I fed Science Diet for 10 years, as that is what my vet recommended.

Guess what? SD is crap food! Hills makes huge donations to VMA, so vets recommend it. Vets generally get NO training in nutrition.

Once I got dogs, I got involved in the bichon forum; bichons are known for their food allergies. So bichon owners tend to spend a lot of time learning about foods. I was able translate that to the cat side of things. Note: there has not been as much research done on cats and foods.

I fed Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul kibble for a few years (2 or 3, I forget), and suddenly, I had NO MORE HAIRBALLS! Hairballs are NOT normal.

Then about 2 years back, I switched the whole house to grain free Taste of the Wild. No hairballs continued; and smaller poops as there is less waste. All the cats that were pudgy trimmed down, with no effort on my part and no ill effects to them. (They weren't complaining they were starving!)

In the past year, I've started some home cooking for them, and I now include grain free canned as well. Here is what happened: Sparkle was diagnosed w/ early stage renal disease last Fall; my vet said we could do sub Q fluids, or I could try feeding her some canned and, as she is very early stage, that may have the same effect. Er, wait a minute, "wouldn't she just drink more from the water bowl?" Well, it seems that cats are not geared to drink; they get more than 90% of the fluids they need from their prey (mice, moles, shrews, a bird here and there). Then why the heck am I feeding them only dry kibble?!

Commercial cat foods did not come on the market until the 1960's. Up to then, vets did not see over active thyroid in cats (I've lost 3 cats to this), renal failure, cancers. Cats ate what the family had, and supplemented it with prey. Also, cats are obligate carnivores; again, this means they got all the nutrients they needed from their prey. Cats (in the wild, ferals, untamed / undomesticated) do not eat grains in any form. They do get a small amount of DIGESTED grains from the stomach of their prey -- cats can not digest it themselves.

A good base to learn about commercial cat foods:
http://www.petfoodratings.net/cattable.html

There is a menu on the left. The link above takes you to CAT FOOD QUICK REFERENCE TABLE. You will also want to click on COMPLETE CAT FOOD LISTINGS.
(NB - do NOT use this table for dog foods if you also have a dog; it is not detailed enough. For dogs, refer to: www.dogfoodanalysis.com)


A good base for home cooking: THE WHOLE PET DIET by Andi Brown. I found it at my library; liked it so much, I bought a copy at Amazon.com. She provides recipes, and explains what each ingredient is for. I make the Chicken Spot's Stew and all 15 here go crazy for it!

The Whole Dog Journal found only 1 complaint with her book: she does not emphasize calcium enough. But if you follow her recipes, your pet does get what it needs for calcium.

Recently, I've been exploring raw feeding. I know I will never convert to it completely. But having the pet (dog or cat) crunch up some raw bones helps clean their teeth and prevent tartar naturally. I have been giving the cats raw chicken necks -- Tommy is absolutely WILD for them, he hee.

There are 3 supplements for cats eating a raw diet. One I have used for years is Barley Cat. I am still learning about the other 2, on a raw diet forum.

Hope this helps!