more wet food brands

[spirite]

I bought Pinnacle and Castor & Pollux Organix. Neither is grain-free, but they're way preferable to Fancy Feast. The girls weren't super impressed by the Organix - and I really dislike that there are whole grains of brown rice in it. They love the 2 Pinnacle flavors we've tried (chicken & tuna, chicken & oceanfish), probably because it's the smushiest pate I've ever seen. Pinnacle is made by Breeder's Choice which, for some reason, has a negative association in my mind. I hope I'm confusing it with some other brand, because I'd really like to get them off the Fancy Feast.

Then there's Hills Prescription a/d. Margaux's not been feeling well and hadn't been eating, and the vet gave her a taste of Hill's a/d. She absolutely loved it. It's soft enough that the vet says they use it for syringe feeding. I'm not thrilled about feeding Hill's again, although at least this formula doesn't have any by-products.

Has anyone had any experience with any of these brands?

[Luvmyfurbabies]

Mine loved fancy feast and I would still be feeding it but one of my 3 babies was having an allergic reaction to non grain free foods. ( they refused to eat pate so the grain free varieties weren't an option. ) I'm not going to lie, it is hard to transition. What I realized is that it's not about finding a food they love as much but about finding a food they will "tolerate" and work from there. I already knew that my field of choices were narrowed down to grain free non pate foods. I tried them all. If I found one that had minimal success; I went with it and put it in the rotation. As soon as it completely fell out of favor ( the sniff and walk away ) I moved on.
When it starts to work, it's a wonderful feeling and then you realize you have a routine. I feed three times day, all wet, I rotate wellness chicken and turkey flavors in the minced and sliced varieties , weruva paws lickin chicken and Soulistic chicken and pumpkin in gravy and the the Soulistic autumn bounty in pouches as their nighttime snack.
It took about a month to a month and a half to convert them and get this down as a routine, but they love it and look forward to each of their meals. That is the reward in the end.
Be patient and it will happen.

[MyBabiesDaddy]

Luv, thank you for your very specific recommendations. My 2 boys will lick the juices off pâté, but they will walk away. Lately I've been buying all kinds of food to replace their Fancy Feast, but its hard to tell which is pâté and which isn't! I've thrown away so much expensive, high quality foods because they were pâté. Ill definitely be trying the foods you recommended, now that I know they aren't pate!!

Thanks for saving me a lot of money and a lot of wasted cat food!

[Luvmyfurbabies]

One more really good option is earth borne chicken cattitorie. It is shredded chicken and my cats love this one as well. It's a really good value for the money because I feel like the shredded chicken is packed pretty tight in the can. The only reason it's not in the rotation is just in case I need to mix things up or if they get bored I know I can easily slip this one in. They really like this one.

[Carmel]

Isn't Organix fairly expensive? I haven't much experience with those brands. We bought a few of the Hills Prescription ones for the dog after surgery and it was very soft pate, I agree.

Have you looked into Chicken Soup, Felidae, California Natural, Innova or Evo (Evo being grain free!)... they're less expensive than a lot of foods as they come in the 13 oz tins. I think the chicken Felidae is pretty soft compared to a lot of other pates.

I went and dug up a chart I'd saved the link to that was posted on here a few months back that I found helpful, if you're looking for chunks vs pate.

Canned Cat food Spreadsheets

[Marcia]

Originally Posted by Luvmyfurbabies

One more really good option is earth borne chicken cattitorie. It is shredded chicken and my cats love this one as well. It's a really good value for the money because I feel like the shredded chicken is packed pretty tight in the can. The only reason it's not in the rotation is just in case I need to mix things up or if they get bored I know I can easily slip this one in. They really like this one.

What is the advantage of buying this over buying the human chicken in a can? I brought some from the grocery store thinking it might be a nice treat. It was ok, not overwhelmingly enjoyed, but ok. I don't think they liked the texture. Just curious about the chicken cattitorie and Chicken of the Sea chicken in cans we might eat.

[Luvmyfurbabies]

The only advantage I can think of is all the extra added vitamins and nutrients that are put into the food that are specific to a cats nutritional needs.
They do seem to love it.

[spirite]

Originally Posted by Carmel

Isn't Organix fairly expensive? I haven't much experience with those brands. We bought a few of the Hills Prescription ones for the dog after surgery and it was very soft pate, I agree.

Have you looked into Chicken Soup, Felidae, California Natural, Innova or Evo (Evo being grain free!)... they're less expensive than a lot of foods as they come in the 13 oz tins. I think the chicken Felidae is pretty soft compared to a lot of other pates.

I went and dug up a chart I'd saved the link to that was posted on here a few months back that I found helpful, if you're looking for chunks vs pate.

Canned Cat food Spreadsheets

Wow, thanks for posting that link! Somehow, I missed it.

Organix is really expensive, as is the Hill's a/d (nearly $2/5.5 oz can). Actually, a lot of the ones I've tried are pretty expensive. But if they'll actually eat a good quality food instead of just licking or sniffing it, I'll buy it.

luvmyfurbabies, for a couple of weeks, I was able to rotate Nutro Max, Evo, Avoderm, Wellness Core, and Blue Wilderness with Fancy Feast. But after 5 or 6 times, they stopped eating all of them. I try to sneak a can in every now and then, even tried mixing them with Fancy Feast, but they'll only eat the Nutro Max once in a while.

They both flat out refused other Blue, other Wellness, Felidae, California Natural, Dave's, Taste of the Wild, BFF, Merrick's BG, Canyon Creek Ranch, Spot's, GO, Evanger's, Natural Balance, Natural Planet Organics, Solid Gold, Tiki Cat...maybe some others.

They both liked Nature's Variety Instinct rabbit, but then I learned from doodlebug that it's sourced in China, and I don't want to feed it anymore.

Margaux wouldn't touch Hound & Gatos, and Celia wouldn't touch Weruva, Soulistic, or the Petsmart brand (can't remember the name but it's just like Weruva and Soulistic).

SIGH.

I'll look for Chicken Soup or Innova. Earthborne looks kind of chunky? I'm about to try something called Nutrisource.

mybabiesdaddy, yep, I can't tell you how much food's gone into the garbage disposal. At least the extra cans I could give to the local shelter. Geez.

[Carmel]

Originally Posted by spirite

Wow, thanks for posting that link! Somehow, I missed it.

You're welcome. I found it pretty helpful myself.

Originally Posted by spirite

Organix is really expensive, as is the Hill's a/d (nearly $2/5.5 oz can). Actually, a lot of the ones I've tried are pretty expensive. But if they'll actually eat a good quality food instead of just licking or sniffing it, I'll buy it.

Yeah, I thought it was. That's why I haven't bought it, since it's quality left a lot to be desired for its price.

Originally Posted by spirite

They both flat out refused other Blue, other Wellness, Felidae, California Natural, Dave's, Taste of the Wild, BFF, Merrick's BG, Canyon Creek Ranch, Spot's, GO, Evanger's, Natural Balance, Natural Planet Organics, Solid Gold, Tiki Cat...maybe some others.

Have you tried every flavor? I mean, there's a lot of Wellness flavors! Same with some of the other ones, like Merrick's and Natural Balance have a boatload of variety. Felidae has about four types but I've found many stores only carry one or two. The same goes for a lot of others, I've found a lot of stores don't carry every type and if you aren't really sure of what you're looking for you may think you've tried it all, like for Solid Gold too, a lot of stores I've visited only have their tuna version and very few stores also carry their chicken, turkey, white fish and liver version.

My mother's cat is about the pickiest cat there is on wet food, most she won't eat, a few she'll eat but tire of quickly so it needs to be a large rotation and even then she isn't super enthusiastic, and the only one she'll always eat is the chicken and salmon Wellness.

Originally Posted by spirite

They both liked Nature's Variety Instinct rabbit, but then I learned from doodlebug that it's sourced in China, and I don't want to feed it anymore.

I bet a great deal of pet foods source from there but most just don't easily disclose that information. Fancy Feast probably does, and isn't that what you're feeding them now? If it were me and I was desperate for them to eat a better quality wet food, I'd likely feed it as long as it's in a rotation.

[spirite]

Originally Posted by Carmel

Have you tried every flavor? I mean, there's a lot of Wellness flavors! Same with some of the other ones, like Merrick's and Natural Balance have a boatload of variety. Felidae has about four types but I've found many stores only carry one or two. The same goes for a lot of others, I've found a lot of stores don't carry every type and if you aren't really sure of what you're looking for you may think you've tried it all, like for Solid Gold too, a lot of stores I've visited only have their tuna version and very few stores also carry their chicken, turkey, white fish and liver version.

My mother's cat is about the pickiest cat there is on wet food, most she won't eat, a few she'll eat but tire of quickly so it needs to be a large rotation and even then she isn't super enthusiastic, and the only one she'll always eat is the chicken and salmon Wellness.

I bet a great deal of pet foods source from there but most just don't easily disclose that information. Fancy Feast probably does, and isn't that what you're feeding them now? If it were me and I was desperate for them to eat a better quality wet food, I'd likely feed it as long as it's in a rotation.

I've only tried a couple of Wellness flavors, but that's because the girls will only eat pate, and a lot of them are sliced or minced. They don't like salmon or beef, and I will admit that I will probably never bring myself to give them venison (I hate it), but I've tried pretty much all other flavors. I've got a couple of cans of BW duck - I'm waiting for the right moment to try that. Merrick's BG I tried the tuna, chicken, and turkey. They just don't seem to like the really high protein stuff - and actually, Margaux's kidney function is a bit decreased, so not having 95% protein isn't such a bad thing. For Natural Balance, I tried a fish flavor, which I thought they'd be most likely to eat.

You're right, I've only seen 1 flavor each of Solid Gold and Felidae - both were the mixed chicken, lamb, fish flavors.

But I don't really think it's the taste as much as it is the texture that they object to. Some of the foods are pates, but not very smushy, and even with water added, the texture is different from the smushier pates like Pinnacle. And I find it funny that it seems like they really don't like any of the foods that have spinach.