Fancy Feast Fish & Shrimp a Great Bargain?

I've been researching cat food. Surprised I never did this before in the 14 years I've had cats, but I suppose I'm in the majority. Just like anything one can get as picky as they want about something and in my opinion you start to encounter the law of diminishing returns. I think a lot of pet food companies are profiting from psychological guilt that owners aren't giving fluffy the "absolute best" food possible. After all they are animals, not people. I can see some people cringing at that statement, don't get me wrong, I'm a pet lover, all my pets are very healthy as confirmed by annual Vet checkups and I had already fed them good food, not the cheap supermarket junk.

If anyone's curious, for dry food I have gone with the Natural Balance Premium. The ingredients and nutrition make-up are very very similar to the other premium brands, but at closer to $2/lbs instead of $3/lbs. Their wet food is also excellent and I'm currently doing some taste test comparing Natural Balance with Avoderm as both are about $1.39 per 6 oz. can at the store although I probably could get them for less online somewhere. If I have any issues with these, I'll probably go ahead and spend a little more and go with the Halo brand which seems to have the least issues in premium cat food of all brands I've read about. Wellness Core and Innova Evo were my other choices but based on the ingredients and nutrition, they don't seem to offer any major benefit over the bit cheaper Natural Balance.

With that rant... I want to put out a question about Fancy Feast Fish & Shrimp. I think this may be a diamond in the rough. The premium brand wet foods typically have minimum protein of about 10%. Fancy Feast Fish & Shrimp has minimum 17.5% and the general objective with cat food (for a healthy cat) is to maximize the protein and minimize the grains/fillers/by-products. When I read the ingredients I was surprised this flavor has much better ingredient make-up than the other flavors. The only concern I can see is the Sodium Nitrite but it is the 9th ingredient after the Vitamin A an E supplements and if I fed my cat this, I would alternate it with something else anyway. The cost is 60% the cost of Avoderm or Natural Balance but that is comparing the 3 oz. cans. There is no 6 oz. for Fancy Feast so if you compare price per ounce with the 6 oz. Avoderm or Natural Balance, it is $0.24/ounce versus $0.17/ounce so only 30% cheaper, not 60% as I buy the 6 oz. when available. I suppose the only drawback may be they had a class action suit previously but I read it and don't think it would apply to this flavor. Any thoughts?

Per http://hubpages.com/hub/Fancy_Feast_Fla ... rimp_Feast

Fancy Feast Cat Food Ratings: Total Score = 8/10
Fancy Feast Pet Food Danger Gauge Rating 90% Safe (Questionably Safe For Pets)

Fancy Feast Cat Food Review:
Fancy Feast Fish and Shrimp Feast Goumet Cat Food tested very well in this cat food review. Not all flavors of Fancy Feast Cat Food are created equal.

SODIUM NITRITE - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Used in human and veterinary medicine as a vasodilator, a bronchodilator, an intestinal relaxant or a laxative, and an antidote for cyanide poisoning.

Ingredients:

OCEAN FISH, FISH BROTH, SHRIMP, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, VEGETABLE OIL, GUAR GUM, VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS (E, A, D3), SODIUM NITRITE (TO PROMOTE COLOR RETENTION), ZINC SULFATE, THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), MANGANESE SULFATE, RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT.

Guaranteed Analysis %:Moisture (maximum) 78 Crude Protein (minimum) 17.5 Crude Fat (minimum) 2 Crude Fiber (maximum) 1.5

Well after reading more about Sodium Nitrite, I think I will pass on FF Fish & Shrimp, although I'm confident an occasional can here and there would pose no real risk as this additive is common in a lot of cat food and they wouldn't put it in if there was a clear link to that ingredient and issues. But why take the risk to save a few bucks.

It may sound good on paper, but some cats have issues with fish, especially if they're prone to UTI's or urinary crystals. I don't know if any of my cats have those problems since they won't eat anything fish flavored---unless it's the tuna fish off my plate.

Solid Gold is actually cheaper here than NB so I switched to that. I liked the NB but Attitude and Nuts seem to be doing equally well on the Solid Gold which is actually grain free. Not that I have anything against the grains in NB, they aren't like corn or anything.

Mine do get occasional FF. Not very often though. I did give them 2 cans(they usually get just one 3 oz can to eat) of the tuna feast after their baths though. Peace offering.

Mine don't appear to be prone to UTIs or crystals and they don't seem to have issues with fish but as I said it is an occasional treat not a daily thing.

Taryn

We never feed our cats any fish based foods (dry or canned). I stick to chicken, beef, lamb, or venison. The only time they get a bite or two of fish is when we have Talipa ourselves for dinner.

Male cats can have more issues with UTI when eating fish based foods.

Originally Posted by GoldyCat

It may sound good on paper, but some cats have issues with fish, especially if they're prone to UTI's or urinary crystals. I don't know if any of my cats have those problems since they won't eat anything fish flavored---unless it's the tuna fish off my plate.

Click to expand...

The ash content on this particular flavor is 3.0%. So far I only have one that's had a UTI and crystals (and he gets his special food for this), but I now prefer to keep everyone on lower ash and magnesium foods. In general your pate foods will have higher ash content than a lot of the gravy types do, too.

As for the Halo, it's newer a food. That is part is why you don't see much bad about it.

Everything in moderation is a good rule to follow.

I try very hard to feed my cats well. My old guy, Jack, eats Wellness and Avoderm canned and is doing well. He likes dry food but I don't let him have it because he has weight issues.

My middle girl, Lily, is my junk food eater. The only canned food she'll eat with anything resembling gusto is Friskies sliced chicken w/gravy and even with that she just drinks the gravy and leaves the meat, which Jack graciously finishes for her. I've finally switched her over from Purina One to Kirklands and she's going to stay on that, with as much canned as I can get in her (a TB a day, maybe). She's picky and I've tried tons of different foods for her.

My young one, Boo, will eat any dry you put in front of her but won't even lick canned food. Her favorite food by far is Evo Salmon and Herring. I don't like that it is fish, but she goes nuts over it and I feed her either that mixed with Kirlands or Acana Grasslands mixed with Kirklands.

Back to the original post - I'd feed the FF, but probably not every day.

I plan rotating canned food between 2 or 3 flavors/brands, maximum one of which would be fish as I've read about the potential issues. The rule of thumb about moderation is a good one.

I subsequently found another study in which a cat was given 36mg sodium nitrite (a high amount) for 105 days every day, not issues. I think the FF Fish&Shrimp would of course be fine as an ocassional treat and ignore that owner ingredient guilt based on over analysis of ingredients. Use common sense mixed with some basic knowledge.

I do Not go by anyone s guide but this is due to years of research and having my own ideas ( plus a background in human nutrition)...

3% ash is this per the label or the dry matter analysis...??? If it is per label, that = nearly a 10-12% dry matter ... Eek comes to mind

I gave FF to my fosters and then to my cats ... all got sick but sodium nitrate would nearly land me in the hospital ... likely this is fine in a rotation with non sensitive cats...

Originally Posted by consultant

Wellness Core and Innova Evo were my other choices but based on the ingredients and nutrition, they don't seem to offer any major benefit over the bit cheaper Natural Balance.

Click to expand...

The final word though, is if they will eat it. Tolly is thriving, really really thriving, on the Innova flex chicken and brown rice stew. It is $1.15 per 3 oz can, but he is doing so well it could be $2 a can and I would continue to feed it to him.

(pending whether it gets messed with after the buy out )

he won't eat any wellness or NB or any other flavor of Innova. He ate Fancy Feast Grilled Salmon exclusively for the first 7 years of his life. Then the melamine poisoning happened and I took him off it, because it contained wheat gluten. It has taken almost three years for me to find this Innova flavor that he will eat with any consistency.

I won't feed Fancy Feast at all any more, though I used to speak very highly of it and defend it to those who called it "kitty crack". I've become a bit of a "food snob" after all

Originally Posted by otto

I won't feed Fancy Feast at all any more, though I used to speak very highly of it and defend it to those who called it "kitty crack". I've become a bit of a "food snob" after all

Click to expand...

The best thing about Fancy Feast is the fact that it's so palatable. I won't usually feed it for fear of my cats liking it too much to the point where they turn up their nose at better stuff. We've had fosters and mothers before though who have had some upper respiratory issues and have not been able to smell their food (extra scary when they're still nursing kittens), and Fancy Feast has been a life saver in those situations.

Originally Posted by sharky

3% ash is this per the label or the dry matter analysis...??? If it is per label, that = nearly a 10-12% dry matter ... Eek comes to mind

Click to expand...

From their site it seems like it's 3% ash as fed (max). With 78% moisture (max), that means a maximum of about 13.6% ash (dry matter).

Edit:
For what it's worth though, the ash content seems pretty well on par with a lot of their offerings. I clicked on a bunch and the percentages ranged from 2.5% (mostly gravy containing flavors) to 3.7% for the flaked trout flavor.

My boys love this and get it on occasion. I do have FF in my wet food feeding rotation so they don't get bored. I use Nutro pate and chunks n gravy, Authority and FF. They get Taste of the Wild as their dry with EVO herring and salmon dry... and freeze dried chicken as treats. I tried all the fancy stuff, they won't eat it. Sometimes they will eat BG 96 percent beef.

Originally Posted by wmarcello

From their site it seems like it's 3% ash as fed (max). With 78% moisture (max), that means a maximum of about 13.6% ash (dry matter).

Edit:
For what it's worth though, the ash content seems pretty well on par with a lot of their offerings. I clicked on a bunch and the percentages ranged from 2.5% (mostly gravy containing flavors) to 3.7% for the flaked trout flavor.

Click to expand...

yeah ... figure a regular dry normally is 5-8% ... wet is usually 8-11 on ave ... the moisture does aid in break down