Shocked at ammount of meat in dry foods

I was just at the supermarket picking up some wine, and decided to go down the cat food isle.

I wanted to check the quantity of meat in dry cat foods.

I compared Iams, Whiskers, Felix and Go Cat (as these were all that are available in the supermarker) and was shocked to see that there is as little as 4% meat products in most of them. And that is 4% meat products, not actual real meat.
Iams was the best out of the 4 with over 29% real chicken in their dried food.

It just hit it home to me at just how bad the supermarket brands can be. And how the food itself is pretty much empty of goodness.

I am now home, and have checked everything in my cupboard as I have build up a huge collection of random wet and dry food makes that I have picked up on the odd occasion when we suddenly run out of the good stuff without knowing. And I will be disposing off the bad ones showing poor figures on their contents.

I feel guilty of having fed Nigel the small ammounts of cheap stuff that I have in the past, and even though I have always known that the more expensive vet approved foods are obviously the best to feed, I will be feeding Nigel only the good stuff from now on.

Would you agree with this - or do you think that this is an over-reaction to foods that many people buy and may feet their own cats on successfully for years and years?

I think the cheaper ones were supplement foods for farmers barn cats. The barn cats hunted and ate more natural meat and the dry food was there in case the hunting was not too good that day.

Then people brought the cats inside and still kept feeding them the cheap food. While cats have lived long lives on some of the cheap foods, overall quality of research, etc. has produced a better food product.

You still have to read the labels

Originally Posted by davecat

I was just at the supermarket picking up some wine, and decided to go down the cat food isle.

I wanted to check the quantity of meat in dry cat foods.

I compared Iams, Whiskers, Felix and Go Cat (as these were all that are available in the supermarker) and was shocked to see that there is as little as 4% meat products in most of them. And that is 4% meat products, not actual real meat.
Iams was the best out of the 4 with over 29% real chicken in their dried food.

It just hit it home to me at just how bad the supermarket brands can be. And how the food itself is pretty much empty of goodness.

I am now home, and have checked everything in my cupboard as I have build up a huge collection of random wet and dry food makes that I have picked up on the odd occasion when we suddenly run out of the good stuff without knowing. And I will be disposing off the bad ones showing poor figures on their contents.

I feel guilty of having fed Nigel the small ammounts of cheap stuff that I have in the past, and even though I have always known that the more expensive vet approved foods are obviously the best to feed, I will be feeding Nigel only the good stuff from now on.

Would you agree with this - or do you think that this is an over-reaction to foods that many people buy and may feet their own cats on successfully for years and years?

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I agree, I don't think you are over reacting. However, now that you want to give your kitty better quality food, it is very important that you switch him over slowly, very slowly, 7 - 10 days at least, so his system can get used to the new stuff. Also because he is used to eating the lower quality stuff, he may not like the new stuff right away. And if he has been eating dry, he may not recognize the canned as being food right away, so he needs time to learn to like it, since the smell and texture is different, and trust me he will

At the beginning you will end up wasting a lot of cans until you find the one he likes, but it will be worth it. Cats can be incredibly stubborn and will starve themselves rather than eat something they don't like, so be careful. Never let him go longer than 12 hours and at the very most 24 without food.

Here are some links with information you may find helpful:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/?action=...needcannedfood

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Do...ne_on_Dry_Food

If you need more help, don't hesitate to ask.

Cats usually have more of a problem switching the dry foods then the canned. That's why I have 3 different brands of canned food and about 5-6 different "flavors". They are mixed up and the cats get a new can every other day.

As GoldenKitty says, switching dry food can be more of an issue than wet food for cats. Having said that, not all cats will have a problem. Our two have been switched to better dry foods at least twice and I switched abruptly with no issues whatsoever. Ours also can eat any wet food (providing they like them ) with no problems.

Sharky is our resident expert when it comes to food issues, so if you do a search for her posts she has lots of fabulous information on the merits of the different brands of cat food.

I have always fed him a mixture of dry and wet food since bringing him home

But am thinking of going more to the dry stuff, and giving wet stuff as a treat every so often, as all the wet stuff I have found is not as nutritional as the decent dry stuff I buy.

He does like the wet food, but jumps at the iams dry food when I put it down.

My friend who is a local vet will be popping round sometime soon and I will get her to help me pick out a decent wet food if she thinks its nessecary as I haven't found any that I would like to feed him regulary yet.

Edit: I will do a search for sharky's food info to get a better idea of the choices out there.

Actually wet is better. We are feeding Max Cat, Iams Beef and Natural Balance - all very good foods.

Remember the percent is the total in the entire bag. I would imagine ounce for ounce that canned really is more protein then in the dry.

Wet food is a better diet for kitties. As more vets become more food savvy they are seeing that and recommending wet food.

I went through many brands of wet before I finally found one that our spoiled cats would eat - that is Merricks. Even then, they won't eat any of the seafood or fish flavours so they get Granny's Pot Pie and Thanksgiving Day Dinner rotated every other day.

I also switched to Orijen dry because I believe it is a quality food.

Wet food is far better for them, I would rather feed poor to medium quality wet food than premium dry! They need the moisture, cats are adapted to life in arid climates as this is where they originate from and don't have a high thirst drive, they expect to get a high percentage of moisture in their diet. Feeding mostly dry longterm can result in kidney and urinary tract problems.

I am in the UK and I can help with recommendations!

The best dry foods available are Royal Canin and James Wellbeloved. These are readily available from Pets@Home. I wouldn't feed either without at least one meal of wet food a day though, because they need the moisture content from wet food.

In terms of wet, the best that is available in supermarkets and most petshops is Hi-Life (which is a complementary wet food so shouldn't be the main diet but good fed half and half with a good quality dry or complete wet food) or Nature's Menu which is a complete food with no supplements needed. Hi-Life and Nature's Menu are available in some large Tesco hypermarkets and Pets@Home and contain 60% and 70% named meat content respectively.

But may I recommend www.zooplus.co.uk - if you can order online then this is a mail order supplier that offers a good range of great quality wet food from Britain and other European countries, and it's good value for money too.

I order from zooplus about once a month and I particularly like Bozita, Almo Nature, Applaws, Cosma, Schessir, and Animonda Carny. This is a selection from their mid range and premium range wet foods. They also supply the dry foods I mentioned above as well as treats, toys, beds, cat trees etc.!

You will find a much better selection of food available through mail order than in the shops, and a good quality wet food such as those I've mentioned will be the best possible diet for your cat

ETA: And don't throw away your pouches and tins of poor quality wet food - take them to your local cat shelter, they are always in need and anything is better than nothing, they will be grateful for them

I agree with what everyone is saying, you are totally correct, there are some NASTY foods out there. But please, instead of tossing the unopened food, take it to the local shelter for cats who need it.