We avoid cat food products that contain corn, soy, legumes, lentils, chia seeds and any other ingredient that may be high in lectins. Lectins prevent the absorption of nutrition in cats. Cats are unable to flush out a large amount lectins in their bodies. It can also cause bloating or other health issues.
Tender & True has discontinued a recipe we have used for 4 years. Before it was lectin free and then they changed the recipe two years ago, making it only low lectin formula. We cannot use the Chicken & Liver recipe because there are three ingredients high in lectins. And it is used as a bonding agent. Making the recipe very high in lectins. So we have searched for a replacement that fits our standards. We cross research the brands we use to find any reports of any health issues. This is done looking through the reviews of the brand on every platform. And any FDA recalls or the company's own withdraw or previous lawsuits of a product is not an exception. Every ingredient we research to make sure it is not an oxidized version of a healthy ingredient or other ingredients that has been known to cause health issues. Seeing recalls for cat foods and finding why it causes tremors after reading the ingredients. I have learned companies think pet owners don't understand so they can throw in a bad ingredient once in while or continuously produced it and the sacrifice is your pet which is too late. Which is why we have become so strict with which brands we use.
FirstMate made me feel very impressed while researching the brand and its origin story. Because the founder saw that dogs eating wild fish developed amazing coats, he decided to start making pet food.
Their recipes include ingredients like fish meal and chicken meal, which are essentially the concentrated, dried versions of chicken or fish. FirstMate tracks the exact locations where they purchase their fish and meats before rendering them into a dry form. This means they are using whole fish or chicken, not the leftover scraps from human food production.
Using meals also reduces shipping costs, which keeps the price of this dry food reasonable. When a manufacturer puts fresh chicken into dry food, it still has to be dehydrated and turned into a dry powder anyway; however, you end up paying more for the water weight to be transported just for it to be removed later.
Additionally, there have been no health issues reported by other owners. The company rigorously tests their food to ensure it fulfills a cat's nutritional needs and to confirm that no harmful by-products are created during production. Sometimes, processing or packaging can create unhealthy by-products that go undetected until it is too late, but FirstMate has maintained a completely clean reputation since 1989.
Dr. Elsey's
This brand has also passed our criteria. It is 59% in protein which is one of the highest for cat foods. This brand is good for cats that need more muscle or have weaker joints.
Also good for cats with lower bone density resulting in more broken bones, because muscles is what protects our bones. If the muscle is too thin, the bone density decreases.
Another option that is more convenient to purchase in stores like Wholefoods.
We use the Whole Paws brand for can food. We do not recommend their dry food, since it contains lectins. Lectins will prevent absorption of nutrients. It has more bigger effects on sensitive pets, like Ragdolls and other purebreds, so we do not recommend foods that contain lectins. It will also harm mix breeds cats health, if their body is less fit. Since you can never know if your cat is one of those well fit cats, it's best to avoid it to begin with. My husbands orange brown cat ended up getting a swelled stomach due to a high lectin cat food brand. While his other cat on the same diet didn't. But over long time, it has affected the other cats health. Swelled stomachs are usually caused by lack of nutrition. The swelled stomach went away after removing lectins in his cats diet.
Recommended Diet
Disclosure I am not veterinary or a nutritionist for cats. I am just recommending based on research and experience.
These three flavors we often buy because of the high moisture content and no binding agents.
This fish oil brand is best for their health and heart. It can help with conditions like HCM by reducing inflammation, regulating heart rhythm, and supporting blood vessel health. We have personally found that it is an incredible tool for moisturizing dry paws and making their fur silky soft.
How to Use: Open the capsule to release the oil directly onto their food. Start with one capsule of fish oil for kittens 7 months old, and increase if still see dry paws and dry fur. Do not recommend with main diets that contains lectins or lower quality foods like Fancy Feasts or Sheba.
If you were to feed your cat the raw diet, you would need to freeze the meat first if gotten fresh from the butcher, like with salmon to remove possible parasites. When you feed your pet a raw diet, you need to feed liver, heart and other organ meat. Not just raw ground meat or chicken breast. Because if you go with the natural raw meat diet, then you need to mimic what your pet would be eating if they were in the wild. Since they are not eating vegetables, they get all their vitamins and other needed nutrients like minerals from other parts of the animal. Which is the organ meat.
Personally I find feeding pets raw meat very risky. Somehow other people are able to manage feeding their pets raw meat and they are very healthy. But it just takes one bad egg to get salmonella poisoning. I eat raw eggs and raw foods all the time. The issue is I know I caught it, and can act immediately to cure it. As for my pets, I don't know if they caught it or how to take care of it. So I'd rather avoid that risk.