Best cat food

[nancy33]

What is the best reasonably priced cat food canned or dry that your cat actually likes? Where do u buy it?

[Jenny Wren]

Our cats eat 9 Lives Plus care dry food. My vet recommended it about 10 years ago when one cat had surgery to correct a narrow urethra, as an alternative to the expensive prescription diet. Never had an issue since, touch wood. I also feed my old man (20+ year old Maine Coon) a can of Friskies a day. It's split three ways with the other cats, but he gets the lion's share since he doesn't chow on the dry as much as he used to. I order all cat food from Chewy and just have it and their flea meds autoshipped out every month.

[Metalcat]

When it comes to cats, a shitty wet food is often better than a high quality dry food.

If you look on the pet food review sites, very few dry cat foods come out ahead in terms of rating even compared to supermarket wet food brands.

If you are looking for inexpensive, well rated dry food, you really can't beat the Costco house brand Nature's Domain. However, it's extremely high calorie, so it can be hard to manage your cats weight on it.

I feed my one cat Nature's Domain dry and Fancy Feast wet. He will not eat any premium wet food, I've tried at least 30 brands and the asshole will only eat crap, and even then, only certain textures and flavours of said crap. Fucking cats. Still, he's better off with the crap wet food than on all dry food. It really shows in his coat. Besides, of all the crap wet foods, Fancy Feast is reasonably well rated.

The other one is a better eater, so he gets Performatrin Ultra wet and dry. The wet food must be turkey though, not chicken, not fish, just turkey. Again, fucking cats.

[the_hobbitish]

Yep. The best food is what they'll eat. Mine eats fancy feast grilled chicken except for the times he'll only eat fancy feast sliced turkey. I've tried switching to fancier wet foods, various grain free foods, and most recently fancy feast's pate which is grain free. Nope. He eats what he likes. I also give him a small scoop of Elsey's Salmon dry which works out to about 2/3s wet and 1/3 dry for his weight.

[Metalcat]

Yep. The best food is what they'll eat. Mine eats fancy feast grilled chicken except for the times he'll only eat fancy feast sliced turkey. I've tried switching to fancier wet foods, various grain free foods, and most recently fancy feast's pate which is grain free. Nope. He eats what he likes. I also give him a small scoop of Elsey's Salmon dry which works out to about 2/3s wet and 1/3 dry for his weight.

Oh yeah, mine has gone off Fancy Feast salmon AND Fancy Feast turkey.

Incidentally, my parents own a high end pet food store now, and they are not cat people, so they keep getting gobsmacked by all of the owners who come in stressing about what their cats won't eat. I had to explain to them that cats aren't like dogs, they won't just eat eventually, and unlike dogs, if they don't eat for a few days, they can die.

They're like "why do cat people put up with this shit?", And I was like "oh, we all have toxoplasmosis, it makes us irrationally love cats, there's no other explanation".

[Frankies Girl]

The store brands of some stores (at least Aldi and HEB a local grocery chain) tend to be knockoffs of Fancy Feast (the 3 ounce can variety) and Friskies (the 5 ounce can). Don't quote me on that, but I've done non-scientific checking of ingredients and they match up.

My cats get fed 2x daily, dry food for breakfast, wet food for dinner. Except for my diabetic cat, who is completely on a wet food diet and is in complete remission because of the low carb diet. He gets Fancy Feast classic pate series (or the store brand equivalent) because they have the best calorie/carb/protein breakdown. The gravy/grilled/other varieties are all lower calorie and much higher carb.

I've had very bad luck with Aldi's dry food - I believe it caused 4 cats to develop reoccurring UTIs and even a blockage in one cat, so I advise steering well clear of them. Stopped using it and not a single incidence since and I've changed their dry food a few times.

I do feed dry food, either Purina One urinary tract care (up until recently), 9 Lives Plus Care. I have become worried about an increase in hairball/vomiting in my hairball prone cats, and am now trying Purina Cat Chow Naturals  (ETA: nope on the Naturals as it caused one cat to develop a UTI after about 2 weeks, so back to Purina One) as it has slightly better ingredients (no artificial dyes for one thing and chicken as the first ingredient) but really all dry food is kind of crap, so I don't like it being the only thing the cats eat. Their wet food is the store brand 5 ounce pate and they get half their daily calories from that, and half from the dry at breakfast. I figured out the calorie counts for each cat and have a measuring scoop and buy a narrow number of flavors that I know the calorie breakdown and so far, it's been both cheaper (less vet bills!) and pretty easy.

In most all my cat food, I do price matching or buy from the store that has a coupon/sale going on. I'm lucky that most my cats are not picky or have sensitivities to food changes so I do a short transition but they adjust well. ETA: spoke too soon. One cat does have a delicate urinary tract and developed a UTI on Purina Naturals so back to the UT Purina One.

[Samuel]

When I adopted my cat she came with a decent sized gift certificate for a local high end pet food place. I bought a variety of expensive wet foods and a bag of dry food from Europe that the clerk recommended. The cat barely touched any of it.

Went back to basics and she's been happily slurping up Fancy Feast pate for the last 8 years now, augmented with some Purina Cat Chow Naturals dry food.

[the_hobbitish]

I wish mine would eat pate because I don't like the high carbs of the other kinds of fancy feast, but he's a big older cat so what he'll eat wins. sigh. I have a whole case of pate left over from that experiment. That said he's much better the my other cat who  passed away last year. Finding something he would eat was a constant shifting guessing game for the last few years of his life.

[pbkmaine]

We have two cats who will eat absolutely anything and one who is pickier. Fortunately the picky one will eat any kind of Fancy Feast except beef.

[hooplady]

A couple of years ago I purchased a meat grinder and started making my cats' food. At first they really liked it but the appeal has waned a bit. Since I have several of my own and I foster a lot, I like the 12-13 oz cans; recently I've been buying Blue Buffalo and Wellness in this size. And I have one who will now only eat 9Lives Super Supper, sigh.

I compare prices at Amazon and Chewy and usually the latter wins. In addition they've had most of what I've needed throughout the recent cat food shortage.

And try as I might I can't get them to eat only a wet food diet, they get crunchies in the evening. Well, all but the one who now has no teeth, lol.

[SunnyDays]

I have 2 cats and used to feed them President’s Choice Nutrition First Salmon and Brown Rice recipe (Canadian) for dry food and they loved it.  Then the salmon got adulterated with peas, so now I give them 1/3 that, 1/3 Performatrin Naturals Salmon and Veggies recipe and 1/3 Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein Salmon.  They like them all.

For wet, mostly Fancy Feast, all different flavours with some select flavours of Friskies that they like.  I tried Go Solutions Turkey and Duck and they did like that and Tiki Cat which they didn’t like except for the mackerel one.  They refuse Performatrin wet food of any flavour.

I also give them a can of tuna a month and occasionally cooked chicken livers, both of which they go wild for.  Plus I will give them small amounts of whatever meat I happen to cook - hamburger, chicken, turkey, sausage and bacon.  They also really like the odd can of Kirkland chicken from Costco.

So I guess they aren’t overly fussy or maybe I have just learned what they like and stick with that.  Whatever they won’t eat, the dog is happy to gobble up!

[Sibley]

With cats, there is an element of "well, it's not the greatest for them but that's what they want, so we're going with that".

My Arwen gets Purina One dry. Up until the last year or so she wasn't interested in wet food. Now she's decided that she wants wet food as well. Only Fancy Feast. Except she's not sure which flavors/textures are ok, so sometimes she turns her nose up at something. It's frustrating. At least she has dry food to fall back on. Oh, and she decided that she didn't like water fountains but a bowl was just fine.

Until recently, when parents moved in with their 2 cats. Who have a water fountain (Arwen drinks from it), and their own wet foods (Fancy Feast but very different flavors), and their own dry food (Purina One mixed with something else, different flavors). So now, all 3 cats eat from each other's bowls.

I give up. They're all eating.

[dcheesi]

With cats, there is an element of "well, it's not the greatest for them but that's what they want, so we're going with that".

My Arwen gets Purina One dry. Up until the last year or so she wasn't interested in wet food. Now she's decided that she wants wet food as well. Only Fancy Feast. Except she's not sure which flavors/textures are ok, so sometimes she turns her nose up at something. It's frustrating. At least she has dry food to fall back on. Oh, and she decided that she didn't like water fountains but a bowl was just fine.

Until recently, when parents moved in with their 2 cats. Who have a water fountain (Arwen drinks from it), and their own wet foods (Fancy Feast but very different flavors), and their own dry food (Purina One mixed with something else, different flavors). So now, all 3 cats eat from each other's bowls.

I give up. They're all eating.

Yeah, mine were never into wet food at all¹. One will turn her nose up, the other will lick the gravy but leave the meat (/facepalm). So dry food it is.

At some point the previously less-finicky (and more "piggy") one stopped wanting to eat most varieties; I can only assume it's an allergy or other digestive issue. Purina One "Sensitive [Systems/Digestion²]" is what seems to work for her, and thankfully the finicky one is ok with it too.

¹ Both of them do like canned tuna, however. And the little piggy begs for deli poultry every time we make a sandwich. But nothing made for cats, at least not consistently (though tbf, the human food isn't offered consistently, so there's that).

² Apparently they significantly reformulated this variety when they changed the name, but fortunately the new stuff seems to work just as well for my kitties.

[Metalcat]

With cats, there is an element of "well, it's not the greatest for them but that's what they want, so we're going with that".

My Arwen gets Purina One dry. Up until the last year or so she wasn't interested in wet food. Now she's decided that she wants wet food as well. Only Fancy Feast. Except she's not sure which flavors/textures are ok, so sometimes she turns her nose up at something. It's frustrating. At least she has dry food to fall back on. Oh, and she decided that she didn't like water fountains but a bowl was just fine.

Until recently, when parents moved in with their 2 cats. Who have a water fountain (Arwen drinks from it), and their own wet foods (Fancy Feast but very different flavors), and their own dry food (Purina One mixed with something else, different flavors). So now, all 3 cats eat from each other's bowls.

I give up. They're all eating.

Yeah, mine were never into wet food at all¹. One will turn her nose up, the other will lick the gravy but leave the meat (/facepalm). So dry food it is.

At some point the previously less-finicky (and more "piggy") one stopped wanting to eat most varieties; I can only assume it's an allergy or other digestive issue. Purina One "Sensitive [Systems/Digestion²]" is what seems to work for her, and thankfully the finicky one is ok with it too.

¹ Both of them do like canned tuna, however. And the little piggy begs for deli poultry every time we make a sandwich. But nothing made for cats, at least not consistently (though tbf, the human food isn't offered consistently, so there's that).

² Apparently they significantly reformulated this variety when they changed the name, but fortunately the new stuff seems to work just as well for my kitties.

Yeah, apparently most cats far prefer dry food to wet food, there's some kind of cat-crack manufacturers add to dry food to make it addictive.

I had to switch my Rex from mostly dry to mostly wet in order to manage his weight, and it was a fucking nightmare. He's VERY vocal, so that was...loud.

I never give them canned tuna because my vet told me that the salt content is way too high, and once the Rex decides he prefers something, he'll hold out for it.

[dcheesi]

With cats, there is an element of "well, it's not the greatest for them but that's what they want, so we're going with that".

My Arwen gets Purina One dry. Up until the last year or so she wasn't interested in wet food. Now she's decided that she wants wet food as well. Only Fancy Feast. Except she's not sure which flavors/textures are ok, so sometimes she turns her nose up at something. It's frustrating. At least she has dry food to fall back on. Oh, and she decided that she didn't like water fountains but a bowl was just fine.

Until recently, when parents moved in with their 2 cats. Who have a water fountain (Arwen drinks from it), and their own wet foods (Fancy Feast but very different flavors), and their own dry food (Purina One mixed with something else, different flavors). So now, all 3 cats eat from each other's bowls.

I give up. They're all eating.

Yeah, mine were never into wet food at all¹. One will turn her nose up, the other will lick the gravy but leave the meat (/facepalm). So dry food it is.

At some point the previously less-finicky (and more "piggy") one stopped wanting to eat most varieties; I can only assume it's an allergy or other digestive issue. Purina One "Sensitive [Systems/Digestion²]" is what seems to work for her, and thankfully the finicky one is ok with it too.

¹ Both of them do like canned tuna, however. And the little piggy begs for deli poultry every time we make a sandwich. But nothing made for cats, at least not consistently (though tbf, the human food isn't offered consistently, so there's that).

² Apparently they significantly reformulated this variety when they changed the name, but fortunately the new stuff seems to work just as well for my kitties.

Yeah, apparently most cats far prefer dry food to wet food, there's some kind of cat-crack manufacturers add to dry food to make it addictive.

I had to switch my Rex from mostly dry to mostly wet in order to manage his weight, and it was a fucking nightmare. He's VERY vocal, so that was...loud.

I never give them canned tuna because my vet told me that the salt content is way too high, and once the Rex decides he prefers something, he'll hold out for it.

It's probably like chips are for us --crunchy snacks with tons of artificial flavoring to make it addictive.

My solution to the weight problem is a timed electronic feeder; only so much food is dispensed, so "Miss piggy" can't overeat (and the skinny cat is capable of standing up for her share).

We don't give them much tuna, basically just let them lick the cans clean. And only when we're making a tuna dish ourselves, which isn't super often.

[Metalcat]

With cats, there is an element of "well, it's not the greatest for them but that's what they want, so we're going with that".

My Arwen gets Purina One dry. Up until the last year or so she wasn't interested in wet food. Now she's decided that she wants wet food as well. Only Fancy Feast. Except she's not sure which flavors/textures are ok, so sometimes she turns her nose up at something. It's frustrating. At least she has dry food to fall back on. Oh, and she decided that she didn't like water fountains but a bowl was just fine.

Until recently, when parents moved in with their 2 cats. Who have a water fountain (Arwen drinks from it), and their own wet foods (Fancy Feast but very different flavors), and their own dry food (Purina One mixed with something else, different flavors). So now, all 3 cats eat from each other's bowls.

I give up. They're all eating.

Yeah, mine were never into wet food at all¹. One will turn her nose up, the other will lick the gravy but leave the meat (/facepalm). So dry food it is.

At some point the previously less-finicky (and more "piggy") one stopped wanting to eat most varieties; I can only assume it's an allergy or other digestive issue. Purina One "Sensitive [Systems/Digestion²]" is what seems to work for her, and thankfully the finicky one is ok with it too.

¹ Both of them do like canned tuna, however. And the little piggy begs for deli poultry every time we make a sandwich. But nothing made for cats, at least not consistently (though tbf, the human food isn't offered consistently, so there's that).

² Apparently they significantly reformulated this variety when they changed the name, but fortunately the new stuff seems to work just as well for my kitties.

Yeah, apparently most cats far prefer dry food to wet food, there's some kind of cat-crack manufacturers add to dry food to make it addictive.

I had to switch my Rex from mostly dry to mostly wet in order to manage his weight, and it was a fucking nightmare. He's VERY vocal, so that was...loud.

I never give them canned tuna because my vet told me that the salt content is way too high, and once the Rex decides he prefers something, he'll hold out for it.

It's probably like chips are for us --crunchy snacks with tons of artificial flavoring to make it addictive.

My solution to the weight problem is a timed electronic feeder; only so much food is dispensed, so "Miss piggy" can't overeat (and the skinny cat is capable of standing up for her share).

We don't give them much tuna, basically just let them lick the cans clean. And only when we're making a tuna dish ourselves, which isn't super often.

The issue for my cat is that dry food is so high calorie that if I portion control his dry food, which is easy, he doesn't think that he gets enough food and complains all day as if he's starving.

Wet food is much more filling, so he doesn't think I'm trying to starve him anymore.

[nancy33]

Thank you for all of the helpful answers!
My cats currently like friskies canned food with extra gravy. Looks like fancy feast is more popular though?

[Metalcat]

Thank you for all of the helpful answers!
My cats currently like friskies canned food with extra gravy. Looks like fancy feast is more popular though?

Fancy Feast is graded much higher in terms of species appropriateness and quality of ingredients.