Low Carb Wet Food, NOT a Pate?

Hey everyone. I am having a hard time finding an everyday food that my cat Apollo will eat. The only thing I have found that he will eat in decent quantities are the Fancy Feast Appetizers. I know these aren't nutritionally sound.

Does anyone know of any low carb food that is NOT a pate? I'm really starting to think he just hates the mush consistency/texture of the pate. I would like to try a more chunky low carb food (if it exists). Something like the FF Appetizers, but nutritionally balanced. Anyone have any suggestions?

Here is the list of food we have tried thus far with mixed results:

Merrick Before Grain Chicken
Merrick Before Grain Tuna
Merrick Before Grain Turkey
Merrick Cowboy Cookout
Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie
Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken
EVO Turkey and Chicken Formula
Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken
Nature's Variety Instinct Beef
Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit
Wellness Chicken
Wellness Beef and Chicken
Wellness Turkey
Wellness Turkey and Salmon
Wellness Chicken and Herring
Friskies Chicken and Tuna Dinner
Friskies Liver and Chicken Dinner
Fancy Feast Classic Chicken Dinner
Fancy Feast Classic Tender Beef and Liver Feast
Fancy Feast Classic Ocean Whitefish and Tuna Feast
Fancy Feast Classic Savory Salmon Feast
Fancy Feast Classic Tender Beef Feast
Fancy Feast Classic Turkey and Giblets Feast

Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated. :smile:

Thanks,
John

 

Wellness has come out with a line of sliced, cubed, and minced canned foods. I do not have the as fed values, but the ingredient list looks pretty good. Only possible problem is peas and that really depends on how much is in there.

A few of the Wellness pouches are also below 10% carbs. They are on Janet & Binky's list under Healthy Indulgence.

When looking at foods with gravy or sauce, avoid the ones with starch or flour listed in the ingredients.

 

what if you were to take a pate flavor that he does like and mix the ff appetizers or fresh chicken cut up into it. Might that work do give him something to "crunch".

There is also a product out - Stella & Chewy's freeze dried cat food. That is really good - you can serve it dry or add water and serve. My cats love this stuff dry. and it's one of the buffet bowls they get.

 

I know the perfect food for Apollo. It's FF chunky chicken, chunky turkey, and chunky chopped grill. I've found all three flavors at Petco, though I've seen chunky chicken at Walmart. On the can, instead of where it says "classic," it says "chunky." There are big chunks for the kitties to chew on, which my cat loves!! The chopped grill of both the classic and chunky raises Champ's BG so I don't feed that flavor, but the other two are 5% carbs.

 

The problem is I haven't really found a pate flavor he does like. He mostly licks the surface of the food and doesn't lick down to the bottom of the plate. If I sprinkle some crushed purebites on top he just licks the surface and leaves the rest. I am going to try mixing in some FF appetizer or fresh chicken with one of the pates and see if he eats that.

I'll check out Stella & Chewy's food option too. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I will try that. I picked up a can of FF Flaked Chicken & Tuna Feast, which looked to be more chunky and was also recommended to me to try mixing together with FF Classic Chicken. We can give that a try too.

 

I went through a lot of foods with Gabby because of her cancer, and one that she loved right up until the end was B.F.F.: http://www.bestfriendsfoods.com/aboutfood.html

They have it at my local pet food store. It's not a pate, and if you check out the ingredients they are all diabetic friendly. There are two chicken flavors, and the only caveat is that it is all very fishy, but hey, you gotta feed what the kitty will eat.

Nature's Instinct Variety flavors like Rabbit, Beef, and Lamb were chunky and not as pate-like if I remember correctly. Just do NOT feed the venison flavor for that brand--the phosphorus content is 3 times higher than what is healthy for a cat.

Weruva also makes some chunkier flavors: http://www.weruva.com/cat-cuisine-chicken-beef.php and they're all lower in carbs. The only thing is that and the BFF are kinda expensive--they're lower in calories so you have to feed more to make sure your cat is getting enough food.

 

Avoderm make a line of grain-free canned. Chicken, Fish, etc. The Chicken Chunks are literally chunks of chicken in a broth (they call is gravy but it's really broth and oils.


Avoderm Chicken Chunks in Gravy

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Sunflower Oil, Salt, Guar Gum, Tricalcium Phosphate, Avocado Oil, Taurine, Carrageenan, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12), Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate Monohydrate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate Monohydrate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodide),Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride.

 

Also grab some FF Flaked Fish & Shrimp feast--that's chunky. You don't want to feed a lot of fish all the time, but maybe you could mix it in with something to get Apollo to eat it regularly.

 

Our cats absolutely love Weruva - it is a "soupy" food with chunks of chicken and duck.
They also make seafood flavors, which we have to avoid because of one cats liver problem.

They also love TikiCat foods. Those are chunky, shredded foods with lots less "juice" than the Weruva. Again, we're limited to the chicken and chicken with egg flavors of Tiki, but a friend's finicky cat adores their other flavors.

I've found that buying these foods in bulk online brings the cost almost in line with the cheaper foods, especially when you can get free shipping. Of course, you'd want to test run cans from the local pet store before buying a case! If your local store doesn't carry them but you would be interested in trying them, just message me and I would be happy to mail a few cans for your kitty to "taste test".

Between the two cats' different dietary needs, I know how hard it can be to find a food that they should eat and actually want to eat!

 

Are you certain it is just the texture and not some other reason the cat isn't eating? We've got lots of ideas for inappetent cats, like sprinkling grated parmesan cheese on it, FortiFlora, warming the food and more.

 

Well not 100% sure it's texture, but the only thing I have seen him eat a good amount of is the FF Appetizers. Right now of all the pate type of foods I have tried he eats maybe one 3 oz can a day, which I know is not enough. He is a 12lbs cat.

I've tried parmesan cheese, fortiflora, warming, purebite sprinkles, and all 4 of those at the same time and nothing has worked. He just licks the top surface of the food to get to the tasty stuff then walks off. I was thinking maybe he just doesn't have much of an appetite, but then he devoured the FF Appetizer. He also LOVES the Purebite chicken treats. If I could just give him the whole bag of those we would be fine. I think trying to find something more chunky or closer to real chicken we might have a winner. I will keep trying. :smile:

 

As stated above, try FF chunky chicken, chunky turkey, and chunky chopped grill.

 

mine really liked (as stated above) the chunky chicken and chunky turkey in the FF but I dont feed that anymore due to a bit of rising #'s so they are now on the EVO and the wellness turkey...

my civvie was AGAINST wet food when we changed completely over, to a point she didnt eat for a day, she would stick the tip of her tongue and just tap the food and walk away...eventually she was hungry enough!

 

Thanks for all the food recommendations. I picked up a few that I could find here in town and will see if I can buy a few others online to try.

 

http://www.weruva.com

Some of the canned Weruva are ok to feed. I only fed the Mack and Jack and Paw Lickin Chicken once in awhile since those were the only two my cat liked. I think Nine Liver and Peking Ducken are two diabetic-friendly varities.

Weruva's Cats In the Kitchen pouched foods are not good to feed because they are in gravy.

Weruva also makes the lesser expensive Soulistic canned food which you can find at Petco. Soulistic is mostly seafood based varieties, though.

http://www.petropics.com/

Tiki Cat is mostly seafood based, too. There is a chicken variety and a chicken/fish variety.

Fancy Feast Appetizers are not nutritionally complete. They are only supplement/snack/treats because there are no vitamins and minerals in the food. Long term feeding of this and other supplement-only foods can be harmful to your cat's health.

You can try freeze dried raw food. They have the texture of freeze dried meat treats so if your cat likes those treats, most likely he will readily eat the raw :smile: Not all freeze dried meat treats are nutritionally complete, though. Some are only supplements to take along for travelling or as a treat while you're out walking the dog. Nature's Variety is one such brand. Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw food for cats are nutritionally complete :smile:

 

Don't all the non-fish flavors of soulistic have Tapioca starch, though? Tapioca is high in carbs. I bought some of this food for Gabby when she was being super picky and I remember I didn't give the leftovers to Bandit because the ingredients didn't seem diabetic friendly.

Make sure you read the ingredients on the label for this one.

 

In dealing with a similar issue with one of mine (who will NOT eat the Pate for anything), she liked the Taste of the Wild canned foods.

-Stacy

 

I wouldn't know. I don't feed Soulistic. Tapioca is a starch used to thicken up foods but some diabetics may not be affected by it. My diabetic ate Weruva's Paw Lickin Chicken which has tapioca in it for the gravy and his bgs were never affected at all. Then again, I had a weird diabetic :razz:

B.F.F is also made by Weruva :smile:

 

I tried Weruva with Kazi - the paw lickin chicken raised her BG. The B.F.F line is also Weruva - it's their cheaper line...but all fish. B.F.F is a pate style..but a chunky pate style.

Kazi seems to like the chunks more as well - she really liked Weruva...Tiki Cat was "meh".

 

Thanks again everyone for the feedback. We're in the process of evaluating several foods.

What I don't like about the Soulistic and Wuvera is the need for the cat to eat much more volume of food due to the low calorie content. My cat doesn't eat much as it is and having to get him to eat much more just isn't going to happen. I need to find something that will give him all the nutrients he needs with as little amount of food eaten as possible. The hard part is finding a food that has all those qualities and that he will actually like and eat. :smile: