I'm looking to add to my cat's dry rotation, and would simply like to know what others feed and why. Thank you for your help!

My cats get as of this week

1/8th cup of Avoderm indoor formula, and 1/8th cup of Wellness healthy Weight (purple bag)each once in the morning and once at bedtime.  They get homecooked to balance out their diet, because they wet food junkies from way back................   No canned because mommy was burned by it once before.I eventually am going all Wellness if this white chunk stuff blows over.  Right now just using up the Avoderm, only swicthing because it is very high calorie on my second 5 lbs bag with no issues.  Knock on wood.

I feed kibble to Miss Kitty & Ling as treats/snacks in the evenings or on Sunday after playtime (converted to wet meals).

1)Nature's Logic Rabbit or Duck kibble, because of no synthetic vitamins and, they did well on it before taking it off as a meal rotation. The company has been very responsive to each & every inquiry or comment I had;
2)Solid Gold Indigo Moon, grainfree and, they did well on it before taking it off as meal rotation;
3)Organix, as an organic for Miss Kitty (HER favorite meal and now her favorite kibble treat). Scooter will take a bite of it, but has small allergy to an unidentified ingredient in it. Ling simply doesn't like it very much.

I feed a rotation of Orijen, Chicken Soup Adult Cat Formula, Fromm Duck A La Veg, and have recently added Instinct Chicken Meal Formula to the rotation as an experiment.

(Two of my cats eat almost all wet food, 3/4 commercial canned and 1/4 home-cooked, with the dry only as an added snack or fall-back if they do not like the wet food they are given.  One cat is 50/50 on canned/home-cooked and dry.  Two cats will eat very little wet and rely mostly on dry.)

All these foods were chosen because I am somewhat more comfortable with the ingredients than with some other brands of dry food.  (Emphasize somewhat.  I am not 100% comfortable with any of them.  It's a compromise.)

The chief reason I am using these in particular is that the cats will actually eat them.  All but the Fromm have a large kibble size that is easy for my cats to chew.  (I've had repeated instances of cats choking on small hard kibble.)  The Fromm kibble size is small, but it appears to be softer than some of the other small kibble, especially grain-free or low carb.  Two of my cats cannot tolerate corn.  These are all free of corn.

So far I have not noted that these foods have caused any type of problems for my cats.  They are all due for routine blood work in the next 6 months, so I will re-evaluate the foods based on that.

The best food in the world is no good to purchase if your cats won't eat it or throw it up.

I'm feeding Orijen with about 12 pieces of California Natural (chicken and rice).  I like the lower carb value of Orijen and since Andy has a tendency toward loose stools the Orijen has really fixed that problem.  He also eats 1/4 can of Wellness wet food each day.  Orijen also came recommended here at Itchmo.

Carol

ranger, I don't see why you couldn't freeze the dry food.  Sounds like a good idea in your case.  That way the fats won't go rancid.  I don't see how it could possibly affect any of the ingredients or nutrition to any big extent, but maybe something I am not aware of yet.

That's a good point about moisture, catbird.  I guess if you use a freezer ziplock bag, seal it well, then don't unseal it until it comes to room temp & no moisture is on outside of bag, that should work?   If no moisture is added to the bag itself, it shouldn't collect any new moisture if it's the type of bag that seals well.  Mold is definitely not a good thing to have in pet food.

This doesn't generally apply to cat food, but reminds me - I keep hearing about not adding any water to dry food before feeding because bacteria instantly start multiplying & it becomes a seething mass of microbes in less than 5 minutes (well not exactly put like that but that's what they make it sound like).  I've always thought this was rather odd.  I know dry food has bacteria on it, but it does take a bit of time for it to divide to that extent. 

vacuum sealing - there you go!

I'm picturing everyones fridges full of pet food.  My entire freezer is full of cooked meat & frozen veggies & raw food - all for the dogs.  I have one little tiny space to wedge in my pint of ice cream & there is also one frozen boca burger patty balanced on top of the ice cream container.  That's it.  The bottom shelf of my fridge is full of pet food, and the 2 wire shelves that still fit in there are on the highest 2 slots so my food is jammed in on those shelves.  Hey, I still have the door all to myself (except for the salmon oil capusules for the dogs)!