Caturday: What is the Most Affordable Wet Cat Food?

I've been considering switching The Hellions to mostly wet food for a while. While kibble seems to help keep kitty teeth clean, wet food provides a lot more hydration. It also makes portion control easier. Solstice is a fatty, so I'm hoping to help her slim down without making her feel like she's starving all the time.

Kidney Health?

Clearance rack cat food is the best cat food.

For years I truly believed that the dental benefits of dry kibble made it the superior choice for cat food. Then I started hearing about urinary tract and renal health, and started thinking that wet food might be the better option. Fortunately, I was determined to find some actual scholarly sources to back up my preconceived notions. What I found was FelineCRF.org. 

This site is put together by someone who, as far as I can tell, doesn't have an agenda other than presenting as much well-sourced information as they can about chronic renal failure. Their statements are backed up with articles from peer-reviewed journals. I love this, because so many websites and blogs have statements like "wet food is necessary for proper hydration, kibble will dehydrate your cat and eventually cause kidney failure!" This is apparently not true, the jury is definitely out on whether dry or wet food is better for cats with healthy kidneys.

Portion Control

We do know that cats tend to take in fewer calories when eating canned food. This can make it a good choice for slimming down a tubby kitty. It also provides its own portion control, because there's only so much in a can. I'm currently feeding them half a 5.5oz can, twice a day. 

Heavy and Expensive

The downside to feeding wet food is that it is bloody expensive. Also quite heavy. Trying to make this new concept work has been a challenge. James and Solstice each eat a 5.5oz can per day, for a grand total of 60 cans per month. Considering that most foods in the store cost more than $1 per can, that adds up fast. I have had some luck shopping the clearance shelf at Petsmart, I got a bunch of grain-free Wellness cans for $0.37 each. Surprisingly, the big cans of Wellness aren't a particularly better deal per ounce than their smaller cans.

My current cat food bill is around $30 a month for a bag of dry food. To match that with wet food, I'd have to find cans for $0.50 each or less. Barring opportunistic clearance food, I don't think I can manage that. However, I was quite pleased to find that Tractor Supply sells 5.5 oz cans of their grain-free 4Health brand for $0.70 each. At this point I'm pretty happy to find anything under $1 per can. I'll still get them some other stuff occasionally for variety.

4Health is so far the most affordable wet cat food I've found that meets my personal standards. That said, everyone's budget is different, and cats can be picky little buggers. If your cat will only eat the cheapest wet food at the grocery store, by all means feed that. Don't feel guilty about it, either.

TreatTuesday: Wellness Petite Treats

Wellness makes these little grain-free Petite Treats for small dogs, but they work especially well as training treats for any size dog. The soft treats come in turkey and lamb varieties. These stay moist for a while when exposed to air, and the dogs thing they are pretty awesome.

Good For

• High-value training treats
• Carrying around in pockets for a few hours without going hard or crumbly
• Small and picky dogs

Not Good For

• Regular training sessions, they only come in very small bags.

How Much We Like Them

I've been taking these hiking when I think we're going to encounter a lot of trail traffic. Zip isn't crazy about treats, but she likes them enough to eat them on the go. Ru also think they're pretty awesome.

Treat Tuesday: Wellness Core Grain-Free Marrow Roasts

I was given this free sample of Wellness's new Marrow Roast treats at SuperZoo. These are part of the grain-free Core product line. I wasn't so sure about them just because my dogs aren't huge fans of crunchy biscuit treats. Also they really, really, REALLY remind me of the Milk-Bone MaroSnacks, which is probably not a bad thing. I'm guessing the intent is to tickle the subconscious with a product that is familiar because we've been seeing in the grocery store for decades now. The two product are similar in that they are both crunchy biscuits with a meaty center flavored with bone marrow. The big difference is that Milk-Bone MaroSnacks are made from wheat, unidentified meat and bone meal, poultry by-products, and artificial food dye, while Wellness Marrow Roasts are made primarily from beef along with peas, chickpeas, tapioca, and sweet potatoes. Also they spelled the word "marrow" correctly. Beware any food that must misspell the name of its key ingredient in order to avoid false advertising suits.

Good For: Slightly picky dogs. Dogs with grain allergies. Sticking in a Kong for an easy puzzle. Handing to the dogs as I'm walking out the door. Low value training treats.

Not Good For: High value training treats.

How Much We Like Them: I am definitely going to buy a bag as soon as I see them at the store. (I should note that not even Wellenss can resist stating that they use "REAL Meaty Marrow" in these treats. I'd love to know what the other option is. Maybe fake marrow...?)

Food Friday: Wellness Core Beef, Venison and Lamb Canned Formula

Wellness Core is the grain-free product line from Wellness. I grabbed this can of Beef, Venison and Lamb Formula in a hurry, and apparently I didn't read the label very well because it's made out of chicken. Pretty much all Wellness food is made out of chicken, even the ones that say something else on the label.

Once upon a time, two decades ago, I fed my cocker spaniel Pedigree dog food from the grocery store. As I've mentioned before, when I learned that there was better dog food out there, I decided to feed her the highest-quality dog food I could find. The internet dog community was buzzing about Wellness, and how it was the best food out there. Oakley was ten years old by then, so I switched her to Wellness Senior.

Oakley eventually refused to eat kibble at all, and ate homemade raw food for the last two years of her life. Eventually other dog food companies would surpass Wellness in my esteem, but they did manage to update their product line as grain-free food grew in popularity. They make good food, but the reason Wellness is not part of our food rotation is because it all contains chicken. Brisbane is allergic to chicken. turkey, duck, and eggs.

The reason I missed the chicken in the ingredient list is because it was pretty far down. But there it was, chicken meal. Curse you, Wellness. I don't normally feed Sisci or Ru foods with Brisbane's allergens either. Sisci isn't great about getting every crumb of her food, and Ru won't eat most poultry.

True to form, Ru refused to eat the Wellness Core canned food. Sisci thought it was ok, but she wasn't crazy about it. I'm sure Brisbane would have would have inhaled it given the opportunity, but he'll eat anything.

Despite having sneaky poultry in it, this is a good dog food. It merits five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor. The Dog Food Guru website states that Wellness has been sued for their use of the term "human grade ingredients" on their labels, but they won in court by proving their claim. They do use a co packer, a third party makes the food for them. This is why they were part of the 2012 Diamond Pet Food recall. Aside from that, their history is squeaky clean. I just wish they'd make more Briz-safe foods.

Treat Tuesday: Wellness Core Superfood Protein Bars

We found these Wellness Core Superfood Protein Bars at one of our local pet supply stores. These are grain-free high-protein bars that can be crumbled into tiny pieces for training time.

Good For: Dogs with allergies. Mid-value training treats. Being not-greasy enough to stick in my pockets.

Not Good For: Super-high-value training treats.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to try the beef flavor when we're done with these.