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Dust Radio
Feb 13, 2012

Aquatic Giraffe posted:

Decided to be a crazy doglady and get separate foods for both dogs. Wellness CORE high-protein for the active dog and the limited ingredient Wellness for the sensitive snowflake couch potato.

I need to find a better source for their food, because Petsmart wants $77 for a big bag of Wellness CORE :psyduck:


Wag.com or Amazon.com has them for less than sixty. poo poo, tractor supply would even be cheaper.

edited to add:

Is there a reason that Diamond Naturals aren't in the OP's food lists? Is it because of the recalls a couple years back?

I have Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete for my dog, and it's rated five stars by the pet food advisor site.

Dust Radio fucked around with this message at 13:52 on May 25, 2014

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Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

For anyone in the UK trying to feed cats well on a budget, Butchers Classic and Oh So Meaty/Fishy seem to do the trick* - they're both cheap and grain free. The difference between the two seems to be more named meat in the Oh So.. range, but it's only available in some Morrissons and Asdas.

I'm currently feeding them the fish range with a sprinkling of premium dry food on top, because they really like that.

*I'm basing this on the fact that they're not eating significantly more, nor are their litterbox leavings fouler than they were on premium stuff.

Angrymog fucked around with this message at 20:34 on May 28, 2014

Millions
Sep 13, 2007

Do you believe in heroes?
How much weight can a small/medium sized dog be reasonably expected to lose if it has been allowed to get grossly obese? My corgi has maintained her healthy weight of ~18lbs (she's a runt), but whenever I take to Petfinder or the rescues to fantasize about adopting her a sister, the corgis are without fail hambeasts who weigh closer to 50. How long would it take for a chunky corgi to make it back down to the normal 20-30lb range with smaller portions of food and a decent amount of exercise?

Millions fucked around with this message at 05:29 on May 30, 2014

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr
The safe rate for weight loss in dogs is generally 1-2% of body weight per week. Since 2% of 50 lbs is a lot more than 2% of 25 lbs, progress is a lot faster early on. So it could take the better part of a year for a dog to go from double its healthy weight to healthy, but its going to be looking a whole lot better in just a few months.

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.
Food update: dogs have been on their new foods for a few days and the sensitive snowflake dog is already a completely different dog. He has as much if not more energy that the 2 year old athletic dog. Not much change in the other dog, but he was already pretty active and healthy to start with.

DressCodeBlue
Jun 15, 2006

Professional zombie impersonator.
Are there any dry foods for cats with a protein content higher than ~40%? After trying probably close to a hundred flavors at this point, my cat still won't eat quality wet food regularly. He may nibble a little or lap up the juice if it's the consumme/gravy kind but that's it. Once in a while he'll eat a decent part of a pate but then vomits shortly after (something he doesn't do at all normally). Loves dry, chicken-flavored Merrick Purrfect Bistro, though.

\/ Everything but Innova falls between 38 and 46%?\/

DressCodeBlue fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Jun 2, 2014

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr
All of the foods listed under "good dry foods" in the OP have more that 40% protein.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

Recall alert!

Hill's has put out a recall due to Salmonella in Small Adult and Toy Breed food in California, Hawaii, and Nevada.

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm399662.htm?source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

DressCodeBlue posted:

Are there any dry foods for cats with a protein content higher than ~40%? After trying probably close to a hundred flavors at this point, my cat still won't eat quality wet food regularly. He may nibble a little or lap up the juice if it's the consumme/gravy kind but that's it. Once in a while he'll eat a decent part of a pate but then vomits shortly after (something he doesn't do at all normally). Loves dry, chicken-flavored Merrick Purrfect Bistro, though.

\/ Everything but Innova falls between 38 and 46%?\/

What's wrong with the Merrick Purrfect Bistro he likes already? All of their grain free is like 70% and up when it comes to protein. I just switched my cats over to the Purrfect Bistro Salmon from Blue Wilderness Salmon because it's like six dollars less for a fifteen lb bag.

Daily Forecast
Dec 25, 2008

by R. Guyovich
A cat food I haven't seen discussed much (or at all) in this thread is the Trader Joe's store brand food. Here's an image of the ingredients because gently caress if I'm typing all that up.



Where does this fall on the terrible-to-excellent scale? I personally think it's pretty good but I could be wrong.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

Daily Forecast posted:

A cat food I haven't seen discussed much (or at all) in this thread is the Trader Joe's store brand food. Here's an image of the ingredients because gently caress if I'm typing all that up.



Where does this fall on the terrible-to-excellent scale? I personally think it's pretty good but I could be wrong.

Looks just fine to me. Not the best, but I would put it better than average, though I haven't seen the nutrient breakdown.

Some people have an issue with the ambiguity of "animal liver" or "ocean fish" but meh.

DressCodeBlue
Jun 15, 2006

Professional zombie impersonator.

DrNutt posted:

What's wrong with the Merrick Purrfect Bistro he likes already? All of their grain free is like 70% and up when it comes to protein. I just switched my cats over to the Purrfect Bistro Salmon from Blue Wilderness Salmon because it's like six dollars less for a fifteen lb bag.
It's actually 70+% protein and fat combined. About 40% protein alone. Confusing packaging. :(

My little dude is a fatty fat fat, and I'd like to reduce his carbohydrate intake. Not worried about moisture since he's pretty obsessive about water and has been since I adopted him. (Vet checked for diabetes already because of his heavy drinking.)

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.

Daily Forecast posted:

A cat food I haven't seen discussed much (or at all) in this thread is the Trader Joe's store brand food. Here's an image of the ingredients because gently caress if I'm typing all that up.



Where does this fall on the terrible-to-excellent scale? I personally think it's pretty good but I could be wrong.

I dunno, I'm not a fan of 'animal liver', or the amount of brewer's rice and oat bran, but I figure you could do a lot worse.

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

DressCodeBlue posted:

It's actually 70+% protein and fat combined. About 40% protein alone. Confusing packaging. :(

My little dude is a fatty fat fat, and I'd like to reduce his carbohydrate intake. Not worried about moisture since he's pretty obsessive about water and has been since I adopted him. (Vet checked for diabetes already because of his heavy drinking.)

Oh poo poo, good to know. Sorry about the weight issues. I struggle to keep weight on my sixteen year old and my six year old girl has a little paunch but is mostly long and lean. I'm lucky to have cats that can handle free feeding I guess.

Also I really like Trader Joe's cat tuna for a wet food supplement. My cats flip their poo poo over it too, more so than any other wet food I give them.

benzoapyrene
Apr 18, 2013
I don't think this has already been discussed, but my apologies if this is a rehash. The Kroger in my neighborhood started carrying I and Love and You. This cat food so far as I can tell is leaps and bounds better than the Purina ONE that I was foolishly feeding my cats prior to reading up on this thread. Is there anything I'm missing as for ingredients that makes it a bad dry food, or would it be ok to give them?

http://www.iandloveandyou.com/cat/dry-kibble/poultryaplent/

Agit
Oct 19, 2008

benzoapyrene posted:

I don't think this has already been discussed, but my apologies if this is a rehash. The Kroger in my neighborhood started carrying I and Love and You. This cat food so far as I can tell is leaps and bounds better than the Purina ONE that I was foolishly feeding my cats prior to reading up on this thread. Is there anything I'm missing as for ingredients that makes it a bad dry food, or would it be ok to give them?

http://www.iandloveandyou.com/cat/dry-kibble/poultryaplent/

I've never heard about it, so I checked out their website. Cute patterns, the "quirky" descriptions aren't my taste, but they seem to provide a detailed list of ingredients (could not find a percentage of total carbs though, just fiber). It would be cool if someone knowledgeable could advise if the supplements they add are ok, they seem to add A LOT and the ingredients list is ridiculously long. Anyway, I got interested... until HOMEOPATHY:
http://www.iandloveandyou.com/cat/natural-remedies/my-nervers-are-stressed/

How do you convince your cat to believe in the calming power of ultra-diluted arsenic? Or ultra-diluted BRAIN?

Agit fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jun 15, 2014

benzoapyrene
Apr 18, 2013

Agit posted:

I've never heard about it, so I checked out their website. Cute patterns, the "quirky" descriptions aren't my taste, but they seem to provide a detailed list of ingredients (could not find a percentage of total carbs though, just fiber). It would be cool if someone knowledgeable could advise if the supplements they add are ok, they seem to add A LOT and the ingredients list is ridiculously long. Anyway, I got interested... until HOMEOPATHY:
http://www.iandloveandyou.com/cat/natural-remedies/my-nervers-are-stressed/

How do you convince your cat to believe in the calming power of ultra-diluted arsenic? Or ultra-diluted BRAIN?

Haha, I do research on heavy metals so I guess I should have caught that. Hopefully their crazy homeopathic beliefs don't extend to their food, because I really liked the idea of picking up my cat food where I buy my people food.

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.
The placebo effect is a magical thing, really-- it can even 'work' on pets, in that people will think they're doing better because of whatever placebo it is. Reading the ingredients I don't think there's any sort of heavy metal in there.

Rhymes With Clue
Nov 18, 2010

Question about feeding an elderly cat.

This cat has been eating Science Diet for Sensitive Stomachs (the name may not be exact but something like that) for years. Both cats eat it, but the cat in question is the one with the sensitive stomach.

So now she's not eating it.

She is at least 16 years old, possibly older. I was out of town for a couple of weeks and when I came home I noticed that this cat, who weighed 7 pounds at her heftiest, was just wasting away. According to my husband and son she was eating, but very slowly. (She does still have teeth and as of her last vet check had no problem with her teeth.) Shortly after I returned home she quit eating this food at all. Did not eat for two days. Looking very frail. But then she jumped on the counter and licked a platter where there had been chicken. People food. She never used to go after things like that. So apparently she is starving, but not so hungry she will eat the cat food she's been eating for years.

So I gave her some cooked chicken, and she ate it. Then I bought some canned cat food (chicken heart, or so it said) for her, and she apparently would rather starve than eat this food. She has never much liked canned food. But she was willing to eat some more chicken.

So, I don't know what to feed her. I'm willing to cook food for her if only she'll eat. I have left a message with her vet (they will want to see her, they always want to see her, I hate the idea of having her use what might be her last bit of strength fighting to not be put into the carrier) but at this point it doesn't seem like an emergency but it does seem like maybe a good idea. Meanwhile people have suggested baby food and pumpkin.

I have heard the pumpkin thing before, but not the baby food. Okay cat nutritionists, what do you say?

Crooked Booty
Apr 2, 2009
arrr
You should absolutely take your cat to the vet. Not eating is almost certainly a sign of illness, and it may be something that can easily be treated or managed.

People like to recommend canned pumpkin for gastrointestinal issues because of the fiber, so I'm not sure that's going to be helpful for your cat. Also, cats that don't eat enough for several days are at risk of developing a very serious liver problem called hepatic lipidosis. The way to prevent this is with protein. Canned pumpkin does not have much protein in it so it won't prevent liver problems. I would stick to meat-based foods if possible.

Turkey and chicken baby food are super stinky and palatable to cats. You could also try canned chicken or tuna, or even something like roast chicken deli meat. Just check the ingredient labels to make sure they don't contain things like onion or garlic powder (common in baby foods). None of those foods are nutritionally complete, but anything is better than nothing until you can get her to a vet.

RepliCarter
Dec 5, 2007

Megalomaniac
Has anyone ever used 4Health pet food? It's for cats and dogs, sold by Tractor Supply.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/content_landing-page_4health

I have considered buying some, but I didn't see it on the list here. I figured maybe that was an indicator it was bad, but I felt like I should ask.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Doc is a year old Black Lab mix maybe. He was a stray when he was only about 5 weeks old and when he was taken to the shelter he was pretty thin. We adopted him when he was about 9 weeks or so, but I think that may be off because he's quite small. Like 48 pounds small and hasn't grown taller after he reached about 7 months old.

As he appears to be predominantly lab (with possibly some pointer in there) he has to be kept on a strict diet. The shelter told us they free-fed him, and that may have been fine when he was skin and bones, but his first meal here caused him to balloon up and we've been strict ever since. He currently gets exactly 3 cups of Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy split into morning and afternoon meals, most days he gets about a tablespoon of peanut butter (Adams Natural) in one of his toys/bones, and every once in a while some baby carrots or the 95% salmon Yummie Chummies (cut into 6ths for portion control). We got the large breed food thinking he'd be bigger, but I think a combination of the pointer mix and starving while young have kept him to be an adorable 'will always look like a lab puppy' size. When we realized he'd stay small we kept him on it because our vet said it wouldn't hurt anything and I figured change for change's sake wasn't worth it.

For the past couple months, since the weather has been warmer, we've been noticing a good amount of dandruff. It's especially terrible the day after he gets a bath, which can be anywhere from once every couple of weeks to several times a week depending upon how much he's swimming. We've decided to at least start with changing his shampoo, but it can't be solely due to that since he still has the dandruff even days after bathing.

Since he's a full year now, it's probably time to switch off the puppy chow, right? We're also thinking he doesn't need the large breed mixes anymore. Would switching to a grain free food possible help with the dandruff? What about possibly switching from Chicken to Fish-based proein? He also seems like some days he could use a little more fiber in his stools; I noticed that the BB Freedom has more fiber than the regular he's been getting.

Aside from the dandruff he seems to thrive on this diet. Smooth coat, great energy, bright eyes.

The Bunk
Sep 15, 2007

Oh, I just don't know
where to begin.
Fun Shoe
Louie is a 14 month old basset/beagle mix we've had for almost 2 months. He came to the rescue way at 44 lbs & apparently the projected ideal weight is more like 20 :burger: . Currently just under 40 lbs. He was on Hills R/D when we got him but the Vet recommended switching to the "Canine Metabolic Advanced Weight Solution" because he wasn't losing weight fast enough (it looks like they thought his ideal weight was more like 35 lbs & were feeding him accordingly). We've been thinking about switching to Wellness Core for the ingredients & also because of some new behaviors we're seeing since switching to the Metabolic (more attempted grass/poop eating on walks, big energy spikes after feeding, etc) though maybe those are more related to the lower amount of food he gets now. I know the OP says not to go off of 'prescription' foods, but I think the weight loss food doesn't actually have any therapeutic value other than being low-cal, right? His current intake is 350 kcal on the Metabolic which seems in line based on the food calculator I found. If I do switch to Wellness food, is there anything else I need to consider when calculating portion size besides calories?

Dr. Chaco
Mar 30, 2005
Metabolic is pretty low calorie density so if you were to switch to something like Wellness, it would likely be a lot less volume. The patients I have on Metabolic are doing really well, but if you are noticing undesirable effects from the diet, just ask your vet if it's ok to switch to the same number of calories in a different diet. Depending on how much your vet has you restricting him from his maintenance requirements, going to another food might be fine, or they might want you to stay with the one specifically formulated for weight loss. One factor is that the other nutrients in dog food are provided in proportion to the calories, so if you are restricting the calories a lot, you may be under-dosing some other things as well, and weight-loss foods are formulated to fix that problem.

The Bunk
Sep 15, 2007

Oh, I just don't know
where to begin.
Fun Shoe

Dr. Chaco posted:

Metabolic is pretty low calorie density so if you were to switch to something like Wellness, it would likely be a lot less volume. The patients I have on Metabolic are doing really well, but if you are noticing undesirable effects from the diet, just ask your vet if it's ok to switch to the same number of calories in a different diet. Depending on how much your vet has you restricting him from his maintenance requirements, going to another food might be fine, or they might want you to stay with the one specifically formulated for weight loss. One factor is that the other nutrients in dog food are provided in proportion to the calories, so if you are restricting the calories a lot, you may be under-dosing some other things as well, and weight-loss foods are formulated to fix that problem.

Thanks, yeah I guess it's kind of hard to tell whether these behaviors are because of the new diet because we don't have much previous history to compare to, but it does seem like they started around the same time we transitioned to the new food. He's basically eating about half of what he used to (Before: 2 1/2 cups of R/D plus 1/2 cup of green beans vs now: 1 3/8 cup of Metabolic) so it wouldn't surprise me if he's eating grass, etc, to fill his stomach. And I'm wondering whether the same elements that are supposed to increase metabolism are also causing the energy spikes or something. Looking at the nutritional info, if I went to the Wellness Core he'd be getting around 1 cup to stay at the current caloric consumption. I'll get in touch with my vet also to see whether that would offer him enough nutrients or whether we'd be better off trying something else.

gorocket!
Jan 24, 2011
Sorry if I missed this elsewhere in the thread, but hey PI, what's the verdict on SmallBatch? My local store just started offering it, the ingredients read a lot better than canned Taste of the Wild, and my cat really enjoyed the free sample.

quote:

97% protein, 1% produce, 2% supplements
**turkey (including muscle meat and bones), **turkey hearts, **turkey gizzards, **turkey livers, salmon oil, *dandelion greens, *kelp, *apple cider vinegar, *bee pollen, *cranberries, *barley grass

** free range/hormone, and antibiotic-free
* organic

Also my little dude has been getting an ounce of raw goat's milk as a treat since kittenhood and uh just to be sure, that's not killing him, right? He loves the stuff.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

I mean, organic free range whatever sounds fine. Thing is, I don't see nutrient balancing (minerals etc.) and no AAFCO statement of nutrient completeness.

I don't know why a cat would need bee pollen.

On the website however, is where you find the gold:

"Feed only when completely thawed, never feed frozen food to your pet as this will be very hard for your pet to digest."

Or, you know, it equalizes in body temperature when it hits the stomach and becomes just as digestible?

"Take extra care to monitor your companion, making sure that their behavioral patterns and stool are normal. If there is a little blood in their stool, this is no cause for alarm, it’s an indication that a detoxification process is occurring...If blood is profuse or continues for more than 5 days, please discontinue the transition."

Detoxification? Dear God, they're crazy. Blood normal in feces? If it's bad stop it... but you know, call us, not those crazy vets because they don't deal with blood coming from the butt as that's detoxification.

"Studies have shown that raw fed cats suffer from fewer diseases, live longer, and even look better than cats fed canned or other processed foods. (One study showed that after feeding a group of cats processed foods for just a couple of generations they lost the ability to reproduce. Yikes.)"

:psyduck: ... uh those studies don't exist. Also why are there huge feral cat colonies fed a steady stream of Meow Mix?

gorocket!
Jan 24, 2011

HelloSailorSign posted:

"Take extra care to monitor your companion, making sure that their behavioral patterns and stool are normal. If there is a little blood in their stool, this is no cause for alarm, it’s an indication that a detoxification process is occurring

Oh holy poo poo what :psyduck:

Are all raw diets this sketchy? There's another brand called Primal that they were kinda pushing and if it's a dangerous fad or something I'd sure like to inform people.

wtftastic
Jul 24, 2006

"In private, we will be mercifully free from the opinions of imbeciles and fools."

gorocket! posted:

Oh holy poo poo what :psyduck:

Are all raw diets this sketchy? There's another brand called Primal that they were kinda pushing and if it's a dangerous fad or something I'd sure like to inform people.

Raw diets just tend to attract :tinfoil: people like flies to poo poo. Just read up on it, see if its AAFCO certified, and if it passes the bullshit-o-meter.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

Think of raw diets for pets like gluten free diets for people.

There are few individuals who legitimately benefit from the diet due to disease or intolerance. However, there are many more that are on the diet because people have latched onto the diet as a fad and make up thingsto convince themselves and others that their choice is the right one. When those individuals feel better on the diet, it's because they tend to go onto higher quality food when they switch diets. As the diets attract the same groups of people, making poo poo up is second nature.

I did some digging and found out the idea that processed food in cats leads to infertility. There was a study done in the 1940s by a human doc, Dr. Pottenger, who had 900 cats in feeding trials. One group was fed a raw diet, the others processed foods (no commercial diets - things like evaporated milk and cooked chicken). Inevitably the processed food cats did poorly. Thus, based on that study is where people get the information.

The study's results were never coorborated (though some did try) - and today, most vets feel that the results of the study are that way due to the lack of taurine in the processed diet - but the information on what was fed was sorely lacking in the study. Basically, it was a bad study.

neongrey
Feb 28, 2007

Plaguing your posts with incidental music.
Geez. I buy a frozen/raw thing from time to time as, like, a treat for my girls, but wowwie, some of these claims.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

You even see some of the premium processed commercial diets as having some pretty outrageous claims too.

Orijen has a line that their high protein food helps dogs with kidney disease - which is pretty demonstratably wrong, but they say it.

Tamarillo
Aug 6, 2009
:siren: Wellness Core now available in New Zealand from Animates, both cats and dawgs.

DaisyDanger
Feb 19, 2007

Sorry, a system error occurred.
Does anyone know how many calories are in Kirkland Signature Super Premium cat food? I can't find this info online anywhere. And how much should 3-month old kittens eat compared to an adult cat? I'm trying to be better about feeding my cats, but my 10-year old cat is overweight and my kittens are not. As soon as I can nail down how many calories are in the Kirkland food, I should be able to figure out how much wet and dry food to give all of them.

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

DaisyDanger posted:

Does anyone know how many calories are in Kirkland Signature Super Premium cat food? I can't find this info online anywhere. And how much should 3-month old kittens eat compared to an adult cat? I'm trying to be better about feeding my cats, but my 10-year old cat is overweight and my kittens are not. As soon as I can nail down how many calories are in the Kirkland food, I should be able to figure out how much wet and dry food to give all of them.

Are you opposed to getting something else for your cats? If you want to feed them better, you're not exactly off on the right foot with that.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

DaisyDanger posted:

Does anyone know how many calories are in Kirkland Signature Super Premium cat food? I can't find this info online anywhere. And how much should 3-month old kittens eat compared to an adult cat? I'm trying to be better about feeding my cats, but my 10-year old cat is overweight and my kittens are not. As soon as I can nail down how many calories are in the Kirkland food, I should be able to figure out how much wet and dry food to give all of them.

Here you go, has dog ones too if you want. kcal = calorie for your purposes

http://www.great-pet-supplies.com/kirkland-brand-pet-food

Let kittens eat what they want. It is usually hard to make an overweight kitten. Once they're spayed/neutered follow adult recommendations then adjust accordingly depending on weight change.

DaisyDanger
Feb 19, 2007

Sorry, a system error occurred.

DrNutt posted:

Are you opposed to getting something else for your cats? If you want to feed them better, you're not exactly off on the right foot with that.

I'm not opposed, no, as long as it's not much more expensive. I know that a smaller bag of expensive dry food will be less expensive than the bigger bag of the cheaper food, but sometimes it's difficult to make larger expenses even if I have to buy it less often. Since it's not in the OP, I actually dug around in this thread for a while to see if it was a decent food and I believe I found a post or two regarding it. That combined with googling had me under the impression that it wasn't a horrible food. Out of curiosity, why is this not a decent food? Going by the OP, it has chicken and chicken meal at the top and no mention of corn/maize, wheat, or soy at all, and although it contains rice, rice isn't listed as a lovely product in the OP. I'm new to this and thought I'd gotten an acceptable dry food, but I'm still learning. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks, HSS! My older cat is 13.5lb and according to some online calculator I found, he should eat around 260-290kcal a day. I'm going to go ahead and do the math to figure out how much dry and wet foods to give him. Our kittens just got fixed last week, so I'll figure theirs out, too.

Edit: I just read the OP a bit more closely and saw the info about ingredient splitting and how rice is common in lower quality foods instead of sweet potato and apples and such.

DaisyDanger fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 9, 2014

Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

DaisyDanger posted:

I'm not opposed, no, as long as it's not much more expensive. I know that a smaller bag of expensive dry food will be less expensive than the bigger bag of the cheaper food, but sometimes it's difficult to make larger expenses even if I have to buy it less often. Since it's not in the OP, I actually dug around in this thread for a while to see if it was a decent food and I believe I found a post or two regarding it. That combined with googling had me under the impression that it wasn't a horrible food. Out of curiosity, why is this not a decent food? Going by the OP, it has chicken and chicken meal at the top and no mention of corn/maize, wheat, or soy at all, and although it contains rice, rice isn't listed as a lovely product in the OP. I'm new to this and thought I'd gotten an acceptable dry food, but I'm still learning. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks, HSS! My older cat is 13.5lb and according to some online calculator I found, he should eat around 260-290kcal a day. I'm going to go ahead and do the math to figure out how much dry and wet foods to give him. Our kittens just got fixed last week, so I'll figure theirs out, too.

Edit: I just read the OP a bit more closely and saw the info about ingredient splitting and how rice is common in lower quality foods instead of sweet potato and apples and such.

Yeah, it's not Meow Mix or Iams, but honestly going with a higher quality natural food (preferably grain free) will save you bunches when it comes to vet bills, time spent cleaning up cat vomit, potential skin and coat problems, etc. Also, the earlier you start with your kittens the easier it will be to get them to adjust. If you've had a cat eating cat McDonald's for four or five years and switch them to a better food, they are more apt to look at you with derision and wonder what the gently caress it is you just put in your bowl. But everyone's cat/situation is different.

Solid Gold Indigo Moon is a pretty solid choice in the "Premium" category listed in the OP and relatively inexpensive. Merrick Purrfect Bistro is a little lower in quality and a few bucks cheaper but also a solid choice for better nutrition. Supplementing their kibble with wet food is something to look at too, and generally you can be a lot cheaper with the wet food and not worry too much about quality.

e: I'm just going by my own experiences here, but I used the Kirkland Ultra Premium for a while before I knew better, and after I switched my cats to better quality food, it was amazing the difference it made. Skin and coat became much softer, cats eat and poop less, and my older cat who had been vomiting bi-weekly has pretty much stopped vomiting completely. He's seventeen years old this year and his labs from his last visit came back 100% fantastic.

Professor Beetus fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Jul 9, 2014

DaisyDanger
Feb 19, 2007

Sorry, a system error occurred.

DrNutt posted:

Yeah, it's not Meow Mix or Iams, but honestly going with a higher quality natural food (preferably grain free) will save you bunches when it comes to vet bills, time spent cleaning up cat vomit, potential skin and coat problems, etc. Also, the earlier you start with your kittens the easier it will be to get them to adjust. If you've had a cat eating cat McDonald's for four or five years and switch them to a better food, they are more apt to look at you with derision and wonder what the gently caress it is you just put in your bowl. But everyone's cat/situation is different.

Solid Gold Indigo Moon is a pretty solid choice in the "Premium" category listed in the OP and relatively inexpensive. Merrick Purrfect Bistro is a little lower in quality and a few bucks cheaper but also a solid choice for better nutrition. Supplementing their kibble with wet food is something to look at too, and generally you can be a lot cheaper with the wet food and not worry too much about quality.

e: I'm just going by my own experiences here, but I used the Kirkland Ultra Premium for a while before I knew better, and after I switched my cats to better quality food, it was amazing the difference it made. Skin and coat became much softer, cats eat and poop less, and my older cat who had been vomiting bi-weekly has pretty much stopped vomiting completely. He's seventeen years old this year and his labs from his last visit came back 100% fantastic.

I checked out Solid Gold Indigo Moon on Amazon and it's ~$40 for a 15lb bag. Is it cheaper/sold at a brick-and-mortar? And yeah, all three cats each get half a can of wet food twice a day. I mix it in with their dry food. I need to shop around to try better quality dry foods that they actually like, but until I find a better job, I think I will have to put that on the back burner.

Thanks for your advice. :)

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Professor Beetus
Apr 12, 2007

They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

DaisyDanger posted:

I checked out Solid Gold Indigo Moon on Amazon and it's ~$40 for a 15lb bag. Is it cheaper/sold at a brick-and-mortar? And yeah, all three cats each get half a can of wet food twice a day. I mix it in with their dry food. I need to shop around to try better quality dry foods that they actually like, but until I find a better job, I think I will have to put that on the back burner.

Thanks for your advice. :)

I'd check out Merrick or Natural Balance. Those brands should be a lot cheaper. You can get a 15 lb bag of Merrick for 25-30 dollars at Petco, or 21 via Amazon (though it looks like there's limited supply). It's what I have my cats on right now; I switched from Blue Buffalo because I was able to save a few bucks for no real difference in quality. Natural balance, depending on the formula, can be either lower or higher in quality and price, but they do have a huge range of options so they're worth checking into.

Oh, and remember to factor in how much they'll be eating when you're pinching pennies. Your cat will eat a hell of a lot less food for the same caloric value, so you'll be going through the higher quality food more slowly than the Kirkland stuff. If you factor that in, the prices for premium foods make more sense and are a lot nicer.

Professor Beetus fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Jul 9, 2014

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