Question on Fancy Feast vs. Premium Brands

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J

JenJee

Member Since 2012
So I've had Saul on Merrick Before Grain and he usually eats about half of a 5.5 oz can or even half of just a 3.2 oz can. He's not very excited about it. He only likes two of the flavors and turns up his nose at all the other flavors.

I have budget for the price of this kind of food but the other day I saw a deal on Fancy Feast and bought some just for the heck of it. LOVES It. Gobbles it up in 15 minutes, I don't have to encourage him.

So I know this is a recommended inexpensive food but I want him on whatever is healthiest for him, not worrying about cost. Should I just give him what he likes or keep trying to find more premium food that maybe he'll eat?

Basically, is the quality difference for his health great enough to keep trying food he doesn't seem to care for or shoudl the FF be just fine?
 
I'm biased towards FF just because that's what worked for Bob. I think that the most important point is to find something that he will eat that is low-carb. FF isn't top of the line stuff, but it isn't bottom of the barrel either. I don't know, maybe go with the FF, and keep trying premium flavors until you find several that Saul likes?

Carl
 
Thanks, Carl, part of me I think just wanted to hear about other cats who are doing well on Fancy Feast. Not to say we won't try others but I had become such a pet food snob over the past few years probably because I have dogs and there is really not any good dog food there...
 
have you tried any other brands? My new cat Baloo loves his Evo 95 chicken turkey! My cat Carly didnt like the Before Grain either. Have you tried the regular Merrick? Cowboy Cookout, Thanksgiving Day, and uh.. Turducken I think are the lower carb flavors.
 
The low Merrick's are... Cowboy cookout is 5%carb
southern delight...4% ( has crawfish in it, which my cat usually loves, but doesn't love this variety of merrick)
and surf n turf ...3%

turducken is 9% and the rest of the flavors are higher than 8%


Mine likes the fancy feast too.
I just marked thru my printed binky's list, highlighted all the one's lower than 5% , looked for those, and she's tried them all.
She turns her nose up at the blue buffalo.
Evo's okay with her but not day after day.
And she really favors the friskies.
 
A food that your cat will constantly eat is more important than the quality or price of the food, IMO. My diabetic ony had taste buds for expensive premium food so that's what I fed him. He didn't care for FF or any brand that is found at a supermarket or big box store. Some people feel that FF and other inexpensive brans are pure junk. But if that's all your cat wil eat, feed it. You can try adding high quality foods every now and then to see what your cat likes.
 
Have you tried Wellness brands? If you can find it in 12.5 oz cans it's about the same price as Fancy Feast per ounce and has higher quality ingredients. They also make Holistic Select, but some of those varieties have potatoes and grains like rolled oats. Innova's EVO cat & kitten variety was palatable for my cats. Blue Spa Select was well liked but I thought it had a cheaper brand texture.

I have tried all the premium brands I could find with my cats. They liked some better than others and some had too many unwanted ingredients like rice. When you open the cat and it looks like it has maggots in it because there is so much rice, that's not acceptable! That was Nature's Variety Prairie, BTW.

In the end I finally took the plunge and have begun making my own cat food with Dr. Lisa's recipe. I am still trying to transition 2 of my cats to it as they are holding out. It's nuts because the one cat catches mice and gophers and gobbles them up. So even the best food for them can be a challenge to get them to accept it.
 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. So it sounds like I'm going to feed him a base of Fancy Feast and we'll try some other things and if I find anything better he likes as much we'll switch to that but for now he is still underweight from having his diabetes go so long untreated (two years since the time his old owners said they suspected it) that him eating is truly the most important thing right now.

I won't sweat it but we'll try other stuff here and there but I'll stock up on the FF for now.

Thanks, again.
 
And to answer your questions I have not tried the Wellness brands or Evo yet those will be my first to try as we do some taste testing. We did try the other Merrick flavors and he was very underimpressed. Like licked it but never ate a single bite!

I am not used to picky kitties. My old kitty Ivan would eat ANYTHING. He stole a pancake off my plate once.
 
All four of our cats are loving the FF, every flavor. We switched from dry food when our Puma was diagnosed as diabetic on July 3rd, and even our pickiest eater (Clipsy, also the oldest cat at 13) has become FF fan. We've tried Evo 95 beef and none of them would touch it.
Jane
 
I have recently made the switch from FF to Wellness/Merrick. Pookie is doing better now than he ever did on FF. Every cat is different. :)
 
The best & most reasonable description is on Tanya's CRF site (my cat has both diabetes and kidney disease). She said "the best cat food is the one your cat will eat". Presuming that your cat only has the diabetes to contend with your selection is pretty wide open and you can definitely use FF as a base and experiment. Since mine has both FD & CRF it narrows my choices considerably - fortunately my cat likes the Merricks Cowboy Cookout & Surf N Turf which works on both the carb and phosphorus categories. Jan
 
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