What cat food do you think is the best?

Question

What dry cat food do you recommend for cats with sensitive stomachs? I have tried IAMS for sensitive stomach. Its only helping a little. Going to try another brand. I know when you change food to mix the new brand with the old for a week or two. I have tried another brand that has no gains, can't remember the name. You can only buy it at a feed store. It did not help at all. Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

Dry food? None! Wet food all the way. Contrary to popular belief, wet food is healthiest for cats.



The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least (cats barely even chew their dry food and, really, does a pretzel clean /your/ teeth? Cats should have their teeth brushed with cat toothbrushes and cat toothpaste at least a few times a week as well as see the vet for dental cleanings when necessary /regardless/ of what they are being fed). Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/ (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm (Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?)

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=whycatsneedcannedfood (Why Cats Need Canned Food)

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4.php (The Dry Food Crisis)

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm (Max's House: Feline Nutrition)



Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.





IAMS is a low quality cat food. You're going to want to get your cats on a good, high quality wet food.



Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that aren't safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.



Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.



Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.



Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.



Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.



Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!



Seriously on a budget? Two of the most affordable of the higher quality foods would be Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul and Felidae.



Before following your vet's food recommendation, keep in mind that vets get /very/ little nutritional training during their schooling. Besides that, what training they /do/ get is usually sponsored or taught by the crappy pet food companies! They also often get paid to sell some of their products at their clinics (Science Diet, Royal Canin etc.)



A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain/carbohydrates have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Ziwipeak, and Taste of the Wild.



Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo.



If you can't find a food, most of the high quality cat food brands have websites with store locators on them that will help you find the store closest to you which supplies their products. Simply type the cat food brand's name into Google, go to their website, and type your zip code into their store locator.



Another option, if you can't find anywhere around you that sells good foods, is to order your pet food online. Here's an excellent place to do so: http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/



Remember that foods should be switched gradually (mixing the new slowly in with the old over the period of about week or so), especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies. For example:

Days 1 & 2: 75% old food, 25% new food

Days 3 & 4: 50% old food, 50% new food

Days 5 & 6: 25% old food, 75% new food

Day 7: 0% old food, 100% new food



Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.rawfedcats.org/ (Raw Fed Cats)

http://www.rawfed.com/ (RawFed)

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html (Myths About Raw Feeding)



Also remember that freefeeding (leaving food down) is the fast lane to feline obesity. Make sure to have scheduled feeding times based on the feeding instructions on your cat's food.



More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)





Darksong~

Answer 2

Your cats a carnivore. stay away from dry and go to canned with no grains you can but online at pet food direct





Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.

THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPOODUCTS NO MEAL

Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php



Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall



Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm

Answer 3

To all of you who are about to recommend Science Diet, please just move on to the next question, as Science Diet is terrible for you cats! Really, just move on! ;)



Long story short, I have had several cats with the same condition you have described. I visited the vet several times, each time, they prescribed a "snake oil" cat diet so to say. Basically, the majority was "Feed your cat this Scientific Diet for only one million dollars and it will be healthy! By the way, we sell this product! ;) "



In my honest experience, cats with a sensitive stomach are usually so due to a factor not related to the cat itself, rather the food they are eating. Some cats, including several of mine are not actually sensitive to the food itself, but the dyes used in the food. Meowmix for example, uses various dyes to color their cat food.



Some basic tips to avoid this are to stay clear of multi colored cat food! Also, do not purchase any cat food that is overly-light in color.



Cat's really don't care about the color of their food (since they can't see in full color to begin with), so much like incense, if you want the best product in terms of all natural ingredients, buy the ones with the most natural color, being medium light-dark brown. I honestly found that generic/no-name cat food worked just fine, and saved me a few cents on the side!



If this does not resolve the problem, I would recommend trying a homemade meal for your cat, such as this:



Cat Food Recipe Ingredients:



* 1 can tuna

* 1/2 cup boiled rice

* 1/4 cup pureed liver

* 2-3 sprigs parsley chopped



Cat Food Recipe Directions:



Drain the tuna and mix everything together. Make 6-7 balls and then pat them into patties. Store in the fridge and serve to your cat. This is one cat treat recipe that your feline friend won't be finicky about.



Hope this helps you and your kitty! And remember, it doesn't matter what you do for your cat, it's the love you give them that counts! :)

Answer 4

Dry food is the cheapest, but it is not very good for cats. Cats are carnivores, and dry food has a lot of grains, etc in it. Try mixing the dry food, with wet food. Other times, only feed your cat wet food.



If you really don't have the money for wet food (canned food, which would be understandable), then get Royal Canin dry food. It is expensive too though...



Talk to your vet. They should know what kind of food is right for your cat! :)





Hope I helped! Good luck! :D





P.S. A good food should show:

Shiny coat



Smaller poop



Happy cat



Soft coat

:)

Answer 5

Taste of the wild and it is rated 4 stars. Both of my kittens and my adult do great on it. I would love to raw feed both my dogs and my cats but I am just not able at this time but later in the future I am def planning on it. They will get water added in to make it wet or they will get Blue Buffalo wet food either or.

Answer 6

I would stay away from Iams it was one of the food effected last year with the poison in it. I personally like science diet when cat has tartar but for a day-to-day basis I like mixing alley cat and and complete formula from friskies or a higher name brand. for an upset stomach I would use friskies indoor canned (if its an indoor) or complete diet canned

Answer 7

Nothing sparks more passion from cat enthusiasts than what to feed your cat. Some swear by a certain brand, and some will only feed dry or wet. In short, there are two camps when it comes to feeding. The dry food camp and the wet food camp. You will see a lot of arguments and debate between both camps here, as witnessed by the answers you are getting.

Also, another new camp is emerging and fast growing and they are the RAW food movement and sometimes you will also hear what is called a BARF feeding, Bone and Raw Food diet or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet.



What you need to do is to do your research and weigh each camp's argument as to which one you are more comfortable with and what makes the most sense. You need to understand what motivates the pet food industry, (profit!), and what motivates pet parents to buy their product (price/cost, advertisement, vet advice, self research, cat's health while being on the product, etc)



When you are well informed, you will ultimately make the right decision on what is best. So, do a lot of reading and in depth research. It's really not easy feeding our pets now. If you are unaware of the March 2007 Huge Pet Recall, I would suggest you look into it. You will never see pet food the same way again.



You need to learn how to read ingredient labels. By learning how to read a label, you can learn a great deal of information about the food you are feeding your pets. You can even learn how to compare one food to another and choose the one best suited for your cat.



When you are choosing food, it is important for you to learn how to read ingredient labels. They tell you a lot about what kind of meat is being used and whether the food has any cheap fillers which does not benefit your cat/kitten.



You want to feed a food which is high protein - meaning the meat source must come from wholesome muscle meat. Make sure to select only food that list chicken, lamb, rabbit, beef, turkey, venison, salmon, whitefish, herring or a combination or those and not one that says by-products (chicken by product, meat by product, fish by product)



Stay away from too much fillers like corn, corn gluten meal, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, oatbrans, etc. These are all cheap filler which help reduce the cost of manufacturing but brings little to no benefit to your kitten.



You would also want to stay away from preservatives like BHA/BHT and Ethoxyquin which are proven to be harmful to your kitten. Also you do not want other artifical preservatives such as propylene glycol and propolyneglycol .You need natural preservatives such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A or Rosemary.



Your cat need an essential amino acid called Taurine. Cats can only receive this from eating wholesome meat. Choose a food that contains ample amount of Omega 3 sources - Salmon Oil, Flaxseed Oil or Canola Oil.



When you are well educated in learning how to read pet food ingredients, shopping for the best food for your kitten would be easier.



I only feed 100% wet. I came to this conclusion after doing my own research and getting to know pets that suffer dire consequences as a result of being fed exclusively dry. These websites has great information if you are interested in learning more about feline nutrition and the proper diet for a cat.



http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=whycatsneedcannedfood

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm

http://cats.about.com/od/catfoo1/tp/tpcannedadult.htm

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.naturalmatters.net/article.asp?article=621&cat=11

http://www.traciehotchner.com/cb/QandA.htm



I love to say this whenever someone ask this question.



Look at your cats. They are majestic animals, with their wild ancestors blood still running through their veins. They are predators, equip with sharp canine teeth to shred through meat. Now, imagine a lion or a tiger, feasting on a bowl of dry kibble. Does that sound right to you? Well, now you know why it is so ridiculous to feed your cat dry kibbles!



Domestication only changes the way the cats live but not the way the cats eat. If we cannot guarantee their wellbeing, we have no right to invite them into our home.

Answer 8

my cat kept getting UTI's the vet said cheap food (ie : anything you can buy at a grocery store) often has too many added ingredients like artificial colors to make consumers but it cause it's "pretty".... stick with a more natural based food, ask your vet and he can reccomend some, esp. if ur cats tummy is upset... good luck!

Answer 9

here are a few that I think are good!



Solid gold

EVO

taste of the wild

Blue wilderness

wellness



i have a cat that has a sensitive tummy and I just started feed solid gold grain free and he is doing really good!

Answer 10

Royal Canine, Eagle pack

Answer 11

Science diet is easy on a cats belly and will help them. hope it works!

Answer 12

IAMS is the best it may not work but still use IAMS and somthing else that your vet think is right

Answer 13

Science Diet....it's great! We use it at the Houston SPCA...and my cats love it....

Answer 14

SCIENCE DIET AND NUTRO MAX are 2 of the best!!

Answer 15

DEFINITLY WISKAS... UR CATS HAIR IS GOING TO BE SHINY AND HEALTHY...