Confused about finding a quality cat food..

[iheartsammy]

I'm on this cat forum and a lot of the people seem quite knowledgeable, but I have this weird feeling of dout when they mention whats good quality cat food and what isn't..

From what I can see in the dog food world, EVO is one of the top, right? But according to them EVO isn't all that good. They perfer Wellness, Merrik(sp?), and some others with I guess are good foods. But I have a really hard time being convinced by them, expecually when I hear the words ProPlan, Nutro, and the occasional, Eukanuba words flying around and no one says anything about it..

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys think about the EVO cat food(mainly the wet food) and what you believe is the best cat food out there for cats. (dry and wet)

I eventually would like to feed raw, but It's really not in the cards for me ATM..

 

[SizzleDog]

Bizarre! I'd think EVO would be a very suitable cat kibble.

My parents used to feed c.rap, but I convinced them to switch. They're currently on Wellness CORE and all parties involved LOVE it. My parents tried Timberwolf Organics, Felidae, Taste of the Wild, EVO and Merrick before settling on Wellness CORE. They like it the best out of all the premium foods they've tried.

 

[iheartsammy]

That's what I'd think too

I was actually thinking about Wellness CORE..

 

[Maxy24]

The problem some cat people have with EVO (I think) would be it being too rich (causes vomiting and in some cats weight gain) or I've heard some people do not like the DRY food because of the super high protein being delivered in dry form, they feel it further dehydrates the cat. But I don't know if there is really any proof of that.

For cats canned food is really the best you can do, I think if you are going to feed EVO wet go for it, it's a great food! Wellness and Merrick are good too (well I don't really like dry wellness, except CORE, but wet is very good). I feed wellness wet (we'll be changing soon since the cats have stopped eating it ) and Before Grain dry and am very happy with the quality, I wish I could feed more wet but I can't afford it right now. The grain free drys I know of are Wellness core, before grain, EVO, nature's Variety (Instinct), One Natural Balance formula (which i don't like), Orijen and one of the Solid Gold formulas, there may be more though. there are more grain free wets, not sure of all of them but EVO, Wellness, Merrick, Nature's variety, natural Balance, Weruva and Fromm all have at least some grain free formulas.

Of course you don't HAVE to feed grain free but since you are looking at EVO and raw food diets i assume you were leaning that way anyways. if your cat can handle EVO dry no problem and is getting wet food as well then I'd say it's fine, it has awesome ingredients and no grains, what's better than that?

 

[iheartsammy]

Thanks for the info Maxy!

I am leaning towards grain free..!
I might be getting a Sphynx cat and have learned that they have very high metabolisms and burn off a lot of calories to keep warm. This leads me to think that EVO would actully be pretty good because it has so many calories.

I'm still debating on feeding 1-2 meals of wet a day and leave some careful amount of dry for free feeding or just feeding all wet meals a couple times a day..What do you guys think? I personally like the first option, only because the prices of wet food are insane! :yikes: But I also like the last option because I'd like to keep my kitty as dehydrated as possible!

 

[noludoru]

From what I can see in the dog food world, EVO is one of the top, right? But according to them EVO isn't all that good. They perfer Wellness, Merrik(sp?), and some others with I guess are good foods. But I have a really hard time being convinced by them, expecually when I hear the words ProPlan, Nutro, and the occasional, Eukanuba words flying around and no one says anything about it..

Wellness? It's overpriced - ONLY buy the wet or grain free, the rest of the dry is craptastic.

Bizarre! I'd think EVO would be a very suitable cat kibble.

It is, except it's not wet. I love it and Orijen, wet and dry.

 

[Chiluver]

I'm on this cat forum and a lot of the people seem quite knowledgeable, but I have this weird feeling of dout when they mention whats good quality cat food and what isn't..

From what I can see in the dog food world, EVO is one of the top, right? But according to them EVO isn't all that good. They perfer Wellness, Merrik(sp?), and some others with I guess are good foods. But I have a really hard time being convinced by them, expecually when I hear the words ProPlan, Nutro, and the occasional, Eukanuba words flying around and no one says anything about it..

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys think about the EVO cat food(mainly the wet food) and what you believe is the best cat food out there for cats. (dry and wet)

I eventually would like to feed raw, but It's really not in the cards for me ATM..

Maybe it is the same forum I go, but I am also shocked but some of the food suggestions. Nutro seems REALLY popular there, not sure why.

 

[iheartsammy]

I was shocked too to find some of the foods they suggested on the forum I go on


Thanks for that post noludoru!

 

[Romy]

Sammy just polished off a bag of Solid Gold. We started her on a bag of Nature's Logic rabbit meal, and oh my gosh she loves it more than anything! We'll see how she does. Her fur gets all nasty and she has a hard time keeping weight on with some foods, so hopefully this will work for her.

http://www.natureslogic.com/products/cp_dry_rab.html

Depending on how she does, I may pick up a bag of their dog stuff for Strider to try.

ETA: the place I picked it up from was charging $14 for a 7 lb. bag, which isn't bad for premium cat food.

 

[iheartsammy]

Sammy just polished off a bag of Solid Gold. We started her on a bag of Nature's Logic rabbit meal, and oh my gosh she loves it more than anything! We'll see how she does. Her fur gets all nasty and she has a hard time keeping weight on with some foods, so hopefully this will work for her.

http://www.natureslogic.com/products/cp_dry_rab.html

Depending on how she does, I may pick up a bag of their dog stuff for Strider to try.

ETA: the place I picked it up from was charging $14 for a 7 lb. bag, which isn't bad for premium cat food.

Humm..Keep us updated! I always like hearing peoples experiences with new foods..just might be something I'll try if it works out good for you..

 

[Barb04]

Mine like the California Natural. They get both dry & canned. One is herring and sweet potato and the other is salmon and sweet potato. They run for their bowls when I put it down.

 

[Southpaw]

We must all go to the same cat forum lol because the one I'm on also doesn't seem too concerned about nutrition. They have more of a "meh... as long as you give your cat food, no issues" kind of attitude.

I kind of suck at evaluating the finer points of nutrition, but based on ingredients alone the EVO doesn't look bad.

I feed Jinx California Natural herring & sweet potato... he likes it, which is great because at first I wasn't sure if he'd cooperate with switching to a new food. Everything else has been running smoothly and he's actually a little more active since being fed this.

 

[Romy]

When we lived in Tucson I didn't really care what Sammy ate. Robert bought her garbage essentially, but we weren't too worried then because she heavily supplement her diet with raw. Doves...Snakes...Lizards...Quail. Mot cats do to an extent, maybe that's why most cat owners aren't too worried. Here in Washington though, for some reason her hunting skills haven't picked up. Fine by me cause I like birds! But it did cause us to buy nicer cat food for her, and we give her some raw from the freezer as well.

 

[AnimalLoverCatRescuer]

Can someone PM me and tell me what site you are talking about? I think I know bc I am on there too.

What I believe though is this.... feed what works for your cats, some cats will do wonderfully on foods like Evo, but for other cats they are much too rich. That goes for many different brands of food.

Avoid by-products, avoid grain HEAVY foods (cats are carnivores!), avoid the dyes and chemicals and preservatives that are bad and that is the bottom line. If your cats have healthy, shiny coats and very few issues, then you are doing something right. Of course if every cat started out eating Evo or similar brands then it would be great. Many people can't afford it, can't find it, etc. Sometimes cats just don't do well on those high quality foods that we all love.

Another ting to remember, if you can buy it from the grocery store, avoid it!