Switching from FF to Wellness -- question

Just bought a few cans of Wellness, because I believe the new label FF drove Kitty's BG's up.

Kitty liked it! So much that I want to be sure I didn't somehow buy something high carb.

I was working from Janet & Binky's new chart: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html\

I bought Wellness Beef & Chicken, but in a 3 oz can, not 5 oz. Is this the same low-carb food?

 

I think it's still the same carb content. Not sure, but I would think it is.

 

Yes, Wellness comes in two different size cans.

All the info would be the same except for the number of calories per can.

 

That's great -- because he liked it, first try!

So upset that FF disrupted his BGs, but we'll get him back on track.

 

It's the same in the 3 oz or the 5 oz can, Kathy...the ratio of carbs is still the same. My kitties like that also. They also love the Evo 95% beef. I've been mixing it with ff beef or FF beef and chicken. I've been doing the same with Evo turkey and chicken 95%, which they also love.

 

I guess it was a silly question -- he just liked it so much, I thought maybe it had more carbs!

I wanted to try Evo too, but there's only one store that carries it, and it isn't that close.

 

I'm glad kitty liked it! Mocha and twix both walked away from wellness. I have mocha on Special Kitty from wal mart, turkey and giblet flavor, but after finding some .... odd .... stuff in the can I want to find a new food for her.

 

And who knows, Devon, maybe another food will help Mocha's numbers.

Did you try more than one flavor of Wellness? And BTW, I heated it up for Kitty. He could smell it instantly, and he seemed to like it.

 

No "there are no silly questions'
It even smells good doesn't it? I think so anyway (The Wellness, I mean)


If you ever do get the Evo beef..it smells like hamburger...seriously

 

Baby eats Raw when I am home to give it - when I am at work, her & her sister Sadi eat Wellness: Chicken, Turkey, Chicken & Beef, Turkey & Salmon -- they love it.

 

Both of my boys like the Wellness, especially the chicken. My civvie, Hammie, LOVES it and will climb the cabinets as I'm dishing out the can! :dizcat

I also feed them the Wellness turkey, beef & salmon, chicken and beef, and chicken and herring. After I use up my current stock of FF, I'll just stick to Wellness - I think it's a better quality food, actually.

The boys turned their noses up at Merrick's turducken - and it looked so nice - at least to me!

 

All my kiddos swiched from FF to Wellness about 3 weeks ago. They really like it too!! AND it doesn't make me want to lose my stomach from the smell :lol:

 

Really glad to hear the FDMB kitties are taking to Wellness. Wow, did FF screw up!

The consistency is a little thick for Kitty, but I can mash it up.

 

we tried both the wellness chicken and the wellness turkey. Both were a no go for our cats.

 

Major barf

Major barf after the Wellness! Maybe the quality is too GOOD after a diet of FF.

I guess I should try it again -- maybe in a small amount. :sad:

 

awww .. feel better kitty!

 

I encourage feeding a better quality diet if you can.. maybe entice with some freeze dried sprinkled on top, or Fortiflora? I know it can be next to impossible to begin getting our furry friends to eat anything we want them to. I still am trying to get Sadi to eat Raw.. I have tried every trick in the book & that rascal is no fool - she will not let it touch her lips. She is not diabetic, so I have stuck a small spec under some Temptations (which she LOVES) that lil lady will eat the Temptation & spit the Raw out. Geez.. all that after 2 months of trying.. but I will win this argument.. she is going to eat Healthy.. She does eat Wellness & I am thankful.. but after introducing Baby to Raw & seeing/reading all the benefits - I want them both on it - I wish I could only feed Raw.. but cannot leave it out all day. However, Baby gets Raw on the weekends & evenings exclusively. Wellness is always out for her too, but she only wants Raw when given a choice.

 

Kathy-
Hank has eaten Wellness for awhile, long before his diagnosis. I find that like most cats he likes it best when it's freshly opened.
He has history of FLUTD, which is why I began trying to incorporate more canned into his diet at the time, but he still free fed on dry unitl his DX a month ago.

Anyway, one of the 'tricks' i use, is to add a few drops, maybe a teaspoon of warm water in to the canned even when it's newly opened, but especially after it's been in the fridge. it was good for his FLUTD..but also makes it not as thick and much more palatable. If it's been in the fridge.., gives it 'newly opened can' consistency...a little more mushy, and a little more smell. I will microwave too sometime to get some canned foods a bit softer..but i know it's bad to do. I try never more than 3-4 seconds but the water drops are better.

So it became a habit then for his urinary to try and add water every possible way, but now that's just how they like their wet food. So instead of just mushing it up if it's alittle thick..add some water drops. BTW, they also make them in 13oz cans and it's cheaper that way, but he gets tired of eating the same flavor and I end up tossing it once it goes bad.

I am trying so hard to incorporate new flavors for Hankie in this transition to all canned. So far, Merrick Cowboy cookout has been a hit, and instint lamb. Lots of turned up nose and tossing out. He likes his Wellness (chicken, turkey, & chicken/beef) everything else..not so much.
usually you can buy Wellness alot cheaper by the case..

 

My girls loved Wellness the first time they had it when we were first switching over to wet, now they don't like the consistancy as much as the other pates, kind of gooey-sticky. I went out and bt close to 20 cases of the FF old label when mine either ignored or puked the new stuff (PetSmart either LOVES me or thinks I am nuts after being in there with my Janet and Binky sheets digging cases of food off their shelves).

Now I mix in a Wellness, Special Kitty, 9-Lives, Pro-Plan and Sophisticat every now and then to see what we will be able to feed when the FF is gone and to give them variety. The Pro-Plan and Sophisticat are both hits. Their consistancy is much like the old FF. I think the protein is a bit low in them tho.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone. Betty, why is microwaving bad? I always microwave Kitty's food when the can has been in the fridge -- and I add a little water! Best practices!!

He liked the Wellness, he just barfed an hour later. :sad: It was a fresh can, and I added a little water. The conistency is very thick; maybe he ate too much at once.

Melanie, you did great! I scoured the local pet stores and markets for old label FF, and got some -- but have you noticed that some of the old-label FF has a pate- like consistency, and less gravy? I think they changed the formula before they changed the label. :evil:

I gave him the FF tonight, because I needed him to eat. We'll try again in the morning.

 

I'm always surprised by the number of FDMB folks who feed Wellness and EVO. I would consider both, but they are not high protein/low carb. Low carb yes, but mostly they are very high in fat. We've been fortunate that Beethoven will eat nearly anything, and he's doing fine with Fancy Feast.

Maybe the higher amount of fat is what some cats find appealing--and what disagreed with Kitty's tummy.

 

Thank you for pointing that out, Ruth.

I looked through all of Janet and Binky's chart to find foods that seemed fairly similar to FF. The Wellness Beef & Chicken has 65 % kcal from fat, compared with 56 for the FF Tender Beef. I guess that's higher than I thought.

Maybe I'll try Sophisticat Beef Stew -- 49%.

But I'll have to make a change, because the new label FF definitely has raised Kitty's BG.

 

Megan doesn't do well with the high fat content of Wellness - barfs. She does great with Merrick (Cowboy Cookout [beef] or Grammie's Pot Pie [chicken]; sometimes also Turducken, which is higher fat than those other two Merrick flavors but apparently not high enough to bother her tummy).

Her brother Darwin, on the other hand, does great with Wellness (Chicken or Turkey - he seems to be quite allergic to beef).

 

I have been so focused on the carb content -- never even thought about the fat issue. And it never occurred to me that fat could make Kitty barf! Thanks for confirming it, Jean.

 

Regardless of the fat content - Wellness is a good food - I don't think it should get a bad wrap. All foods have one issue or another - it is finding one that is best for your furbaby & what you are willing to put up with it - for us, we like the higher quality foods more than the others. Good luck in finding what works

 

Carb content of Wellness

Nicole, I think you're right. Wellness may have higher fat, but it is also probably better quality food than FF. I wish we had dozens of low-carb choices, but we don't, so we have to make compromises.

 

To be clear: I love Wellness. I'm not knocking it because of its fat content. One of my cats (I have two) does great on it. It's the best food I've ever found for him, and he is hard to feed because of allergies. The other cat can't handle the fat, but I gather she is exceptional in this regard.

Some flavors of Merrick are low carb and higher protein, so lower fat. It's a good food, too, and it works great for my cat who can't handle Wellness (loves it but can't handle it).

 

It is sooooo hard isn't it? Geez... I tried feeding Cowboy Cookout once too - because it is a good food - but Baby would not eat it.. these little rascals! The only bad food choices are the ones that are high carb or those our furbabies refuse to eat ;-)

 

We switched over to the premium natural foods attempting to address overall health several years back when Hank had FLUTD. Prior they had been on purina One. He then was put on RX food for urinary and for a time I kept him on it but also decided to investigate Natural food that would work for BOTH my boys as trying to separate and feed 2 cats different things was reeking havoc. i couldn't keep them out of each others food anyway and it was a miserable experiment.
Took forever to find foods that would be best for Hank (low phosphorous, stay as much away form seafood as possible) was all natural, no preservatives, no by products, main ingredients whole proteins, AND that finicky Elvis would eat. I'd land on something that would work for awhile, then suddenly one or the other, usually Elvis would stop liking it and go on strike. This is also when I began making sure Hank had wet food rotated in for his FLUTD and Wellness became the one he liked best. Elvis, not so much interested. But we also free fed dry..Felidae, California Natural, & ultimately Innova red.
Then during the chinese pet food scare not long into this, with the maker of Hanks Rx food on the list, I yanked it intending to be temporarily, He continued to do fine without it, and we never went back.
My approach was that by feeding them this high quality, whole,natural premium food, even as pricey as it is...they'd be healthier overall and I'd save $$ keeping them well and away from the vet. Same as my eating whole foods, antioxidants, no preservatives, etc.. AND, for the longest time that was true, UNTIL HE GOT DIABETES! So at the time of his DX a month ago, we hadn't seen a vet in 3+ years. So much for my theory!
No, i truthfully do think it has made all the difference. They are 10 1/2 yrs old and almost NEVER sick (except this!). BUTTtttt i was feeding them DRY premium food as the staple, only augmenting with canned. SO, trying to get Hank into it exclusively, even though he likes wet, has been a challenge. I know he misses his dry and do still give him teaspoons here and there of Evo dry, which i bought to get him over the hump, but only sporadically. I cold-turkey'd him off the Innova dry, which I know is not how you are supposed to do it. he still misses it.
Elvis I cannot get interested in wet, he just isn't. he's a carb addict. He is mostly healthy, but has dry skin patches.

So does the premium food thing make a difference? I still think so, but Hank did get FD. If he is prone, then he is. I continue to believe this is the best way for them.
BUT, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find foods that meet ALL THE ABOVE as the list of requirements grows:
High protein/low carb
low fat (can't do all 3) he could lose some weight
avoid fish
low phophorous
All natural/premium
no by-products
no grains
THEY HAVE TO LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES
THEY HAVE TO LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES STILL TOMORROW OR NEXT TIME
Affordable (too much to ask)

And now I see what Ruth says about Wellness being high fat and protein not as high as some others even though the carb is low. I think it is still great quality and they love it. But I am going to criteria myself into a corner. i am still wanting to stick in the premium food brands. So she got me checking and now that I am revisiting Janet & Binky's chart, I am having new epiphanies. I am also realizing a great deal of this info is dated. It's even NOTED as such at top of old list, to consider the information there as obsolete. The dates next to many of the listings even on the new charts are now 3,4+ years old. Wonder how accurate these are still?
There are many companies who change their formulas routinely. Innova changed theirs 3-4 times while we were on it. And many food we might be able to consider are not on any of these lists.
i couldn't believe that 95% Evo had less protein than many of the others..doesn't even make sense. The evo with the most protein..the original cat & kitten, is really high in phosphorous AND calories, so bad for him on 2 fronts. Plus he was not wild about it anyway.
there are new foods out there. Maybe the list needs to be updated. Should we all do some calling?

WHAT'S LEFT? do i have to kill him a buffalo or bird or something??????????????????

it's all too much!!!

Good lord these boo-boos have us wrapped around their fingers!

let us know if you find any other good ones, I now need some extra high protein one's to offset my medium protein Wellness...my only ace-in-the-hole sure thing (or so I thought)

 

Oh man, I giggled while reading your post. It's all so true. So painfully true. Especially this part:

Some days they eat it, some days they hate it. I'm half ready to have hubby design a mouse feeding system. Mouse is ideal. Mice it will be. He retires in a few years, maybe he'll have some free time and I can sic him on that task.

In the meantime, it'd just be great if the darn kitties would stick to a few things for a little while. I mean, I don't wanna eat the same thing every day but I've got a nice base menu going on so I don't have to think too hard about feeding the humans in the family. I've spent a lot more trying to please these darn cats in the past month than I have feeding a teenage boy and myself for two months.

I can't buy variety packs because they will inevitably have beef (or something else that hate) in them, which they all seem to detest. This month. OR they're fish or gravy varieties. I can't buy by the case because they won't eat it long enough to get through a case of a single flavor. I guess I could buy the variety packs and resell the stuff mine won't eat but dang, I've got enough work to do already.

Why cant the pet food companies wise up and realize how much food they could sell if they'd just be open with information and maybe market a variety pack for low carb kitties? Money shouldn't be the reason, cat food companies are getting more of my money now that we're feeding our kitties canned food than they ever did while I was feeding them kibble.

 

THEY HAVE TO LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES STILL TOMORROW OR NEXT TIME

You do remember we are dealing with cats right???? This is the reason so many cat foods come in 3oz cans IMO. That is the estimated interest span of a cat.

 

Marvie, I think you just committed to have your DH build a better mousetrap!! :lol:

And they have to not barf!!!!!!!

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: I too, laughed out loud reading your post.. I feel the pain.. a lot of us are in the same boat :YMSIGH:

I also laughed out load at this!! How very true.. I feel like I am a slave to these pet stores & I am an obsessed cat lady buying cat food.. different kinds, etc. not to mention the $$$$ I drop.. just to come home & find them turn their nose up & walk away.. these cats have me trained & eat more & much better than I do. If it continues with all the high dollar.. I may be losing weight here real soon! All my money goes to them!!

 

I'm reading this thread, nodding... someone's been watching what's going on in this household too...

I feel like a restaurant, routinely have 5-6 cans of stuff open in the fridge, another 5-6 different ones in the cupboard. And this week Odie refuses every single one. The only thing I can get him to eat is his dry kibble. Mind you, it's expensive, fancy kibble... but still not what he should be eating.

I have no idea how to balance IBD, diabetes, *picky* eater who changes his mind regularly, without going completely bankrupt.
Oh who am I kidding, if I could find the perfect food, I'd buy it even if it cost a fortune.

 

I'm starting to think I could make fortune with a new home business....mouse farm. Yep, I could lovingly raise mice and feed them a healthy diet of all organic grains, fruits, vegetables and what not and once the reached a nice slaughter weight humanely kill them, grind the little darlings up and either sell the resulting paste in cans or perhaps ship nice little pucks of raw mouse frozen across the country.

At which point most of your cats would turn their noses up and demand to know where the Cheetos are instead....

 

ROFL Gina.... yep that's about how it'd work. But you'd still get rich off all the catmom's trying to get their darling's to eat the special fancy mouse food. Cuz, we'd all keep trying to get them to eat it.

My crew don't like Wellness, I've tried hiding it in other foods that they do like (that day) but then they just don't like that anymore. I tried adding warm water, that fooled one of them into eating one bowl. So I tried it on the rest of the Wellness, didn't fly.

This week they aren't liking anything but fish.

Next week it'll be chicken or the beef they've hated this week and last week.

You don't even want to see my cat food cabinet. It's worse than a pet store. 98% of it the little turds won't touch.

This morning I fed the garbage disposal a heaping plate of food scraped off the 5 dishes. I guess they all hated dinner last night. Either fish week is over now, or I screwed up by trying to hide Wellness Chicken in their fish.

Not sure what to try for breffis.

 

Marvie, at least you have a well-fed disposal! :lol:

Can anyone say why micro-waving is bad? I see some of you are adding warm water. I've always added a little water, the microwaved the dish for about 7 seconds. (I do stick a pinkie in it to be sure it isn't too hot.)

I usually can get Kitty to eat if I put the warmed, "fragrant" dish right in his face, holding it at face level for him. He doesn't like to bend his neck, little darling.

No, he is not "spoiled." He is the King. What the King wants, the King gets! I am here to serve. :mrgreen: Literally.

 

I did a quick google and I don't see anything that jumps out at me to say why not to, most answers were saying "Sure, go ahead. Room temperature only not hot, stir well and test before serving" I've always done it if the food is cold. Kitties are more scent driven, so the more the food stinks the more appetizing it is to them or so I've been told. I add water to it for Tugger because he has FLUTD and we always try to make sure he's getting enough water. It's less of an issue now that they eat the canned food, so now I mostly add water to things to thin it out (Wellness is only accepted if I water it) if need be or to freshen in between feedings. Since I'm only adding a tablespoon or so perdish I use pretty hot water on cold room temperature food to get it a bit warm for them. I only microwave if the food has been refrigerated or the house got really cold overnight.

I was letting Boomer have the leftovers, but it didn't agree with him. Now he gets his own can of food once a day. Talk about spoiled rotten babies... Boomer gets his own cheeseburger when we go through the drive-thru. Which I did today after dropping another $50 on cat foods, looking for non-beef stuff because I really think there are some beef issues going on round here. I'm experimenting. It's all poultry and some fish for a while. Except I may keep Cowboy Cookout if Tugger keeps liking it, I'll just keep the two I suspect out of it when I let him have it.

The kid looked in the kitchen the other day, I had just picked up a new food dish for the cats, and he said "Dang Mom, every time I come home it seems like you've bought more stuff for the cats." I guess he's feeling a little left out. So I got him food in the drive-thru today too :lol:

 

Marvie -- funny! His own cheeseburger??? You may have to buy "the kid" a toy, so he'll feel even more equal to the kitty!! :lol:

I think the FF beef has raised Kitty's BG. He doesn't like the Beef & Chicken or the Chicken, though. I'll try the Merrick, but if he doesn't like that, I don't know what to do. I can't manage raw.

I like your idea of putting warm water in the food that hasn't been refrigerated -- very clever!!

 

When Tugger had his first bad UTI about 5 years ago we had to add so much water to the canned food that it became soup. We had to do that because Tugger is to darn smart for his own good. He figured out water made him pee so he quit drinking water. For three months I think, the only way he got water was when I made him can food soup fifteen million times a day. Give or take a few. I think that's when they learned to suck it through their teeth to leave behind the pate stuff. We just stayed in the habit of adding water to it every time we put it out when they were still eating kibble. Now I just use the water to freshen it up and make it seem like it's "fresh out of the can" again. It mostly works

I think a lot of people are noticing problems since FF changed. I've been feeding both label types (but not making note of it on his SS) I don't think I've seen any changes in him from one to the other... but he's only been on all canned for less than a month. Anything is better than where he was before. I think everyone should write them letters. The more they get, the more likely they will be to either fess up or fix it.

I wrote to Soulistic today requesting as fed values and explained why it's so important to be open about this information for all of us out there who feed our pets special diets for health reasons. I personally am more willing to give my money to companies who are willing to help us, who make the information readily available like a very few already have, communicate changes to us clearly and honestly, etc. My civvies love the stuff, but I won't let Tugger have it till I know it's carb content because he responds so easily to carbs. I keep a range of stuff around and feed according to numbers a lot. So if all those flavors are grain and gluten free I can feed them all but I need to know which to feed high and which to feed low. I asked for four flavors specifically but said that it would be great to have them all at some point. I'll share what they say when I hear back.

I spent some time pulling all the beef out of the stacks today and hiding them away. We're going to see how a poultry and fish diet does for a while. I suspect Echo will stop hurling and maybe their ears will clear up a bit. Watch, they'll suddenly decide beef is the only edible food in the universe.

 

Just a note...
Wellness makes all its canned food in 12.5 oz cans.

They also have a "Naturally Well Pet Club". The latest newsletter had a $1 of canned food coupon. This is the link for the US coupn http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/NWPC_Coupon2_printer.php

Canadian coupon link http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/NWPC_Cou ... canada.php

Lylene & Barry

 

Kathy I wanted to mention that Webber always had issued with bad dandruff and since we switched from FF and Sophisticat to Wellness about a month ago------the danfruff is gone!! His coat is so shiny now. I think the quality is much better. I feed it to all 4 of my cats and one 12 ounce can gets split into three dishes. You are correct that is it thicker. I always add extra warm water and mix it up really good, like pudding or more so they can lap it up. I do this because with the high protein diets even my civies are prone to a little constipation. So adding the water helps. I tried the Turkey and Salmon yesterday and Webber did throw up so I won't buy anymore of that one. They eat the chicken and beef/chicken formulas. I also microwave if I have leftovers (sometimes feed half a can at night for a snack). I don't think reheating for 10 seconds would hurt anything. Alot of people mention that if you heat something too much it can break down some of the natural ingredients and nutrients.

The Sophisticat that I used to feed them had about the same fat content as the Wellness, so I don't much worry about that.

Good luck. BTW - I also did come cost comparisons with Petco online, Petco (shopping at the store) and PetFood Direct for Wellness. Turns out (for me at least) it is cheaper to order from PetFood Direct with autoship. Petco online charges taxes and shipping, where PetFood Direct does not charge tax. Also, my local store does not match their online prices so that didn't help either. Just some food for thought! :mrgreen: