Thread: Dry Food

Not sure what would be available in Australia, but...

We feed Pro Plan Selects chicken, used to also use the salmon, but the cats decided they prefer the chicken. Note that Purina sells both regular Pro Plan and also Pro Plan Selects. Recently we got something called Blue Wilderness to try, and the kitten just loves it. The other cats, however, prefer the Pro Plan. The Blue W. is slightly higher protein than the PPS, though ingredient quality seems similar. Again, the company makes two ranges of foods, the Wilderness and the cheaper Blue Spa Selects. Our breeder feeds Orijen, however I came across web articles about Orijecn issues in Australia that led to a recall. You might want to check into that. We do not have a ready source for it so have not tried it.

I would suggest you go to your stores and spend some time reading labels. I did that again recently and posted the following in another food thread:

I spent quite a bit of time in Petco the other day looking at all the "high end" dry cat foods they sell. The Royal Canin ingredients are not terribly high quality (e.g., "chicken meal" vs. "chicken"). The best two in terms of quality of ingredients and protein levels were Pro Plan Selects and Blue Wilderness. I was extremely surprised to see even supposed "high end" dry foods with corn as a major ingredient and only 30% protein levels (PP Selects is 40% and Blue W. is 45% protein).

Incidentally, I also looked at prices of cat foods. Dry cat foods have actually become significantly more expensive than dog foods. The cheapest large bags of cat food I could find (at Walmart) were more than $.60/lb, while dry dog food can be had for $.40/lb. By contrast, the PP Selects and Blue W. are in the $3.60-$3.80/lb range--around six times the price. For that, you get mainly chicken or salmon, etc. as ingredients rather than "meals" or "meat by-products," and little "grain." One of the disturbing things is that a number of the "high end" foods at Petco are not objectively any better than the cheapest cat foods at Walmart. Don't know what you are paying for with them.