Best Canned Cat Food for Indoor Cats

But, why canned cat food? Well, canned cat food is wet cat food and there are many reasons to feed your cat on a wet food diet. No matter if you choose to feed your kitty only canned food or add canned food as a supplement to dry food, cats who are fed wet food have a lower chance of developing health problems. This is why it is important to pick the best canned cat food possible.

As wet food is made up of over 70% moisture, it is a safe choice for cats who do not drink a lot of water and helps give them optimum hydration. Plus, fussy eaters who do not eat dry food will like wet food better because of the scent. If you have trouble making your cat drink water, look at our Best Cat Water Fountain Reviews for some tips and amazing products.

The best canned cat food for indoor cats will be full of quality protein mostly and a low amount of carbohydrates. Any carbohydrates used should be complex carbohydrates (such as potatoes) which your cat can break down easily in his or her digestive system. They are free from all fillers, artificial additives and only have high-quality natural protein sources such as chicken or chicken meal. We have covered a wide range of brands and food manufacturers to bring you our top picks.

Instinct Original Grain Free Natural Wet Canned Food by Nature’s Valley is very carefully formulated so that the food is as similar as possible to what your cat would have eaten in ancient times, when he or she was roaming the earth alone without an owner. These foods contain quality animal-based proteins with a dash of fruits and vegetables added on top. This provides well-balanced nutrition for cats in all stages of life.

Weruva TruLuxe Grain-Free Wet Cat Food is a very strong cat food contender when considering the nutritional analysis and ingredients alone, which are all natural and quite unique.

Quality animal-based proteins are not the only primary ingredients in this product. Unfortunately, this Weruva blend uses a lot of carbohydrates and potato starch, which is a common cheap bulk-adding filler used in cat foods. Potato starch is useless in your cat’s diet and they cannot get any benefit from it. But, it is a complex carbohydrate so at least it is easily digestible.

Royal Canin Feline Health Nutrition Indoor Adult Cat Food is specially formulated for indoor cats and comes packed with lots of allergens, such as egg-based ingredients and soya oil.

Purina ONE Tender Selects Blend Dry Cat Food is one of the nation’s favourite brands of cat food. This Purina formula is crafted with real chicken, which is a high-quality animal-based protein source, and has a major advantage when compared to other cat foods; lots of veterinarians recommend this formula and sell it in their surgeries.

All the ingredients in this formula serve a purpose towards nutrition; nothing is there for the sake of being there.

This Purina Pro Plan Wet Food is another very good canned food choice and is great if you’re looking for the best canned cat food for your kitty which has a sensitive stomach, because it is made from limited ingredients and does not contain any allergens or intolerance triggering ingredients.

BLUE Wilderness High Protein Grain Free Wet Cat Food is a great tasting formula which has a rich flavour and plenty of variety and depth. This food is all-natural and grain-free (something which the company are famous for) and is a great food for helping kitties who do not drink enough to stay hydrated; it is packed full of moisture because it is a paté blend.

Halo Holistic Wet Cat Food for Indoor Cats, Grain Free Salmon Food is not your standard cat food by any stretch of the imagination. 

Looking at the ingredients in this formula, its main ingredient is salmon, which is a good quality animal-based protein source for cats. Also featuring in this Halo Spot’s food is chicken and chicken liver, which adds extra flavour as well as additional protein.

Unfortunately for your cat, these ingredients pose no benefit to their diets because cats can not get any nutritional value from them. If you see a product which has lots of ingredients in them, don’t waste your time and money feeding them to your cat.

Why Wet Cat Food?

The clear benefit of wet cat food is that it is full of water and moisture, and water is good for a cat’s overall health, including urinary health. The more water a cat takes in, the more hydrated your cat will be and be less likely to develop health problems.

Wet cat foods also come in lots of specialised formulas, such as for sensitive stomachs. See our article on The Best Cat Food for Sensitive Stomachs or our Limited Ingredient Cat Food article for more!

Your cat having access to water is essential, as we have already discussed, and you should encourage him or her to drink as much as you can.

In general, wet cat food is the best option for older cats and cats of all ages in general because –

• It consists of more meats which are high in protein. Protein encourages cats to take on more water.
• Wet cat foods generally contain higher concentrations of protein and lower concentrations of carbohydrates which is what your cat needs as an obligate carnivore.
• Wet cat foods are so much easier to eat than dry cat foods, so getting a cat suited to wet food whilst young will avoid future problems.

As we have just mentioned, cats are obligate carnivores. This means that your kitty needs meat, it is not an option, and they have a high dietary protein requirement. In fact, you could opt to feed your kitty completely on protein without any carbohydrates at all.

A cat’s digestive system is designed for foods which are high in protein, moderate in fat and low in carbohydrates. An ideal feline diet looks like this –

• 50% or more calories from protein
• 20-40% of calories from fat
• 1% of calories from carbohydrates
• Moisture-rich

So, if you’ve got a cat and wait to avoid health problems such as diabetes, it is crucial that you hit the nail on the head with these dietary requirements from a young age.

This composition of protein, fat, carbohydrates and water will only be found in wet, canned food. Most dry foods are high in carbohydrates and do not have a high enough protein level to satisfy a cat’s protein requirements. So, dry foods are generally not recommended for cats as the sole dietary staple. See our article on Low Carb Dry Cat Food for more.

Transitioning to Canned Kitty Food

This is the most difficult aspect of moving to a wet cat food from a dry cat food. The cat must find his or her new food palatable in-order for it to be successful.

If your kitty does not like his or her new food, you will need to get something else. It’s irritating, but it must be done. If your cat has always eaten dry food and not eaten much wet food, this can be even more challenging. To switch your cat from dry to wet food, try following some of these tips –

1) Stop ‘free feeding’ your cat and establish meal times. Cats who are used to having dry food available to them at all times of day may be unwilling to try new food because they are usually not hungry when they graze on dry food all day.

2) When it is feeding time, offer canned food in addition to dry food and leave it there for only 30 minutes, then remove the uneaten food. Over time, your kitty will start to take on the wet food more and is less likely to not eat in protest than they would if you suddenly removed dry food altogether.

3) If your kitty is still refusing dry food, then you should gradually decrease the amount of dry food and offer wet food in its place. It is not the nicest thought, but natural hunger will still kick in and your cat will eat the wet food to stay sated.

There are lots of other neat tricks and other ways you can use to make your kitty’s wet food more appealing, too –

• Mix a little wet food and dry food together for a gradual transition.
• Try different brands and flavours until your cat accepts one.
• Attempt to hand-feed the canned food.
• Exercise your cat prior to eating or pet your cat at the food bowl.
• Try putting meat or fish on top of the food to entice your cat more.

It may take a while to get your cat to adjust to a wet food diet but rest assured that it will happen. If you have a kitten, this is not going to be a problem because he or she will gladly eat wet food if it is the first and only thing they are introduced to.

Problems start to arise when you have a kitty who has been raised on dry food and then suddenly begins to have wet food introduced. It is only a natural response to something which they have not encountered before.