Dry catfood?

Question

Whats the best dry catfood?

Answer 1

Stay away from foods that contain corn, wheat & soy. Look for foods with meat as at least the first 2 ingredients.Meat is an essential part of a cats diet. Meat listed as the first ingredients is very important. Smaller companies have better standards as a rule then the bigger comapnies and usually offfer quality human grade meats in their foods. The larger companies put a lot into advertising and make their ads believable..which of course since they are big business they need to do.
Grocery store brands aren't of good quality. Steer clear of foods such as IAMS/Eukanuba, Science Diet..they are loaded with cheap fillers and by products and are over priced for the quality.
Vets do sell/recommend these brands often, however they aren't the best sources for nutritional information of food recommendations.This is through no fault of their own since the classes they receive are general and cover everything from cats to rats, dogs to hogs.They tend to recommend brands they are familiar with and have heard of.Thankfully more and more vets are taking additional courses in species specific nutrition and foods and are realizing that a good quality food with lots of meat sources and no corn, wheat soy or by products is best. Cats are meat eaters, not cereal eaters.They were designed to eat meat and process meat..It takes a lot more grain based foods to receive proper nutritional value then it does meat based.I've studied both canine and feline nutrition for many years and have seen the effects of cheap quality foods on health and teeth.
Some good foods are Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, Wellness, Wysong,Felidae,Natural balance

Answer 2

Dane is the only one who has got it straight here. All the other foods here are 2/3 corn which is not appropriate food for a cat. A cat needs around 60% meat protein in its diet to be properly nourished.

Corn is used to fatten slaughter animals who live at most for two years. I think we want more for our cats. Did you know that your $4 box of corn flakes contains 14 cents worth of corn? Corn is cheap and cheap food has a lot of it.

The commercial pet food companies are primarily HUMAN food companies. It is very lucrative for them to make pet food. Do you think that Campbell's uses the best parts of the chicken in your pet food? No, the lean, meaty white meat parts go into your chicken noodle soup. What goes into your pet's food is the backs, necks, feathers, beaks etc. from the chicken. The least nutritious parts of the fowl. There are also eight "grades" of corn. If you think your cat gets #1 or #2 grade, think again.

How seduced we are by advertising! I am sure your cat loves the many "flavors" of Meow Mix. Those flavors are sprayed on the top of the food and provide your cat with zero nutrition. And they do "feeding trials" to find out just which flavors will most appeal to cats in order to sell the most food.

The small pet food companies use human grade meat in their products and usually their foods have the first two ingredients from a meat protein source. They use rice, pea, oats, tapioca as "fillers". These are less allergenic and more digestible for animals.

We have learned nothing about corporate Amerca from the "scandal" of the cigarette manufacturers telling us that cigarettes were not harmful to humans.

Answer 3

I found it's good to give them some wet food in with their dry. I have a dog these days, in the morning she gets dry because I'm still half asleep and can't deal with it. In the evening I give her dry and mix in some wet. It seems to put a little pep in her step and helps with her coat. Look out for corn as the first ingredient in dog or cat food. Try to get meat as the first ingredient just like someone else on here advised. I learned this from a vet tech years ago.

Linda

Answer 4

I would suggest feeding something like Nutro Max Cat. This formula contains real meat as the first ingredient in chicken meal. Chicken meal is real chicken with the water and bone removed. This makes for a nutrient dense, highly digestible protein source for your cat. This formula also contains no ground or whole corn and no chicken by-products. It is a good quality food for pet parents on a smaller budget. Hope that helps :) Olivia Pet Nutrition Specialist Nutro

Answer 5

Well... you should use a larger commercial diet, like Purina, Iams, and Science Diet. Smaller companies tend to have shady sources for their ingredients, and they don't have the quality control like the larger companies. As for things like Meow Mix and Alley Cay and the other similar products, they maybe cheap but would you like to be eating a food that you got for 5lbs for a dollar. Also that stuff is filled with fillers and fat.
As for products that say their first ingredients is meat, well that's a load of crap. Pet food manufactures all use the same way when they list their ingredients, they list it by weight, so a cup of chicken weighs more then a cup of corn so the cup of chicken goes first in the ingredient list.

Answer 6

Purina Pro Plan. It's not as expensive as eukanuba, but it's a lot better for the cats. It comes in can and dry formulas. They have various types for different cat life stages as well as a special one just for weight control. The cats love it too.

Answer 7

Science diet is the best cat food made, along with Iams. I feed SD but in the past, have fed Iams. Most Vets will tell you either/or. Believe me, you can see a BIG difference in your pets, when feeding these products. Since putting all my animals on SD, everything about them has improved. With cats, their feces does not have an odor, the litter box also does not. It's just phenomenal food.

Answer 8

I had a cat when I was little and the only dry cat food that he ate was 9 Lives. He absolutely loved it. We tried giving him something else but he would not eat it. We had a whole bag of cat food that wasn't going to be ate. 9 Lives also comes in a variety of flavors. You do have a choice, that it what I liked:) .

Answer 9

I have 3 older (10 years) cats. I give them the Science Diet Senior Hairball control dry food that I buy at the vet's. It's a bit pricy, but the kids don't have hairballs with it and their teeth and coats are still good even they are getting old.

Talk to your vet and see what he would recommend.

Answer 10

I tend to give my cats a mixture of Bil Jac and Meow Mix - you know mix of the cheap and the expensive stuff....