Cat Food advice. What to look for and what to avoid.?

Question

Im looking into a healthier food choice for my 18 month old kitten (okay shes a cat but I wanna baby her as much as possible lol) anyways. Im not asking for specific brands but more of what ingredients do I avoid? Which should be 1st and so on. She is currently on Cat Chow and fancy feast medley's as a treat every other day or so.

Thanks alot seems like everyone is giving me brands as well but I would rather choose that on my own once I have the rght information Thank alot

Answer 1

Avoid the words "by-product", "meal", and "corn". You want real meat and (preferrably) no corn.

We've switched our cats to Nature's Variety canned foods and raw meat patties. We switched from Science Diet.....don't use Science Diet. Some vets recommend it, but (disturbingly enough) many vets know next-to-nothing about feline nutrition. For instance, dry food really isn't all that great for cats (it's not even beneficial for their teeth)....yet vets are still recommending it. Anyways, Science Diet is also one of the only cat food manuacturers using the questionable preservatives BHT, BHA, and ethoxyquin.

(By the way, Friskie's IS one of the cheap brands. I don't know where someone would get the idea that it's not. And Iams isn't any good, either. Nor is it necessary to keep a cat on the same brand their whole life. In fact, it's sometimes necessary to switch....especially if you go from providing a sub-par brand to an excellent one. Changing the brand of cat food will not effect your cat's health unless you're switching to a crappy cat food *cough*Friskies*cough*.)

Answer 2

18 months is a very young adult and it's ok to baby her even when she is 3-6- 9 etc years old. I have one that is 13 and she is my baby and yes I still treat her as if she was a kitten.
You dont want a food with alot of ash in it or alot of filler. This is unhealthy and hard on there system.
I work in a vet clinic and we would recommend
Hills Brand c/d either dry or moist is ok
Medi Cal Brand Preventive Formula again either dry or moist
Not only is it important to ask what is the best ingredients for your cat but how much and how often is just as important.
We do not recommend leaving dry food out all the time for your cat to eat whenever because just like people they eat when they are board or just walking by the dish. This can cause them them to be overweight which causes other health problems. Normal feeding is twice a day and depending on the weight of your cat around 1/3 cup each feeding.
For the odd treat here and there try Greenies, usually the ocean fish flavour is what cats like.
In the end if in doubt, call your vet and ask what they recommend and how much and how often. It doesnt cost to ask for your vets advice. Good Luck

Answer 3

Hi there...many of the commercially available cat food products sold in supermarkets and pet stores contain corn, corn meal and byproducts as the first leading ingredients which ferment as it broken down within the digestive system. It isn't very healthy for them nor does it have the ideal nutritional values. Corn, corn meal are used to fatten animals sooner for slaughter sooner and it is also used to as a binder to hold together the dry kibble so it doesn't break down into crumbs in the bag.

Some of the high protein cat foods (which contains no corn based products or byproducts) found only at specialty pet stores such as Innova EVO, Life's Abundance, Nature's Variety Prairie. They are quite expensive compared to the supermarket brands such as Purina Cat Chow, but if your intended goal is to give her a more nutritional food consider the above mentioned food or consider Royal Canin as an affordable alternative: http://www.royalcanin.us/catfood

Finally, changing food suddenly with any cat will cause stomach distress as well as diarrhea in cats. You will need to gradually change her food to the new brand over a course of several weeks. How you do this is to take 3/4 of the old food and mix it together with 1/4 of the new food for one week. Then 1/2 of the new with 1/2 of the old for another week. Finally, 3/4 of the new food mixed with 1/4 of the old for a week before finally 100% of the new food. Please keep in mind that some cats absolutely just don't like some brands of foods either so you may need to consider another brand and then again gradually mix the old kind with the new one to help her adjust. It just cannot be done any other way without making the cat very sick.

Long-term medical care will cost more when a cat eats sub-standard food. Just like humans if we eat junk food all the time eventually we will have health problems which will require expensive medical care too.

Answer 4

A lot of feline vets are recommending feeding wet food over dry food, because they tend to be higher in protein, lower in carbs, and have more moisture, which a lot of cats tend to skimp on. Whatever food, and whatever type you choose, look for foods that are approved by the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) among other things. Higher quality foods are going to list meats as the first ingredients. Choose a name brand. In general, the rule "You get what you pay for" applies, but not in every case. Cheaper foods tend to be of poorer quality, not as easily digested, full of artificial flavors and preservatives, and you have to feed more of them to get all the nutrients needed. BUT just because a food costs more, doesn't make it better than others.

Personally I like Wellness, Eagle Pack, Royal Canin, Nutro, and Purina ProPlan/ONE.

Keep in mind that cats are carnivores and needs lots more protein that dogs or people, BUT feeding an unbalanced diet can lead to or exacerbate problems like kidney disease or diabetes so protein isn't the only thing that you need to consider. Your specific cat is also different from any other cat and her dietary needs may be a little different that my cats' so keep that in mind. Her activity level, if she's spayed, indoors only, has hairball problems, tends to get overweight, dental problems, etc... Lots of diseases and conditions can be managed with diet, but hopefully by feeding a good quality diet you can avoid them for a long time.

Lots more info here: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/301_pet.html

http://gianteagle.petkare.com/index.asp?FrameId=4&CMD=Menu&SId=2009

http://www.smartpakcanine.com/dogfoodingredients.aspx

Answer 5

So many answers here are right on. Please listen to them. You must learn to read the label on the bag of food you feed your cat (I question feeding dry as the entire diet too).

The first three ingredients on the bag can make up to 75% of the content of the food, if not 90%.

No corn should be listed. The better fillers use rice, oats, pea, tapioca for their fillers. I just bought some food and will list ingredients: one is: venison, whole dried green peas,venison meal, canola oil, venison liver. another is: chicken, chicken meal, brown rice, duck, lamb meal.

You can see that these foods are very high in meat protein, higher than the AAFCO standard "minimum" of most foods and a higher quality of protein to boot. Chicken heads, feet and feathers count as "protein" and are used in commercial foods, labeled by-products.

I don't use a lot of dry food. I buy a bag and give half of it to a friend who feeds homeless cats outdoors. I vary what my cats get from about three different quality manufacturers.

Answer 6

I use a brand called Pet Promise because they don't use animal by-products, they use food-grade meat. I find that my cat's coat is much healthier and my cat doesn't overeat on this food. I also buy a frozen food from New Zealand - you thaw it, cut it up and feed in small chunks. It seems to be pretty good too. In general, I don't feed anything that I wouldn't eat. Cats are carnivors, so the majority of their diet needs to be raw meat. A small amount of vegitable fiber is a good thing, to help with digestion. My aunt has a thriving business delivering raw meat food to pet owners, and their animals seem to do well with it. My mother feeds raw chicken to her cats and they love it. It is nasty to clean up, but the cats don't seem to mind.

Answer 7

Well, I buy my cat Hill's Science Diet for dry food and the Fancy Feast for wet food which he seems to enjoy

Answer 8

look for food made with real meat. I feed my Siamese Royal Canin Siamese formula and my Bengal eats Royal Canin kitten food. Avoid food made with chicken by products. Make sure when you switch her food you mix in old and slowly weed it out otherwise you can have one sick kitty, and if she's really unhappy with you, she might leave her presents in your bed. lol

Answer 9

The vets sell Iams and you can find it alot of grocery stores now. I have always fed mine Friskys canned and dry. The important thing for a long life and good health (I found with my cats)is to keep them on the same brand all of their life. Don't buy the cheap stuff. It has too many fillers and alot of ash which gives males urinary tract infections and they can't urinate. If you ever experience that with a cat it is awfully painful for them and they never get better. I had to have one of mine put to sleep once.

Answer 10

Well, we had a cat once that had constant UTI's. He loved eating Kozy Kitten cat food, but the vet informed us that it contained a LOT of saw dust or something that was bad for his urinary tract. I suggest talking to your vet about this. They would be more helpful.