The tale of two different cat foods

[Finklejag]

This first one is veterinarian approved and usually hawked at the vet for purchase.

This second one is the one I chose after weeks of research when I brought home my new kitten.

My research said stay away from grains and fillers. It’s pretty scary that the Vet approved one has paper as the fourth ingredient. They like to tout that their first ingredient is chicken, but everything after that is garbage. The funny thing is, both of these are close in price.

 

[Soft Cars]

THIS is what I feed my cat. Nothing else.

This is my cat's grill. Exact model.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

Fear not. When the cat gets a little older it will instruct you what to buy. Don't be surprised if you pour a dish of expensive nutritious food and get that look of "What? You expect me to eat this? My rear end tastes better."

My cat prefers/demands Meow Mix which is the catfood equivalent of Group II oil, but I have been well trained.

 

[Kira]

OP: That first one is criminal.
Every three days a customer at our deli bought the best turkey breast we had....for her cat. Why not?
Daisy eats Fancy Feast and a measure of kibble, 4T. of warm water. This morning she, and the dog, got bits of salmon skin atop.
I crisp my salmon's skin. The beasts get the less done skin.

 

[SC Maintenance]

THIS is what I feed my cat. Nothing else.

This is my cat's grill. Exact model.
View attachment 170659

Were exactly the same. With our dogs and our little cat when we had him. If you do the math, its cheaper to buy decent chicken or even beef and cook it than the gourmet canned pet food - if you assume your time value is zero. We cook for our pets when we cook for ourselves. We will do the beef raw, or sometimes just a little sear.

 

[Astro14]

My wife buys complete tenderloins. Butchers them into really wonderful filet mignons. There are odd bits of tenderloin left over.

So that’s what our dogs get, among other things, tenderloin. They also get chickens that my wife cuts up for them. Turkey breast. Ground beef. Pot roast (yep, we buy pot roasts at Costco just for the dogs).

I applaud your research and your desire to feed your new cat well.

 

[alarmguy]

This first one is veterinarian approved and usually hawked at the vet for purchase.

View attachment 170656
This second one is the one I chose after weeks of research when I brought home my new kitten.

View attachment 170657
My research said stay away from grains and fillers. It’s pretty scary that the Vet approved one has paper as the fourth ingredient. They like to tout that their first ingredient is chicken, but everything after that is garbage. The funny thing is, both of these are close in price.

You did good for your cat. I am been studying dog food for 14 years. Same principle applies.
Never corn and never unnamed meat.

The only thing you do not mention is if this is dry food or wet. If it's dry food the first 3 or 4 ingredients would be way down the list on percentage of those items are present in the food . If it's wet food the list is the order that is in the can.

One other thing though not sure if its possible with cats, you should apply that same method that you chose to a number of different companies food instead of feeding only one brand. By mixing up what the cat (or dog eats) if one manufacturer is lacking an important nutrient OR has a dangerous ingredient it will be mitigated by a mix of different companies products.

I know cats can be finicky so this may not work with a cat but with our dog, besides a mix of 4 (sometimes more) different brand canned foods at night we top the food with fresh human food, such as chunks of Costco rotisserie chicken, left over meat from dinner (no spices) and have a back up supply of canned mackerel, alaskan salmon ect if we run out of fresh stuff to top off the canned food.

In the morning he just gets a small amount of canned food followed up by pouring fat free lactose free milk. DOGS love milk (lactose free is important as most dogs lactose intolerant) From what I understand milk is not considered good for cats.

 

[Finklejag]

I feed him dry kibble. This is the first food I posted. Royal Canin is just as bad.

 

[mrsilv04]

I had a collie/shepherd mix that would only eat the soft and moist food (in the clear cellophane packets)... and only the ones with the yellow 'cheese' flavor mixed in as well. Of course, there was also plenty of treats and appropriate table scraps.

When the vet found out what I was feeding her, I was immediately lectured as to how bad of a diet that was, and she started pushing all sorts of vitamins and supplements (which the dog refused to have anything to do with). Of course, the dog lived a long and full life.

 

[walterjay]

This first one is veterinarian approved and usually hawked at the vet for purchase.

View attachment 170656
This second one is the one I chose after weeks of research when I brought home my new kitten.

View attachment 170657
My research said stay away from grains and fillers. It’s pretty scary that the Vet approved one has paper as the fourth ingredient. They like to tout that their first ingredient is chicken, but everything after that is garbage. The funny thing is, both of these are close in price.

What brand is the good food?

 

[loneryder]

You don't want any soybean or corn product. These pet animals get nothing from them and they are hard to digest. If that first food was Royal Canin, I'm surprised and it was a quality food when it hit the market. Purina and Science diet were good foods at one time but corporate takeover caused them to be run by accountants. They started putting soy and corn products in them to save money.
I'm not sure about cats but you should not feed your dog grain free products. It's a marketing fad and any vet who keeps up with medicine will tell you not to feed it.

 

[ripcord]

Fear not. When the cat gets a little older it will instruct you what to buy. Don't be surprised if you pour a dish of expensive nutritious food and get that look of "What? You expect me to eat this? My rear end tastes better."

My cat prefers/demands Meow Mix which is the catfood equivalent of Group II oil, but I have been well trained.

Our previous cat was like this. He was a huge 17 pound bundle of lean rodent killing terror but he had a definite preference for cheap dry cat food. He didn't like the Science Diet or other fancy brands at all. Whenever I tried to give him canned tuna he would turn up his nose at it. He lived to 16 years so it must not have been too bad for him.

 

[SC Maintenance]

We have a very good vet, small town vet. There rates are ridiculously low. They sell this type of specialty food and I asked him if it was better. He said it is not better, but its far more consistent - especially the fillers which can change batch to batch for some of the store brand stuff. He said if your pet has no allergies or special diet needs it doesn't really matter, but if they do it might. I think I am repeating what he told me correctly, but it sounded to me you were paying for consistency due to a particular need, not "better'.

Of course I am sure all vets are not as forthcoming.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Ever since Blue Buffalo started the whole "first ingredient is real meat" thing about 15 years ago it seems the cheaper foods (some of which aren't cheap) just changed the recipe enough to get meat as the first ingredient but the rest of it is garbage. Or, they just started listing the ingredients based on wet weight rather than dry weight.

It's very easy to spot good foods. I especially like when they go the extra mile and instead of adding a bunch of chemicals to get certain elements in the food, instead they use things like blueberries, cranberries, dandelion, chicory root etc etc.

My go-to for dry food for about a decade has been Acana. I still cannot find better food for the dollar, and I do go through and search for different options about every 12 months or so.

 

[alarmguy]

ok, so in this case the major meat proteins listed on the dry dog food bag are actually way down on the list as far as how much of them is actually in the food.
The reason being, those meats are legally the "wet meat" full of moisture before the food is turned into kibble. So it is the dehydrated and freeze dried products higher on the list then they appear on the bag.

Still this looks like a very, very good respectable pet food for for sure. The reason I point out the labelling is for those that get cheaper food with unnamed sources maybe put "chicken, chicken liver" as an example first on the list but its the stuff down the list there is more of in the dry food, in the case of the OP that, they are all good products, even the dried stuff. Actually I am pretty impressed and that is a hard thing to do! Looks like something along the lines of a top of the line food like Acana .

 

[sohccammer427]

Our previous cat was like this. He was a huge 17 pound bundle of lean rodent killing terror but he had a definite preference for cheap dry cat food. He didn't like the Science Diet or other fancy brands at all. Whenever I tried to give him canned tuna he would turn up his nose at it. He lived to 16 years so it must not have been too bad for him.

Same with my predator cat. Purina Naturals for dry and Sheba wet. Once I decided to upgrade her to Blue Buff dry and she would not even look at it. My dog on the other hand will eat what ever I put in front of him.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Our two indoor-only cats eat a combination of Purina ONE Indoor Advantage dry and Fancy Feast chicken/turkey/beef pate.

Well, one eats tiny pieces of steak and chicken at times, along with some Boar's Head low sodium ham when they hear the wax paper crinkle.

The dry cat food may have some "cellulose" in it, I suspect it's very little. Didn't you eat some notebook paper and white glue when you were a kid? Yes? You're still here.

I'm no fan of MegaCorp and all the BS they pull on honest, hard-working people just trying to make life happen. Pet foods are obviously a huge area where scams happen, even vets selling garbage. Maybe we should get together and hire some of those green/purple/blue haired activists that seem to be so plentiful when any social justice needs arise? Do they work cheap? Maybe if we get 12-18 of them to march around some pet food manufacturing plant entrances and get some mainstream media to show up, things will improve?


I feel like we do the best we can for our pets. We provide them a safe, loving home, as much food as they want to consume, fresh water each morning, play toys, etc.

We put a pacemaker in the oldest (9yo) cat 5 weeks ago today. We had no idea we were doing that 4 days earlier when we took her to a University Teaching Animal Hospital for what we thought was neuro issues. Turns out it was pauses in heart rhythm. I doubt many have the means to do that, let alone time to search out what the best pet food is and when they take a chance on that $95, 8.8 lb bag of food, their pet snuffs their nose at it and walks away in disgust, wondering where their "real" food is.....they feel like a fool spending that kind of money on something their pet won't even go near...

 

[ATex7239]

I had a collie/shepherd mix that would only eat the soft and moist food (in the clear cellophane packets)... and only the ones with the yellow 'cheese' flavor mixed in as well. Of course, there was also plenty of treats and appropriate table scraps.

View attachment 170722

When the vet found out what I was feeding her, I was immediately lectured as to how bad of a diet that was, and she started pushing all sorts of vitamins and supplements (which the dog refused to have anything to do with). Of course, the dog lived a long and full life.

All my animals have had long, happy lives with whatever name brand, readily available, soft and dry food I have a chosen for them… with some table scraps thrown in occasionally of course.

I find calorie restriction to be the most deterministic fact (ie, don’t let them eat all day long at their leisure and get fat.) YMMV

 

[Aredeeem]

I’ve been pet free for the last 20 years. Enjoyed having them but I could never go back. Too much drama. I know, I’m missing out on so much. So be it.

 

[facility1]

feed my cats purina naturals dry food and sometimes diamond active cat or cat chow,,had one cat live to 24 plus others high teens,,,most important a bit of soft food and lots of water,no people food