We switched over to the premium natural foods attempting to address overall health several years back when Hank had FLUTD. Prior they had been on purina One. He then was put on RX food for urinary and for a time I kept him on it but also decided to investigate Natural food that would work for BOTH my boys as trying to separate and feed 2 cats different things was reeking havoc. i couldn't keep them out of each others food anyway and it was a miserable experiment.
Took forever to find foods that would be best for Hank (low phosphorous, stay as much away form seafood as possible) was all natural, no preservatives, no by products, main ingredients whole proteins, AND that finicky Elvis would eat. I'd land on something that would work for awhile, then suddenly one or the other, usually Elvis would stop liking it and go on strike. This is also when I began making sure Hank had wet food rotated in for his FLUTD and Wellness became the one he liked best. Elvis, not so much interested. But we also free fed dry..Felidae, California Natural, & ultimately Innova red.
Then during the chinese pet food scare not long into this, with the maker of Hanks Rx food on the list, I yanked it intending to be temporarily, He continued to do fine without it, and we never went back.
My approach was that by feeding them this high quality, whole,natural premium food, even as pricey as it is...they'd be healthier overall and I'd save $$ keeping them well and away from the vet. Same as my eating whole foods, antioxidants, no preservatives, etc.. AND, for the longest time that was true, UNTIL HE GOT DIABETES! So at the time of his DX a month ago, we hadn't seen a vet in 3+ years. So much for my theory!
No, i truthfully do think it has made all the difference. They are 10 1/2 yrs old and almost NEVER sick (except this!). BUTTtttt i was feeding them DRY premium food as the staple, only augmenting with canned. SO, trying to get Hank into it exclusively, even though he likes wet, has been a challenge. I know he misses his dry and do still give him teaspoons here and there of Evo dry, which i bought to get him over the hump, but only sporadically. I cold-turkey'd him off the Innova dry, which I know is not how you are supposed to do it. he still misses it.
Elvis I cannot get interested in wet, he just isn't. he's a carb addict. He is mostly healthy, but has dry skin patches.
So does the premium food thing make a difference? I still think so, but Hank did get FD. If he is prone, then he is. I continue to believe this is the best way for them.
BUT, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find foods that meet ALL THE ABOVE as the list of requirements grows:
High protein/low carb
low fat (can't do all 3) he could lose some weight
avoid fish
low phophorous
All natural/premium
no by-products
no grains
THEY HAVE TO LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES
THEY HAVE TO LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES STILL TOMORROW OR NEXT TIME
Affordable (too much to ask)
And now I see what Ruth says about Wellness being high fat and protein not as high as some others even though the carb is low. I think it is still great quality and they love it. But I am going to criteria myself into a corner. i am still wanting to stick in the premium food brands. So she got me checking and now that I am revisiting Janet & Binky's chart, I am having new epiphanies. I am also realizing a great deal of this info is dated. It's even NOTED as such at top of old list, to consider the information there as obsolete. The dates next to many of the listings even on the new charts are now 3,4+ years old. Wonder how accurate these are still?
There are many companies who change their formulas routinely. Innova changed theirs 3-4 times while we were on it. And many food we might be able to consider are not on any of these lists.
i couldn't believe that 95% Evo had less protein than many of the others..doesn't even make sense. The evo with the most protein..the original cat & kitten, is really high in phosphorous AND calories, so bad for him on 2 fronts. Plus he was not wild about it anyway.
there are new foods out there. Maybe the list needs to be updated. Should we all do some calling?
WHAT'S LEFT? do i have to kill him a buffalo or bird or something??????????????????
it's all too much!!!
Good lord these boo-boos have us wrapped around their fingers!
let us know if you find any other good ones, I now need some extra high protein one's to offset my medium protein Wellness...my only ace-in-the-hole sure thing (or so I thought)
She does eat Wellness & I am thankful.. but after introducing Baby to Raw & seeing/reading all the benefits - I want them both on it - I wish I could only feed Raw.. but cannot leave it out all day. However, Baby gets Raw on the weekends & evenings exclusively. Wellness is always out for her too, but she only wants Raw when given a choice.
