Healthy wet food for cats?

Question

Is there any wet cat food that is healthy? What is the best brand?

Answer 1

Best canned cat food
When it comes to canned cat food, reviews say label-reading is important, just as it is for dry food. Premium cat foods should contain primarily meat and protein. According to editors at Max's house, cats really don't need carbohydrates at all, because their systems have a short digestive tract made for absorbing nutrients from protein sources rather then processing carbohydrates. Modern cats have adapted to eating some carbohydrates, but if cats eat too much grain (including corn products), the excess can turn to glucose, causing weight gain.

When it comes to wet cat food, Franny Syufy recommends Natural Balance Ultra Formula (*est. $1 per 6-ounce can) , which is extremely high in protein and low on by-products. Its primary ingredients are chicken, chicken broth, chicken liver, duck, salmon, carrots, brown rice, flour and fish meal. Natural Balance pet foods were developed partly by actor **** Van Patten. Cats need one can per day.

Another highly recommended wet food is Drs. Foster & Smith Chicken Formula (*est. $1.25 per 7-ounce can). Main ingredients are chicken, chicken liver, chicken broth, brown rice, eggs, flaxseed, carrots and sweet potatoes. This food, however, is only available via the manufacturer’s catalog or Web site. Innova (*est. $1 per 5.5-ounce can) makes canned food that contains very similar ingredients. None of these foods contain any by-products at all, and each has a high enough water content that your cat won't need to drink that much extra water to stay hydrated.

The Iams brand has a reputation as a premium brand, but its canned cat food contains by-products. At least they are not the primary ingredient, however. Iams Chicken formula (*est. 75¢ per 5.5-ounce can) lists the primary ingredients as chicken, chicken broth and chicken liver, followed by chicken by-products. Science Diet, another brand with a premium pedigree, also contains by-products, but like Iams, they are lower down on the ingredient list. Science Diet's Savory Chicken Entrée (*est. 85¢ per 5.5-ounce can) contains primarily chicken and turkey giblets, followed by meat by-products (of undisclosed origin).

As for mainstream brands, the same by-product issues pop up. For example, 9 Lives Chicken and Tuna dinner (*est. 50¢ per 5.5-ounce can) certainly costs less, but the primary ingredient is meat by-product, followed by chicken, fish and poultry by-products. Friskies Chicken and Tuna dinner (*est. 50¢ per 5.5-ounce can) lists meat by-products and poultry by-products as its first two ingredients. Likewise, the first two ingredients in Whiskas Ground Chicken and Tuna Dinner (*est. 50¢ per 5.5-ounce can) are neither chicken nor tuna; they're meat by-products and poultry by-products.

Best dry cat food
Innova (*est. $14 for a 6.6 pound bag) is recommended as the best dry cat food by About.com's Franny Syufy. Its formulas contain no corn, no artificial preservatives and no by-products. Syufy says, "If I had to choose one dry cat food only, for my cat, Innova would probably be my pick." Turkey, chicken meal and chicken are its primary ingredients; Innova cat food is a full 36% protein. One drawback is that regular Innova dry cat food has a higher caloric content than some other foods, so it may not be the best choice for cats prone to weight gain. There is a light formula for heavy cats.

Natural Balance also makes dry food (*est. $12 for a 6.6-ounce bag) . Like Innova, it contains no chemical preservatives, no corn and no by-products. It has 34% protein.

Eukanuba (*est. $16 for a 6.5-pound bag) is one of the dry foods recommended by the Champaign County Humane Society. It does contain a by-product, however. The first ingredients of its Chicken and Rice Formula are chicken, chicken liver, chicken by-product meal, brewer's rice and chicken by-products. Eukanuba's protein content is 34%.

Purina and some other pet food companies manufacture both low-cost and premium products. Purina’s less expensive product, Purina Cat Chow (*est. $9.50 for a 7-pound bag) lists poultry by-product meal, ground yellow corn, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, brewers rice and beef tallow as its main ingredients. But the company's premium offering, Purina ONE (*est. $12.50 for a 7-pound bag) , has chicken at the top of the list (followed by brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour and beef tallow). But at about $12.50 for a 7-pound bag, it isn't much less expensive than Innova, which doesn't contain any by-products or corn at all.

Although premium foods are on the pricier end of the cat-food scale, they're consistently cited for their reliability, quality and long-term benefits. People posting to forums have written testimonials about the improved condition of their pets' coats after switching to these brands. Cat foods like Innova, Wellness and Natural Balance aren't the only good cat foods -- once you know what ingredients to look for, you can read the labels and make your own analysis.

Purina ONE cat food and Lamb and Rice are less expensive than the best cat foods, but they still cost more than mainstream supermarket cat food. At least they contain chicken as the primary ingredient, so they are better than others which contain mainly by-products and corn.

Important Features: Cat Food
The following is what reviews say to look for when purchasing cat food; the brands listed in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers meet most, if not all, of these criteria.

Look for more meat in the list of ingredients and less by-product, grain and vegetable products. As C.J. Puotinen, a natural health and nutrition expert, says, "Any commercial pet food where the major ingredient is grain is bad. Mother Nature doesn't feed dogs and cats that way; why should you?" Other reviews agree. Primary ingredients should be chicken, turkey or fish instead of by-products or grains (such as corn, wheat and rice).
Moderate magnesium levels. According to Dr. Lowell Ackerman of Parentzone.com, high levels of magnesium can be dangerous for cats whose urine is not sufficiently acidic to prevent the formation of bladder stones. Again, all of our Fast Answers have moderate magnesium levels.
Lack of color dyes and artificial preservatives. There's no proof that dyes or preservatives are unhealthy for cats, but little has been done to research the effects of these ingredients building up in the cats' systems over time. The preservatives may be hard on your cat's internal organs. The dyes can stain your rug when kitty vomits up his latest hairball. Premium foods (like Iams, Eukanuba, and Science Diet) seldom contain dyes and artificial preservatives, but many supermarket brands do.
Balance canned food and dry food. Canned cat food has an advantage in that it contains a high-percentage of water -- which reviews say matches the water content wild cats would get from a natural carnivorous diet. Wet food ensures better hydration, since cats will need to drink less water throughout the day.
Opinions differ on the importance of palatability. It's important that your cat finds her food tasty, otherwise she may not eat enough. However, most experts say the food's health content is more important than its taste -- after all, you wouldn't feed your kids candy for dinner just because they like to eat it. Savvy pet owners feed their cats what's healthy and don't allow themselves to be trained by their pets to deliver kitty junk food on demand.

Cindy Tittle Moore of Fanciers.com says you can try to trick your cat into eating a new kind of food, or you can keep the food fresh until your cat decides he's hungry enough to try the new food. As Moore says, "your cat will not be harmed by several days of low food intake: as a carnivore, it is biologically adapted to going without food for several days between kills." In other words, your kitty won't starve if you don't cave in to his demands.
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Answer 2

My cat LOVES Weruva (he only gets the chicken and duck flavors though, not the fish flavors). He pretty much inhales it whenever hegets it.
That being said, one can is not enough for him a day (Weruva has almost half the calories of other brands and I have a young active 13 month old cat) so the days that I feed Weruva (I rotate food between 4-5 brands), I usually give him part of can of another brand as well or else give him some raw for some extra calories.

The other brands I like (and that Magnus likes)
WERUVA (chicken soup, chunky chicken, paw lickin' chicken flavors) These are his favorites
Wellness CORE
Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciatori (another one of Magnus' faves, I just found this one recently)
Blue Buffalo Wildnerness or Freedom formulas (thought this past week he's been a bit picky about Blue Buffalo, so don't know if he's going off of it or not... but he's always eaten it and liked it before)
Taste of the Wild (too much fish, but he gets this as a treat)
and then usually one more can of either EVO or Before Grain or some other grain free wet food that the store happens to carry

Trader Joes wet food (chicken or turkey flavors only) - this is not grain free as it does have rice in it but it's pretty good otherwise with lots of good meat as the first few ingredients, and inexpensive, so I used this to rotate with some of the more expensive wet food brands to keep costs down)
he also gets some raw a few times a week, plus a little bit of sardines (in water, no salt) for his fur.
I've tried the premade raw from Nature's Variety but he refuses to eat them. He likes raw food boneless and in meat chunk form (though I do give him a chicken wing once a week or so for his teeth. He wines as he's too lazy to eat the bone but if he sees no boneless food coming, he'll chomp down on the chicken wings and eat them up ( I do chop them in half for him). He just prefers the boneless meats better).

Answer 3

You can buy cheap healthy 9Lives for cats at Wal-Mart and Dollar store for like 4 for a dollar and they live long, when we buy our cats wet food it is normaly 9Lives and they are like 7 years old now and still living alive and well.