# Need Suggestions for Healthy Grain Free Minced (Pate?) Cat Food Brands



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

4 months later, still struggling trying to find a wet food brand that my cats will actually like for more than a week. And yes, I do try to rotate different brands/flavors daily so they don't get bored, but they still get bored. They are the 2 pickiest cats in the world! 

Last night my female got into my males Hill's c/d wet prescription food by mistake (Yuck, I know. But he doesn't touch it anyways). And she ravished the whole bowl with gusto, scarfing it down real fast. I've never seen her enjoy wet food so much. Finally, a wet food she likes! But go figure, its something she's not allowed to eat. It's made for urinary issues, so obviously she can't have that again. So now I'm looking for healthy "minced" food brands that I can try her on, that are similiar to the texture of Hill's c/d. 

Is minced the same as pate? (Shows how much I know about cat foods). It looks the same to me, but who knows. The minced c/d seemed a bit more wet than the pate foods I've seen though (Evo & Wellness, which both seemed rather dry). And she's always hated the pate brands I've tried, but went to town eating the minced c/d. Maybe because it was "junk" food. 

And unless I'm missing something somewhere, most of the cat food websites don't mention the texture of the food - whether its minced, pate or chunks in gravy. The only thing I could find that actually said "minced" was Fancy Feast. I'd prefer a healthier grain free brand though, since both of my cats already have health issues, and I don't need anymore vet bills (Female has chronic constipation, and my male is proned to oxalate stones). So I try to find wet foods that are grain free, and low in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and ash for him, which is usually the healthier brands. Weruva is perfect food for my males condition, but he'll only lick the gravy and not eat the meat, so it does him no good.

I've already tried Evo & Wellness Core pate brands, and neither of them wanted anything at all to do with them, so they're out. Any other suggestions for healthy grain free "minced" foods?


----------



## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

It sounds like you want something not quite as ground as pate, but not as chunky/shredded as Weruva. The only thing I can think of is Merrick...small chunks, very juicy. I only use Turducken, Grammy's Pot Pie and Thanksgiving Dinner...so I don't know that the other flavors are the same, but worth checking out.


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Thanks Doodlebug! I think I'll give the Merrick Before Grain with 96% meat a try. Hopefully it has the same minced style texture as the flavors you've tried. 

Their grain brands have potatoes, and my male cat can't have anything with potatoes since he's proned to oxalate stones (As if this picky boy will even eat anything wet anyways... ugh! I keep trying and hoping though).


----------



## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

In my household, the premium brands of cat food are the ones most likely to be ignored by the cats in lieu of the cheap brands like Friskies, 9 Lives, and Fancy Feast. I'm not sure what the cheapo manufacturers put in their food to give it so much taste appeal, but the difference in palatability is very noticeable in my feline family.

Honestly, Katt, if you want to transition those picky eaters to canned food, try the tasty, cheap brands. They may not be ideal, but they're a far cry better than any kibble, and you may eventually be able to mix in some of the premium brand foods to improve the overall quality.

C/D is in pate form (whether they call it that or not), so try the pate-style cheap foods. Friskies' pates are labeled "pate", and Fancy Feast's are labeled "classic". To replicate the moisture content of C/D, just add an appropriate amount of water to other pate-style foods.

Laurie


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Laurie, you're probably right. Going from dry to wet on healthy foods obviously isn't going to happen, since I've had little to no success in 4 months. 

Prior to all of this mess though, I was feeding Fancy Feast.. it was the grilled chicken in gravy kind. Cody of course wouldn't touch it at all, and Pepper.. only licked the gravy, still didn't eat the meat in the cheap junk food either (Same thing she does with Weruva and any other healthy brand).

I'll pick up some Fancy Feast Classic for her, in addition to the Merrick, and try both. Maybe she'll like the pate texture in that better than the shredded chicken, since she went nuts over the Hill's garbage.

Cody likes absolutely nothing. He's even sick of his dry foods (Both Hills and Royal). And the options on dry foods are very limited for him, given his situation. He wants to eat Pepper's Blue Buffalo dry food so bad. I try to put it up high and out of sight in a cabinent.. but he still smells it, and sits by the cabinent crying. Which makes me feel horrible to not be able to let him eat what he wants. So last night I tried mixing just a tiny smidgen of wet in with Pepper's dry food that he's been wanting so bad, thinking that would entice him into eating the wet. But nope, as soon as he saw the wet in the bowl, he walked away. Wouldn't even touch it. This boy.. ugh!

I ordered some freeze dried chicken treats, which the vet said is fine for him to eat. I've read that if its crushed up and sprinkled on wet food, it makes it enticing to cats. So thats my next attempt, I don't have high hopes though.


----------



## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

The BG foods do not have the same texture as the regular Merrick. They are ground and it's been a while since I used them, but I seem to remember them being very hard and dry.


----------



## ~Siameseifuplz~ (May 6, 2007)

You could always try mixing a small amount of the bad into the good, not sure if it'll work but it might be worth a try. The BG wet food is like most pate foods. The only pate food I've found different than most is the nature's variety Instinct foods. They have a lot of gravy but the pate itself seems more dry, it crumbles.


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Thanks for all of the input! 

I tried the Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie, that was not a hit. They wouldn't even touch that. 

Then I tried Fancy Feast Classic (Yuck I know, but it beats dry like Laurie said). My male Cody wouldn't touch it of course, surprise surprise.. NOT. Pepper however, did eat half of it. For today anyways. I got 3 flavors to try her on. We'll see what tonights meal brings.

I tried Cody on some freeze dried chicken treats, which the vet said he can have. Gave him one, he went nuts eating it real fast. So then I tried sprinkling some on wet food, wouldn't touch it. Go figure. He'll eat it solo because if its not a real meal... he'll eat it with gusto. But give him a real meal, he turns his nose up. :fust


----------



## paperbacknovel (Jun 9, 2010)

The Hills canned food that I've seen just has the texture of pâté with water added (as I think someone else said?). So try mixing some of your other canned foods with water to make it a similar texture.


----------



## ~Siameseifuplz~ (May 6, 2007)

I don't know, the hills sensitive stomach we feed to one of the shelter cats (who probably has IBD caused by crappy foods in the first place, poor thing's lost SO much weight and can't be put up for adoption because of the diarrhea) has a nasty texture. It's like...mucusy or something. Each perscription probably has a different texture though. The mucusy texture could probably be simulated by adding some egg, but you can't do that all the time.


----------



## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

Science Diet isn't the greatest of food, but their "Culinary Creations" line has very small chunks in a sort of gravy. My cats prefer it over any pate style.

Fancy Feast also has some minced flavors. It'll say "minced" right on the can. The minced turkey feast, which is a favorite in my house, has a red can. Have you tried that one?


----------



## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

I don’t know if this will be helpful, but I too had been trying to transition my cats from dry food to wet for about 4 months, with no success, and I was doing what you’re doing – looking for a wet food they would like. I then found the article below, which essentially says if you just keep offering cats different kinds of wet food, hoping they will eventually like something, you won’t get anywhere. How true! It then goes on to discuss how you should do the transition. So, I decided to switch my two to Weruva wet (whether they liked it or not!). Last week, I started following the advice in the article, plus a few tips given to me my another member on the Forum. This is a link to the article: Feeding Your Cat: Know The Basis of Feline Nutrition_

After four months of repeated failure, I have now successfully transitioned both cats from dry food to Weruva wet food in the space of a week. If you really want to get your cats off dry and onto wet, you might consider this approach (although it involves a fair bit of work and frustration). The transition took about two days in Muffin’s case and about a week in Abby’s case, because Abby is stubborn! The article is quite long (although you can skip to the part “Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food”). Some of the tips in the article worked for me, while others didn’t. I will share what I did to convince my two to move from wet to dry, although it might be that some of the other tips in the article will work for you, if you want to give it a shot. What worked in my case:

a) First, if you’re free-feeding dry, you need to move to scheduled feedings, since as long as they’re free-feeding, the cats won’t ever get really hungry.

b) Once they are used to being fed dry food on a schedule, you then offer them the wet food and, if they don’t eat it, too bad until next time. The hope is that hunger will eventually get the better of them. 

c) On Day 1, Muffin refused to eat wet for either breakfast or lunch, so she went hungry. I had tried a few “tricks” for breakfast and lunch, but nothing convinced her to eat. She wanted her dry food. When suppertime came around, I put some dry food in my coffee grinder, and ground it to make “kibble pepper”, which I sprinkled on top of the wet food. Muffin instantly began to eat the wet. The next day, she would eat the wet as long as I put kibble pepper on top (but not otherwise). She’s still the same today (a week after we started), although I have been reducing the amount of kibble pepper each day, and I hope to soon get to a point where she will no longer care. Still, the kibble pepper probably equates to about 3 or 4 pieces of kibble…so, given that she now eats the wet Weruva, I’m not too fussed. 

d) Abby refused to eat anything on Day 1. She also turned her nose up at the kibble pepper. By evening, I gave in and gave her a small amount of dry food, which she gobbled up. The next day, Abby again refused to eat, and by the end of the day, she again hadn’t eaten anything. I didn’t want to give in again, so I sat on the floor beside Abby, put some wet food (Weruva chicken) on my finger and encouraged her to lick it off my finger. At first, she wouldn’t. I then added some kibble pepper and just a bit of fish-flavoured Weruva, and she started to eat off my finger. I then kept finger-feeding her a few bites, each time bringing my finger closer to her bowl, until such time as she was eating from the bowl. 

e) I continued to do the finger feeding the next day and Abby would eat a bit, provided I mix in a bit of fish-flavoured Weruva and the kibble pepper. Still, she wouldn't eat very much at one time. So I fed her small amounts more frequently (every few hours). I also played with her right before I fed her, in order to get her running around and stimulate her appetite. 
f) By Day 3, I stopped finger feeding her. I just put her bowl on the floor. She would sniff at the wet food, but then walk away. She then ran around in a frenzy (I referred to this as her temper tantrum!), but she then came back and ate the wet food (as long as I put kibble pepper and added a bit of fish flavoured Weruva). 

g) Yesterday was Day 7 and both cats are now eating the wet Weruva. I have reduced both the fish Weruva and the kibble pepper, so they're only getting a tiny bit of each. Hopefully soon, I will be able to eliminate both entirely.

I also note that, although the kibble pepper was a "trick" that worked, the most important thing is to hang tough, keep offering the wet food, and not feed them any dry unless absolutely necessary. I started the transition last week since I was off work for five days in a row. If you work during the day, and you want to try this approach, you might want to start when you have a few days off, since would be tough to do if you were working all day.


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Ew, that sounds gross. It probably has a gel or something in it? The food my vet gives is Hill's c/d, it doesn't look mucousy.. just wetter form of pate. The cat its meant for hates it. But he hates everything. I have never in my life seen such a picky cat!

Have you tried Purina Forti Flora with your diarrhea kitty? Its a very palatable powder that you sprinkle on top of their wet food. I have read that it works wonders for cats that have diarrhea. Amazon has alot of good reviews about it helping their cats: 

Amazon.com: FortiFlora FELINE - Box of 30 (1 gram packets): Home & Garden


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Just saw the other 2 posts, after I already posted.

I haven't tried the minced Fancy Feast yet, but I did try the Fancy Feast Classic today, which my female did eat about half of (Thats alot for her). So I'll try the minced next.

Susan - Lucky you finally having success transitioning your cats! I have read that page you posted before.. forwards, backwards and sideways and tried all the tricks. My female I can get to eat some wet, but my male - who desperately needs to eat wet because of his health condition (proned to oxalate stones), outright refuses no matter what trick is applied. I have seriously never in my life seen such a stubborn cat.


I've also been using Weruva, the Paw Lickin Chicken flavor. Thats usually what they get at least once a day, then I was trying other brands/flavors for a second meal. My female has always licked the gravy out of wet food, but still won't eat the meat. My male never even did that much though. So I guess I can say I have made a teeny, tiny bit of progress with my him, because he will at least lick the gravy out of the Weruva now, most days.. but not always, depending on his mood. I can't get them to eat the actual meat to save my life though. I waste SO much food every single day, and have for the past 4 months. I basically open a can twice a day for them to lick the gravy out of it :?


Sadly, I can't use fish.. given my male has urinary disease. I could probably have success with fish, because he always liked fishy foods... but thats a big no no for his health issue. I have not tried the kibble grinding trick yet, I've only tried putting whole pieces of kibble in wet food, which he still won't touch. So I will try that.. thanks again (I don't have high hopes though, because he's even sick of his prescription kibble and turns his nose up at that now too... ugh!).


----------



## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

Oh dear! And, you're right, the urinary disease does complicate things. I doubt I could have convinced Abby to eat had I not been able to add fish (although I'm slowly eliminating a bit each day and hope soon to be down to none). I also know how frustrating it is to constantly have to waste and throw away food. Anyway, I wish you luck with whatever else you're able to try, and I hope something eventually works for you too.


----------



## Ducman69 (Aug 28, 2010)

How hungry do you let them get? 


laurief said:


> In my household, the premium brands of cat food are the ones most likely to be ignored by the cats in lieu of the cheap brands like Friskies, 9 Lives, and Fancy Feast. I'm not sure what the cheapo manufacturers put in their food to give it so much taste appeal, but the difference in palatability is very noticeable in my feline family.


I believe its the tons of gravy.


----------



## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

This might be worth a try









If they like it, maybe you can mix it in with their food. 

PETCO.com - Vita Gravy Feline Formula customer reviews - product reviews - read top consumer ratings


----------



## Kattt (Dec 20, 2008)

Thanks everyone 

He's gone gone 24 hours without eating at times, and still refused wet. And not because I let him go that long. He's 20lbs, so I would never force him into a hunger strike for that long on purpose, even though all of the tips and tricks websites say its safe. I refuse to let him go for more than 12 hours without eating at all, especially knowing he still won't eat it if he does. So why half starve him, ya know?! 

But sometimes he puts himself on a hunger strike for 24 hours on his own because he gets sick of the prescription garbage food. Yet, he still refuses wet even after he hasn't eaten for 24 hours. 

I've tried that Vita gravy too, since they both seem to like the gravy and not the meat.. and they both refused that too. :?

My female cat is a lil piggy, I can usually at least get her to try anything once. My male though, forget it. He'd starve himself to death before he would eat something he doesn't like or want. He loves this freeze dried chicken though, so hopefully (but doubtful) he'll like a homemade chicken diet once I get this darn vet to give me a recipe tailored to his condition. Gonna call them and harass them again Monday, until they get it done already.


----------

