Updated January 30, 2025

GUILDWOOD CAT RELIEF HEALTHY FOODS FOR KITTIES: A QUICK LIST! 

For her sensible, up-to-date opinion, in readable daily articles and intelligent YouTube videos, on food-related issues as well as medical ones, google the name of well-known integrative American veterinarian Dr. Karen BECKER. Also, here are two great no-nonsense, impartial sites to check the content of all brands’ bags and cans of food: (1) catfooddb.com  (2) allabout cats.com. You’ll be as surprised as I was to see the results! Two more outstandingly professional sources for cat-feeding info are the site catcentric.org and the remarkable Facebook group “Feline Nutrition – Feed Cats Like Cats” – which has both resident experts and skilled members.  These people and Dr. Becker(via her Bark & Whiskers newsletter) are our own chief go-tos.

NO FISH FLAVOURS IN GENERAL : always read the ingredient list on a bag or can. English-language encyclopedias call cats “obligate carnivores” for a reason – as desert animals their digestive system evolved to handle any and all meats, not fish.  But fish is cheaper to bring to market… The first 4-5 ingredients on a can/bag are the main ones in descending order of percentage; if they include fish put it back. Fish very rapidly ages a kitty’s liver. HOWEVER fish oil mentioned further down the percentage list is fine because its Omega-3 fatty acids are great for skin and coat.

TRY TO LIMIT KIBBLE INTAKE. Most (ultra-processed) kibble is at least 60% carbs. Cats’ bodies aren’t designed to digest carbohydrates efficiently, and most carbs in a cat’s diet convert to sugar and fat  - leading to dental plaque, obesity and related diseases.  Type 2 diabetes is rampant in (typically plump) North American kitties.(For 2023, their clinical obesity was estimated at 61%) The generally low protein levels in kibble mean cats eat more of it to satisfy their basic protein need. Kibble is also sprayed with an often addictive spray, some brands more than others. 

A quick guide to help you navigate the jungle of cat food labels and claims : 

Kibble if you must

We prefer Go!’s ‘Carnivore’ formula because it has somewhat higher protein than usual for a kibble and  healthily exposes a cat’s gut biome to several meats (chicken, turkey and duck) rather than only one, which in time can create an allergy). Other brands include Oven Baked; Fromm’s 4 no-grain formulas: Gamebird, Hasenduckenpfeffer, Chicken au Frommage, Beef Livattini; also  Carna-4 (only the chicken package, not the fish one); Open Farm (ecologically appropriate); N & D (high quality but watch the numerical position of herring in the ingredient list); and Instinct. There are also Orijen and Acana, once upon a time okay; however in November 2022 they were bought by the world’s largest petfood producer, Mars Inc. (owner of Whiskas, Pedigree, Cesar, Royal Canin, Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro etc., not to mention Wrigleys, Masterfoods, MarsBars and the list goes on. Mars is also the owner of VCA, a now-huge vet clinic consortium that owns scads of clinics across North America, and is disproportionately well-represented in Toronto). 

Freeze-dried and air-dried raw foods 
 

Do try them out on your cat(s); unlike cans & especially kibble they don’t have carcinogenic AGEs from high-heat ultra-processing, questionable thickening agents, preservatives or kibble’s excessive-calorie carbohydrate count. The prize-winning Feline Naturals (several flavours), Vital Essentials, Stella and Chewy’s (several flavours), PureBites (several flavours AND Canadian) or Primal freeze-dried raw brands, plus Ziwi Peak air-dried raw and Open Farm freeze-dried raw, are all available between Global, Pet Valu and Petsmart, not to mention our most favourite on-line place,  petonly.ca, where you can also order cans without having to buy an entire case of something. (They deliver, and their prices are entirely comparable.) 

Wet food 

Think wet food in miniature cartons : Open Farm, Stella & Chewy’s, Go!, Now brands. Ecoconscious, plus healthier as well! As for cans, always READ THE INGREDIENT LIST! Remember, pet food ingredients are listed by law in descending order of presence and the first 4 or 5 are the main ones. Something really essential to be aware of is thickening agents. Those brands around the longest contain earlier thickeners like carrageenan (carcinogenic) and guar gum (diarrhea-causing in some cats, like people) as well as cassia gum and xanthan gum (synthetic, apparently also carcinogenic). More recent arrivals on the market have safer thickeners like agar-agar, or else (of late) no thickener at all. On the occasions when we’ve had to help very sensitive-tummy kitties, we’ve found, through research and actual experience, that a combined diet of thickener-free canned food and freeze-dried raw food in bags  - i.e. NO ultraprocessed kibble! - was the only thing that resulted in normal stools. 

To assure your cat has a resilient gut biome (and respect her taste buds), always feed her a daily wet food serving that ROTATES various meats from different brands; feeding your kitty the same food over time creates a narrow-tolerance stomach guaranteed to be easily upset. This may be basic but it’s so important! 

Some brands with high meat content we like (with a nod of thanks to FB’s Feline Nutrition group): 

Feline Naturals : All flavours except fish. Around 98%-99% meat! High quality out of New Zealand, with numerous nutritional prize rankings to show for it! At Global and Pet Only but more places are now carrying it. 

Rawz :  Chicken, duck, turkey, beef, rabbit varieties. Around 96% meat! 

Meow : Comes in pouches. From New Zealand, like Feline Naturals. Properly high meat content too. 

Tiki Cat: Get the “After Dark” series, chicken, beef duck etc, with nutrient-dense organ meat, high protein, no guar gum thickener. Tiki products vary on including gums. They just came out with a new purple-coloured miniature can line with duo-meat combinations. Good supply online at Pet Only and Global in Cliffside Plaza. Bought by general mills several months ago, so some people are waiting to see if the recipe changes. 

Canada Fresh : High meat content and excellent price. Meat flavours include chicken, lamb, beef and duck. No additives, thickeners etc. But this year the Feline Nutrition group experts on FB have grounded every flavour except beef because of an overly high calcium to phosphorus ratio. Comes from B.C. At Harmony Pet Supplies, 3255 Lawrence Ave. East, at Global in Cliffside Plaza, or on-line at Pet Only. 

Pure Vita : Chicken and Turkeyflavours. Single meat ingredient foods. 

NutriSource : made by same family-owned company as Pure Vita. Any meat flavours. The new “Elements” line has 2 great meat flavours, Scenic Meadows (turkey, duck, rabbit) and Countryside (chicken & egg). 

Boréal : Canadian! All meat recipes, including Turkey with Cobb chicken, Duck with  C.c., Turkey with C.c. or can with combination Cobb chicken, New Zealand lamb and Angus beef. Again, no additives or thickeners, though a bit high in calories. Made in northern Ontario. At Global in Cliffside Plaza or Harmony Pet Supplies or canadianpetconnection.ca. 

Identity :  6 meat flavours, including quail and chicken. Great, but only at Pet Only. 

Essence :  2 meat flavours, Ranch & Meadow and Air & Gamefowl. At Pet Only. 

Fussie Cat : 2 meat flavours, Turkey & Guineafowl and Lamb and Pork. Can be ordered at any Global or Petonly if you don’t see it on the shelf.. 

KitKat : All flavours except fish. No gums. 

Inception : Poultry recipe. Only at Pet Only. 

Vintage : only sold by Costco and usually sold out. 

Open Farm : Homestead Turkey, Harvest Chicken, or Chicken and Beef. At Global. 

Instinct : Duck formula, Lamb formula, Chicken formula, Rabbit formula (this last is ‘limited ingredients’). 

Applaws : Chicken breast and rice in water, Chicken breast/rice with cheese (ultrafine strips). No vitamins added, meat only, so don’t feed as sole daily food. 

Hound and Gatos : Chicken and chicken liver, Turkey, Beef, Duck and duck liver. Gamebird flavour is too high in iodine (leading to thyroid problems), hence feed only occasionally. 

Ziwi Peak : all flavours but fish. 

Koha : Duck paté, Chicken paté, Turkey paté, French guineahen paté, Kangaroo paté. All single ingredient foods – ideal for cats allergic to certain common meats or fish. Their stews aren’t recommended since they have gums. 

Dr. Elsey’s Clean Protein : Meat flavours. 

Orijen : Since Royal Canin bought this Canadian company the price has gone up. Be careful, Chicken and Duck is actually the sole flavour with no backstopped fish. We use it very rarely. 

PureBites : Canadian! Comes in 4 meat flavours. Delicious but only meat, no vitamins added, so don’t feed as sole daily food unless in tandem with something like a freeze-dried raw brand, for instance. 

Ultra (Pet Valu in-house higher-level brand) : Chicken stew, Turkey stew. Real pieces of meat in the stew! Contains guar gum though. 

N & D : Duck and pumpkin,  quail and pumpkin etc. Great as a special treat! Usually adds herring to flavours, though, so check the ingredients. 

Almo and Snappy Tom : fine as long as you stick to meat. 

A lot of the above brands are available at Global, Ren’s, Pet Valu and Petsmart. Petonly.ca probably has them all, being so complete… We feed these wet foods, several at a time, always rotating different meats and brands (as opposed to the same 1 or 2 foods for years) because quality wet foods are interchangeable without troublesome results and rotation makes for happy taste buds and long-term in particular, a healthy kitty tummy with multiple kinds of good gut bacteria in it. 

Brands we no longer use at GCR :

Fromms : we used to do all the meat flavours but cans contain locust bean gum and guar gum. Overpriced. 

Merrick’s : (e.g. Duck paté, Beef paté, chicken paté,  Thanksgiving Dinner). Some cans in this brand’s lineup have guar gum as a thickener, others still have carrageenan while some others have lately been reformulated with agar-agar. Merricks is high in salt so as to make kitties like it best (just like the other wet foods owned by Nestlé-Purina, such as Friskies and Fancy Feast). 

Wellness Core: its ingredients, supposedly superior to simple Wellness, don’t warrant paying its price. For the same price, why not get 98 % meat content with prize-winning Feline Naturals? 

Weruva : mostly produces fish flavours, plus loaded with up to three gum thickeners and lots of water. We avoid it, cute-looking cans and all. Weruva has, however, recently come out with a low-phosphorus wet food formulated for older cats called Wx that has zero gums. 

WET FOOD BRANDS TO AVOID because of chemicals, various cancer-linked substances including thickeners, meat by-products, food colouring, soy, too much corn and not enough meat, high salt content (the better to addict) etc. (These foods are usually cheaper.) : 

Friskies, Special Kitty, Fancy Feast, Whiskas, anything from Walmart, Meow Mix, ‘Lovibles’ from Pet Valu, a lot of Weruva brand flavours (reasons mentioned above). Also: be careful about Blue (Buffalo), which owns Wilderness as well – Blue was convicted in court for false ingredient-advertising. At GCR we tend to avoid anything advertised on TV because it mostly means a deep-pocketed multi-national owner (e.g. Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé-Purina, Royal Canin-Mars Inc). Look for smaller/family-owned companies and also for Canadian, e.g, Purebites, Canada Fresh, Boréal (all Canadian), PureVita, Essence, Hound and Gatos etc. 

DRY FOOD BRANDS TO AVOID for the same reasons as wet ones, plus the threat of very painful, potentially deadly (and very expensive) urinary blockage in male cats: Friskies, Special Kitty, Purina Cat Chow, Meow Mix, Beneful, Whiskas, Iams etc., even regular Kirkland (Costco).   

***TREATS : no Temptations PLEASE, nothing by Whiskas etc. ONLY packets clearly marked “natural” or “grain-free”. ALWAYS read the ingredient list!!! At GCR we prefer people food treats  -  meat, cheese, ricotta etc. (but check first if your cat is lactose-intolerant). And in the treat department we love rotating packages of different brands of freeze-dried raw food! 

WHAT TO REMEMBER:

(1) always read the ingredient list for all foods wet and dry! You don’t want to see the word “by-product” - it refers to animal parts not allowed for human consumption including claws, beaks, hooves, skin etc. that are liquefied (with chemical agents) and have altered DNA owing to extremely high cooking temperatures. By-products are what cheaper dog and cat food contains.

(2) try to even partially replace kibble – since how it’s made (“extrusion”) renders it nutritionally suspect and too many kibbles contain feed-grade ingredients and worse (look at the official recalls over the years!). Instead, feed a combination of cans and protein-high freeze-dried raw. OR slowly transition your kitty to one of the two forms of raw cat food, raw patties or freeze-dried raw in feather-light bags. Raw is slowly but surely gaining in popularity (although cat people are still way behind dog people) because of its way-superior nutrition and its excellent teeth-cleaning properties (unlike kibble, whose majority carbs turn to teeth plaque and tummy girth). Raw’s fine-ground bone fragments clean the teeth! If you go raw, Tollden Farms brand’s patties are top-grade, plus the brand’s bone content (for fibre) is optimal for cats, unlike certain other brands with too much bone.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: simple raw ends up cheaper than the combination of freeze-dried raw and canned food. But if you don’t have the time to faithfully thaw it the night before, try freeze-dried raw with water added, like us. OR check out cooking for your kitty. It’s a lot cheaper too! Dr. Becker has helpful articles on how to transition your cat from kibble to wet and then to raw, and for willing cooks, she and others offer lots of recipes online. Cooking for your pet is easier than you think! Just be 100% sure to add the necessary vitamin & mineral powder mix to your home-cooked ingredients.  The most accessible is probably Omega-Alpha’s Nutrify (usually available at Global or orderable); you can also order from one of 2 companies, the first Canadian, the other American, at: 

TCFeline Premix: Click Here

EZ Complete: Click Here

RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR KITTY’S HEALTH

(especially good for middle-aged and older cats, recovering cats, chronic conditions etc. Our resident twenty-plus year-olds agree!)

1. Probiotics

A Preventative all cats benefit from! Promotes good gut flora. Sprinkle powder on wet food.

Raw Support ‘Digestion’ : Prebiotic/Probiotic Powder (brand without fructosaccharides)

At : Click Here

And: Click Here

Bene-Bac Plus : Prebiotic/Probiotic Powder (brand with fructosaccharides)

At : Click Here

Or : Pets Drug Mart: Click Here

2. Green Lipped Mussel

Has amino acids, glycoproteins and omega 3 fats and works as anti-inflammatory for joint arthritis, asthma and digestive issues. 

‘Loyalty Dog Treats’ Green Lipped Mussel Powder. Cat Dose: 1/8-1/4 of a teaspoon.

At: Click Here

3. Colostrum

Excellent immuno-support, also anti-inflammatory 

‘Now’ Colostrum Powder

At : Click Here

4. Kidney Supplements

Slow down kidney degeneration as cats age. Contain the phosphate binder chitosan. 

(a) Kidney Complete by Aventi (has less chitosan, includes lactose; useful for milder cases)

At : Amazon: Click Here

Also at : Pets Drug Mart: Click Here

(b) Epakitin by Vétoquinol (has more chitosan, no lactose; certainly for more advanced kidney degeneration)

At : Pets Drug Mart: Click Here

5.  Anti-Allergy Supplements (skin; asthma, stomach issues) (also give shinier coat, more vitality)

Raw Support ‘Allergy’ : Sprinkle powder on wet food

At : Click Here

Also at : Click Here