Thread: Kitten food to Grown Cat food?

Originally Posted by NCarver

Let me first say that I see no point in getting into a discussion about particular brands, as my experience is that people often have a lot invested emotionally in the particular brand they have chosen, because they want to feel they are doing the best for their pets. Probably everyone here is trying to do the best for their pets. My point is that there really isn't enough information to make well informed decisions most of the time. Furthermore, there are obvious trade-offs in most choices.

As for claims, I doubt they are much different than in Europe. The basic claim is simply that their food is healthier or more "natural" for the pet or more "biologically correct" or similar. Unfortunately, there is rarely any hard science they point to to back these claims. Now I would rather feed my cats food made from say chicken rather than chicken meal, but is the first actually going to make them healthier? Is a certain exact ratio/percentage of protein or meat really "optimal" for cats? Many of the premium companies make claims like this but provide no scientifically valid evidence for the claims. I find this very frustrating personally, as I would feed my cats something if it truly were healthier than what they are getting. The current situation is such that I have a very limited basis for making that judgment. I recently scanned the "white paper" that one of the premium companies pushes on their website. Frankly, none of the key claims in the document have any citations at all for support, and most of the citations that are provided are so incomplete as to be difficult to verify. Having a "white paper" with lots of scientific sounding claims and a few incomplete citations may impress some people, but reading it as a scientist, it is really little more than marketing BS. Maybe the claims are true, but since they cannot cite actual research to validate them there is no way to know. The food looks like it is made with high quality ingredients and all, but if my cats won't eat it, is it worth trying to train them to eat it because it will improve their health? No way to know that. Of course this is not surprising, since it hard to see who exactly would fund the expensive and long term research needed to answer many of the key questions.

I don't really remember any similar claims aside from a current campaign from Iams at the moment so it might just be an American thing or something the brands I tend to avoid anyway use.

I know I look at ingredients over the brand logo when cat food shopping. There's no proof that fresh chicken is better that poultry meal, you're quite right, but it does show a certain standard that they use to create the food. I'd rather a list of ingredients that didn't sound like chemical compounds & additives but a list of natural resources as I would do the same for myself. I also find that it is usually the words after the kind of meat they use that helps too. Some are FULL of grains which aren't required for a cats or dogs diet & are filler to make up that 75% of dry food that isn't chicken/lamb etc.. I would say that a ratio of meat to non-meat is optimal. They are carnivores not herbivores with a 75% grain diet.

There were a couple of brands of cat food my cats wouldn't even sniff but if I had a child with the same ethos about vegetables on the table in front of them I would do the same thing - call their bluff as they will eat what I think is good for them or nothing at all.

& of course we are all on budgets & limitations etc. such as I cannot feed raw as I cannot get deliveries of raw meats for my cats & dog as I work full time in an office I cannot accept deliveries.

I'm happy to hear that someone ventured out & is trying Applaws. A very popular food in my house. Especially the fish one!