evil cat food?

[BastetsMum]

Bastet gets a mixutre of Royal Canin Adult and IAMs Adult food - the chicken and rice combinations for both. She also gets wet food 3 times a week and I fill her waterbowl up daily.

I have tried her on fresh meat and organic products as well but she vomits usually on anything fresh (its a preservative I am sure).

I think I will stick to something she doesn't puke on

[NoahsMommy]

I switched from Nutro to Royal Canin mainly because Noah kept throwing it up, but secondly, because of its high quality ingredients.

It IS a little more expensive, but Shais_mom is totally correct. With high quality ingredients, they don't eat as much.

[Housh]

Are you surprised? Considering what is in most PEOPLE food i.e hot dogs this shouldn't be a shock...

Every single pet store i have been they say whiskas is the worst, and more unhealthy cat food. even a small family owned businesses with a front door kiosk for whiskas products.

PetSmart's Authority brand is the best. However, the price is higher and for me the nearest pet smart is two towns over.

When I can't access Authority I usually buy Nutrience (new and made by Hagen and NO Ethoxyquin in it) it was good for the winter time because it is enriched with vitamin E, rosemary and yucca schidigera extracts so it kept my baby's skin from getting itchy.

This is fairly cheap and because it is new they have a special of buy 1 400g bag and get second one free (all for $2.99cdn)

however, I'm going to stalk up on some Authority once i get a chance. Hope this helps.

[ScantyNebula]

Ok .. I bought Toby Friskies yesterday ... it doesn't appear to have that preservative and its affordable .. anyone know much about this brand?

[Russian Blue]

The easiest thing you can do when comparing cat foods is to look at the first four to five ingredients listed. The more meat (protein) that is listed *usually* indicates a better quality food.

Here's a simple website to understanding the wording of cat food labels:

Understanding Cat Food Labels

What you have to watch out for are chemical preservatives (ie: ethoxyquin), artificial flavors, fillers, high salt content, and wording such as meat by-products (instead of chicken, beef etc.).

Here's an example of a Friskies food label:

Friskies

You have water as the first ingredient rather than a protein. The first few ingredients also has meat by-products, wheat gluten, turkey, soy flour, corn starch-modified, natural and artificial flavors.

Compare this to a higher quality food, and you will see the difference in the listed ingredients. Another link to explain more about the ingredients on cat food is this one:

Ingredients Wizard


Many of the grocery store foods are like a type of 'junk food' for cats. They are loaded with chemicals, artificial flavours and preservatives to make them really appealing to your cat. No wonder cat's love them, but they are certainly not the healthiest thing to give your cat.

Again, the best thing you can do is to educate yourself on what you are feeding your cat. You can go to any search engine and type in cat food ingredients and health and come up with many useful information sites.

In the end, the best you can do is come up with a balance between what you can afford and what your cat will eat.