Whats the best cat food?

Question

i have a kitten about 12 weeks old.

Answer 1

If you genuinely want the absolute best for your cat then the following info would be very helpful for you. In general, raw is best, followed by wet/canned and dry is the worst.

1. Cats are obligate carnivores. They meet their nutritional needs entirely by consuming other animals; no grains, no vegies and no fruits!!!

2. Cats don't eat fruit and vegetables … not even in the wild.
Any claim that they do is simply to justify the means to an end. Cats have not adapted to eating fruit and vegetables by means of their prey’s stomach content. More often than not, cats skillfully avoid eating part or all of the digestive tract, leaving behind any ingested nuts and plant matter.

3. Low carb diet >>In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content, meat-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only approximately 3-5 percent of her diet consisting of carbohydrates.

4. All cooked/processed meat (ie canned) has altered/deminished nutritional values. Added nutrients/minerals/vitamins do not make up for the loss.

Commercial raw diets:
Pros > convenient
Cons > expensive, no control over ingredients

If you choose to feed a commercially prepared raw pet food, you must do some homework. One specific issue to look at is the percentage of vegetables, and occasionally fruits, that the product contains. A very good commercial raw diet is Feline's Pride. It is grain-free and vegetable-free. Nature's Variety raw food is another quality product. Many products do not list the percentage of vegetables on the packaging so a call to the company will be necessary.



Homemade raw diets:
Pros > total control over production, ingredients
Cons > time consuming

Alternate option: Buy the reconsituting powder in which all you have to add is the cut up meat.
Pros > comparable cost to premium canned, control over the main ingredient ie meat
Cons > less convenient vs canned


If, for your own reasons, you would still prefer canned foods, here are some info to help with the selection.



COMMERCIAL CANNED FOODS
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No commercial cat food you buy is without some drawbacks, but listed below are some canned foods made by companies that have gone the extra mile to either use no grains or minimize them and other plant-based “fillers” in their foods and use meat as the primary ingredient - not a meat by-product. The listed foods are also void of any questionable preservatives such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin and do not contain any by-products. None of the listed products contain corn, wheat, or soy. This list is not comprehensive. Companies also have variations in ingredients within their own product line. They will also change ingredients in any given food from time to time. Remember to always read the ingredient list and bear in mind that just because a label says “premium” or “natural”, this does not necessarily mean that the food inside the can is appropriate for your carnivore.



HIGH QUALITY, GRAIN-FREE CANNED FOODS

Wellness: (www.omhpet.com) Wellness is a complete, balanced diet. No supplementation is needed and can be fed, as is, on a daily basis as the sole diet. Wellness is a very low carbohydrate (range depending on variety: 1%-12%), high quality canned food. Note: This company has chosen to start adding grains (brown rice) to some of the canned foods. This will increase the carbohydrate content. Be sure to look for a small yellow triangle on the front of the can stating that the food is "Grain Free".

Nature's Variety: (http://www.naturesvariety.com) Nature's Variety canned food is also a complete, balance diet that is great for daily use. No supplementation is need. This is also a very low carbohydrate food. Nature's Variety also makes a high quality raw food.

EVO: (www.naturapet.com) Innova EVO is a complete diet for daily feeding and only 3% of its calories come from carbohydrates. **Please note that this food is very high in phosphorus and would not be a good food choice for any cat that is showing signs of renal insufficiency.

Wysong’s Au Jus Canned Meats: (www.wysong.net) Several of Wysong’s regular canned diets have undesirable grains in them but the plain canned meats are grainless. These are referred to as "All Meat" or "Au Jus". These all-meat diets are devoid of calcium so they are not balanced for daily use. You must add Wysong’s “Call of the Wild” supplement to ensure that the meals are properly balanced if used as a sole diet. Otherwise, use the Au Jus canned food, without supplementation, for a few meals each week. Not every meal needs to be balanced so this is an excellent use for this product. These products are relatively expensive and are sometimes hard to find.

Avoderm Select Cuts: (www.breeders-choice.com) This high quality product is a complete diet for daily use. Please disregard the Breeder's Choice website that urges the reader to provide dry food at all times. This is very poor advice.

Wysong’s Archetype: This is not a canned food. It is a cold-processed grainless diet, containing high quality meats, bones, organs, probiotic cultures, and other supplements. You add water to hydrate this food and then serve. This product is relatively expensive and hard to find.

Merrick: (www.merrickpetcare.com) This company makes some varieties of canned products without grains but several of them do contain grains. Read the labels carefully.

Whole Paws: This is a Whole Foods Market brand and is only carried in their stores. I like this food because it is very basic and contains nothing other than a single meat source and broth. It is balanced for daily use and would be a very good 'hypoallergenic/limited ingredient' diet to try for a cat with IBD or any allergy/food intolerance. It comes in 3 varieties: chicken, beef, and fish. Please note that beef and fish are considered to be common allergens in the cat so I urge you to feed the chicken variety only. Note: As of around mid 2006, WFM stopped making this food. I have no idea if they will ever start offering it again.

Country Pet: (www.countrypet.com) This is a frozen product that is not raw but also is not heavily cooked. This company blanches the meats prior to freezing. I feed this to my cats as a supplement to their raw meat diet for variety. I find it in a freezer cart in the pet food section at Whole Foods Market. Check their website for other sources. Some taurine is always lost even with minimal processing of the meat. This company does not add any extra taurine to the cat food to account for any losses so use the capsule or loose powder form and mix into the food.



The three key negative issues associated with dry food are:

1) type of protein - too high in plant-based versus animal-based proteins

2) carbohydrate load is too high

3) water content is too low

Answer 2

1. A properly balanced raw meat diet (includes organ meat and possibly bones). Why? This is species appropriate food because cats are obligate carnivores. This is what they would eat in the wild. The meat provides protein, bones provide calcium, and the organs provide other necessary nutrients such as taurine. Also, ripping and shredding the muscle meat and bones (raw bones are quite safe) promotes dental health - unlike dry food which does nothing.

2. A good quality commercially prepared canned food. See the What to feed link for several suggestions. My own two recommendations include Nature's Variety Instincts (they offer 5 "novel" meat sources including lamb, venison, beef, chicken, and duck. Or By Nature Organics which is available in 4 flavors - turkey and organs, chicken and organs, turkey, chicken and organs and some fishy one. Why? These foods are close to being species appropriate - they contain meat and more importantly, they don't contain grains (or very little grains) and NO wheat, corn or soy.

3. Supermarket type canned foods such as Friskies, 9 lives, Fancy Feast, etc. They're better than dry food.

4. Dry food. It's better than starving to death.

KITTEN FOOD:
I'm going to do more research on this topic. It's my impression that you do NOT need to feed your kitten food marketed for it - so long as you're feeding a good food. Typically kitten foods are higher in protein than adult foods. But if you're feeding a good brand, that will also be high in protein, but also lower in carbs that your average "kitten" food. So I don't think you need to worry about how the food is marketed.

Answer 3

There are a lot of options out there where cat food is concerned. You have received a lot of different answers about it too...hopefully something will jump out at you and help.
Personally, I swear by Science Diet. They have special formulas for cats of all ages. They have a line of canned wet food, but I use the dry 90% of the time and give my kitty a "treat" of wet food every now and then. I think that dry food helps prevent plaque and helps strengthen her teeth...I've known a few cats who have lost their teeth b/c they were fed wet food all the time and their teeth fell out. :-(
A few years ago I adopted a cat and when I got her, her coat was kind of patchy and dry. She was really skinny. After about two weeks of steadily consuming SD, her coat became full and shiny, she gained some weight and was happy overall. I've never had any problems w/ SD upsetting my kitten's tummies.
Whatever you decide to choose, just make sure the ingredients have a good variety of essentials such as protein, good fat, vitamins and minerals.

Answer 4

Good question. The Food and Drug Admin (FDA) has very strict guidelines with regards to animal food, stricter than that of human food. trough considerable research, cats and dogs are to receive vitamins minerals, fat, protein and grain in their diets.

The bottom line is that any cat food would fit that requirement. I feed one cat Triumph canned food and the other cat Friskies; the 3 oz (85g) can of Triumph costs 68 cents vs the 13 oz (368g) can of Friskies at 68 cents.

If you are going to experiment with different brands, you may notice your kitten having diarrhea This is normal as the ingredients are different in each case. Try one brand and, if your kitty turns his nose up at it, then try another. When you switch brands, mix 3/4 of the old with 1/4 of the new, then half and half and then 1/4 old with 3/4 new. Do this over the course of a week so that diarrhea is minimalized. You may also want to stick to one flavor, as taste may confuse the kitty. I use Friskies Turkey and Giblets. Reads "100% Balanced Nutrition for Adult Cats and Kittens."

With regards to dry food - try to buy a food that had grain (rice, rice meal, wheat) as the fourth or fifth ingredient. Most dry food manufacturers add grain and claim that it's "easy to digest". That's hogwash because grain allows the feed manufacturer to cut costs and offer the product more cheaply. Grain isn't usually part of a carnivore's (cats) diet.

Answer 5

Any of the brand kitten food is ok. Stear clear of generic varieties if you can afford it. I highly reccomend Whiskas or Friskies of the midrange priced ones. It depends on your kitten. At such an early age he/she won't have built up preferences yet. Make sure you do use a kitten specific dry and wet food. They have the extra things that babies need. Make sure you do feed a dry food, it keeps their teeth healthy and clean. A diet mixed of dry and canned food is great. It mostly depends on your budget. You can also get milk for kittens these days too. They are lactose free. Some cats are fine with cows milk, others get an upset tummy. If you only want one type of food, make it a dry food. My cats (I currently have 4) all grew up on Whiskas Kitten.

There are of course Specialised kitten foods you can get from your vet or any pet store. These are much more expensive. They are all completely balanced and do tend to be more complete. They have better ingreadients and one variety - Hills - is devised by vets.

My advice is to look at your budget. If your kitten has no outstanding health probs use any of the supermarket varieties. Except the generics - they tend to be cheap and nasty and can cause problems. Once you choose a brand stick with it. Cats are fussy and they'll develop preferences to what they will and won't eat. Good Luck and have fun.

Answer 6

Get the best kitten dry food you can afford, check on the list of ingredients for ones that state the first ingredient (therefore the most) as meat.
I feed my cats and kittens on Royal Canin. The kitten one for the kittens though they do nick the adults food as well

Answer 7

They sell cat food just for kittens, and its small so its easy for them to chew etc. try giving him/her some of that, or cook up some soft meat, but always make sure its really soft and that the kitten wont have any trouble eating it.

Answer 8

if you really want to feed the best to your cats, then check out this website: www.catinfo.org

A grain free diet is best... (any of the major brands, like Whiskas or Science Diet, is horrible.... they contain fillers like corn, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, and rice... cats can't digest this crap) also, those things were responsible for the pet food recall.... read your cats food ingredient label... whats the first few items on the list? it should be meat, but i bet its corn, wheat, or soy... all grains... VERY BAD....

I would feed raw if possible.... If not (i find it a bit pricey, and very time consuming) then you could always feed a grain-free commercially prepared food....

I feed my cat Wellness Grain free canned food, she likes all the flavors... I also feed her Nature's Variety Grain free kibble... she feeds on the canned food in the morning and evening, with free range kibble all day...

and don't beleive the hype about the cat poop stinking worse on canned food... first off, all carnivore poop stinks, it's meat their crapping out, second, if they eat grain free food, they'll poop less.... my cat only goes once a day, whereas, my parents cat which eats some offbrand dry food, she craps like all day... because she's crapping out everything she eats because none of it is digestible or nutritious....

Answer 9

Probably the best food for kittens is Pro Plan kitten.... You can try to give it to him, he'll surely love it! And I know it's healthy, 'cuz all my cats have grown eating it! The one problem is that there are just two tastes: chicken and salmon.... Good luck!

Answer 10

Raw cat food! It's what they would eat if the where wild cats!
My cats LOVE it all they do is wait to be feed! My cat and a lot of stomach problems when we gave it to her at first she did not like it but she loves it now. And now she better.