The hunt for tasty non-smelly food

[Cherryana]

I recently got a kitten. He is already my love!!

Here is my kitten food reviews so far:

1. Iams kitten food - started here because it was what he was eating. I was shocked at the terrible smell. Terrible.
2. Scrumbles kitten food - in a can, which I like for ease of recycling. Looked more like food than Iams. Kitten didn’t like it.
3. Blink Kitten food - so now we are getting somewhere. This is more like food. Mostly not smelly but it is still cat food and looks good. Kitten preferred the jelly ones to gravy ones. They do I £1 trial box deal and then it’s a subscription. Website was really easy to use. Love the branding. They offer a recycling scheme where you wash them out and post them back. I was going to go for this because those plastic pouches bother me. However…
4. Untamed. Has the same recipe percentages as blink. But it comes in a can. So much easier to recycle as can just go in my recycling. I have only just opened the first can of this food. So maybe I am being presumptuous but it was hands down the best smelling and looking cat food. It smelt like food. It looked like real chicken.

So - Untamed wins the best non-smelly-real-food-cat-food-award from me.

Am I missing out on trying any others before subscribing to this company?

Any recommendations?

TIA - if you got this far!!

@LavenderFieldsandcake I really have found that Untamed food smells like chicken and tuna. We (the kitten- not me!) have tried four flavors now and I am
really impressed with it. It’s £8 for a trial box.

I am sorry to hear how scary this is for you. It is how you feel. I think as it’s DP and the children’s cat - they should do the looking after and feeding and then you can get to know the kitten slower and with no pressure.

Thankyou I’m going to order some and give it a try

Why on earth has your partner left you in charge of a kitten when you clearly hate them and can't cope with the smells? No shade on you, that's not your fault! If you're not prepared to get rid of him and his kitten - put a peg on your nose and feed the kitten appropriate kitten food, or tell your partner to deal with it.

Don't lock her up. Play with her. She jumps at you because she wants attention and yes her claws are sharp but please do research on how to react when a kitten uses its claws inappropriately.

Your DP is a fucking idiot and your family will end up with a poorly socialised, malnourished, biting, scratching cat if he lets this continue. Show him this post. You never wanted this cat, it's not your fault that you're ill-prepared and unaware of how to socialise a kitten and it sounds like he's left it entirely up to you!

All dry food diets aren't the best for cats, who are prone to dehydration. Castrated male cats in particular if they don't get enough hydration can easily get urinary crystals which block their urinary tract and can require expensive surgery.

A full wet food diet is absolutely the best diet for cats.

Katkin. It’s delivered frozen so you need the freezer space.

katkin is as high quality as untamed, if not better, and doesn’t smell. They also offer more variety of proteins - beef, pork, duck, turkey, chicken, fish. Whereas untamed is basically chicken and tuna.

I would highly recommend you get your kittens used to eating lots of proteins, and keep rotating their foods regularly. My cats were on untamed but got bored of the chicken and only wanted tuna which isn’t ideal as tuna is high in mercury.

Get them used to a variety of proteins, brands, and textures at a young age and keep it varied so they don’t get bored and refuse to eat one day and leave you scrambling for an alternative.

Kittens need lots of attention - play and care. If your family can’t give this kitten what she needs then you really should look at rehoming her.

If you are keeping her, you might find Jackson Galaxy’s videos helpful, for example he has one on how to play with cats:

your kitten wants to play. If you redirect her to a toy she will quickly learn to attack her toys rather than your ankles.

A dry food only diet really isn't ideal for cats - they're carnivores, they're not supposed to live off a diet of dry biscuits and water.

It can also cause urinary blockages in male cats (which can be fatal in a matter of hours) as well as contributing to kidney disease which is a huge issue in older cats.

Of course plenty of cats eat dry food and live long, healthy lives but ideally they really do need some source of wet food too.

@sunsetsandboardwalks that's why I was so insistent my boy eats some wet food
He really doesn't like it but I found he tolerates Sheba especially if I mix in some of his dry food with it

Bloody picky cats

Sheba is one of the only brands mine will tolerate too

Our vet basically said even the most awful brand of wet food is better than no wet food, especially for castrated males. I've had two boy cats with crystals though so I'm probably more aware of issues than most, lol.

Mine all get at least one pouch of wet food a day.

All dry cat foods contain carbs. Even grain free food contains alternatives like potatoes. Cats are obligate carnivores and their digestive systems aren’t built to cope with carbs. They need a pure meat diet. Best to never give them dry food as kittens as it’s junk food and addictive to them.

The boy would like to live on dry food alone if left to his own devices.

In our house it is known as crisps due to it's addictive and junky qualities although this does lead to panic at the vets when they ask what your cat eats and DH responds 'he has a handful of crisps in the evening'

He sits and wails outside the crisps cupboard just in case we have forgotten where they are.

I always say if you’re not wrenching feeding your cat there’s something wrong with their food 😀 I’m veggie and the smell of the tuna and chicken turns my stomach but it’s the best for them. Mine have a combination of Untamed and Thrive.

I adore cats they are the best pets ever )I have four) and kittens are just little finally with claws and no brain. But you’ve got to really want one in your house, it’s so unfair to expect someone who doesn’t like cats to live with one.

You are doing very well, I understand very well how you feel, and even though you are forced to have a kitten in your space you are trying your best to do what is best for the cat and compromise.
To be honest smelly cat food that has very little meat can not be the nutrition that kittens need. ( I don't believe what big companies say).
The fact that most old cats are put down because they develop tumours says a lot about the common diet.
Don't feel bad about being scared of the kitten, you are already doing enough. And I am sure DP and DC are taking good care of the kitten as well you should not worry too much. At some point the kitten is going to grow up and be a lot calmer. All the love

I've used Untamed for two years for my two, they devour it and it smells good.

Not cheap but one of the cats has lost a lot of weight since starting on it, she needed to as she was 6.5kg!

I just got the 12 can trial and it seems to be perfect no bad smell, and my cat has no stomach problems anymore.
I think I will stick with it.
Thank you all for this information.
All the love