Recommended/Best Food Brands

Reviewing the food list...

How does anyone make a decision with so many options out there?!?

Currently feeding my kitty (Rho) Science Diet m/d dry but it's crazy expensive, and I'm now wanting to switch him to wet.

He is not picky, and I don't want/need to feed him the cheapest food out there. I was fine spending $25-30/mo on a bag of quality food before he had diabetes.

What are the top 3-4 brands recommended as a starting point? I've gotten Friskies and Fancy Feast, but my impression (sorry if it's wrong!!) is that those are the "cheapest" foods and not necessarily the best quality.

 

If you filter the cat food database (if you are looking at a list, you can use the link in my signature to get to the version where you can use filters) using your desired criteria, the list of choices will probably go way down. You could start with your 'ideal' criteria. For example, if you put in 50% protein, 50% fat, 5% carbs and 300 for Phos, there are not a ridiculous number of options left. If you do not want to feed fish, that rules out a lot of the options that are left, leaving even fewer. Also, you will see that Weruva and Tiki Cat are the brands with the most options at that criteria... so that might be a clue as to which brands to consider. A lot of times, it comes down to what your cat will eat, so you may find that you have to expand the criteria some and try several kinds before landing on the right thing.

The Dr who created the food list suggests "I usually like to start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300." A lot of us try to keep the carbs considerably lower than 10%.

A lot of people have great success with Fancy Feast and Friskies, but I do not like some of their ingredients. I did feed Fancy Feast when transitioning my girls to wet because they would eat it when they would not eat the others, but they did have some issues during that time that I believe to be related to some of the ingredients. Once they were accustomed to eating wet, I was able to introduce higher quality foods that they would not touch in the beginning (I think mostly due to texture). We landed on Weruva Chicken Frick A' Zee, and they have been eating that for several months now without issue or complaint.

 

@kimberbee

If budget stretches try Tiki Cat canned Puka Puka Luau or Koolina Luau - best caloric composition in the Dr. Pierson chart, esp the Phospourous level lowest in the chart! My cat ate just less than 2 2.8 oz cans /24 hours to maintain her weight.

Petco acquired the Tiki Cat not long ago and you can get it in store and online (signing up for an auto-ship gives you some sort of discount)

HERE is the link to Dr. Pierson post about dangers of feeding dry, please review, it's more than high carbs alone to worry about when feeding dry.

Another brand from the list that I like is also Petco - Soulistic 1) Pate and Shreads Turkey and Chicken or 2)Moist and Tender Turkey - both are quite decent.

And of course the ever popular FF pates or Friskies pates, only poultry flavors. Very economical option.

 

Wow, wish I had discovered FursBabiesMama's food chart using criteria before! I was goingbto share a list I created (by hand) of food that was 50% protien <40% 2-4% carbs as Dr Pierson suggests.
However I can say rhat I order from Chewy.com because they have all of the brands on my list, most often are much less expensive than any other online or retail store in my area.I get pure protien treats, they have variety of types and prices and auto ship.