# Cat food question. premium kibble vs. mid grade canned



## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

This is hypothetical to an extent, but I'm curious. 

Alright. So. I have a cat who is the pickiest thing ever. She will NOT touch canned food, let alone raw. Of course I want her on raw, but with cats, it has to be their idea. I try all the tricks, hiding it in her food, searing the outside, etc. doesn't matter. It's something we work on every day. I try to get her to eat canned food, but she hates it. I don't think she sees it as food. Someone on a cat forum (actually quite a few people) suggested putting a tiny bit on her paws so she grooms it off, and tastes it and that might get her eating it. We are about three weeks into this and it hasn't made any difference whatsoever. She's even spit out shat she's groomed off before. Brat. 

She is a kibble junkie. She'll eat any kibble I put in front of her, but nothing else. We got her to lick canned tuna once. Just once. that's it. 

So we were trying to do the kibble to canned to raw route. I've heard several places that cats tend to be partial to cheaper foods because they're addicting like junk food. It was suggested to me to go buy some of the cheaper canned foods, like wiskas or fancy feast, to see if they are more appealing and then get her to the premium stuff. So it would be the kibble to crappy canned to premium canned to raw route. I'm totally willing to do it if that's the way to end up with her on raw, but it got me thinking. 

1. would she just end up stuck on the crappy canned food?

2. Which is better... a high quality grain-free kibble diet, or a lower grade grain inclusive all canned diet? Not that I can get her to eat it yet anyway, but if she were to take to the lower grade stuff, would she be better off on just that than the dry food, or not?


Right now she's on Grain Free Felidae Cat and Kitten. This was only because a cat that we had for a brief time was tough to get eating, and felidae grain free was on sale, buy a bag of salmon formula, get a bag of regular ca and kitten free, so we figured more variety for our money while we were just trying to get that cat to eat. We do plan on rotating her kibble until we can get her to eat something else. Evo, Orijen, CORE, and Merrick BG are all things we want to rotate in her diet until then. 

We have used just about every premium brand of canned food you can think of. Haven't tried the cheap stuff yet though.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

The way I see it, she wont touch canned so take canned out of the picture. I would stick with the grain free kibble at the moment, but always try and see if she will eat the crap canned food. Any and all added moisture is a benefit, even if its crappy moisture LOL :wink:

Do you have a cat fountain? Cats don't like "stale" water, so its best if they have continuously flowing water that is fresh. I would recommend that you get one if you don't already. Make sure that the water is changed daily and the filter cleaned out once a week. Getting her to drink as much water is a great thing if she is just going to be on dry kibble.

You might also want to try making it seem like the canned cat food is YOURS, and that SHE can't have it. For some reason cats want what they can't have sometimes...just like dogs. Maybe set her up for "failure" with it. Like make your lunch, which includes a can of catfood and leave it out on the table. Then....ooops....I forgot something in the other room...so I have to go get it type of thing....leaving the exposed cat food out for her to take interest in. Just a thought.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

danemama08 said:


> The way I see it, she wont touch canned so take canned out of the picture. I would stick with the grain free kibble at the moment, but always try and see if she will eat the crap canned food. Any and all added moisture is a benefit, even if its crappy moisture LOL :wink:


erhhh... you just said take canned out of the picture, but offer it all the time. which is it? haha. 



danemama08 said:


> Do you have a cat fountain? Cats don't like "stale" water, so its best if they have continuously flowing water that is fresh. I would recommend that you get one if you don't already. Make sure that the water is changed daily and the filter cleaned out once a week. Getting her to drink as much water is a great thing if she is just going to be on dry kibble..


I do have one and she actually drinks quite often. Of course only Reverse Osmosis water from our $800 R.O. system is good enough for her. lol. brat. 



danemama08 said:


> You might also want to try making it seem like the canned cat food is YOURS, and that SHE can't have it. For some reason cats want what they can't have sometimes...just like dogs. Maybe set her up for "failure" with it. Like make your lunch, which includes a can of catfood and leave it out on the table. Then....ooops....I forgot something in the other room...so I have to go get it type of thing....leaving the exposed cat food out for her to take interest in. Just a thought.


Hmm, i'll try that. She hasn't ever shown interest in my food, but it's worth a shot. Thanks for the tip!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

CorgiPaws said:


> erhhh... you just said take canned out of the picture, but offer it all the time. which is it? haha!


I did, didn't I? LOL

I was trying to say that if she wont eat it at all, take it out of the hypothetical picture...since its obviously not a thing she's interested in.

But you can also try offering it to her later on in time to see if she will take to it. Cats change their minds daily....


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## Pet Food Dude (Feb 10, 2010)

Most cats seem to like the crunchyness of dry foods. I would not continue trying to push the canned food at this point. Just provide fresh water near the dry bowl and continue using a grain free high protein diet and then maybe try some canned later on. Have you tried Tuna? I use the Felidae Grain Free as well and rotate about every 6 months to Sold Gold Indigo Moon or Nature's Variety Instinct, they love all three!


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

If you see Go Natural grainfree try a sample of that, my 14 yr old cat with no teeth and 4 yr old male have flourished on it. Petcurean Pet Nutrition


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## spookychick13 (Jan 26, 2010)

I don't know if this will help or not, but PJ prefers his canned food at room temperature or warmer (nuked). Perhaps you could try lightly 'searing' a chicken drumstick and ribbon it a bit, leaving it mostly raw? Then try the "Oh no I left part of my lunch out!" trick?

I am going to try to convert PJ as well, so if I find any awesome tricks I will let you know.
Our first attempt was a raw patty (before I knew about PMR) and he batted it to the floor.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

10 seconds is the magical perfect amount of time to microwave 1/4 - 1/2 of a 5.5 oz can of cat food, in case you haven't tried that yet. 

You ask a very hard question because I always tell people that an all wet food diet is far superior to an all kibble diet for cats. But Friskies has the menadione sodium bisulfite in it, which we all know I'm terrified of, especially in large quantities over a long period of time. If you could find a different cheap brand without that in it (avoid all Purina products), then that would be better. Most low quality foods actually have very little grains in them so that's a big plus.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Solve for *?*

Raw > All (not up for debate)
Premium canned > Premium dry
Premium Dry > Mid Grade Dry
Mid Grade wet > Mid Grade dry
Premium Dry *?* Mid-Grade Canned


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Premium dry < mid-grade canned IMO

Look into canned Authority, I'd call it mid-grade.


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