We recently adopted a rescue cat through PetSmart. She was being fed their brand of kitten food Authority. I am not familiar with the brand. It has been years since we had a kitten and our last cat was fed special food from the vet as he had problems with crystals.
Anyway, I would like to feed her something of good quality. I also was told by the adoption person that since she is still a kitten we can give her some canned food occasionally. Can you recommend something?
Sorry to waste space on the forum.....but I do know there are some kitty lovers that are lab breeders too.

We only have one cat, but have been feeding it dry - either Eukanuba or Science Diet for 11 years and she is doing well. I think we started her on Eukanuba Kitten and now have her on the Indoor or Senior Science Diet. Stools seem to be more consistant with dry and she seemed to waste alot of the wet food we offered her when she was young.

Authority is petsmart brand. Actually it is a rather good one. I raised a cat and had her for many, many years on lesser brands of cat food. We fed her what was on sale. Normally Purina One, some times Diamond, sometimes cat chow.
I think now if I had a cat I would feed Wellness or Royal Canin. Just based on what others I know in the cat world have had experience with.

We have one cat that we rescued from the vet's office as a kitten. The vet fed Iams. We brought him home and fed that, and then being the anal food person that i tend to be, thought i should feed something better. I bought Wellness and his fur turned course and then he stopped eating. Back to Iams. Then tried the Euk. brand and his fur fell out. Back to Iams. We have stayed on Iams original both wet and dry. For him it seems to work best and he always comes home at meal time to eat.
As a kitten he wouldn't eat any wet food. Now as a 3 year old, he loves it and when i give the dogs tuna or salmon......... Hes right there for his share.

Our three cats eat Iams.

Two were rescued through Petsmart 2 years ago. The third, I've had since he was born in 1994.

I use the Indoor forumla for adult cats that controls hairballs and promotes urinary tract health.

They all eat dry once daily, and one of them gets canned seperatly as needed to keep his weight up, as he's a lightweight. If I leave food out, my oldest will get fat. He once weighed 16 lbs when fed free range with other cats, since feeding strictly once daily, he now weighs a healthy 12 lbs.

:)

I feed all the barn kitties and I would dare to say probably every feral cat in the valley!!
Now I know "fat" isn't good for anyone, but I could never get the barn kitties looking plump, even with regular worming with Strongid.
THEN I switched to Purina Kit-N-Kaboodle. They love it and now carrying very nice weight!! And Purina has Weight Circle Program for the Kit-N-Kaboodle.
It's actually one of the lower priced foods usually in the grocery store or Wal-Marts, comes in 18# bags.

I have 3 indoor cats (2 Ragdolls and a monster kitten - Norman Bates !!!) I have fed most of the brand name foods and have to say that I LOVE the Wellness Indoor formula. It is not cheap, but the cats do very well on it. Good luck.

Cheers,
Kim

Shelley,
Just like with dogs, cats do differently on all different types of foods. As long as it has the AAFCO statement for the appropriate life stage, it should be fine if the cat does well on it. Authority is what most would consider a "premium" food, the last I heard. Cats tend to have A LOT of digestive issues, so if it is working, I would probably just stick with it. I have seen healthy cats who were on Eagle Pack or Innova, and I've seen healthy cats that were on Meow Mix. And, some don't do well on any of those foods.

Canned foods, while considered "junk food" for a number of years, have actually been recommended for several years now as *much* more similar to a cat's natural diet by veterinary nutritionists and feline-specialty practices worldwide. They are carnivores, through and through, and a good canned diet is basically meat.

Having said that, 2 of my cats try to cover canned food like I'm trying to feed them poop, only to walk away with a flick of their tails as if telling me "WHAT was that?!? Blech!"

Congrats on your new "baby!"

Thanks for the info Julie.
For those who don't know, Dr. Julie is "THE" cat vet for us near Los Angeles. I wish I had a cat to take to her but our outdoor cat, Adolf (you should see his mustache and yes, he DOES attack the dogs) does NOT handle car rides well.

Doris

Shelley,

As like dog food, the better quality, the healthier the cat. I have one that has been fed Iams all his life and now that he is an older man (14), he is having colon problems. I have to put metamucil on his food in order for him to "go" because he never ate canned food to help with the digestion. After this happened, I switched him to EVO with no grains and now he does not need the metamucil, has more energy and is doing great .. the grains were doing it to him! My suggestion, feed a good food and you will have a healthier cat.

I have one cat, but he behaves more like a dog :) I feed him Purina One Advanced Nutrition Hairball Formula. He has a medium length coat and hairballs are an issue. Purina One also has an Indoor formula and one that helps with the urinary tract. Iams also has these same formulas. If you have a vet in your area that specializes in just cats, give them a call and see what they recommend.

I always fed my cat Iams original. Mainly because he didnt like a lot of foods, but he lived until he was eighteen years old and never got sick.
I still miss him. I loved him

Most of the show cat people I know feed Evo, or Innova with excellent results.

When I took my pet nutrition courses in university, moist food was strongly recommended in conjunction with dry. Most indoor cats end up dying of kidney failure in their old age as cats simply don't consume enough water. Using moist food is one way to get water into them.

As well, the water fountains were recommended. I feed Medi-Cal to my cats with superb results, but it's a Canadian brand only.

I've fed our cat Purina foods her entire life. Started out with Kitten then Cat Chow, moved on to ONE and Pro Plan, back to ONE a couple of years ago (saw no reason to feed her the more expensive of the two when there was no change in her condition). The only problem she ever had was barfing up her food within a half hour or so of eating a few times a month (and anytime she felt stressed when she was eating). I tried gradually switching her to other dry foods a few times, but the barfing got worse. Just last spring I switched her to the ONE Natural Blends. Since then, she's only barfed up her food once, and that was just last week. She gets a spoonfull of canned food on the days she gets her Cosequin (every other day). Lately I've been buying Canine Cavier canned meats instead of canned cat food. Oh, she just had blood work done last week. Vet said she's the healthiest almost 19 year old cat he's ever seen.

Our Merlin, almost 15 year old Ragdoll cat and only house cat has eaten Nutromax Natural Choice dry food since he arrived here as a kitten (breeder recommendation). He gets a teaspoon of canned nutromax each a.m. as well. The barn cats were thin when we moved in 4 years ago (they came with the farm). We put them on the local pet supply store's brand, Mounds Purrfect Cat. They look GREAT, nice thick coats, good weight. We feed them free choice all winter plus an occasional can of meat in below zero weather (barn is not heated but usually 20 degrees warmer than outdoors due to equine occupants). In the summer we cut back on their food as they do a lot more mousing work.

Thank you eveyone for the great food suggestions! Good to see you dog lovers are cat lovers as well.
Happy New Year everyone!

Cats are even more carnivorous than dogs are so I feed a grain free diet. Usually Now! cat food.

I recently adopted a 5 year old Devon Rex who had been living at the vet's office and had to eat diabetic cat food because another cat there was diabetic. His coat was terribly dry, and Devon Rex don't shed so he's pretty much hairless over most of his body. The skin is in very good condition though and it doesn't look bad because his skin is black (think Chinese Crested.) I had him on Royal Canin and the coat got worse, so now I have him on Wellness. I'm making note of the rest of the recommendations too! I have no idea if any more of his coat will grow back... Time will tell.

My house cats get ProPlan sensitive skin and stomach because one plucks himself and the other one had digestive issues.

My kennel cats (three) get ProPlan adult for urinary tract health--their basic adult chicken and rice for cats. Everyone has gorgeous coats and good body condition except one obese kennel cat---he is sure he will never be fed again, so he lives by the food bowl. Since I am feeding three cats out of the same bowl, he over-consumes.

MK

We love Serengetti made by Timberwolf Organics.

We currently have three indoor cats and over the past 20 years have always had multiple cats in the house. I have to say i have always fed my cats cheaper food than my labs. I have tried wellness, felidae, chicken soup and they have turned their noses up to some of them. I actually had one cat get so constipated from one of the foods (sorry i can't remember which one) she had to be sedated at the vets to get it out.
When I put them back on Purina they loved it. They are eating Purina Naturals right now and also they have a bowl of Maxximum indoor recipe for the higher fiber content. The three of them split a can of avoderm wet food daily and love it. Their coats are great as is their weight and poops:)
Years ago a vet told me a cat will starve itself before it will eat a food it doesn't like. I don't know if thats true or not but if you have something your cat enjoys and does well on don't fix whats not broke:)

I have a 13 year old female that I fed Science Diet until about a year ago when I switched to Royal Canin Indoor Mature. The change is amazing, she glows now and her shedding has slowed. My vet loves the entire line (and does not sell it but does sell several others!)...I would try their kitten formula.