Alternatives to EVO wet cat food

[Simkie]

Okay, cat people, the time has come to get my cats off of the EVO 95% Chicken/Turkey that they have been on for years. The food has looked different and the cats are not eating worth a sh!t for several cases now, and I am afraid that Proctor and Gamble has done something to change the formula.

I’ve looked around for alternatives, but nothing has really clicked.

Non-negotiable requirements for the new food:

Chicken/Turkey with no beef or fish
Grain free without non-meat fillers

Things that would be really, really nice to have are:

Available in the big 13 oz cans
Not significantly more expensive than the EVO, which is about $2 per 13.2 oz can

I would prefer a canned food over a raw food, but if we can’t find something suitable, I’ll start really looking at raw diets…

Ideas?

[GoForAGallop]

Grain free AND fish free? Good luck! :lol:

Wellness does offer both a canned Chicken and a canned Turkey formula, grain free. My mother feeds Wellness (I feed Taste of the Wild, but both their formulas have fish) and her cats seem to enjoy it. They do do a 12.5oz can…although I am not sure of the pricing, sorry.

Edit: Did a quick google search, and Petco offers cases of 12 big cans for $25. You may be able to find them cheaper locally…not sure of the shipping details from Petco/other online sources.

[Simkie]

This Wellness CORE chicken formula SORT OF fits the bill, but potatoes? In my cat food? Why? :no: The regular Wellness canned chicken and turkey has a bunch of stuff they don’t need, like sweet potatoes and zucchini.

Feeding the meows is such a PITA! Doesn’t help a bit that one is IBD and cannot tolerate protein sources other than chicken/turkey. She might do okay with other things that can fly, like quail or pheasant? (If those are options anywhere…)

[Big_Grey_hunter]

Have you looked at evangers? There was a thread last month about it with good reviews. The cans are smaller, but they are grain free.
http://www.evangersdogfood.com/dog/gamemeats.html

[Cammie]

Aargh, don’t say that you think EVO may have changed! I’m screwed if that’s the case. I put up the thread asking about Evanger’s a few weeks back, and I know they do offer pheasant and duck varieties as well. Its the 95% formulation like EVO- straight meat with vitamins/minerals. They also offer rabbit, but I think that one is supplemental only so you’d have to add the vitamins/taurine in.

My allergic cat did have a recent flare-up that seems to be food-related, but I’m not entirely sure what has caused it yet. She was on straight EVO beef, but then I tried a few different cans from other companies. Of course, now I have no idea whether its the other brands, or whether EVO has changed, or whether she’s developing yet another food allergy. Plus she stayed at a friends house for 10 days, so she could be allergic to his bio-hazard carpet or some other allergen. UGH!

For what its worth, she did really like the Evanger’s. Not so much the Newman’s Own, or Original Pet Food beef varieties. She still polished both off though, its just the lack of frantic inhaling of the food that was the tip-off that she thought it wasn’t so good. :lol:

[Simkie]

I tried Evangers once and the cats were not impressed, and it STANK. Let me see which one it was…ah ha. This, although I don’t recall it being labeled for dogs only. The 6 oz cans you linked might not be a bad option, if the meows are interested and it doesn’t REEK like the other one I tried. (I’m pretty tolerant of smelly wet food…but that stuff was BAD!)

And Cammie, I totally feel your pain. I am not a happy camper, and I really do think the EVO has changed. Every now and then before I would get a case that looked a bit different or that the cats weren’t thrilled with, but it has been several cases in a row now, and it looks MORE than a BIT different. :no:

[Chall]

I have had great luck with raw liver for dinner (breakfast still canned food).
Its amazingly inexpensive too.
Get the liver in the meat section (mine comes in a small bucket), cut it up fine, so its almost pure liquid. Pour into freeze zip lock bags. Force all air out of bag and flatten as thin as you can and place it flat in freezer.
Thaw one per meal (split between two cats). The thinness makes it thaw quickly.
They gobble it up. My cats weeping eye only gets moist now after her canned meal in the morning.

My cats don’t particularly like dry Taste of the Wild and are tired of dry Evo, so I’m switching between that and a new brand I found “Orijen” which has no grain and really, really smells good.

But the liver costs $3.18 for 10 dinners (for two cats). Of course they need additional vitamins and that … whats that essential additive cats need?.. taurine?

[jewll27]

taste of the wild canned food…grain free and fish free. doesnt come in large cans that Ive been able to find, but of all the non-cheap cat foods, its the only one my kitties like b/c its pieces of meat with gravy instead of the pate kind which they also hate.

I would never feed liver to my pets unless it was certified from grass fed/free range organic animals. Liver is the bodys filter and stores toxins your body cant secrete. And standard farm animals are fed crap so their livers are filled with crap. Kidney meat too…

[GoForAGallop]

[QUOTE=jewll27;5668739]
taste of the wild canned food…grain free and fish free. .[/QUOTE]

Nope! It’s filled with salmon.

[Simkie]

Yeah, the TOTW cans don’t work for either of my non-negotiables…first ingredient is salmon and they have peas, potato starch, sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes…my kitties do not need three different kinds of potato in their food. :sigh:

I wish P&G had not purchased Natura Pet. :-/

[In_The_Gate]

Try this one; it’s a small company and I’m not sure it will be easy to fine but it may fit the bill.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/Instinct/cat/can/chicken

[jewll27]

ha I didnt mean to say it is fish free…

[Cammie]

Pretty timely thread right now Simkie- I just bought a couple of cans of the EVO 95% chicken/turkey yesterday for my foster kittens. The rescue group feeds Friskies :dead: and I don’t want to switch them completely so they won’t get an upset stomach when they go back. But I’ve been mixing in a higher quality food in the meantime. They’ve had the Wellness Kitten and the Innova Evo, and have inhaled both. But when I mixed in the EVO 95% last night and this morning, they were both indifferent and didn’t finish either meal. They’re very excited about the EVO 95% beef, but only get a tiny bit of it to make sure they don’t get upset tummies.

Going to return the other cans today in exchange for something they will eat happily.

The Evangers beef didn’t smell any worse than the EVO, by the way. Pretty much the same texture, just a little more oil so a bit softer.

[vtdobes]

[QUOTE=Simkie;5668784]

I wish P&G had not purchased Natura Pet. :-/[/QUOTE]

ME TOO!!! They offered such good lines!

My cat is still on Evo Herring but I’m thinking of switching her to a high quality canned food (or possibly the Nature’s Instinct raw). I was going to look at canned food today actually because she’s due for more food.

[Simkie]

There is something wonky on the Evanger’s page here

CALORIES: 111 Kcals/100g, 291 Kcals/Can

However, these numbers do not add up:

100kcal/100 grams = 1.11 kcal/g

291kcal/6 oz = 291kcal/170.097 grams = 1.711 kcal/g

Weird.

The more I look at this, the more I think I should try raw? It looks to be about $5 per day for my 4 cats, which is about the same as most of the canned options…

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

It’s hard to find a cat food without fish or fruits and veggies, which is the main reason I switched to raw. If you are open to that, Hare Today has several options that aren’t much more difficult to feed than canned.

I have one princess cat that says at least 2 meals, but absolutely not more than 4 :lol:, a week has to come from a can so I use Weruva Paw Lickin’ Chicken and Nine Liver or Merrick Before Grain. Both are available locally, except BG quail, or I order though Amazon.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Still typing when you posted but I’m not going to talk you out of raw! And, I’d be happy to help you switch because it sounds like we had the same disappointments in canned.

[Simkie]

CGPL, how do you feed the stuff from Hare Today? If I were to use the Ground Chicken, Bones, Organs, do I have to supplement with anything?

Perhaps my biggest reservation with raw is ensuring that my meows get everything they need.

[vtdobes]

I’ve been thinking of switching my cat to this raw food:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/InstinctRaw/cat/all

The 3lb bag of medallions would last her 16 days (bag has 1oz medallions and they recommend her eating 3oz/day for her weight). Seems easy enough feed? The gross factor is my biggest hesitation about feeding raw (I do NOT like handling raw meat; even for human consumption…blech!).

I just got her some canned Wellness so I can get her off the Evo Herring dry food. We’ll see how she likes that and go from there!

[Simkie]

My concern with the Instinct stuff is all of the non-meat items. For most of my cats, the 5% apples, carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, blueberries, persimmons, etc is probably FINE (although, really, why have they added all that?) but for my IBD cat, it is a whole slew of potential items to set her off and make her sick.

I did find a couple raw cat foods without all the extra crap:

http://www.radfood.com/

https://www.felinespride.com/

The Rad stuff is expensive at ~$9/pound, but the Feline’s Pride stuff looks better, although they have a cart/checkout process that does not allow me to see final shipping charges without entering in my CC number (grrr…)