Breeder recommended Royal Canin kitten food which is hard to find in stores around here. I can order it online but am just trying to look into options. I was recommended Taste of Wild. The protein % is pretty high & it is gain free. I can also buy it in a larger bag easier which makes it a bit cheaper overall. Is this an ok brand for bengals? The bag I have is taste of the wild roasted venison and smoked salmon.
The guy at the store said this would be his top pick. He said a few others do a lot more marketing which drives up the cost.


Ingredients

Chicken meal, peas, sweet potatoes, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potato protein, roasted venison, smoked salmon, natural flavor, ocean fish meal, methionine, taurine, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevesiae fermentation solubles, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin (vitamin B2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.
Analysis:

Crude Protein Minimum 42.00%
Crude Fat Minimum 18.00%
Crude Fiber Maximum 3.00%
Moisture Maximum 10.00%
Taurine Minimum 0.15%
Omega-6 Fatty Acids * Minimum 2.80%
Omega-3 Fatty Acids * Minimum 0.30%

I've never really been sold on Taste Of The Wild to be honest. If you look at the ingredients list, they seem to be achieving that high protein number by using cheaper rendered meat (the chicken meal) plus whatever other protein they are able to achieve from the next 4 ingredients, which are fat and vegetables.

Compare that to something like Blue Wilderness, or Orijen, or even Go, and I think you'll see the difference.

Just remember that whatever food YOU decide on, your cat gets a vote too! So at time you may need to make a compromise between what he loves and what you think is better nutritionally. It never pays to feed something to your cat that he hates. So buy some quantities at first, with the knowledge that what you select may need to be given to a shelter or thrown out if found unacceptable to him.

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The little monsters 3

I'm still trying to find grain-free wet food that Raiden will enjoy and eat. He picks at it but will never finish the can -- even the small ones. He was fed the cheapest dry food by the previous owner who had him for 6 years. I've got him on grain-free dry food, but the wet food - not so much. Problem is, the good stuff is very expensive per can and I just toss most of it out. I'm still incorporating the grain-free wet in his diet, but he's not eating much of it. Raiden is not into seafood, so I'm limited to turkey, chicken and beef.

This is the same grain free food I use. If I could spend more money for better (like Orijen), I would. However, with 5 cats, it's really not in our budget to do so. But my guys are not just on a dry food diet, we also get EVO wet food. They get more wet wood than dry (dry a night is about 1/3 cup per cat). I do buy the 15lb bags on chewy.com and it usually lasts me a few months.


If you compare TOTW to Royal Canin, I would go for the TOTW. Royal Canin isn't grain free, I believe they use corn in their foods.

I wouldn't obsess over the "grain-free-ness" of a food. That's actually sort of a marketing gimmick. Because if a dry food is grain-free, that just means they are using something else to "hold it together" and create "bulk", so you're feeding your cat vegetables or fruits (often something like potatoes) instead of grain, which isn't thought to be any better. I think the big deal really is how much meat is in it, and what is the quality of the meat (i.e., by-products, or "meat meal" or a higher grade of meat).

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The little monsters 3

We recently made a food switch because we suspected Luna was having an allergic reaction (wet poo, dirty/itchy ears, blackheads). She was on Blue Wilderness Kitten Chicken dry (which contained egg) and Blue Wilderness wet (Turkey, chicken or duck). We switched to The Basics line from Blue Buffalo which is limited ingredients. We have her on the Duck and Potato for both wet and dry and her stools have formed right up, ears have less debris but still has blackheads. In any case, she seems to love her new food and its a couple dollars less than the Blue Wilderness! Happy cat, happy parents!