Nutrition - the Basics

rabernet

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
142
Purraise
29
Location
Buford, GA
I am so confused! Can someone (maybe Sharky) recommend what exactly you want to look for when evaluating foods both dry and wet?

I really want to get Sammy and Lexi on Innova Evo for dry (this would be left out during the day for nibbling - as I plan to go to a mostly wet diet) when I can find it locally as a friend in NH has her cats on that and their coats are thick and shiny and soft and she's very big on providing best nutrition she can. They also own a petstore in Plaistow (Zoo Creatures) and this is a food that they carry.

Can someone breakdown what you want as a minimum on protein, fat, etc in both dry and wet food? I'm going to be visiting some specialty pet stores in the next week to try to find better food than what's at Petsmart.

I was just there looking at nutrition information and completely confused on what I should be looking for when assessing the food. If there's already a link outlining this, could someone guide me there?
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Laureen gave you some good threads...

IMHO I look for low grain ( ie one meat to one grain ratio) say chicken and rice not chicken rice oats barley

EVO is a Very good food but it is often too rich for about 50% of kittys

I prefer to see little to no corn but corn and corn gluten meal aid in UTI health in chicken based foods .... My vet states corn is fine just make sure it is not a main ingredient or the main protein

I avoid chemical preservatives and artificial colors and flavors and also animal by products( ie chn by products... I will use wet with named organ meats like chicken liver
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

rabernet

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
142
Purraise
29
Location
Buford, GA
Thank you both! I had looked over all those prior to posting and yet I'm still confused. So for instance - I was looking at some canned foods today and they were saying 9% crude protein, which seemed low to me.

For instance, say - what should the first five ingredients be (or NOT be) on dry and wet? What's the min protein you should strive for, the max fat content? I'm trying to avoid anything that says meal, but maybe that's not as big a deal as I am thinking? Like vegetable meal I'm trying to avoid, but is chicken meal for example ok?

Or am I just completely overthinking this?

And how do you determine that food is too rich for your kitty?
 

blaise

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
598
Purraise
2
Originally Posted by rabernet

...Can someone breakdown what you want as a minimum on protein, fat, etc in both dry and wet food?...
Five minutes of your time is all that's required to find the answer to that.

Originally Posted by rabernet

...Can someone...recommend what exactly you want to look for when evaluating foods both dry and wet?
My recommendation would be that you take a little more time, and have a read of this article written by a renowned Feline Veterinarian.

Originally Posted by rabernet

...I was just there looking at nutrition information and completely confused on what I should be looking for when assessing the food. If there's already a link outlining this, could someone guide me there?
There is indeed a link for that, too!


I've read through thread after thread where similar questions are asked and "opinions" are offered and....quite frankly, understanding even just the very basics of the information in those links, I'm left scratching my head and asking myself how, on earth, could so-and-so recommend that?

Obviously, the answers we're getting are simply other peoples' opinions and, those opinions will only reflect the science of Feline nutrition to the extent that the poster is himself/herself educated in and knowledgeable of the subject.
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
Originally Posted by BLAISE

Five minutes of your time is all that's required to find the answer to that.



My recommendation would be that you take a little more time, and have a read of this article written by a renowned Feline Veterinarian.



There is indeed a link for that, too!


I've read through thread after thread where similar questions are asked and "opinions" are offered and....quite frankly, understanding even just the very basics of the information in those links, I'm left scratching my head and asking myself how, on earth, could so-and-so recommend that?

Obviously, the answers we're getting are simply other peoples' opinions and, those opinions will only reflect the science of Feline nutrition to the extent that the poster is himself/herself educated in and knowledgeable of the subject.
Very good links...

YES MOST if NOT all of nutrition is still SUBJECTIVE vs OBJECTIVE... NOT enough studies on different diets are done... FOr most a solid dry food ( ie I define this as the best you can afford and KITTY will eat) with wet food is likely a fine diet... NOTE Dry food IMHO is not the best but when you see the stats on lifespan EVEN when medical care is sparse , you see cat life spans are INCREASEING and NO NOT all are using a raw or even a canned diet...

WHat it comes down to is what you can and will do for kitty and what kitty will eat ... ie Raw is great but my semi feral will not eat it so SHOULD I starve her NO I give her what she will eat which is dry food with wet and raw offered ///

I have four animals with FOUR DIFFERENT diets ...
Obviously in my house one food and type does NOT fit all
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

rabernet

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
142
Purraise
29
Location
Buford, GA
Originally Posted by BLAISE

Five minutes of your time is all that's required to find the answer to that.



My recommendation would be that you take a little more time, and have a read of this article written by a renowned Feline Veterinarian.



There is indeed a link for that, too!


I've read through thread after thread where similar questions are asked and "opinions" are offered and....quite frankly, understanding even just the very basics of the information in those links, I'm left scratching my head and asking myself how, on earth, could so-and-so recommend that?

Obviously, the answers we're getting are simply other peoples' opinions and, those opinions will only reflect the science of Feline nutrition to the extent that the poster is himself/herself educated in and knowledgeable of the subject.
Thanks Blaise, I appreciate the links. My searching was primarily on this site, since it seems that there's a great amount of knowledge shared here - I will check those links out as well!
 
Top