I need recommendations for a tasty dry cat food

[csziggy]

Problem is, I have three cats with different needs. Sabra, our black kitty, needs to be on a diet and she will eat anything put in front of her. Lucas is about the perfect weight, the most dominant cat, and is only slightly picky. Maya, the smallest, is very picky about her food and last time she was at the vet she'd lost weight.

Sabra weighed 12.5 pounds last time at the vet - she has very small feet, tail, and head and should probably weigh less than ten pounds. The vet talked to me about Sabra's weight so we've been cutting back on her food.

Lucas weighed 12 pound when we got him, 9.5 when he return after getting loose, and is now about eleven pounds. He's a long, lean cat and looks about the right weight to me.

Maya weighed 7.5 pounds when we adopted her, but last vet visit she only weighed 7.2 pounds. She is very picky about her food.

We've been feeding IAMs indoor adult dry food, but none of the cats particularly like it. Once a week we split a can of food among them and they all go nuts over it. They are the little Fancy Feast cans, since none of the cats will eat much canned food at one meal. Maya has been getting Temptations treats since she won't eat much of the IAMs and Lucas has been picking on her so she won't eat in the kitchen when he is there.

I can keep feeding Maya separately but I'm not that sure about the Temptations, though they do say it is a complete cat food.

Any suggestions for a tasty dry cat food that will also be good for a cat on a restricted diet?

[tblue37]

1. I use Fancy Feast dry, but don't know if it will meet the needs of a restricted diet.

I feed my timid cat on my bed, because the two hog kitties will eat her food if I don't separate her. I also sit on the bed and read while she eats, to deter the others from coming after her food once they're done with their own food.

[csziggy]

7. None are on a real "restricted diet" - Sabra just need to lose weight

All three are healthy young cats. Most of my concern is that with Sabra, at not quite two years of age, being so overweight, she could end up with diabetes. Since she is a rescue cat that tends to be very timid, there is no way either of us could give her daily meds

When we first adopted Sabra last fall, all she did was hide under the bed. She'd slink out at night to eat and use the litter box, but she got no exercise at all. Now she is out, moving around and carrying her tail up, even when she is moving away from us, and she plays with Lucas.

I've begun getting her to chase the laser, but she will only run up and down the length of the house once or twice. Lucas is good for four or five times before he quits.

[Phoenix61]

2. I feed mine Nutro Wholesome Essentials for Senior Indoor cats

I have two that are about 9. One is a great weight and the other looks like a furry football. They seem to like it and it’s a good quality so litter box duty isn’t too bad. I get it off amazon.

[happybird]

3. Whole Earth Farms Grain Free Turkey and Duck.

One of mine has grain sensitivities and the other was a little chunky, as well as being picky. Actually, they are both kinda picky. It took a while to find a grain free they both liked. They both love this one. Pooper’s weight went down a little and has stayed there.

There are a couple more flavors, the Turkey and Duck seems to be their favorite (plus I try to avoid feeding fish to my male kitty). They also seem to appreciate the small, flat kibble size so they can snarf it down without chewing, lol!

ETA: my male has hypothyroidism which was diagnosed about 2 years ago. His coat was looking pretty bad (a side effect of untreated hypothyroidism). The meds improved it, and I noticed further improvement in his coat in the year he’s been eating this food. He is back to his old, ridiculous, luxuriously soft and fluffy self and very proud of it. His winter coat is absurd this year and I’m so glad to see it back in all it’s glory.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Blue buffalo

Grain free chicken.

[nocoincidences]

5. I have thriee cats with different needs.

But the one dry food they all love, is Nutro Duck and Potato. I feed each of them canned food for their specific needs, including one who needs a laxative in his wet food because he has megacolon!

[Ziggysmom]

6. I also feed Nutro brand dry cat food to my two kids

Temptations treats are high in corn which can cause digestive upsets. Cats are carnivores and corn is not a great food for them. After losing a boy to kidney disease, we mostly feed canned foods Purine Pro Plan and Tiki Cat. For a treat they LOVE Catit Creamy Lickable treats in Chicken & Liver formula.

[mr_lebowski]

8. This is excellent food ... everything in this line really ...

https://www.chewy.com/blue-buffalo-wilderness-chicken/dp/32098

Here's my recommended ingredients list, keep in mind the higher it is in the list, the more there is, by weight:
Chicken Meal, Any Fish Meal esp. Salmon, Turkey Meal (excellent)
Salmon Oil (excellent)
Chicken, Salmon, Turkey (slightly less excellent because it's weighed with water still in it, unlike Meal)
Pea Protein, Sweet Potatoes, Tomato Pomace (okay)
...
Any kind of by-product, esp. just 'meat' as opposed to 'chicken' or the like (not very good esp. in dry food)
Anything Corn, or Wheat, or Gluten (crap)

[csziggy]

9. Thank you - and everyone! I now have a plan!

My husband and I talked about the food problem. He suggests that he got to Petsmart and buy small bags of different brands/flavors and see what the cats like. I've made a list of the ones suggested here and will keep notes one what they eat and not eat.

Heck, it could just be that they are bored with the IAMs, but the only reason we started feeding it was that was what the Humane Society we adopted Maya and Sabra fed. If they are just bored, changing out the type of food every so often will help.

[mr_lebowski]

11. Honestly IAM's is good for like grocery-store level pet food.

But it's not great pet food, it's okay. And it's priced pretty close to some much better food at the petco/petsmart type places.

Great idea getting the smaller bags and trying them. They'll take 'em back at the pet food stores too if you don't use that much.

Some cats however can be sensitive to too frequent changes of food. My last kitty was not like that but some can be.

Look for foods with around 40% protein esp. if none are fat and lazy

[csziggy]

16. I only started feeding IAMs because the Humane Society used it

Changing out the food won't be a sudden jump. We have a big bin for the cat food. When the crunchies get low, we pour out the last of it, put new in the bottom, then pour the old food on top. As we scoop it out, the new food gets mixed in more and more. That way, they gradually get moved to the new food.

I have horses and they cannot handle fast feed changes, so I started mixing new feed in the same way for them ages ago.

If we don't use up all of any of the foods, we'll donate it to the Humane Society or the Animal Shelter.

[happybird]

13. Aahhh. Are you a Dog Food Advisor fan?

I love that site. The explanations of what, exactly, every ingredient is, how it’s processed, and what purpose has (if any), was invaluable when I was searching for a new cat food.

[mr_lebowski]

15. You got it! :)

[Kali]

10. Wellness

kind of pricey but one of the most consistantly high rated quality foods. several formulations, dry and canned but all our cats and dogs get it. and the vets that all sell Hills Science Diet never give me any shit about it when they ask what I feed.

it is really hard to do separate diets so good luck, about all you can do is feed the one that needs to gain some higher calorie snacks when the others are not around. anything you leave out free choice for that one will get eaten by the one that needs to lose weight. low cal food is not a good idea in my opinion, better to just feed a little less and try to increase activity.

we just had one of the dogs diagnosed with megaesophagus so now I finally have the opportunity to put our overweight one on more restriction. because the "sick" one has to be fed wet and upright and is no longer allowed to have dry food or he just pukes it up. so the fat one is only getting her maintenance portion while I supervise instead of the old way of having a big bucket out free choice for everybody.

I'm sure this would be harder with cats but if you are doing canned occasionally, I would just increase the portions for the one that needs it and decrease for the other, and you may have to lock the fat one out of the area. I wouldn't lock up the one that needs to eat more as that might traumatize it and make it not eat.

[csziggy]

12. Thanks, Kali. Maya that needs more food actually isolates herself

Lucas likes to play too rough and she just will no put up with his anymore. So Maya sticks close to me - right now she's asleep on my desk - and I close the door to the library where my desk is when I feed her separately. Since both other cats want her treats, I close the door until she is finished. She's very comfortable with this and when she finishes, she's up on my desk either sleeping or head butting me.

This works pretty good since I give restricted portions to Lucas and Sabra in the kitchen. Sabra eats what she wants, then Lucas cleans up anything left on the plates.

As I said before my husband and I worked out a plan. He will buy smallish bags of different kinds of cat foods and I'll keep notes on which they like best. Maybe the cats just want more variety since they've been eating IAMs for the last five months.

[Kali]

14. that works!

I get delivery from Chewy and alternate "flavors" every other delivery. I don't know if they care but they all like it, cats and dogs. the cats seem to like the regular adult chicken best but I get them salmon too. Dogs get lamb and rice and then the grain free wild game (but the farts - ugh!)

freaking pets eat better than me!

[csziggy]

17. Once we arrive at some flavors they will like, we may sign up with Chewy

The grocery here don't really carry a good quality selection and Chewy is so good about delivery and variety, that would be easier for us. And they are cheaper than Petsmart.

My husband got talked into signing up for Pretty Litter, which I didn't like at all. I prefer a clumping cat litter and while Kitty Litter is great for checking for problems - it changes color if there is an imbalance that would show up in the urine - none of these cats has any health issues. But he got three months supply for three cats and I hate the stuff. In fact we just switched to World's Best cat litter made from corn, which clumps nicely and breaks down quickly when we throw it out in the field. So we've got a big box of Pretty Litter sitting here - and I am not sure if he cancelled the future deliveries.

[TruckFump]

21. That's what I feed my cat, Science Diet

More expensive, but it is really good stuff.

[Rhiannon12866]

22. That's what I feed both my cat and my dog. It was recommended by the vet.

When I first adopted my dog as a puppy, I fed him what the vet recommended, but inexplicably they stopped making it so I asked for other suggestions. They told me long ago that what you feed them is about the most important decision you can make for a pet.

I got a few suggestions, you can't find all kinds of food everywhere, but I found the Wellness and tried it and my dog likes it a lot. So when I found my kitty, I started him on the same thing. My only issue with him is that the vet said he's now overweight so he's on weight reduction food I get from the vet - which he likes even more than the Wellness!

[spinbaby]

26. Thanks for the recommendation

I added a bag to my next Chewy order.

[catbyte]

18. My three have different body types--a lot like yours, actually, and they all love

Purina Beyond grain-free Salmon, Egg & Sweet Potato or the Chicken flavor. Otis, my big boy, has a grain allergy so I have to buy grain-free. All of my cats are thriving on it, even little Sammy who's very picky.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M7UO93L/

https://smile.amazon.com/Purina-Beyond-Natural-Chicken-Recipe/dp/B00XV81E2Q/

[bamagal62]

19. I feed mine ziwi peak dried beef and

Ziwi peak dried lamb. It’s air dried meat with no fillers. Can order from Chewy’s.
I also feed mine canned food as cats need to eat mostly wet food. Canned food is better for them. IAMs is not great food. Fancy Feast originals is pretty good food for the price. My cats new favorite is Scrumptious from Scratch Chicken. You buy it from Chewy’s and is good food for the price. Also, check out instinct rabbit. Rabbit is leaner so might be good for an overweight cat.

[KT2000]

20. My vet said Costco

Maintenance was a good all around dry food. I have three who are on different diets but they all like the Costco brand.

[csziggy]

27. Lucas was fed the Costco Kirkland cat food before I got him

I planned to get it, but the Humane Society said they'd had problems in their male rescues with urinary tract issues so they switched to IAMs.

[KT2000]

31. Thanks for that

Urinary issues are something I want to avoid as I have two males.

[csziggy]

32. Yes, although Lucas is our only male cat, I don't want to have that happen to him

One of our previous cats had horrible pain and would just cry and wail until we got him re-plumbed. He was young, only about three years old, and had grown up on Meow Mix. Since then I have tried to avoid the stuff in cat food that could trigger the condition.

[safeinOhio]

23. I have one old rescue cat. Lilly,

she started really losing weight about a year ago. Try all kinds of food and she would eat a new one for a few days and then never touch it again. Vet sold some "special" brand for 30 bucks for a 5 lb bag. Same thing, after a few days she would not touch it.

One day I said to hell with and bought a really cheap one, Meow Mix, original choice and she loves it. Has put the weight back on and has been eating it for a few months now. I don't if that would work, but just keep trying them until you find one they like. I still have bags of the good stuff and now use it for dog treats.

[csziggy]

28. My husband bought one bag of Meow Mix since we got these three last fall

They loved it and gobbled it up, but I was concerned about the dyes and other ingredients that Purina uses so we went back to IAMs. When we first switched back to IAMs, the cats gobbled it up. Now, not so much.

I really think they may just want a variety so rather than buy big bags, getting the smallest available might provide the cats with some variety.

[safeinOhio]

29. You can try this.

The dry food really drys out after while. I put some in a big glass jar with a tight lid and then put a piece of paper towel wet in it. Makes it a little softer and smell stronger. Works when the bag gets low and then it really drys out.

[csziggy]

30. We have it in a big plastic bin with a pretty tight lid

But it could have dried out. I can put part of it into a smaller container with a damp paper towel and see if that helps. Thanks for the suggestion!

[pansypoo53219]

25. i do purina only. prefer wet. used temptaions as meds bribe.

[iscooterliberally]

33. I used Purina Naturals. It comes in an olive green bag.

I have lots of cats and feed many ferals too. I don't know of any of the cats that don't like it. Some of them even prefer it to wet food. You can buy a small bag at the grocery store and give it a shot. It's inexpensive.