Hairball formula food

Okay I have a silly little question but it keeps nagging at me...so I just want to know...
I have read several posts here and others that a hairball food is good for firming up poop.... but when I give Zoe a little of the paste occasionally, it seems to make her loose for a day or so....
How, if the food is formulated to keep things going smoothly through their systems and out without forming hairballs, does it firm things up?

Oh and also its seems like a lot of times when people suggest it for firming up, they suggest Eukenuba (sp) Hairball why that one over say, Royal Canin or Nutro or any other hairball formula?

Zoe's not having hairball problems and I don't even feed a hairball food...so not really looking for advice on what I should feed...just an inquiring mind, ya know?....

because most folks never read the label or look into what those words are...

some think by products are ONLY organs ... it may have more fiber since it is mostly grain...

My Zoey does very well on a mix of nutro natural choice and taste of the wild .... I like both food ingrediants and most improtantly what is NOT in them.... one has higher protein the other has higher fat

she did have hairballs till the natural choice

I think the reason why many people suggest Eukanuba Hairball is because they have had great success with that specific food, I know I have. Not only does this food help firm Kingston's soft stool it, I have seen a decrease in hairballs (I have 4 longhaired cats), and my cat prone to constipation has not had any problems. I have been using this food for 5 months now. My cats stools are not smelly (barely can smell anything at all right after they go) and 2 of the 5 cats have much softer coats.

I used California Natural before this food and it did help Kingston but one of my cats was severly constipated on that food. I also feel the coats on my cats were not near as good as they are now. Poop smell was about the same.

As for Royal Canin I did not have much luck with that food myself. Kingston's stools were a mess. The poops were smelly and it did not improve coat as I was told it would. Royal Canin is an excellence food just not for my cats.

As for by-products, I feel they are an excellent source of nutrition for cats.

Originally Posted by kitytize

I think the reason why many people suggest Eukanuba Hairball is because they have had great success with that specific food, I know I have. Not only does this food help firm Kingston's soft stool it, I have seen a decrease in hairballs (I have 4 longhaired cats), and my cat prone to constipation has not had any problems. I have been using this food for 5 months now. My cats stools are not smelly (barely can smell anything at all right after they go) and 2 of the 5 cats have much softer coats.

I used California Natural before this food and it did help Kingston but one of my cats was severly constipated on that food. I also feel the coats on my cats were not near as good as they are now. Poop smell was about the same.

As for Royal Canin I did not have much luck with that food myself. Kingston's stools were a mess. The poops were smelly and it did not improve coat as I was told it would. Royal Canin is an excellence food just not for my cats.

As for by-products, I feel they are an excellent source of nutrition for cats.

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HEADS feet and the other items that are in by products on a dry or canned food label ARE NOT excellent nutrition.... If it were a wet food and just organs I 10000% agree with you

corn can actually help constipated animals ... just a FYI ...

Fish oil is what is helping the coats

I go off label s and it reads like the grocery store so ... if you want those ingrediants save money ...

Originally Posted by sharky

HEADS feet and the other items that are in by products on a dry or canned food label ARE NOT excellent nutrition.... If it were a wet food and just organs I 10000% agree with you

corn can actually help constipated animals ... just a FYI ...

Click to expand...

With so many people having success with this food I just don't understand why people are so hateful towards a food that seems to work because of by-products. I find it ironic that many top show breeders use this food and Veeshan Granded after being fed this food. I am sure judges noticed her improved coat as did I. Here is a quote I received from Eukanuba about their by-products

"chicken by-product meal may include stuff that people have a cultural aversion to eating; but that doesn't make it a bad source of protein. It is an excellent and complete source of protein because it provides each of the amino acids that are essential to good nutrition for dogs and cats.

Not every chicken by-product meal is as good as ours. Our chicken by-product meal is muscle and internal organs (including intestines) that have been cleaned, dried, cooked, and ground. By industry definition, chicken by-product meal can contain the feet of the chicken – but thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not an acceptable source of protein for us, so our suppliers make every effort to keep the feet out of our chicken by-product meal.

In addition to the superior quality specifications we set for our suppliers, we take additional steps to ensure our chicken by-product meal is the best. We put it through a proprietary screening process to further improve its protein quality. This quality assurance process costs more, but it is part of what makes our chicken by-product meal different.

If you look at how wolves and lions eat in the wild, one of the first things they eat after they've killed their supper is the underbelly of the animal. We may think it's gross to eat intestines, but these ancestors of the dog and cat relish that part of their dinner."

And from my notes

*Good quality* digestible, by-products are a very definite high quality protein. Poultry by-product meal is 58.7% high quality, complete protein (as fed) And 62.8% protein on a dry basis. . Gluten is also in the 60's for protein. Which would you rather have in cat food?

By-products include the internal organs, lungs, spleen, blood and bone. They do not include hair, horns, teeth, hoofs, or feathers except trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice.
Feet(not in Eukanuba as stated above), heads and undeveloped eggs of poultry are included. These parts also contain valuable nutrients. Cats are carnivores. This is all good stuff for them. High quality by-products are loaded with nourishment.

Eukanuba and Iams still do not use gluten in their dry products. Taurine is still very high in these foods without any extra added. This means there is real meat in the product. And proves their by-products are high quality imo. It means that the protein listed is primarily from meat and not gluten or soy.

Meat is high in all the Eukanuba products, because they do not add Taurine or gluten to any of them, and still get a respectable .16% taurine in the Eukanuba products and 34-36% protein.

And there is corn in the Eukanuba Hairball formula. I don't partically like that but corn does seem to have some benefits.

Since I know how by products are delivered to pet food companies I DONT beleive them.feel free to pm me.. it could be that they are using quality organ meats , but not likely ... I also DO NOT like organ meats in dry foods it is a balence issues and MOST natural minded vets say to avoid them in a dry form... wet is different as the moisture level balences perfectly ... Corn being NOT as digestable pushes the hair thru the GI tract ... IMHO I prefer veggie matter of 3-5% as a wild cat would eat .. many in the dog world feed grocery food so that is a mute arguement for me ... Taurine should always be added ,as the analysis is not always on the cooked product and the majority of intial taurine is cooked out ...

Purina told me that their by products do not have beaks,feet,feathers
in them. I see that Eukanuba kitten and adult chicken and rice have
chicken,chicken liver,chicken by products, brewers rice,chicken by products(why again?), fish meal,corn grits(better than whole corn?),chicken fat,beet
pulp,egg,etc
I don't mind by prod as long as they aren't the first ingredient. I'd like my
cats to have pure meat as the first ingred but I do realize in nature that they eat practically the whole animal...usually gut first.yum....
Would this be a decent product if I decide to ever switch from Nutro?
Oh by the way,now that both cat and kitten are on Nutro...the litter box
isn't stinky anymore. YIPPEE!!!!
Eukanuba is kinda expensive tho....more than Nutro!

I have 2 long-haired cats and they have never had a hairball. I brush them everyday or every other day. They eat Nutro Natural Indoor Adult & Nutro Natural Indoor Kitten. For wet foods, there are several with hairball help - Natural Balance's Indoor formula used to be their Hairball formula for example. I bought that gel stuff (the natural, not petroleum) and can't get them to eat it or lick it. I haven't tried mixing it in with their food though. I also buy Temptations Hairball Treats sometimes (they have petroleum though).

To answer your question - I don't know about the poop thing. With all that hairball stuff, their poop seems normal to me. I really don't know why someone would recommend Eukaneuba over Nutro or Royal Canin.

All cats will do well on different forumulas ... otherwise there would NOT be 1000 s of kinds of cat food ...

Royal canin I would use ... I dont like some of the formula s but overall it is a good food... If by products and ground corn dont bother you , I would suggest reading and comparing grocery to something like Eukanuba ( which for the $$ is a Rip IMHO )....

Royal canin in many formulas has some of the highest fatty acid levels commonly found ... nice mix of 6 and 3 ...

Fiber can help some and constipate others... as a whole YES hairballs have more.. but usually only 1-3% or for ave of 3-4 % 20-50% more

Corn grits by AFFCO definition is grd corn... it basically=human grits or chn feed corn

Thanks Sharky...that's more along what I was looking for...after some online research, it looks like more fiber is a common theme.

Would feeding a higher fiber food...the RC Beauty & Fit is 8.something....help the tummy troubles like the Eagle Pack HS? or is that a whole nother ballgame?

I guess what has me wondering is ...will giving the pro and pre biotics ongoing, keep Zoe's system from developing and "kicking in" to do it's own thing by itself? Does that even make sense? I know when we have human babies, the baby diapers are ...well ya know... but as they get older they get more "normal"....would a kitties stomach straighten out normally by itself over time? My guess is probably except like all us creatures, there is always the exception and some need more help than others.

Oh boy...I think I've gone too far here....I'll just duck out a while cause I'm not even making sense to myself anymore!!!

Feeding a higher fiber can help .. but on occation it will make it worse ... yeah I know makes no sense more of a individual thing ... For Zoey reg fiber level is fine and keep s all moving but one food have veggie fibers at the 3-5% of the total volume and the other has sweet potatos ... and BOTH foods have plenty of pro and pre biotics... NO they wont as they are a NORMAL and Natural in the GI tract and in the wild the animals would get them from prey ...

My Gigi needs apple pectin added and slippery elm to keep it all perfect in the colon dept

Yup, I dared to come back in when I saw you had answered....
Thank you so much to everyone for answering my ?s today.... just trial and error I guess.... at least I know now that I won't actually be making the problem worse...if she has to have the HS as a forever thing, I'm okay with that because it really helps her alot....