| Paw Colors | Points |
|---|---|
| Grey | 0-49 |
| Red | 50-149 |
| Orange | 150-299 |
| Green | 300-599 |
| Magenta | 600-1499 |
| Purple | 1500-4999 |
| Blue | 5000-9999 |
| Brown | 10000-24999 |
| Black | 25000+ |
What is a healthy kind of cat food for cats?
We’re currently using Purina Cat Chow right now. Is it pretty healthy for our cats? One is 4 years old, the other 13 (not in cat years!) Please give out some suggestions, everyone!
Keywords: healthy cat food
Answers to this question
11 Answers
7
Inferior or unidentified meat sources include meat and bone meal, beef and bone meal, and byproduct meal. Avoid these ingredients if possible. Again it’s the MEAT not being identified. Chicken meal, chicken by products and chicken are okay as they are the complete chicken.
Comments to Answer
5
5
Some of the so called “best” foods can cause problems as well. My friend had 3 cats on Wellness. One began to lose weight and started hiding all the time. The vet could find nothing wrong with her. She switched immediately and the poor kitty was starved! She’s back to normal again.
My mom tried Blue Buffalo and her cats hated it! She threw the bag away.
Listen to your cats. Don’t do tough love and make them eat something because supposedly it’s the best food out there. There are foods that aren’t as expensive as Wellness, Evo and Blue Buffalo that are good foods.
I’ve followed the consumer affairs website about Nutro complaints. Many people wrote in how they “forced” their cats to eat it because it was supposedly a good food. Dogs died because owners added canned food to entice them to eat not knowing they were poisoning their pets.
Just for the record, as much as I don’t like Iams food, my neighbor has always fed that to her cats and they live to be in their early twenties.
Look for chicken to be the first ingredient. Make sure corn isn’t the second ingredient. The American Association of Feed Control Officers (AAFCO) dictates that ingredients are listed in descending order by volume. Therefore, the first 5 are the most important.
NO glutens….Corn meal gluten or wheat gluten…..
These ingredients are low grade, inefficient cereal protein. They are prone to mold and other toxins. Wheat is a common allergen, and some experts believe corn’s hypoglycemic index is suspect for development of feline diabetes.
Corn and rice have been listed as no, no ingredients but unless you have a cat who has allergies, corn and rice are not problems for your cat. Look for foods that have one or the other, not both, in case there is an issue so you can change to the other to see if that solves the problem. Unlikely a cat will ever have problems to both.
If you have a cat with constipation issues, make sure you use a high fiber diet. Around 7%.
There is so much controversy about by-products. It was a concern for us at one time but not since I have spoken to vets. As long as it is chicken by-product and not animal by product or meat by product. It should be identified as chicken. This is what an animal eats first when they kill for food. The stomach….
Some experts warn against feeding byproducts, while others claim that clean byproducts like liver and kidneys are high-quality protein sources.
According to the AAFCO, byproducts are “the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs, and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.”
Inferior or unidentified meat sources include meat and bone meal, beef and bone meal, and byproduct meal. Avoid these ingredients if possible.
Eukanuba is a brand name of cat and dog foods sold by the Iams company since 1972, owned by Procter & Gamble. Dry pet food products sold by Eukanuba are manufactured in-house, and are not subcontracted. During the massive recall a couple years ago, even the “best” foods were involved.
Comments to Answer
1
Great answer. You don't have to waste money trying to buy the "best" food, as long as you don't buy something REALLY bad, (meow mix, friskies, the goodlife recipe) then your cat will probably be ok. Remember, NO NUTRO!
0
In this link, I've learned that EUKANUBA DOG foods have been recalled. However, I haven't found any Eukanuba cat foods being recalled: http://hubpages.com/hub/Eukanuba_Dog_Food_Recall_Information
2
Check the dates johnisgood. Back in the huge recall, just about every canned food was affected. Eukanuba hard food was not but some of the canned food was. As was many, many companies. It was wide spread.
3
A friend send me some disturbing information on the web about Wellness. Listed below are some of the comments and a very disturbing video on you tube about fish bones. The comments were from January 2009.
“I had seen the bones one the wellness cat last spring and was told by them it was manufacturing and should be corrected. Maybe not. There are commentors on the wellness video that say the guy staged it but they can’t explain how the same bones I saw got in the food. Well one person commented he must have moistened the food put the bones in (was that is some secret part of the bag?) and the air dried the food. I just busted a gut reading that one.”
“This problem of fish bones, hair and other crap in dry pet food is becoming annoyingly common now! Orijen, Wellness, NB, Natura, etc etc - what the heck is going on here? It seems to be happening across the board, whether a company has it’s own mfr plant or not. Who is the common supplier here? Guess we will never find out.”
“Wow! I watched this video and was amazed. Has anyone else that used this food seen these bones? He even cut open a bag that hadnt been opened and the bones were easily found in just a handful of food.”
“I will open the bags at my store tomorrow and let you know what I find.
BEWARE OF THE WELLNESS CAT FOOD CANS CONTAINING SALMON.
I have found large bone shards in all flavors containing salmon. Wellness has been notified.
I am still waiting for a response from Wellness. It is taking too long, IMO.”
Comments to Answer
3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB6K2BBd518&eurl=http://bulletins.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bulletin.read&authorID=94509038&messageID=6287502402&MyTokeniurl=http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/HB6K2BBd518/hqdefault.jpg&feature=player_embedded
3
a very interesting video about wellness dog food.....watch and make your own decisions........ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow9TeEvaNfQ&feature=related
1
I was feeding wellness until I saw this tonight. I dumped the food out and checked it and guess what i found! Lots of splinters of bones. I had noticed my cat was gagging slightly every now and then. No more for me! This scared the dickens out of me. I went searching on the net and found a website talking about these foods that use fish and are supposed to be grinding it up into a powder. It's scary that we have to be so diligent all the time about our food for our cats and dogs. Will we ever feel safe again? My aunt has used Eukanuba for her cats for years and she gave me some tonight for mine. They gobbled it up! I'm contacting wellness but I have my doubts as to what will happen over this.
1
I would take that video with a HUGE grain of salt. Wellness was given an offer to BUY that video from the man who made it before he posted it. Wellness declined, so he posted it up on youtube. Also watch closely how he puts the scoop in the bag and lifts it back out, he does it very carefully like there is something already in there that he is trying not to spill out, it all looks very staged. I'd guess this guy has some axe to grind with Wellness and made this to discredit them. I've bought about 3 bags of wellness CORE for my cat and have never seen anything remotely like this in the food since I started feeding it to her. But as with everything, use your own judgement.
4
I thought that too until I looked at the second video. Granted, there weren't as many pieces of bone in there but it only takes one.
2
Just be careful with Wellness. It took nearly a year for people to believe something was wrong with Nutro. Nutro used to be a good food. Watch carefully whatever food you feed your pets. But sadly, where there is smoke, there usually is fire!
0
2
Purina Cat Chow isn’t the most horrible cat food on the market (that dishonor goes to brands like Whiskas and Special Kitty), but it’s nothing I would ever feed my own cat unless there was absolutely nothing to feed her.
Basically what you want in a cat food is a quality animal protein-based food without grain fillers, a lot of meat by-products and any kind of artificial flavor, color or preservatives.
You won’t find any foods like this on the shelf in the grocery store or wal-mart. You need to find a decent pet supply store, either in your town or on the internet, to get decent pet foods (dog or cat) because the pet food industry has become a dumping ground over the past couple decades for over-produced, gov’t subsidized grain like corn and rice (same reason corn syrup is in EVERYTHING), and so-called “4-D” meat (meat from animals that are dead, dying, diseased or down (disabled) at slaughter and considered unfit for human consumption by the FDA) that goes into meat by-products and meat digests that are put in pet foods.
Most people don’t know what these ingredients really are nor do they realize that the high grain content in pet food is bad for dogs and worse for cats (both types of animals are carnivores, and cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they can ONLY eat meat, whereas dogs can eat SOME plant material). AAFCO standards are not that rigorous and they don’t specify whether the protein content in pet foods has to be complete protein, or protein from plant or animal sources (protein from plant sources rarely has a complete amino acid content and is never as digestible as animal protein for cats and dogs which are designed by nature to eat complete animal proteins).
There are some brands being put on the specialty pet food market these days that are designed to meet the animals’ actual nutritional needs rather than just turn a quick profit selling garbage to unknowing and uneducated pet owners, and you are welcome to try a few to see if your cats will eat them (keep in mind that the grain-filled stuff is often more palatable to cats due to being sprayed on the surface with strong-smelling/tasting meat digests, making this stuff basically “kitty crack” and you may have to be persistent to get your cats to eat them, always transition slowly when changing to a new food to avoid stomach upsets by mixing the new with the old in increasing amounts over several days). I know of a few but there may be more out there so just read the ingredient labels and see if you can find foods out there that do not contain corn, wheat, soy, by-product and digest ingredients, and artificial additives. Most of these brands make both canned and dry varieties:
My list:
-Wellness (especially Wellness CORE which is fully grain-free, the others have some rice but are still quality foods)
-EVO
-Orijen
-Blue Buffalo WILDERNESS (contains *some* grain, but far less than most brands)
-Nature’s Variety Instincts
Catinfo.org has a list of commercial canned foods that are high quality. This website espouses a canned-only diet without any dry cat food, which I do not adhere to but you can read it and judge for yourself what you want and can financially afford to feed your cats.
If you live in the absolute middle of nowhere, are on a limited budget and can’t order on-line, you might at least want to step up to something like Iams or Purina ONE which are not necessarily good but are still better than Purina Cat Chow. Cheap cat food is kind of a false economy because the cats eat a lot more, digest less of it, more ends up in the litter box and over time (especially geriatric cats like your 13 year old) can develop health problems like obesity, diabetes, urinary tract problems and other expensive-to-treat ills.
I personally feed my cat a mix of Wellness CORE dry food and several brands of canned cat food including authority, EVO, wellness canned, and a few other brands. I tend to stock up on decent brands when I have coupons or see them on sale and changing out the canned foods regularly is a good way to keep a cat from becoming a finicky one-food-only eater.
Source Link: Catinfo\’s list of quality commercial canned foods
Comments to Answer
3
Also I'd like to caution you against some so-called "premium" brands like Royal Canin and Nutro and such that charge high prices for food that is no better than Iams, etc. You cannot judge the quality of a food just based on price alone, there are many expensive pet foods out there that are basically the same as the regular ones. The good foods do cost more than Purina but you have to look at the ingredient lists to judge the quality of the food.
0
True telegramsam. It's not as bad as friskies, etc., but i wouldn't want me cats feeding on it for there entire lives. What food do you feed your cats?
6
You want a named protein. Not ANIMAL as it can be anything. Animal digest is an extremely poor source of protein; cat foods with "animal digest" or "animal protein" on the label should be avoided.
2
Yep, don't buy Royal Canin and Nutro. I read cat magazines, and I used to get tricked by the RC and the Nutro advertisements. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AS ME!
2
I searched long and hard after the Nutro disaster with our cats and dogs to find what I should feed them. Please, do not feed Nutro to your cats or dogs. It has killed hundreds and made countless others sick. There is an attorney’s firm looking into the reports against Nutro and hopefully something will be done now.
I researched ingredients .…what they were and what could be harmful and I spoke to my vet. Because we have 30 cats, I needed something that would be advantageous to ALL of them. We have several cats with medical issues. One has colitis, three were having constipation issues. Many had dry, flaky skin, and several were obese. We had several males that had chronic cystitis. And some of our long haired cats were having problems passing hairballs and others were getting mats. We also had many cats that were going to need dental cleanings because of the tartar on their teeth and some had inflamed gums.
These websites helped seal my decision.
http://www.bestfriendsvet.com/pdffiles/FoodsWeRecc2008.pdf
Best Friends Veterinarian Center - Their opinion and recommendation about cat food.
http://dogandcatfacts.com/catarticles/article7.html
Greg Podsakoff’s cat food recommendation.
http://www.iluvcats.com/whatshoulife.html
Dr. M.C. Lane-What this vet recommends and why.
http://www.catchannel.com/Magazines/CatFancy/may-2008/guide-to-common-cat-food-ingredients.aspx
By Ramona D. Marek, M.S. Ed. gives a guide to common food ingredients.
Since making the switch to the food we chose:
Our obese cats are normal weight now and the thin cats have come up to a normal weight.
The cat with colitis no longer has to take massive doses of meds to control his diarrhea.
The cats with constipation issues no longer take all the meds they were taking.
All of the cats have soft, silky fur and hardly ever get mats.
Cat box odor has diminished. Cat poo is not sweet smelling by any means but with this food the odor is not as offensive.
We hardly ever see hairballs around the house anymore. It used to be a daily find.
AND the cats that needed dental cleanings went in for a check up and they no longer had inflamed gums or tartar on their teeth.
I went to Cornell University of Veterinarian Medicine to see what they said about Homemade diets.…”Formulating your own cat food is a difficult and time-consuming process. Also, the nutrients in the formula may not be available in the right quantities and proportions to be beneficial to your cat. It is usually recommended that cat owners use a commercial nutritionally balanced product, unless a veterinarian recommends a home formulated recipe for medical purposes.”
MORE quotes from Cornell UVM about canned food…” Gourmet canned cat foods generally feature meats, such as kidney or liver, and whole meat byproducts as primary food ingredients. Some brands, however, may be nutritionally incomplete, and it is important to read the nutrition labels carefully on such specialty cat-food items to ensure that they have a nutritional guarantee.”
Final quote from Cornell UVM about dry food. “Once you have determined that a food is complete and balanced, choosing between the types of food may be a matter of what your cat prefers. Some cats like canned food, some like dry food, and some like a combination of the two. Today’s market offers many well-formulated foods for cats at all life stages, so you can choose the ones that work best for your cat.”
I was advised the following:
Make sure it is AAFCO approved as a complete and balanced diet.
Look for chicken as the first ingredient….the first 5 ingredients listed on the bag make up the bulk of the food and are the most important. Chicken by-products are ok as long as they are not the first ingredient.
Chicken by-products ….You can find pros and cons all over the internet about chicken by-products. In the wild, carnivores will consume the stomach of a kill first which is what by-products are.
Corn and rice have been listed as no, no ingredients but unless you have a cat who has allergies, corn and rice are not problems for your cat. Look for foods that have one or the other, not both, in case there is an issue so you can change to the other to see if that solves the problem. Unlikely a cat will ever have problems to both.
Dried beet pulp (must have sugar removed) is an excellent source of fiber. Fiber is very important to the health of animals as it is to humans.
AVOID food made in China.
AVOID glutens of any kind. Wheat gluten is what killed thousands of animals in that major recall a few years ago. Wheat gluten is highly allergenic for cats.
AVOID BHA, and BHT as they are both known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction. These are used as preservatives in many of the so-called best natural diets.
AVOID Ethoxyquin, a known carcinogen.
AVOID food with vegetables or fruits of any kind. Some of the most expensive of the “wet” cat foods available today contain hideous amounts of completely unnecessary plant-derived ingredients like corn gluten, rice, rice flour, wheat, wheat gluten, soy protein, potato, sweet potato, carrots, apples, cranberries, blueberries and similar. These ingredients might be part of a well-balanced human diet, but they have no place in the diet of even a healthy cat, much less a cat already debilitated by the ill effects of a high-carbohydrate diet.
AVOID Avocado oil-(which is what Avoderm is) It is oil pressed from the fruit of avocados. The fruit, leaves, bark and seeds of avocados have been reported as being toxic to cats. The toxic component in avocado is “Persin” which is a fatty acid preservative. Oat bran, rice flour, avocado oil and guar gum are all bad cat food ingredients.
I didn’t choose Wellness Core, Blue Buffalo and several others (though they are great foods) Either the fiber content or the protein content were too low. I wanted a fiber content of 7%, Protein close to 30& and fat content of 20%.
Proteins are necessary for all aspects of growth and development and the immune system.
High fiber…
Helps improve colon health and helps with diarrhea and constipation
.
Hairball control formulas are rich in natural fiber that work with a cat’s digestive system to help control hairball formation.
Some fiber is fermented into fatty acids by the “good” bacteria in the intestine. These fatty acids will aid in preventing the overgrowth of harmful bacteria.
Fiber also help the colon cells to recover from injury and possibly help reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Fiber in cat food also helps in the dietary management of obesity.
The bulk of the fiber helps your cat to feel full without adding calories and thus lose weight.
That said…I switched to Eukanuba Indoor Hairball Relief. I know it’s been said on here that canned is better and dry food is a no, no. I use canned as a treat but will not feed canned as a complete diet. I have seen cats teeth go downhill on a steady diet of canned. I also have many cats that get diarrhea from canned, no matter what I try. I asked my vet what he fed his cats and dogs.…he said he has used Eukanuba for years. He’s been in the medical field for over 20 years. I have spoken to other vets as well who supported Eukanuba.
Eukanuba Indoor Hairball Relief….
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Chicken Liver, Corn Grits, Chicken By-Products,
Fish Meal, Corn Meal, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed)
Carbohydrate 22%
Crude Protein not less than 34%
Crude Fat not less than 21%
Crude Fiber not more than 7%
Friskies…Ground yellow corn,, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal.
Special Kitty….Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Wheat, Animal Digest…
Purina Cat Chow….Poultry by-product meal, ground yellow corn, wheat flour, corn gluten meal.
Iams….Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat .
Ideally, the best brands of food are Wellness and Pet Guard. No question, the worst is 9 Lives, with Purina, Whiskas, Friskies and Fancy Feast close behind. One of the easiest ways to tell if the food is worth looking at is whether you can buy it in the local grocery store; if you can, (with the exception of Iams) you don’t want to buy it at all. I know that sounds ridiculous, but generally grocery stores will only carry the lower quality pet foods.
It’s best to buy a high quality food. Your cat will eat less, use the litter box less, and the litter box will smell less unpleasant. Granted, pet stores will probably also have some of those same grocery store brands on their shelves, but you will be able to discern which brands you CAN’T buy at the supermarket and start comparing from there. Pet store brands are significantly more nutritious. Iams is on the high end of supermarket pet food. However, keep in mind that as you read the labels, you will find that even some of the better brands occasionally will produce a type of food that contains things you don’t want. Therefore, always read those labels. Note: If your cat will only eat Fancy Feast try switching to Nutro gourmet. It is basically a high quality Fancy Feast, same size can and comes in many flavors.
With regard to dry foods specifically, one basic rule to remember is that if the food comes in multiple colors (i.e. Deli Cat), you don’t want it. All that food dye is completely unnecessary, does nothing to make the food more appealing to Kitty, and means Kitty is ingesting excess chemicals she doesn’t need or want. Also, don’t be fooled by dry foods claiming to be lower in ash content and thus aid in the reduction of urinary tract problems. Ash content and urinary tract problems are completely unrelated; it’s the amount of magnesium in the food that affects the urinary tract. Ash is just the amount of dust left over when you burn the food. Instead of checking the ash content, check the magnesium content and go for the lower amount if you are concerned about your cat’s urinary tract health.
1
Okay everyone, It was going to take me a long time to type this answere out, and i chose this to copy from catsofmany because these were some of the best anseres that I got to my post. Catsofmany, you had so much info, I wouldn’t be suprised if you did the same thing for some of the answere in that question I asked. You had about two or three others that were helpfull, but I didn’t want people saying i’m lazy for copying your answere. Here below is just a great post answere that I recieved:
The first ingredient listed is the main ingredient in the food. Protein should be at least 26 to 30 % for cats. Fat should be 15 to 20%. The food should be nutritionally complete and balanced. There should be chicken and it should be listed as the first ingredient.
Chicken is the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken- exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, and entrails.
Chicken-by products are okay as long as they are not the first ingredient.
Beet pulp…(sugar removed) Although there is some controversy about its use (primarily in horse fodder), many high quality pet food manufacturers use beet pulp in their formulas because of its superior qualities as an aid to colon health in cats and dogs.
What to watch out for:
Brown Rice…Owners of cats with food allergies should probably avoid cat foods containing rice in any form.
Meat By-Products…. parts of slaughtered animals, not including meat (please note: no muscle meat included). Included are lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue, and stomach and intestines freed of their contents.
What AAFCO doesn’t mention is that meat byproducts may also legally contain: “4D animals (dead, dying, diseased, down), road kill, euthanized cats and dogs, including their collars. These source products are rendered, the fat is siphoned off to be used as “animal fat,” and the remaining material is extruded to form “meat by-product meal.”
Corn has no nutritional value for cats, it’s only there because it’s a cheap filler. Corn is a popular filler in “grocery store” pet foods, as it is a cheap filler, as well as a cheap source of protein. It is also one of those products that often cause allergies in cats. If I had to choose a product containing corn, I’d probably go for corn meal, which also includes the germ.
Ground corn is used in some cat foods as a filler, and because it is a much cheaper source of protein than muscle meat.
Chicken by-product meal is considered an inferior source of protein for cats. Although cats may eat a certain amount of by-products “in the wild,” the most nutritious commercial cat foods will show a named meat, such as “chicken” as the first ingredient, rather than “chicken by-product meal.”
Poultry by-product meal is an inferior source of protein in cat foods. Consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
Animal digest is one step below this and can contain feces. Animal digest is an extremely poor source of protein; cat foods with “animal digest” on the label should be avoided at all costs.
The reason your cats like it is that these cheap foods are sprayed with fats as a flavor enhancer. It’s like “kitty crack”.
Friskies…Ground yellow corn,, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal.
Special Kitty….Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Wheat, Animal Digest…
Purina Cat Chow….Poultry by-product meal, ground yellow corn, wheat flour, corn gluten meal.
Iams….Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat .
Wheat Gluten’, ‘Corn Gluten’, or ‘Rice Gluten’. These three ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic to pets – these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens – imported from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats. Not only is it important to avoid dog foods and cat foods (and dog and cat treats) that contain glutens because of the possibility of dangerous added chemicals, it is important because they add no real quality nutrition to the food. Glutens are used as a thickener AND as a source of protein in pet food. Adult maintenance dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein, glutens are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food. The best nutrition for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food not from a gluten protein. Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain ‘corn gluten’, ‘wheat gluten’, or ‘soy gluten’. ‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the entire ingredient list to find them. It is worth the look because there is plenty of clinical evidence to associate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is allowed in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat treat that contains ‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’ on the label. http://www.bigcatrescue.org/pets/TipstoAvoidPetFoodRecall.htm
Thanks for the great answere catsofmany!
0
My kitty was pretty skinny when we got her. So we started feeding her Friskies, because it was cheap, I guess. I don’t know why, but it made her fat. We went to the vet when she got upper-respiratory problems, they weighed her, and she was 11.8 pounds! So they told us to switch to Science Diet. It’s been a few months, and I want to get her weighed again. She seems lighter. So whatever you do, DON’T GET FRISKIES!!! The vet told us not to get anything that said veggies or something on it. Cats are carnivorous, so get your kitty something chicken-y!
Comments to Answer
0
Your totally right! Friskies is probably one of the five worst cat foods out there. The best we've found so far is Innova. Science diet isn't always all what it's bragged up to be. Catrus has some pretty good points, also, so listen to that.
1
Science diet isn't any better than Iams, it just costs quite a lot more. The brand's mostly marketing rather than quality, and unfortunately they pay vets off to sell and promote the stuff so it has an image of being a premium food when it's really just regular food at a premium price.
0
I used to wonder the same thing until I posted the question “Is my cat food healthy?” and I didn’t recieve the answere I thought. I’ll copy and paste a few of the things that was on my post, but here’s what I think personally:
Purina Cat chow is NOT a good food! All of those TV adds about it are lying, along with IAMS too.
Friskies: NOT a healthy food at all in any way either.
Whiskas: Nasty
Dad’s: Nasty
Best: gross
Here are about the only foods I would suggest:
Wellness– Great healthy healthy food! Just about everything in it is gooood for your cat or dog!
Innova– Wonderful! It’s a little pricey but it’s great!
California Natural: Another great food made by the same company as Innova
Those–so far– are the best I’ve seen. Even better then Science diet, which I thought was a great food, but isn’t! Now, to better decide which food is better for your cat, i would suggest looking at the first five ingredients. And here’s what NOT to look for in your cat food:(new post below)
0
Whoa, thanks for all the answers! I’ll ask my mom to see if she buy a small bag of Wellness because most of the comments are on Wellness. Does Wellness taste good, too? I sure hope so! And also, is Wellness a dry cat food?
Comments to Answer
2
Wellness makes canned and dry foods, and both are high quality. Some cats like it and others hate it. As catsofmany stated, don't force your cat to eat a food it doesn't like. Cats should NEVER go more than 24 hours without food or they can get a serious liver condition. But try a small bag of a brand you think is good, it doesn't necessarily have to be Wellness. The trick is to learn to read labels and judge whether or not you think a food is appropriate for your cat. You can discuss it with the vet next time you take your cat in if you are worried about what you are feeding.
1
Go to the Wellness website & sign up for their mailing list. They send a $3-off coupon just about every month.
-3
I personally think Wellness Dry food is best. My dog didn't take to it, but I noticed our cats eating her food! So mine like Wellness...or at least the dog food! Innova I've heard even better about. Try that. Eukanuba is no better then Iams or science diet if you ask me. Do your research and make your own decision.
0
You obviously haven't read the ingredients in Eukanuba's food. I used to think Wellness was a good food until recently. I also have a friend who's cat stopped eating. They did all kinds of tests and didnt find anything wrong. The vet suggested changing foods. She did - cat ate like it was starved. And cats like dog food. Which isn't good for them by the way.
-1
Good Choice! If it doesn't work out, I'd try Innova!! It's probably the best out there. I use it to bait my cats with treats. As soon as they hear the bad open, there running wildly into there eating area! lol
-3
Okay, My CatElvis, read the very first post by CatsOfMany, very last paragraph. Iams and Eukanuba are made by the same company, so I don't think that Eukenuba is THAT much better then Iams. Just saying, I "obviously" do know some of what I'm talking about!
1
Read the ingredients kekekitten. Iams and Eukanuba are from the same company BUT Iams is the cheaper product. They are NOT the same ingredients.
-2
Wellness can be either.
-3
I would recomend The Good Life, because they make it with lots of fruit or I should say vegtables. If you prefer the cheap kind, and if you have a female cat…….. WHATCH OUT, your cat could get a blater infection. Mabe males too. Bot most common are females. So you decide if you want your cat to get a blater infection or if you want your cat nice and healthy?
Source Link: WHATCH OUT!
Comments to Answer
3
If you look at the ingredients, this is a terrible food. The first ingredient should be chicken and it’s corn. It also has both corn gluten meal and wheat gluten…. Ground corn, chicken by-product meal corn gluten meal, animal fat, chicken, whole grain brown rice, natural poultry flavor, dried peas, dried beet pulp, wheat flour, rice, brewers dried yeast, salt, potassium chloride, wheat gluten.
-4
Oh, I've read the ingredients, MyCatElvis! Why else would I say it's not THAT great? It's probably better then most, but I would say not better then Wellness, Innova, or California Natural. I know that dog food isn't good for them, obviously, but sometimes I'll find her left overs in the dish. I would never feed them dog food on purpose!
3
California Natural Cat food has rice as the 3rd ingredient. So doesn’t Wellness. They’re also low in fiber. Innova has 1.89 fiber up to 3%. Carbs are also high in Innova at 28.88%. California Natural Cat FoodChicken, Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Chicken Fat with 3.5% fiber. Corn generally results in lower glycemic and insulin response than rice. This can be especially beneficial for senior and overweight pets. Filler's such as corn and rice shouldn't be the first, second or third ingredient. Eukanuba-Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Chicken Liver…then corn grits followed by Chicken By-Products, Fish Meal. Carbs are 22%....
3
Brewer's rice is an inexpensive form of carbohydrate, and does not contain the full nutritional benefits of whole grain brown rice. Since cats are obligate carnivores, they do not require a large amount of grain in their diets, so this ingredient should be listed way down on any cat food label. Caution also should be used for cats with food allergies as rice is a known allergen.
-2
By the way, when you say "Iams is cheeper" i thought it didn't matter on the price....
3
Cheaper meaning...lower grade of ingredients. Corn being the 3rd ingredient.
-3
Well, I still think that Wellness is better then Eukanuba. Wellness has no by-products which i think are nasty. I’m just saying that I would rather feed my pets Innova, California Natural, or Wellness over Eukanuba. I know it’s better then Iams, but I don’t think it’s THAT much better. That’s my opinion though, so I could be wrong. I’m sorry for acting like that to you MyCatElvis. My opinion is I like Wellness better.
Comments to Answer
3
And you certainly are entitled to your opinion. And it is just your opinion. I'm not going to argue with a 12 year old.
Add Your Answer
You must be logged in to post an answer.
