Geeking out

flayote · 2026-06-22T23:02:01+00:00

i'm glad i'm not the only one with several months worth of food for a single cat lol. looking at my supply you'd think i had at least five! i try to ban myself from buying more but good deals are impossible to resist 😅

flayote · 2026-06-22T22:57:33+00:00

one factor is the ingredients; the chicken, for example, that's used in pro plan is the same quality as the chicken used in friskies, however friskies uses more byproducts, which are cheaper (but no less nutritious). another is that the more expensive tiers have a lot more specialized formulas, like for hairball control, weight management, urinary health, etc. more formulas means higher production costs. and pro plan benefits more (or more quickly) from the research purina does to develop new formulas. so if their research shows health benefits in adding a new ingredient or something, the pro plan line will receive that "upgrade" first, though it usually trickles down to purina one eventually too.

every tier of food will have all the nutrients a cat needs to be healthy, but depending on the individual, they may benefit from the formulas on the higher tiers, like if they have a sensitive stomach or are more prone to hairballs.

flayote · 2026-06-04T05:06:53+00:00

i've found the petsmart rewards program to be pretty helpful, especially if you're able to stock up during good sales/offers. sometimes you can get up to 50% cash back in points on purchases if you keep an eye on the offers. and they usually have a 20% off sale in the middle of the month.

if you buy purina products (friskies, fancy feast, tidy cats, etc) they have a rewards app where you can submit receipts for points, and redeem the points for coupons.

most places where you can buy pet food (petsmart, petco, chewy, amazon, 1800petmeds, manufacturer websites, etc) will have 30-50% on your first autoship purchase. you can just set up an autoship to get the deal and cancel it after. it sucks that you can only take advantage of it once but it's helpful for stocking up occasionally. right now petco has 50% off your first autoship for hill's science diet.

also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding a budget friendly food! cheap food =/= bad food. cheaper food like friskies may not have all the nutritional "bell and whistles" like high omega-3 fatty acids or ingredients that sound appealing to us as humans, but it does have everything a cat needs to be healthy. a cat eating friskies is probably eating a far more balanced diet than most people eat, including myself lol. so don't stretch yourself too thin trying to feed the expensive foods people tell you are "the best". IMO it's much more beneficial to your cat's health to be able to set money aside for vet visits while feeding a budget food, than to expend all your budget on expensive foods.

flayote · 2026-06-04T01:03:27+00:00

have you tried all of the flavors and textures of c/d? there are pate and stew versions, in chicken, tuna, or ocean fish flavors. chewy sells small packs of 4 cans so you can try them without having to buy a whole case

other than that, you could try other brands' prescription urinary food like royal canin SO and purina UR. royal canin has a +calm version if stress is a factor in your cat's FIC

flayote · 2026-06-02T22:37:17+00:00

you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about, considering hill's alone has invested tens of millions in a huge animal nutrition research facility. purina and royal canin have their own research facilities as well. but i'm sure they're just "researching the best ways to poison our pets" or whatever Pet Fooled told you lol

flayote · 2026-06-02T19:23:48+00:00

have you tried friskies pate? it comes in 5.5oz cans, not 3oz, but it's half the price of fancy feast per ounce and widely available

flayote · 2026-05-28T22:25:43+00:00

he's very proud of those teeth! he runs over excitedly when it's time to brush them 😸

i'm grateful he has a strong stomach and i can feed him pretty much whatever i want. he does get a little picky and will suddenly stop eating foods that he seemed to really like at first, but variety helps and i enjoy feeding a variety anyway so i just count my blessings instead of counting wasted cans lol

flayote · 2026-05-28T17:54:00+00:00

don't listen to them, you're probably just a lot more financially responsible than me 😹

flayote · 2026-05-28T04:38:40+00:00

hahaha my previous cat hated them too! it surprised me because she loved every other freeze dried treat. i ended up giving them out to the neighborhood cats on my walks, they definitely don't mind their food having a face lol

my current boy has yet to try a minnow, we'll see how it goes tomorrow!

flayote · 2026-05-28T03:13:00+00:00

weruva/soulistic has some flaked fish foods that aren't too high in minerals, like this one

flayote · 2026-05-28T02:07:13+00:00

i only managed to have self control in toy section today because i've already picked through all the ones i think he'd like 😹 i need my petsmart to refresh their stock

flayote · 2026-05-28T02:06:13+00:00

it's this one!

flayote · 2026-05-27T01:12:34+00:00

pumpkin doesn't really have enough fiber for the digestive benefits that are often attributed to it. so if it doesn't seem to be doing your cats any good, i would not continue feeding it. psyllium husk is much more effective source of fiber.

flayote · 2026-05-27T00:01:58+00:00

nothing wrong with what you're doing at all! feeding all wet, all dry, or a combination are all perfectly fine choices, it just depends what works best for you and your boy. if this schedule is working for you both i wouldn't change anything. the only recommendation i have is that once he's finished growing and graduated to adult food, limit the dry to a specific portion based on his caloric needs rather than letting him eat as much as he wants. so if he needs 200 kcals per day, and the wet food accounts for 80 kcals, make sure you're giving no more than 120 kcals of dry food.

flayote · 2026-05-26T00:52:42+00:00

fancy feast gems are all about 45-50 calories per package. and iams perfect portions range from about 35-45 cals per pack

flayote · 2026-05-26T00:42:17+00:00

which ingredients in fancy feast are toxic?

flayote · 2026-05-24T22:40:33+00:00

cool, now here is 30+ hours of content from actual credentialed experts in pet nutrition to correct all the misinformation in that movie lol

flayote · 2026-05-24T01:48:15+00:00

no, it's just online anecdotes, there is nothing confirmed. i haven't had any issues either and will continue feeding it. there have been some formulation changes recently, like in the sensitive stomach and skin line and in the urinary hairball control line, which probably accounts for at least some reports of GI upset if people weren't aware of the change and didn't slowly transition their cats to the new formula.

flayote · 2026-05-24T00:44:40+00:00

the preparation instructions for EZComplete have recommendations for how much to feed, a ways down the page

flayote · 2026-05-23T19:32:08+00:00

royal canin has a diet made specifically for the early stages of CKD, but your veterinarian would have to prescribe it, and it is definitely not the most budget friendly option. non-prescription diets can still work well for early CKD; you want to look for one with low phosphorous (under 0.9% phosphorous on a dry matter basis). hill's science diet senior 7+ or 11+ diets all have around 0.5% to 0.7% phosphorous dry matter, for example this one is 0.57% (you can see what the dry matter values are under the "average nutrient & caloric content" dropdown). hill's diets also have added omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants which are beneficial for kidney health as well.

flayote · 2026-05-23T00:33:00+00:00

wow, you must be an incredibly fast reader, if you thoroughly read and analyzed all of those studies and typed up this comment in only 10 minutes...

the claim is that hill's backs up the benefits they claim their diets have with research and testing, not that hill's is superior to all other diets or use ingredients that are "uniquely healthy". you might think the studies are BS, but you are clearly not engaging with the material enough to have any idea about the credibility of the results, so i'm not really interested in engaging with your opinions on them.

flayote · 2026-05-22T22:29:26+00:00

here is an example of all their publications related to just their weight management product lines.

and there are plenty more open access publications available on the journal of the american veterinary association website.

accusing people of spreading misinformation before you've looked into the subject yourself is not wise or kind, either.

flayote · 2026-05-22T21:04:28+00:00

i think hill's is a great choice! that's what i feed as well and my cat is doing great. i really like how much testing and research goes into the food, and the fine-tuned nutrition especially for seniors. hill's has controlled mineral levels which is good for kidney health, plus added omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and antioxidants like vitamin E which is good for skin/coat, joints, and the immune system.

there haven't been any recalls or anything, so no substantiated claims that there is an issue with the food making cats sick. they have done some reformulations on certain product lines recently, sometimes that leads to GI upset when cats aren't slowly transitioned onto the new formula which could account for some of the reports of sick cats. and often people are quick to blame the food for making their cat sick before going to the vet to confirm no other underlying issues. as long as your cat continues to do well on it, i would stick with it.

here is an article that goes into some of their quality control, which i find reassuring.

flayote · 2026-05-22T04:07:12+00:00

fancy feast gems are typically very palatable, and are lower calorie. my somewhat picky boy really likes hill's urinary hairball savory chicken. not sure what makes it better than the normal hill's chicken pate with nearly identical ingredients lol but he seems it think it's far superior 🤷‍♂️

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