What brands of canned food are good?

Hi, again, Keith!

Since cats - like sharks, snakes and birds of prey - are obligate carnivores, any canned product that is grain-, fruit- and vegetable-free and has a high percentage of a named meat (i.e. "turkey" instead of "poultry") is going to be a good choice. That's pretty hard to find, but Nature's Variety Instincts, Evo 95% meat, and some of the Wellness and Natural Balance varieties are a good place to start. A "grain-free canned cat" search on petfooddirect.com will yield a veritable cornucopia of options, and you can conduct a side-by-side analysis of the ingredients and nutritional profiles.

Feline-nutrition.org has a nice article on deciphering pet food labels under their Nutrition section that offers additional insight into choosing different products.

I'd recommend feeding your kitty a rotation of foods; this will keep him from becoming fixated on any one product (a problem if they change or stop producing it) and will protect him from potential quality control issues by diluting them. Before I switched to raw, I was feeding my cats 21 different varieties.

Best regards!

AC

I have found Iams and Chicken Soup For The Pet Lovers soul are very good brands. I also use/used Fancy Feast as well.

Like Auntie Crazy suggested, learning to read labels is a good start. Once you know what you're looking for, you can decide what food is best for your cat that's within your budget. There are cheaper brands that have some decent food. If money isn't really an issue, there are tons of more expensive brands that offer very high quality food.

And yeah, offering a wide variety is good. Many cats will get bored of the same food day in and day out. I feed 5-7 different brands, flavors and textures. Keeps them happy.

I look for ones with the most meat possible and as little grains (preferably none) as possible. I also avoid any fish.. I've found that hard to do since most formulas (i.e. "turkey", or "beef") actually have some fish in them if you read the label. I avoid fish because it can cause UTI issues and one of my cats has been prone to those problems.

That said, non-fish, non-grain foods can be hard to find and I've even found that my cats won't eat, or really don't care for, some of the expensive all meat one protien source canned foods (like the EVO and by nature 95% meat line). So....I feed a rotation too, but use a lot of Friskies "special diet" pate formula canned...in particular the beef/liver and beef/chicken pate ones...These DO have by-products as the major ingredient, but at least that's better than a lot of grains like some canned foods (and they're waay cheaper than other kinds too). I also feed natural balance, halo, merrick, and the afore-mentioned 95% meat cans.

Artgecko

Nature's.Variety Instinct, EVO, Wellness grain-free, are good brands. Cats arent really natural fish eaters but it has been suggested that fish-based foods aren't recommended because of the high magnesium which has been said to cause crystals. If fish is down on the list of ingredients, I wouldnt worry too much about it. The thing about fish for me is the amount of mercury and the like that's in it. I do feed fish-based foods once a.week but I try to limit them.

I'll add on to what everybody else said by pointing out that Friskies is a 'cat junk food' as well.

Good advice generally speaking, but if your budgeted for friskies dry food, I don't know how helpful some of these expensive options would be.

In my opinion, you want the best quality protein sources you can afford, with consideration for proper hydration taken into account.

As shown in a recent thread, Blue Wilderness Duck canned is 780% more expensive than Blue Wilderness Duck dry, so a mixed diet is likely going to yield you the best bang for your buck.

Assuming you aren't prepared to spend ten times or more what you were previously, for half their diet I would rotate various reasonably priced mid-tier wet foods such as the big 13oz jars of Innova Cat&Kitten food, Nutro Max Cat 5oz, and Authority 5oz. For the other half of their calories I'd recommend Purina One Beyond since its one of the better of the cheap kibbles from what I recall. Always buy the huuuge bags, as its a really big saving and if your cat doesn't like the food Petsmart will take back opened bags (well, as long as you don't bring it back almost empty heh).

Its going to be more expensive than what you're used to, but far better protein sources then that junk friskies wet, and waaaaaaay more affordable than an all grain-free wet food diet.

I'd like to add on that unless your cat has allergies, I've found that looking for grain-free varieties is a waste of time. It's better to approach from the perspective of keeping corn, soy and dyes out, and protein at the highest level you can afford.

^ Exactly that. A little potato or brown rice isn't a big deal, but high protein/fat and named meats as first ingredients are important. I also agree that fish is ok, but limit the intake so avoid "fish" named foods and stick to ones that have fish as a say 5th or 6th ingredient.

For a cost comparison w/ my Petsmart's prices:
(half Innova 13oz cans and half Beyond bag)
Innova 518kcal/can @ $1.75 a can = 296 kcal/$
Beyond 1787 kcal/lb x 13lbs @ $23 = 1010kcal/$
Average: ~650kcal/$ and a cat usually needs around 300kcal a day or less, so 46 cents a day or $14 a month if that helps compare costs to what you were feeding.

To the poster who suggested homemade cat food, great idea but the op may not have the time to cook for his/her cat. Unless you know a lot about cat nutrition and their requirements, one runs the risk of feeding an unbalanced and incomplete diet.

Food allergies on cats are typically to protein. That is why novel proteins are suggested for cats with food allergies. Auntie Crazy suggested to feed a variety which is a good idea to help avoid allergies. Cats don't need grains, watch for those pouches as they contain a lot of starch to make the gravy.

And of course, feed according to your budget.

If you want to send me a PM with your email address, I have a chart with about 25 differant cat food brands on it, that have the carb amounts on a dry matter basis. It only is for brands of wet food. Carb amounts is something you also want to base your food choice on, as some of the high quality brands of wet food have a suprisingly high amount of carbs, so it is best to avoid those.

The reason for needing an email address is because that is the only way most companies would let me share it. Apparently, sharing it via email is much better than sharing it on a forum

That being said, I don't think Before Grain was mentioned? That is another good brand, as are the regular Merrick flavors.

That sucks they tie your hands like that.

With this tool, you can calculate the carb content of any food, wet or dry, but be sure to add ALL ash and mineral content (calcium, magnesium, etc) or you'll get an inflated carb #:
http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

Since I don't work for the industry, I can link this w/o getting in trouble heh!
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

Its a bit dated from 2008, but the ones I've checked have still been the same.

Getting their permission to share it was hard enough. They don't want their "private" information given out. The odd thing is that the brands that produce low quality foods (like 9Lives and Meow Mix) encouraged me to finish the chart - and said that it would be of great help to cat owners. They were very glad to help.

However, Wellness (they also make Holistic Select & Eagle Pack) told me that I couldn't share their information. Why? According to them "they are a very small company and prefer to have direct contact with those buying their food". Seriously. Natura also wouldn't allow me to share it...they said they "don't want their food to be compared with other companies in that manner".

The carbohydrate amounts actually vary a lot, I tried using the calculator you linked to, however it gives quite the variation of numbers compared to the carbohydrate information that I got directly from the companies.

Hmm, well one definite problem is that not all companies list all minerals or even ash content (its often missing on dry food for example and you have to email or check the site). Some things are also listed as minimum, and others as maximum, rather than 'as fed' realistic numbers. We need to get a petition going to the AAFCO to require that maximum carbohydrate content be posted on nutrition labels!

Good luck with that one The third paragraph is where you'll need the luck.

http://www.petfood.aafco.org/

AAFCO does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet foods in any way.

AAFCO establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods, and it is the pet food company's responsibility to formulate their products according to the appropriate AAFCO standard.

It is the state feed control official's responsibility in regulating pet food to ensure that the laws and rules established for the protection of companion animals and their custodians are complied with so that only unadulterated, correctly and uniformly labeled pet food products are distributed in the marketplace and a structure is maintained for orderly commerce.

I would cry tears of joy if I ever saw carbs listed on a can.

My personal criteria for canned cat food selection is that it does NOT contain any BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, carrageenan, or any type of fruit or vegetable whole, starch or gluten (corn, wheat, rice, soy, barley, etc.) and lists a muscle meat as the primary ingredient. By "muscle meat" I mean the first ingredient listed should be something like chicken, turkey, salmon, etc. and not "chicken by-products", or "chicken meal" or even "water necessary to..." which I see on a lot of canned food as the primary ingredient.

Now some people will say that you should avoid any type of "by-product" all together, but foods that do not have any by-products are generally much higher in fat content than foods that do contain by-products. For this reason I don't mind by-products as long as they are not the primary ingredient.

For instance the first 7 ingredients of Fancy Feast Cod, Sole & Shrimp Feast are: "Cod, liver, meat by-products, fish, fish broth, sole, shrimp", now compare that to first 7 ingredients of 9-Lives Seafood Platter: "Meat by-products, water sufficient for processing, poultry by-products, fish, chicken, calcium carbonate, guar gum". Notice that in the Fancy Feast by-products don't appear until the third ingredient, and good muscle and organ meat are 5 of the first 7 ingredients. Now looking at the 9-Lives you see that by-products are the very first ingredient and then water is the next ingredient, followed by more by-product. This means 9-Lives is a much lower quality food. Also every flavor of 9-Lives I have seen contains carrageenan which can cause inflammation in your cat.

One more thing just because one flavor of a particular brand is good, does NOT mean that all flavors are just as good. For instance some flavors of Fancy Feast do have by-products as a first ingredient OR contain corn, soy, or other plant based protein which is not very good for your cat. I do not buy these flavors. The bottom line is learn to read the ingredients and label information to make smart choices that you can afford.

Chicken meal is actually the chicken with the water taken out, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
I noticed you don't list artificial colors or flavors as reason to not get a food.

I won't list full ingredients but:
Fancy Feast Cod, Sole & Shrimp Feast
Cod, liver, meat by-products, fish, fish broth, sole, shrimp, artificial and natural flavors, guar gum, added color (Red 3 and other color)

What kind of meat? What kind of fish?
Why bother with artifical flavor or colors, things that can build up in the system and destroy the liver.
What does a cat care what color her food is?
Overall this is not a terrible food but these few things I avoid.

I want named meat sources, I'm not bothered so much about by-products, as long as I know the animal it comes from, same for the fish, not all fish is created equally.

Unfortunately, the term "meal" can mean much more than just a meat minus the water. Per Dr. Hofve's Selecting a Good Commercial Pet Food article on her site, LittleBigCat.com:

Rendering (basically a process of slow cooking) produces two major items: animal fat or tallow, and a processed product usually called “meat meal,” “meat and bone meal,” or “by-product meal.” (Due to historical quirks in naming, the term “by-product meal” refers to poultry, while the equivalent mammalian product is called “meat and bone meal.”)

Animals that are dead, dying, diseased, or disabled prior to reaching the slaughterhouse are known as “downers” or “4D” animals. These are usually condemned, in whole or in part, for human consumption, and are generally sent for rendering along with other by-products, parts and items that are unwanted or unsuitable for human use – such as out-of-date supermarket meats (along with their plastic wrappers), cut-away cancerous tissue, and fetal tissue (which is very high in hormones).

And then she goes on further to state:

Rendered ingredients vary greatly in quality. A few rendering facilities are closely associated with slaughterhouses, which are in turn connected with feedlots or poultry farms. These “captive” rendering plants are more likely to produce good quality, relatively pure meals. Such meals are typically designated with the name of the source animal, such as “chicken meal.”

So a "named" meal has a higher chance of being of decent quality.

LittleBigCat.com is full of interesting and informative articles that make for fascinating reading!

AC

I see where you are coming from with the whole by-products thing because technically cats would eat All of their prey and not just the meat, but the problem is that we don't know What is in the by-products. Is it animals that were already dead? It is pets? Is it zoo animals? How much of what? They really can get away with almost anything by using that term.

Also Arlyn is right, there's nothing wrong with chicken meal, it just means it's been concentrated so if you see: Lamb, chicken meal, corn, etc; chicken is actually the main source of protein in that food.

What bothers me about the fancy feast is the lack of Named sources. It says liver is second (which is too much if I'm not mistaken), but not from what animal it came from. (Or animals.)
Meat by-products basically means anything under the sun.
Fish means any kind of fish. And fish broth.. well I'm sure I know what it means but I'm not sure I want to know.

By-products are more or less everything under the sun short of feces, and is more loosely regulated. These are generally lower nutrition and higher ash, since its not just organs but feet and heads with beaks and a lot of blood and bone and what have you. I also don't believe there is really much nutrition in most of the organs, and while an exception is the liver (vitA, iron, chol) for example, I'd rather have "liver" as an actual named ingredient.

I understand wanting "named" by-products and liver but lets step back a bit.

Take a look at Binky's Cat food nutrition info.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

Look at all of these so called "premium" brands most people recommend such as Wellness, Nutro or what ever. Nearly all of these have protein in the 30% range while fat content is in the 50%-60% range depending on flavor.

http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodOld.html
The Fancy Feast Cod, Sole, & Shrimp feast on the other hand is 52% protein and only 46% fat content.

This is why my personal philosophy is that unknown source MEAT based protein is better for my cat than known source meat based fat.

I believe you are mistaken. Binky's cat food chart does not list the foods on a dry matter basis, which is how I believe you think it is. What it lists is the percentege of calories that comes from protein/fat/carbs. Fat is much higher in calories than protein, so it is listed much higher according to that chart.

Yes this is per kcal. I should have been more specific. I think Protein adds 3.5-4 calories per gram while fat adds 8.5-9 calories per gram. The fact still remains that the premium foods have a much higher fat to protein ratio than the mid-grade foods that use by-products. This means the cats will be taking in more calories from fat than from proteins in those premium foods were as in the foods that do contain by-products (but NOT any grains) allows for a higher calorie from protein intake.

However, you are also looking at just the guarenteed analysis. All it has is the miniumum and maxiumum amounts that are allowed in the food. In the case of Merrick, for example, they list the protein as 10% guareteed. However, I asked them for the as fed basis for their foods, and some of their flavors are actually 14% protein on an as fed basis.

As Auntie Crazy said, cats should have a fairly high amount of their food as fat. Just as there are no special mice in the wild for kittens vs. cats, there are no fat free mice either

Scott, believe me when I say that when I first dived into cat food nutrition and tried to understand everything at once, I really got my wires crossed. I had the same kind of enthusiasm you've got right now; a mix of horror and new-found determination to spread the word to everyone you know. But just believe me when I say that we know what we are talking about when we say that these premium brands are indeed better than foods such as fancy feast. It may come out that they are getting more calories from the fat, but that is perfectly okay. And just as you don't want to feed grains/corn as a protein source, you also do not want to feed meat waste products aka meat by-products if you can avoid it.
Like I said, I see myself in your enthusiasm, but for now, it may be better to focus on helping yourself because you don't want to end up giving false information like I did and feeling guilty that you may have lead people astray.

I'd like to also add that chemical colors and flavors are very bad too.

Chemicals build up in the liver and kidneys, and can to lead early renal failure.

As I said previously, I'd rather feed a food with by-products than feed one with chemical preservatives, colors or flavors.
By-products in this case are the lesser of two evils.

I only feed foods without any of these so I don't have to pick a lesser of evils.

I don't either, it was just an example