Cat food question

Picklepaige

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#1
My boyfriend and I found a kitten on the side of the road. After looking for possible owners and not coming up with anything, he decided to keep her, and since he's moving in with me in my apartment next week, she's going to be "our" cat. We both come from families with cats, but they all eat cheap kibble, and after having one of my family cats die a couple of days ago from renal failure, I want to make sure Arya (what we named her) gets a good, moisture-rich, high-protein, low-carb food.

I know feeding cats canned food is preferred, since they are designed to get most of their water from their diet, but does it need to be exclusively canned food, or can it be a mix of both? Like kibble for breakfast, and canned for dinner? What are good brands? Thanks!
 

Xandra

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#2
Just a thought, if you dont' plan on freefeeding you might just want to mix the kibble with water to ensure she gets enough. That's actually what I do with Roman's meals.
 
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#3
A mixture is fine. We feed "meals" which is really just measured portions put out at certain times of day. In theory they get dry in the mornings and canned in the evenings but that's not hard and fast although it roughly evens out to about 50%. They tend to snack on the dry all day and eat their canned right away.
 

*blackrose

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#4
What they said.

As for good brands, any low carb, high protein is good. Typically the brands that are high quality dog foods make good cat foods.

My cats have always gotten cheap dry food (cat chow). But they've also always supplemented their diet with...prey model raw. Lol They've done just fine. I'm feeding Histamine Premium Edge right now, because it is cost effective vs the $3+/lb foods.
 
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#5
Following this!

I asked a similar question on a cat forum a while back and was jumped all over for feeding kibble. They said raw or all wet was the only way to go. But honestly, my cats are eating Meow Mix right now. Anything has got to be better than that! I picked up some Taste of the Wild since that is what my dogs are eating but they said it was mostly plant based and not a good food for cats. After that's gone, not sure what I'm going to do. I've been supplementing their diets with wet food periodically but the kibble still makes up the bulk of it.

So, I'm still on the lookout for a good brand of dry and/or wet.
 

Maxy24

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#6
Feed as much wet as you can reasonably afford. If you can feed all wet then do it, if you can't then some wet is better than no wet. The problem with kibble, other than lacking water, if that it must have a fairly large carb percentage (for a cat) in order to be kibble. Wet food doesn't need a major carb source...no grains, no potatoes, nothing like that. Some of course DO contain them, but you can find ones that don't. There are some brands that even have 95% meat formulas (EVO, Merrick, By Nature, and maybe some others)

I feed Earthborn and Weruva but they are both considered low in calories. My cats keep good weight on them with me just feeding one can per cat a day but others might have to feed more than they would of other brands which would make it rather expensive. Most brands of good dog food also carry good cat food. Mine have eaten every decent brand under the sun (up until I went to college and needed to simplify things for my parents), the only brand I didn't like was Wellness (regular not core), it made their poops smell horrendous. A lower priced food that is good quality is Dave's. I've never fed it, it's not sold at my local stores, but I would try it. I remember hearing that Trader Joes sells decent cheap wet food too.


Also, kittens need to eat frequently, 3-4 times a day at least. So if you are unable to feed a meal sometime between breakfast and dinner it might make sense to leave out kibble through the day so kitty gets enough.
 

Southpaw

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#7
I just soak my cat's kibble in water because there is no way I can afford to feed canned food in any significant amount. This seems to work well for him. When we started doing this it was just to help keep his bladder flushed out and hopefully prevent more urinary blockages, but I didn't know how important moisture was for cats. Now it's just something I'll always do. He really likes it so that's a plus, and hopefully we can keep those kidneys in good shape :cool:
There are rare occasions where I will spoil him and buy a couple cans of food because he LOVES it, but I'll only give him like... 1/4 can a day so not really anything impressive lol.
 

SpringerLover

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#8
I feed mostly raw or canned to my cats, but I do have kibble in the house because sometimes I feed kibble too. I always add water to the kibble.

I've tried to find inexpensive ways of getting the most moisture in my cats as possible. Honest Kitchen or Sojos comes out to being WAY less expensive than canned if the cat will eat it. One of mine will eat just about anything. The other will eat just about anything in a rotation. They both seem to prefer the turkey varieties of HK and Sojos.

95%+ of their diet is grain free. I buy the largest cans of cat food (13oz doesn't give me great variety) and do what I can.

Chicken Soup (for the cat lover's soul) canned food really isn't bad. It isn't grain free but their light formula is a nice amount of protein. I'd feed it if I couldn't get grain free foods for a similar price with my discount.
 

AmberD

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#9
My cats get kibble in the morning and canned at night. If I had fewer, they would get canned food exclusively. I try to keep the kibble as low carb as possible; my favorite (and theirs) is Nature's Variety Instinct, but it is pricey, so I only get it when I get a good deal on it. Good cat food is hard to find, especially at a good price. Many brands that make excellent low-to-no grain kibble for dogs have shockingly low quality cat foods in comparison, which is frustrating.

I'm less picky about canned food than kibble, though I still have fairly high standards. Right now, they're eating canned Canidae (not grain free) because I was able to stockpile 13oz cans for $1 each. I prefer Wellness canned - it's grain free and has a nice texture - but I can rarely find it for less than $2.

A good way to keep kitties hydrated is a water fountain, because they're drawn toward moving water.
 

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#10
I've never had anyone warn me off the TotW cat food. That's what Jade is on and for a Maine Coon mix, she sheds very little, even in the blow out seasons! I tried her on all canned and she got sick. (Probably because of the seafood, I think she's allergic to shrimp)

That said, she is a cat who drinks a cup or so of water per day so I don't worry about her water intake. She's better about drinking water than Tango is.
 

Picklepaige

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#11
Thanks for the replies everyone! We ordered a box of The Honest Kitchen (the one that makes 6 pounds or something like that) and a 5 pound bag of Orijen.
It came to about $47, which is doable if it lasts long enough. Are those good choices for foods? Assuming she likes them and eats them, would that last about a month, if we're giving her the Honest Kitchen for breakfast/lunch (since someone said on here that kittens need to eat 3 times a day) and the kibble for supper? We can do $50 a month, but if that only lasts like two weeks, we might have to go for a kibble that is a bit cheaper.

I know each cat is going to be different, but if anyone could give an estimation on how long that will last a kitten, that would be awesome :p
 
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#12
It obviously depends on how much you're feeding, but as a general guideline...

There's usually about 3 cups per pound in kibble. So if you're feeding 1/4 cup of food per day, that 5lb bag should last you well over a month - probably almost two.

I feed Honest Kitchen as one of my cats meals, and I give her two tablespoons per day. The 2lb box lasts us about 6 weeks.
 
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#15
My cat hated Honest Kitchen!
Mine wouldn't touch HK either. My kitty eats raw, it's what she does best on and pukes the least on. Kibble is out of the question for her. Canned she wasn't picky as long as I stick to poultry flavors. I used to buy a lot of Evo, Before Grain, Tikicat, Foster and Smith brand but some of those have changed ownership/formulas since I fed it.
 

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