to one can each per day, both are at much healthier weights for their sizes - just under ten pounds each.

Their vet said that the current official veterinary recommendations, very wisely, are to feed pets as though they're diabetic. I agree - the higher carbs are certainly not good for anyone, animal or human.

All of that stated, what reasonably priced, lower carb wet foods - and preferably medium protein, as Bastian and Sage are both just in their teens - would you all recommend?
I'm thinking of 3 ounce cans, since now we need to maintain their healthier weights, unless someone has another suggestion.

Bonus points if I can buy it at PetSmart at need.

Thanks very much.

 

Most of our boys won't eat anything that doesn't stink or look disgusting so most days I mix in Royal Canin SO with Fancy Feast. The SO is primarily for Marco, he's had 3 rounds of UTI but it's okay for all of them. It's always the same here, the cheaper the food the more they like it but if we keep doing this Lewis will be our next diabetic. I'm not ready for that right now.

 

Hi Dickson - how have you been doing? I think about you frequently - particularly because we both went through our goodbyes so close to each other.

What is SO? I'm not familiar with that. Your concerns about Lewis are the same that I've been having. Frankly, I'm probably just being being paranoid, to be honest.

Bastian and Sage seem fine outside of something two weeks before Christmas. Sage picked up something that was giving her stomach problems (throwing up, then reduced appetite, then no appetite). Took her about a week to get over it, then she passed it on to Bastian. He started going through the same thing about four days into her bout. Cue panicked email to the vet and a hasty visit (which he thankfully comped). Vet sent them home with me and just told me to watch them.
The whole thing was over with in about a week and a half with both of them.

Another good reason to change their food to something healthier......

 

Bumping.

 

I feed Teasel Wellness brand pate wet food - not cheap but he likes them and I wanted a low carb food with no carageenan.

 

My cats mostly eat the Fancy Feast patés, which _might_ be half a step up from Friskies. A better quality paté you can get from PetSmart is the Nulo Medal Series, though I'm afraid only in 5.3oz cans. I, too, prefer the 3oz cans. I've also had success with Holistic Select patés but for that I have to go to a specialty store.

 

@shelaghc A friendly tip: Petsmart will price match Chewy.com
You can (usually) find food & pet supplies cheaper through Chewy. If Petsmart has the food or other items you want, I would price match with Chewy. You will be required to pull up the item on the website, but this can be done on your phone.

 

Thanks! I use PetSmart because I can buy gift cards from a local supermarket and get points towards lower gas prices at the pump.
I just wish they's sell gift cards for Chewy too.