Is Meow Mix Really *that* bad?

weldrwomn

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I have to admit that before I adopted Marcie in Sept, I had been a dog person all of my life. My only other kitty had been when I was a kid, so I wasn't really in charge of what to feed her. When I adopted Marcie, she was about 5mos old and she was being fed Iams. That food smelled so bad that I had to find something else immediately. I picked meow mix indoor formula. I compared the label with a comparable bag of Iams and found them to be very similar. After feeding Marcie Meow mix for a couple of months, I have noticed several things: she is hungry all the time but if I feed her more than 1/2 cup 2x per day, then she puts on a ton of weight. Also, she really hasn't been particularly healthy. I kind of put that up to her being from the Humane society. She is an indoor kitty, she gets no treats (human or kitty) and she is about 8mos old. Could I improve what I am feeding her with a reasonably priced, easy to find food? Also, I can't stand the smell of most canned wet foods, so I don't think that is an option. I have seen mention of pouches and am curious about those though...
 

kai bengals

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Yes, it's pretty bad as far as quality ingredients are concerned. Iams is also not a very good food.

Dry brands I think are good are Innova, Wellness, Nutro and Pro-Plan or Purina One.

I'm mostly an advocate of Raw feeding, but Wellness canned is good too, along with some Wysong brands.

My cats all get fed a raw diet with Wellness dry and sometimes Wellness canned.
 

sharky

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Meow mix dry ... if you read the label is filled with CORN ( not a bad thing but not digestable to a cat unless in the gluten form and can be an allergen )
BY products ( heads ft and intestines allong with undevloped eggs )
Chemical presrvatives ( like BHA BHT )( many countrys can BHA )
Dyes ( ALLERGEN )
artifical flavors
DIgest simliar to by product only chemically treated


Is it bad NO ... GOOD NONO

if you can look into these most pet stores carry

chicken soup
nutros max cat
authority( petsmart )
maxxium( not prefered but avail at walmart and decent )
premium edge

these are good foods at the low end of Premium cost


Meow mix pouches are decent to good in quality
 

white cat lover

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Her not looking too healthy can be from the food. The big thing is that she needs to eat more of the Meow Mix dry than she would a higher quality food to get anything out of it. You will notice if you feed a higher quality food that she will need to eat less of it. Another thing is that many of the fillers in Meow Mix go straight through her system. In other words, she just poops it out. You will notice less mess in the box on higher quality, too.

There are many, many, many high quality foods out there. Take a look at the list sharky gave & you can search the forums, too. If you need any help picking out a food, don't hesitate to ask, that's what we're here for!
 
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weldrwomn

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Is it going to be bad for her if I change her food so soon? It has only been a couple of months that she has been eating Meow Mix.
 

babyharley

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Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

Is it going to be bad for her if I change her food so soon? It has only been a couple of months that she has been eating Meow Mix.
Wehn we first got Harley, we fed him Meow Mix as well, but we soon after switched him to Maxximum. If you gradually switch the foods, there shouldn't be a problem. Just add a bit of the new food in with the Meow Mix daily, a bit more each day until you aren't adding the Meow Mix anymore. Harley didn't have any reactions to us switching his foods like that.

Good luck on your switching!
 

gailuvscats

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You can start to change with half and half for a week, and then gradually increasse the good and get rid of the bad. too bad you will not feed her wet food, because that is preferred, plus kittens need extra nutrients, hence kitten food, most likely your kitty is looking poorly as a result of her diet. the sooner you implement change the better. Trader joes has wet food that isn't too stinky in my opinion., the turkey, not the fish.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by gailuvscats

You can start to change with half and half for a week, and then gradually increasse the good and get rid of the bad. too bad you will not feed her wet food, because that is preferred, plus kittens need extra nutrients, hence kitten food, most likely your kitty is looking poorly as a result of her diet. the sooner you implement change the better. Trader joes has wet food that isn't too stinky in my opinion., the turkey, not the fish.
.... Like Natilie said just ask if you need any help
 

jen

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Meow Mix is a very poor quality and Iams is about medium quality, I think you actually took a step backwards switching to Meow Mix, but neither are all that great. I really think that the food is related to her health problems.

There are two brands of food that I have found to be very reasonably priced compared to the low quality foods. Those are Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul and Premium Edge. Pet Supplies Plus carries Chicken Soup and you woulod have to call around about Premium Edge. But I also buy the giant bag of food which costs $17-19 where a giant bag of Nutro or Purina or one of those costs $20-$27. I am sure the smaller bags are comparable.

Just look around and compare, avoid grains as the first ingredients. Avoid by-products or any "meats" where they don't specify what kinds. Look for specific meats as the first few ingredients (chicken, turkey, etc). At least the first one or two, ideally three.

If wet food smells turn your stomach, there is a brand, I think it is Merricks. They make some wet foods that actually look and smell pretty good. One is called Grammy's Pot Pie and that is exactly what it looks like... Pot Pie! And they make one called Turduckin which I love that name, but it is Turkey-Duck-Chicken combo. They are really not all that bad. You should look into that since wet food is really healthy.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Jen

Meow Mix is a very poor quality and Iams is about medium quality, I think you actually took a step backwards switching to Meow Mix, but neither are all that great. I really think that the food is related to her health problems.

There are two brands of food that I have found to be very reasonably priced compared to the low quality foods. Those are Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul and Premium Edge. Pet Supplies Plus carries Chicken Soup and you woulod have to call around about Premium Edge. But I also buy the giant bag of food which costs $17-19 where a giant bag of Nutro or Purina or one of those costs $20-$27. I am sure the smaller bags are comparable.

Just look around and compare, avoid grains as the first ingredients. Avoid by-products or any "meats" where they don't specify what kinds. Look for specific meats as the first few ingredients (chicken, turkey, etc). At least the first one or two, ideally three.

If wet food smells turn your stomach, there is a brand, I think it is Merricks. They make some wet foods that actually look and smell pretty good. One is called Grammy's Pot Pie and that is exactly what it looks like... Pot Pie! And they make one called Turduckin which I love that name, but it is Turkey-Duck-Chicken combo. They are really not all that bad. You should look into that since wet food is really healthy.
slight hyjack..lol.. I need to move by you Jen
...
 

batgirl2good

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

Yes, it's pretty bad as far as quality ingredients are concerned. Iams is also not a very good food.

Dry brands I think are good are Innova, Wellness, Nutro and Pro-Plan or Purina One.

I'm mostly an advocate of Raw feeding, but Wellness canned is good too, along with some Wysong brands.

My cats all get fed a raw diet with Wellness dry and sometimes Wellness canned.
What kinds of raw meat do you feed?
 

kai bengals

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Originally Posted by batgirl2good

What kinds of raw meat do you feed?
Rabbit (whole ground w/bone)

Venison (boneless)

Murray's Chicken free range (blended with bone and veggies)

Duck (whole ground w/bone) *when I can get it*
 

kittenkiya

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I feel kind of bad about this whole food thing. When I was younger, (God, don't get me started) we brought up ALL of our cats on KittenChow first and then when they were a year old, CatChow. Their coats were shiny, they were healthy.....but they were indoor/outdoor cats.

About two years ago, I started to notice that the CatChow was simply not doing the job. My insiders were NOT shiny, they had dandruff (I'd never seen that on a cat) and they looked like walking footballs. I now have the whole family on KittenChow again, and their coats are shiny, only one has dandruff and that is the Maine Coon and nobody looks like a walking football.

I tried contacting Purina and asking them what the hell happened. They treated me like I had two screws loose and was 9 cans shy of a six-pack.
"We've never changed our formula, yada, yada" so why were my cats not doing so well?

Aside from the by-products which if you REALLY got into them would simply make you sick, I'm not sure about the grains they use because of the genetic modification issues. I just feel so badly for my babies, I mean they are OK now, but I have the feeling I am going to need to change them again. because I now have trouble trusting the brand I have used for 50 years on my animals.
 

gingersmom

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I feed my kids the wet Meow Mix, but only feed them high-quality dry like Nutro.
 

lionessrampant

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If you go through the ingredients, you'll find a lot of things that a cat's body can't use and you'll also find a huge amount of processing and preserving and general artificial-ness. We KNOW that these things cause diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer in people...why wouldn't they do the same thing in cats?

personally, I feed a by-product free, preservative free and grain free wet diet.
 

jen

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

Rabbit (whole ground w/bone)

Venison (boneless)

Murray's Chicken free range (blended with bone and veggies)

Duck (whole ground w/bone) *when I can get it*
Where do you get these raw foods from? How does the cost compare to feeding high quality wet and dry food? Also, how many cats are you feeding the raw to? If you don't mind me asking...
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Jen

Where do you get these raw foods from? How does the cost compare to feeding high quality wet and dry food? Also, how many cats are you feeding the raw to? If you don't mind me asking...
I cant answer for Nial .. but

try www.barfdirect.com


I use www.omaspride.com

I currently feed one and 3/4 animals... ie dog is raw , older cat is 50 % and youngest gets what she wants


Raw for one and a half is about 2lbs a week ... which varies by type of meat 5-9 $ .... It costs me about 50% more than dry yet about 30% less than all canned
 

batgirl2good

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

Rabbit (whole ground w/bone)

Venison (boneless)

Murray's Chicken free range (blended with bone and veggies)

Duck (whole ground w/bone) *when I can get it*
How old were your cats when you started this? Mine are 6 1/2. One is on a special diet for renal insufficiency, which is in the beginning stages.
 

kai bengals

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Originally Posted by Jen

Where do you get these raw foods from? How does the cost compare to feeding high quality wet and dry food? Also, how many cats are you feeding the raw to? If you don't mind me asking...
I buy mine from http://www.barfdirect.com I get it shipped UPS ground and it's packed in dry ice, so it does arrive frozen everytime.
Feeding raw definitely costs me more than just dry would. Like Sharky said, about 50% more than a premium dry food. I haven't really compared the canned food cost to raw.
I'm feeding 15 adult bengals and usually around 6 kittens, so my cat food bill is outrageous.



Originally Posted by batgirl2good

How old were your cats when you started this? Mine are 6 1/2. One is on a special diet for renal insufficiency, which is in the beginning stages.
As soon as our kittens start weaning they are offered the raw diet the moms are eating and Wellness dry. All the adults have been on raw since they were kittens.
Percentage wise the average consumption is 80-90% Raw and 10-20% Wellness dry, for the adults.
The kittens get to eat whatever they take to best. During the weaning stage some seem to only like raw, some prefer more dry to raw. Around the 8 week mark they all love the raw, but are still fed dry as well, as some of our kitten buyers won't be able to continue feeding the raw for various reasons.
 

jenny82

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I am feeding California Natural dry and Meow Mix wet. Chessy looooves Meow Mix wet. I just tried Merricks wet and they haven't liked it so far (I'm going through a variety pack).
 
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