We've had outlr kittens a few weeks now & want to stabilize on a regular food for them. The stuff we initially got is quite pricey for the small bag available at Petsmart.

Our dog gets 4Health from Tractor Supply.

This site has been mentioned a few times on here, but looks like it's dog foods only: https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com...-food-reviews/brand/

Is there a similar thing for cat foods?
Looks like 4Health has some cat options, would he good to gave a 1 stop option to cover both sides.

There is this sister site to dog food advisor.

https://www.catfoodadvisor.com/

With all the cheap garbage that pet food puts into the stuff to > their profit we cook for ours. Vet said that our animal's health has greatly improved, and we were buying the expensive stuff. A bag of chicken leg quarters, large can of green beans and day-old bread is better then what one can buy.

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick-SP2022:
There is this sister site to dog food advisor.

https://www.catfoodadvisor.com/

Thanks, looks like 4Health cat is similarly rated to their dry dog foods.

My last cat, a female tuxedo rescue, lived to age 21+. She was very healthy until the last three months of her life. I always fed her Purina Cat Chow. Made in the USA.

She loved it. Occasionally I’d give her something special, such as Chicken of the Sea tuna. She turned up her little nose is that. If I mixed it in with the kibble she’d eat around the tuna.

Cat food prices have doubled here since COVID. For my varmint, I keep a small bowl of Meow Mix Tender Centers out so he can eat at his leisure and give him a helping of Sheba at some point during the day. The animal eats like a hog and whatever type of meat I eat, he gets a share. He poops once a day and tinkles twice. I wish I had his metabolism! Fresh water is essential for cat health. In the past, I have bought high $$$ cat food like Iams or Hills and saw no difference in the cats overall health. Most my cats are rescues that are tougher than boot leather and live 15+ years
And (embarrassing admission} I once had 13 cats. I put my Vet on the beach in the Bahamas that year!

I feed this
https://www.catfoodadvisor.com/reviews/orijen-dry/

they're based in KY and Alberta, which is basically Texas North.

Yup, Purina Cat Chow.

Just a thought: with cats you usually want to stick with fins and feathers. Also, wet food if possible.

I’ve been to a few seminars on the topic and cats (being true carnivores) require a more moist diet. At the very least water ad lib.
The vets who have been giving the talks discuss the fact that fish and birds are the best diet for these guys. YMMV.

That said, I did have a barnyard kitty that lived into her 20s on Purina.

Currently have one that went into kidney failure about three years back. I’ve had her on a wet diet since and the cat that should’ve died must be on her fifth? life now and appears to be doing well. She’s in her early teens now, I think. Indoor.

I feed my cat Solid Gold Weight Control Alaskan Pollock. It's double the price, but he likes it.

He self regulates about 1 cup a day, and has a IR activated water fountain so he drinks anytime he wants so he stays well hydrated. (I can hear him when it turns on and off)

He has an EZ button (recorded "SNACK") that he tries to wear out, so I tell him to "eat food", sometimes it's an argument and we go back and forth, him on the button and me telling him to eat, other times he will eat a few bites and pound the snack button again.

I am not sure who trained whom...

We standardized on Purina One cat food. The vet once he asked what food we used and when I said Purina One he said that's great, any of the Purina is good.

They also got a little fish or meat added to it most times. When I once bought some cheap cans of tuna that was on sale they only ate a little then left it. I think it was because of added salt which is bad for them so I never gave them processed fish or meat again.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Currently have one that went into kidney failure about three years back. I’ve had her on a wet diet since and the cat that should’ve died must be on her fifth? life now and appears to be doing well. She’s in her early teens now, I think. Indoor.

I had a cat live to age 20 and last 7 or 8 years had increasing levels of kidney disease.

Phase 1 - getting the cat to drink more water. Vet said in general cats prefer flowing water so switching from bowl of water to water fountain greatly increased her water intake. In the litter box, this meant going from very thick very smelly urine to a thinner more watery urine that smelled much better (i.e. win for cat & win for me).

Phase 2 - going to a prescription cat food for kidney disease. She had always been a dry food eater with wet food as a once a week treat. The prescription cat food was a small can of wet in the morning at the same time as prescription dry food she ate all day.

Phase 3 - Daily saline IV under the loose skin in her neck which hydrated her without having to be processed by kidneys. Switched to 100% canned food and as soon as she'd stop eating one canned food would immediately move to a different canned food (eating was more important than prescription/nonprescription at this point). In the end, she was eating phase 2 ground meat baby food which was actually lower sodium than cat food.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 both lasted several years each and 7 or 8 years combined. Phase 3 lasted 4 or 5 months and then I had to make the quality of life decision. She lived to be 20 years and 2 months old.

The reason I mentioned all of the above is that I'd encourage all people with indoor cats to:

see if their little monster will drink more water from a fountain. I wish I had known about it sooner and in hindsight she had symptoms quite a while before the vet diagnosed and made recommendation. My next cat will start with a fountain as a kitten.

do the small can of quality canned cat food in morning along with a measured scoop of quality dry cat food. I traveled a lot so valued the dry food only, but likely not getting next cat until I'm retired so I'll be home more and able to do the combo.

My 10 year old kitty eats a spoonful of Friskies wet food every morning, always a full bowl of IAMS dry food, along with a water fountain. She has never been sick, maintains a healthy weight on her own.

Ours got Purina One for their first 6ish years. Again, vet recommended. We've incorporated wet more and more over the past couple years... Sheba for breakfast and lunch and Fancy Feast for dinner.


Rick

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Currently have one that went into kidney failure about three years back. I’ve had her on a wet diet since and the cat that should’ve died must be on her fifth? life now and appears to be doing well. She’s in her early teens now, I think. Indoor.

I had a cat live to age 20 and last 7 or 8 years had increasing levels of kidney disease.

Phase 1 - getting the cat to drink more water. Vet said in general cats prefer flowing water so switching from bowl of water to water fountain greatly increased her water intake. In the litter box, this meant going from very thick very smelly urine to a thinner more watery urine that smelled much better (i.e. win for cat & win for me).

Phase 2 - going to a prescription cat food for kidney disease. She had always been a dry food eater with wet food as a once a week treat. The prescription cat food was a small can of wet in the morning at the same time as prescription dry food she ate all day.

Phase 3 - Daily saline IV under the loose skin in her neck which hydrated her without having to be processed by kidneys. Switched to 100% canned food and as soon as she'd stop eating one canned food would immediately move to a different canned food (eating was more important than prescription/nonprescription at this point). In the end, she was eating phase 2 ground meat baby food which was actually lower sodium than cat food.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 both lasted several years each and 7 or 8 years combined. Phase 3 lasted 4 or 5 months and then I had to make the quality of life decision. She lived to be 20 years and 2 months old.

The reason I mentioned all of the above is that I'd encourage all people with indoor cats to:

see if their little monster will drink more water from a fountain. I wish I had known about it sooner and in hindsight she had symptoms quite a while before the vet diagnosed and made recommendation. My next cat will start with a fountain as a kitten.

do the small can of quality canned cat food in morning along with a measured scoop of quality dry cat food. I traveled a lot so valued the dry food only, but likely not getting next cat until I'm retired so I'll be home more and able to do the combo.

Yup, I had surgery on one of my knees that put me on my back for a few days. My husband and son were taking care of my Bengal cat during that time and did not realize how important constant access to water was for this breed. Suffice to say she ended up in the ER and after a couple of days she came home with a poor prognosis, basically to die..from that point we started at what you describe as phase 3. Switching foods was constant just to get something into her. Over a year we gradually stopped the saline sq, and now we are on a wet diet only. Royal canin - and it’s working well for her. I’m grateful and like you want to warn all cat owners out there. You have to have wet food or water ad Lib. If I had to leave town, I still set my faucet to drip just in case..

I’ve had two neutered male cats with bladder stones and obstruction. Prescription diet didn’t completely stop it. If I had another male cat I would not do any dry food again.

I used to follow dog food advisor but found its opinions were lacking in many regards.

Good for recall notices though fwiw.

Although this site is specifically geared towards feline kidney disease, the info within is invaluable imo. Actually quite impressive.

Since most pet foods (for both dogs and cats) are entirely far too high in nutrient levels as the pet food industry is only concerned with minimum nutrient levels and NOT maximum nutrient levels, our pets kidneys can get overworked, and if they are predisposed to kidney disease they may indeed get it. Nevertheless, the data here should be helpful to you. Good luck.

https://www.felinecrf.org/dry_food_usa.htm

I feed my 4 cats Purina One dry food everyday and Purina One wet food every couple days. In addition,I have 2 water fountains.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

IR activated water fountain

Would appreciate information about this.

I have had cats my whole life. I recently read that cats need more than one water source as they can hoard water. As in if you leave one bowl out, they leave it alone, they want it but they save it as just in case water.

If you put out a second bowl in a second location, they will drink from either bowl as they know there is a second source. I'll be dammed the minute I did it cat began drinking regularly multiple times a day.

I highly recommend trying this.