I need help choosing a new cat food?

Question

I did not realize how disgusting the ingredients can be in pet food until I visited the vet yesterday. My cat's food is currently Fancy Feast. He loves it but I'm afraid it may not be very good for him. He needs a variety of flavors, otherwise he stops eating altogether. That's how I ended up with Fancy Feast in the first place, they have so many flavors.

I want to feed my cat the best quality food possible. Any suggestions? High cost is not a problem.

Answer 1

PLEASE, if you are serious about actually feeding a good quality food do not listen to the other postings. Fancy Feast is a low quality food but Iams, Science Diet, and Purina are all the same quality as Fancy Feast and they cost more. The problem is that all of these companies use disgusting ingredients but because people don't understand the ingredient list, they believe the claim that their good for them.

Here are the ingredients of Iams, Science Diet and Purina
Iams:
-CHICKEN
-CHICKEN BY PRODUCTS (the feet, feathers, beeks, undeveloped eggs, ograns of dead, disease, or dying animals)
-CORN GRITS (low grade filler with not nutritional value)
-CORN MEAL(more low grade filler with no nutrition)
-FISH MEAL (undetermined type of fish)
-DRIED BEET PULP (undigestible filler)
-DRIED EGG PRODUCT (egg shells or those unfit for humans)

Sience Diet (this is the vet prescribe diet)
-BREWERS RICE (rice fraction)
-CHICKEN BY PRODUCTS
-CORN GLUTEN MEAL
-PORK FAT (cats do not digest pork)
-CHICKEN LIVER (contains high levels of toxins)
-preserved with BHA/BHT (this is a CHEMICAL preservative proven to cause cancer)

Purina:
-CHICKEN
-BREWERS RICE
-CORN GLUTEN MEAL
-POULTRY BY PRODUCTS (they don't specify what type of meat)
-WHEAT FLOUR (no nutrition, common allergen)
-BEEF TALLOW (low grade fat for flavouring, no nutrition)
-CORN
-WHEAT GLUTEN (the startch from the wheat)
-FISH MEAL (unspecificed source)

So, I'm sure that you can see now that all three of these foods have pretty much NO nutritional value and have those disgusting things that you were talking about like chicken feet, corn, wheat, and on and on. Most surprising, and an area that I am really trying to educate people on, is that vets are still prescribing these low grade foods. Science Diet has cancer causing chemicals in them so WHY ARE VETS STILL PRESCRIBING THEM....the answer is money.

So, here is where you need to look for food that are actually good quality. I am a pet food nutritionist and I will only deal with Natura Pet Foods - Innova, California Natural and Karma because they are the healthiest foods in the world. Here are the ingredients in Innova:
-TURKEY
-CHICKEN MEAL
-CHICKEN
-POTATOES
-EGGS
-BARLEY
-CHICKEN FAT
-RICE
-HERRING
-SUNFLOWER OIL
-APPLES
-CARROTS

Notice the difference? Pet food companies are required to list ingredients in the form that they are put in the foods. Natura uses ONLY whole fresh, human grade foods. And because they are not like companies like Iams who spend a fortune on advertising, they foods actually cost the same price!!!

So, if you are serious about feeding "the best quality food possible" then you need to seriously realize that the big name, mass market companies all use low grade products in their foods to cut costs. Innova Cat Food is the absolute best for your cat. You can find a store near you the sells it by going to their website (www.naturapet.com). They have some excellent resources on the site as well. You can compare different brands of foods, find out what is meant by all those ingredients and read testimonies from other users.

If you cannot find Innova near you here are a few brands that are similar in quality: Wellness, Merrick, Eagle Pack Holistic, Fromm, and Felidae.

* Oh and Innova only has one flavour of food but I think you will find that it is such a good quality that you cat will love it!

Good luck and just use common sense. If you want a healthy cat, feed them something that sounds good enough for you to eat!!

Answer 2

Dont let him eat cat food even if he does seem to like it. Im sure he would love it if you let him eat people food too. Try feeding the cat and dog at the same time but in seperate areas of the house. After about 15-30 minutes take the food away to keep the dog from eating the cats. Eventually they will realize that when the food is down the need to eat so that way you wont have food sitting around for the dog to get at.

Answer 3

We use Science Diet with our kitty and she loves it...there's also a brand we've used previously that is sold exclusively through Petsmart (NutroMax). Or at least that's the only place I have seen it...the NutroMax does not contain any chicken by-products or corn. Though both can be pretty pricey (btwn $7.00-9.00 per 3 -4lbs bag) we feel that it's definitely worth it. You may also want to check out the Petsmart website...I believe they have a "Smart Nutrition Selector" that can help you in deciding what type of food would be best for your pet. Perhaps you can feed your cat Fancy Feast on special occasions! Hope this helps!

Answer 4

My cat was the same. Loved the fancy feast, needed variety. He got sick though and can't tolerate fancy feast anymore (gastro-inflammation problems). Now he's on Science diet sensitive stomach dry and Hill's prescription W/d dry and wet. He eats the W/d wet every day even though there are only two flavors. He's adapted and I suspect your kitty could too. But I understand wanting to make sure he doesn't go off his food.

Since your cat's not sick, you are in luck and just need to find a better quality food. Look into Nutro Max cat food. Supposedly it has less crap in it than the fancy feast type stuff.

Answer 5

The best quality cat food would be found at your veterinarian clinic. They can recommend which one would be best for your cat. This is true because i have worked at one and know the amount of research that is put into these foods from each of the different manufacturers. Some of the brands are purina, iams and royal canin and medical. You may not have heard of them because they spend all their money on research. The reason you have heard of fancy feast and whiskers and such is because those companies spend their money on advertising instead of the research. So its your call, Good Luck!!

Answer 6

DO NOT feed your cat Iams whatever you do! checkout this site to see why..... http://www.iamscruelty.com/

Some high quality foods I can recommend are Nutro Natural Choice you can check outhier food here..... http://www.nutroproducts.com/completecare.asp

Newmans own organic pet foods...
http://www.newmansownorganics.com/pet/products/ingredients.php

Natural Balance..... http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/catformulas/VenCat.html

Royal Canin.... http://www.royalcanin.com/produits/gb_chat_nourrir.asp

Solid Gold..... http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/products/showproduct.php?id=4&code=130

Nutrience.... http://www.nutrience.com/english-eu/cat/c-2073_supreme_3kg.html

Performatrin Ultra (this is only carried by Pet Valu and is made by them) and is my personal favorite and possibly the best quality food on this list at a reasonable price too.
http://www.performatrinultra.com/cat/cat.htm

The foods above are all much better brands compared to....Science diet, eukanuba, iams, techni-cal, and all the relatively crappy grocery store brands. However I must note that Purina One and Purina Pro Plan are not bad at all compared to stuff like fancy feast, cat chow, friskies, whiskas and all the other cheap corn based food.

you can check purina foods here.... http://www.proplan.com/cat_products/products_cat_dry_adult.aspx

http://www.purinaone.com/products_main_cat.asp

Answer 7

Cats are funny.. My cat today loves fancy feast with flaked chicken.. He loves it for a week or two and then he does not like it anymore and so I have to get him 9 lives with bacon and chicken.. He loves that for a week or so and then does not like it anymore. The best food(in a can, that is) is probably fancy feast or SHEEBA

Answer 8

there are three great food i know of:

pro plan(my own cat and foster cats eat that)
royal canin and science diet.

i highly recommend pro plan it is a high quality food. however take into consideration your cat weight, if he is somewhat over weight both royal canin and science diet have special medical diet food which is great. if his weight is fine pro plan has a great variety of tastes and it's a great good.

do not buy imas or eukanuba they do horrible unneeded experiment on animals.

Answer 9

my cat is old and has a very sensitive tummy I was feeding him Iams but now I make my own cat food I cook chicken and rice and put it in a blender or tuna in water with rice you can so beef and it has been good for him so far

Answer 10

IAMS cat food is the best. It's a little more expensive, but you're cat will love it. Pick it up at your local pet store.