What do we look for in good cat food?

Okay, I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want to hijack the other thread any longer, so I thought Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d post a new one. I did a search on the site for what kinds of cat foods are best, but just ended up being more confused!!! What kinds of Ingredients am I supposed to look for, exactly??? Our groomer recommends Diamond cat foods, they have a Diamond Naturals with the following ingredients:

Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, powdered cellulose, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, egg product, fish meal, sodium bisulfate, choline chloride, dried chicory root, methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, L-carnitine, yucca schidigera extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Does this seem like an okay brand? We found a distributor just up the road from us (which is really great as we live in the country and itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s hard to find anything around here) but we have yet to try it. What do you think? If itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not a good food, can someone tell me what, exactly, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m supposed to be looking for in ingredients aside from no by-products? Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]d love to find a type of food that isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t horribly expensive, but I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want to compromise their health, either, so any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

PS. We were using Iams Lamb and Rice formula, and the cats were all doing well on it, but when I read that Iams was not a very good food, we tried to switch over to Natural Balance. Two of the cats ended up with loose stools, so we went back to the Iams.

I dont like barley as it is closely related to wheat yet the food s containing it are often far more $$ than the wheat containing

Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, powdered cellulosethis is often nothing more than sawdust , chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, egg product, fish meal,what fish and why not specifiy sodium bisulfatenatural or sythetic??, choline chloride, dried chicory root, methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, L-carnitine, yucca schidigera extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Originally Posted by sharky

I dont like barley as it is closely related to wheat yet the food s containing it are often far more $$ than the wheat containing

Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, powdered cellulosethis is often nothing more than sawdust , chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, egg product, fish meal,what fish and why not specifiy sodium bisulfatenatural or sythetic??, choline chloride, dried chicory root, methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, L-carnitine, yucca schidigera extract, zinc proteinate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

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Thanks! A friend and I were just talking about cat foods, and she told me that she'd heard of foods with sawdust as an ingredient... I'd never heard of that before!!! I'm glad you said something about it. Is powdered cellulose the only name "sawdust" could be under, or are there others we should watch out for? Would you say, in general, that Nutro Natural Choice is a good dry food? I keep hearing that one mentioned over and over again in the posts I've looked up.

Thanks again!

I am a nutro demostrator ... a bit biased but yes for price ingrediants and ease of getting it is one of the best avail...

i beleive cellulose is the only sawdust hiding ... but wheat mill run and wheat shaft are similiar

I mentioned sawdust being used to my husband and he looked at me like I was crazy...
Which brands and companies were actually listed as using sawdust?

Natural Balance is an excellent food. It can be a bit rich for some cats. We mix it with Iams Hairball. 75% NB and 25% iams.

Did you gradually switch the food? Sudden diet changes usually cause the loose stools but it should go away in a few days.

Originally Posted by marsch21

Natural Balance is an excellent food. It can be a bit rich for some cats. We mix it with Iams Hairball. 75% NB and 25% iams.

Did you gradually switch the food? Sudden diet changes usually cause the loose stools but it should go away in a few days.

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We gradually switched the dry food, but not the wet food... are we supposed to do gradual changes with wet, too, if we buy a different flavor but the same brand? (Shows how much I know.)

wet food usually doesnt need gradual change though some cats need to mix cans if going from beef to fish or chicken