What is a good brand for cat food? Is by-product really bad for cats?

Answer 1

by-products are bad for 2 reasons

firstly they are beaks feet feathers snouts etc.. mostly undigestable filler so you are makeing your kitty eat more food by having a food will fillers in it

secondly by-products are preserved with a chemical pesticide called ETHOXYQUIN - they dont mention this on the lable because it is considered part of the by-product, but this chemical is very risky and is banned in some countries like Japan...

what brand??? well that depends entirely on what country you are in....

NONE from grocery or Wal Mart are any good - all have too many fillers so your cat has to eat alot more
better foods cost more but you feed less (less poops too)

Canada - NUTRAM or ACANA (both use human grade meat)
USA - Wellness, Felidae, Innova, Nutro Natural Choice is ok too..


yikes I read some people think Science Diet is good food - YUCK it is NOT - it is over priced for its quality and is marketed by PAYING for vet endorsement (vets receive very little or no education on food ingredients or brands)

Answer 2

Brand name foods are not bad. Yes there were alot of foods recalled because of poisoned grain from China. China has been in the spot light for alot of tricks. One example is their non fur products many of which turn out to be dog and sometimes cat fur that was skinned from live animals-along with their lives, but generally the name is not what makes a brand better or worse for your cat. Usually it is the Big Brand names that gear to certain diets such as: kitten, geriatric, sensitive stomach, crystal prone etc. It is not usually good if the buyer buys the wrong type from the big brands. The fear in lesser big name brands is that they stay cheaper very often by using products that are cheaper and may end like the China fiasco did but they also frequently include ash. Ash builds up in your cat and over time will kill him or her. The main reason that cats are living longer is better cat foods, alot of vet care and the biggest factor is strictly indoor cats live very much longer.

Answer 3

By-products are the parts of an animal that are too crappy to be labeled as "meat." Common by-products are lungs, brains, gristle, and ground-up hooves and bones.

A good brand of cat food is one that contains little or no by-products, not much if any vegetable matter, and no grain.

Note that dry food is not good for cats regardless of the brand; it's mostly made from grain, and its water content is too low for cats, which are desert creatures with poorly developed thirst drives, evolved to get their mosture from their food.

Cats that eat lots of dry food don't drink enough water to make up for what they're missing in their food, and this tends to ruin their kidneys. It's probably not coincidence that chronic renal failure, which used to be almost unheard of in cats, became common around the time that dry cat foods were introduced. Now it's so common it's beyond epidemic, and many think it's a normal part of the aging process.

Also, cats can't digest plant protein; they're obligate carnivores and lack the digestive enzymes needed to process vegetable matter. All they can do is turn it into fat, then live off the fat as if they were starving. This is why it's not uncommon for cats who eat a lot of dry food to be obese and suffer from malnutrition at the same time.

Read this about properly feeding a cat:

http://www.catinfo.org

You'll also find some information there about particular brands of cat food.

Here's a place where you can find plenty of top quality brands:

http://www.petfooddirect.com/

Answer 4

I rated a best answer.

Just to add a few things. AAFCO rates these by-products as protein so when the bag says 30% protein this is the poor quality protein of the by-products. Cats need their protein from the lean muscle meat. Cat food producers are all in the human food business so you get the good protein in your food, the left-overs go to our cats and dogs.

All this "meat" must by law be "denatured" that means that chemicals like ethoxyquin are put on the meat so that it cannot be used for human consumption.

The source of the meat is what matters. For that reason my cats have a raw meat diet. The meat is organic (no hormones, no antibiotics). I use ground meat. The store where I get the meat is a small market. They grind the meat every few days and clean the grinders scrupulously. You must add something for calcium with this meat to keep the protein/phosphorus in the proper balance. This is the best I can do to be sure that my cats get high quality protein in their diet.

Answer 5

Innova (made by Natura www.naturapet.com) is the absolute BEST cat food on the market.

PLEASE do NOT listen to those other posting suggesting Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Purina, etc. Those foods are ALL garbage and still contain by-products and other unwanted ingredients like corn, wheat, and "meat" (which could be euthanized cats and dogs, roadkill, horses, etc). Science Diet is still being preserved with BHA which is a cancer causing chemical preservative...and vets say they care about our pets?!

Here are the ingredients of Innova Cat:
Turkey
Chicken Meal
Chicken
Potatoes
Egg
Ground Barley
Chicken Fat
Rice
Herring
Sunflower Oil
Apples
Carrots
Whole Pasteurized Milk (lactose free)
Fish Oil
Taurine
Alfalfa Sprouts

Innova has ONLY human grade, whole, fresh ingredients. NO by-products or any fillers. There is NO food on the market that I have seen that is as good as this food.

Oh, and to Mick, cats CAN digest products other then meat. Wild cats did eat vegetation. Wild cats also had very short life spans. Cats fed Innova are less likely to develop cancer, diabetes, etc because of the fruits and vegetables that help to prevent these illness rather then cause them like Science Diet and Iams.

Oh, and also to Mck, you've kind of contradicted yourself. You say cats are obligate carnivores but then recommend they eat canned food only. Well, if you've ever looked at the protein content of canned food it is only about 1/3 that of dried food which means you need to feed so much more. This means fat cats with bad teeth and poor health. There are much better ways to get cats to drink water without compromising their health. Dry cat food is MUCH better for cats and costs less to feed.

I hope that you are able to find a good quality food without being sucked in by the marketing ploys of the mass pet food producers who are worried about money only.

Answer 6

My rule when telling customers about foods is to read the label. By-products are not exactly what you'd like for dinner, but there really isn't anything wrong with them other than their almost total inability to be digested for what little nutrients they have before they get pooped out. AFFCO standards are tricky, so if you're really concerned about what your cat is eating, familiarize yourself with what ingredients are in foods and what they are.

Corn is a filler, but corn gluten is that little part in the middle that is digestable.

Chicken could mean anything AFFCO doesnt consider a by product and chicken by-products can be anything that's in a chicken.

Nutro is a good food that contains no by-products, no corn, and is the only food guaranteed to improve skin and coat health. I have been feeding it to my cat since I got him.

Answer 7

I feed Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea formula. My cats eat less, have good coats, lots of energy, don't vomit.

By-products are things not fit for human consuption, this can include cancerous tissue.

Answer 8

Some cat food, like Purina, has ash in it, and that's not good for the cat's health. Ask your vet what he recommends. He'll have a better idea of what sort of food your cat should be eating.

Answer 9

There are different kinds of by-products, some have beaks and feathers and things cats can't digest, others it's just offal and such. It depends which kind of by product.

I feed raw and nutrience supreme but supplement with royal canin, various types because I have different breeds and lifestages.. They all do brilliantly on it.

Answer 10

Pro-Plan, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Wellness and Iams

all are fantastic cat foods, Wellness being the mot preferred (by me) and by products arnt TERRIBLE but if you can get a cat food with less, its better off