# 4Health Grain-Free Dry food?



## Jayfeather (Aug 14, 2013)

How good is this food? I currently have my indoor cats on it. They eat mostly wet food, but I feed them small amounts of dry food. 
Planning on probably knocking out the dry food completely when I start them on whole mice with wet food.

Though, if I could continue feeding my outdoor cats the 4Health dry food then that would be great since it is a cheaper option.

Since I found out about the horrors that are in "meat meal" and other stuff that they pack into the cheaper pet foods, I have stopped feeding all of my animals the cheap stuff. 

My outdoor cats live mostly off of what they catch. I live in the middle of a forest, so there is always plenty for them to eat. I feed them a bit of dry food each day as well.



Also, with the dog food variety of 4Health, the kind with grains is rated better than the grain-free. The kind that contains grains is free of corn, soy and wheat. The grain that it has in it is rice. I'm not sure if the grain-free or the grained cat food would be better.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

4Health is a brand only avaiable at Tractor Supply Company, as far as I'm aware. A store I've never been to as it is not in Canada, and the store is not even nation wide. About seven states in the West do not have a single one of these stores, and a few others have very few of these stores across their entire state.

It's made by Diamond, which automatically causes a lot of people to cross it off the list... however, it's ingredients aren't bad. Chicken Soup for the Cat is also made by Diamond and has near identical ingredients in the their grain version however it's sold North America wide. I did not know 4Health had a grain free version. I looked up the grain free version... it is loaded with fish. This is not ideal. I would look for another grain free brand. How about Taste of the Wild or Blue Buffalo Wilderness? If you want really high quality, there's also (found in pet stores) Instinct chicken, EVO chicken/turkey, Now! chicken/turkey/duck, Innova Prime. 

Your cats outdoors should always be supplied with fresh food and water, even if they eat rodents outdoors, and dewormed, since they're eating rodents... actually, mixing kibble with raw food is not recommended, they digest at different times and the raw food staying longer in the digestive tract can potentially cause problems, but having enough to eat is more important.


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## Jayfeather (Aug 14, 2013)

Any cheaper brands that you would recommend? My indoor cats eat EVO and TOTW canned food mostly. For now (until I get my cats switched over to eating whole prey and canned food) I'm just looking for a cheap but healthy dry food. I may be able to afford a more expensive food in the next few months if my other half manages to find a better paying job.

I can't stop the outdoor cats from eating dry food. My parents live down the hill and they put out dry food for them. The cats have been living there since before I moved out of my parents house, and since I moved to the house behind my parents' house I have started caring for them also. 
They are supplied with fresh water and food. They get flea/tick/mosquito prevention medication monthly as well as dewormer. I'm not sure what about my first post made it seem like I don't provide proper care for my outdoor cats.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

It's not that I thought they were necessarily getting improper care, but I wanted to go over everything, for instance, some people don't deworm outdoor cats... I'm one of them! But my cat doesn't eat rodents out there either. You said they got "a bit of dry food" daily and lived mostly off what they'd caught... there are people that don't feed their outdoor cats at all or not enough and expect them to hunt for all their food. The reality is that is a pretty tough life, that's why I was suggesting more than enough food for them daily in kibble and if they don't eat it fine, but to make sure that the hunting is as a hobby, not something they feel they have to do.

Cheap and high quality don't really go hand in hand, you get what you pay for. Except in the cases where you don't, as there's some brands that charge an arm and a leg for junk and get away with it. However, the reverse of paying less for more quality is pretty much never going to happen since making money is what a company is setting out to do.

Do you have a Costco near you? Their Kirkland brand kibble is very good for its price. Otherwise I would probably rather feed the 4Health grain version than the grain free version; less fish. Or Chicken Soup... those three are the only ones I can think of that I would consider decent foods with grains at a lower price.

Grain free you're probably not going to find... but maybe someone else here has suggestions.


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## Jayfeather (Aug 14, 2013)

Ah I see. I understand. 

I don't have a Costco near me. I'm not sure where the nearest one is, but I assume its not anywhere nearby since I've never heard of it before recently. By cheap I just mean cheaper than most.

-I just looked up Costco and the closest one is 2 to 3 hours away.

Thank you for the suggestions. I can't recall the ingredients in the 4Health foods with grain, but I'll check them out.


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