is her diet ok?

i have a lovely little kitten who is about 4 months old.
i live in germany, and cat food and the way the nutrition facts are labelled are different here.
each day, she has 100g (3.5 oz) of canned food.
the ingredients are:
meat
meat by-products
minerals
plant by-products
the nutrition breakdown:
moisture 80%
raw protein 10%
fat 7%
ash 2%
fiber 0.3%

all of the american websites break down the meat/protein differently, not including the moisture content, so it has me a little confused.

on top of her can of wet food, she eats about 60g (2.1 oz) of kitten dry food per day. its nutrition facts are
37% protein
13% fat
7% ash
1.5% fiber
and 380 kcal per 100g

she is extremely active, and goes on 1 hour leash-walks outside, climbing trees and playing chase-the-bugs each day.

this food is extrememly affordable, and i can buy it at the supermarket on the corner.

is this appropriate nutrition for a kitten?
i work all day, so she is alone for 9 hours. i like her having the dry food when i am not home, because she is still growing and likes to eat more often.

thanks!

Does the ingredient list Literally say "Meat, meat by-products, minerals, etc" or does it say "chicken, chicken by-products, vitamin B, Vitamin C, taurine, etc"?

The percentages are Really great. Almost no carbs at all.

What websites are you visiting? All should list moisture as it's required. Does it not list the percentages on the back of the package?

The dry food looks pretty good too, but it's hard to say without the moisture content.

Usually supermarket food is not very nutritious however, because it's not sold by people who specialize in animal nutrition.

If you would Like her to be on wet while you are gone, you can put out one fresh meal when you leave and another frozen meal for her to eat later.

Originally Posted by Minka

Does the ingredient list Literally say "Meat, meat by-products, minerals, etc" or does it say "chicken, chicken by-products, vitamin B, Vitamin C, taurine, etc"?

The percentages are Really great. Almost no carbs at all.

What websites are you visiting? All should list moisture as it's required. Does it not list the percentages on the back of the package?

The dry food looks pretty good too, but it's hard to say without the moisture content.

Usually supermarket food is not very nutritious however, because it's not sold by people who specialize in animal nutrition.

If you would Like her to be on wet while you are gone, you can put out one fresh meal when you leave and another frozen meal for her to eat later.

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it literally says, translated from german: meat and animal byproducts, and minerals
it lists vitamin e 30mg/kg and vitamin d3 as 200 IE/kg


the dry food has 8% moisture content.
i googled again. the laws about animal food are different here, and not everything is on the package.

Could you give a link to the website or tell us the name of the food? If it really just says "Meat, animal by-products, minerals" on the back of the can, that's really gross. X___X

That's a bummer the laws are different. :[

Originally Posted by Minka

Could you give a link to the website or tell us the name of the food? If it really just says "Meat, animal by-products, minerals" on the back of the can, that's really gross. X___X

That's a bummer the laws are different. :[

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the name of the food is edeka domino junior menue erstmahlzeit mit gefluegel
here is the website of the company making it, allthough the exact kind i have is not listed
http://www.edeka.de/EDEKA/Content/Ei...iernahrung.jsp

but how much does it matter which kind of meat is in it? isn't the important thing that she is eating meat?

Well, in the U.S., if it doesn't say what kind of meat, it can include all sorts of nasty things, just all the waste they pitched in. A named meat source is usually higher quality. But I don't know about the situation in Germany.

What are the ingredients on the dry food? Is meat listed first?

Originally Posted by suzygoblin

the name of the food is edeka domino junior menue erstmahlzeit mit gefluegel
here is the website of the company making it, allthough the exact kind i have is not listed
http://www.edeka.de/EDEKA/Content/Ei...iernahrung.jsp

but how much does it matter which kind of meat is in it? isn't the important thing that she is eating meat?

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Is this it right here on the third row, last food? The one with two kittens? http://www.edeka.de/EDEKA/Content/Ei...nsortiment.jsp

It doesn't matter what species, no, but in the US we have a big problem with cat food being made with the leftovers and waste of human food production.. The 'meat' found in most cat foods here is far from what you think of when you think of grocery store meat. It's feet and beaks and intestines and not much good muscle meat. Unfortunately, I know nothing of production in Germany, so I can't say for sure what is good or bad. All I know is, if I saw a label in the US that said 'crude protein, crude fat, fiber and minerals' I would fall over and faint in horror.

Not to steer you away from this forum or anything, but it may do you some good to join a forum from people living in Deutschland, because they should have a better idea of how to find out what ingredients are in that food, and find out more about whether cat food there is leftover meat or not. Then you can let us know what those ingredients are and we can give our opinions.

Willkommen!

I've googled it, and the only thing I've found out is that the store brand is made by varying producers, which means the quality may be inconsistent. "Mit Geflügel" simply means that it contains poultry, not that poultry is the main ingredient. German supermarket brands also frequently consist of meat scraps. If you understand German, I'd recommend you read Katzen würden Mäuse kaufen: Schwarzbuch Tierfutter

Are you familiar with zooplus.de? They have good quality food without by-products at reasonable prices, e.g., almo nature, Applaws, Bozita, Porta 21, Cosma (store brand) and Schesir in wet, Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Acana and Grau in dry. Those wet food brands should be fed along with dry. They also sell good litter. The site has customer reviews and forums. If you want English reviews, take a look at their UK site: http://www.zooplus.co.uk/

Some people recommend the Aldi Nord store brand "Lux", which is inexpensive. I don't know whether it's available as kitten food, though; you'd have to check.

thanks for the info!
i am american, and have only lived in germany for 5 months.
i prefer my internet in english.

growing up my cats ate dry feed only, and i never thought about nutrition.
now with my new baby, i want to do it better.

i am honestly not interested in her having the very best nutrition ever.
the 100g packages of the mystery meat food are 30 cents.
almo nature is 1.13 per 100g
i would need a very good reason to pay almost 4 times as much.


to go get pet food, i would have to take some combination of bus, tram, subway and train, and then carry everything home. round trip would take 1-3 hours, depending on where in berlin it is.

if there is something really wrong with my kitty's diet, i would make the effort.
if choosing other food would just be the very very best thing, but what she eats now is just fine, it is simply not worth it to me.

After doing a little more digging, I found a German cat forum where the Edeka food was discussed: Katzenfutter Edeka Without citing any sources, some posters claim that the brand contains sugar, is very grain-heavy, and that the "meat" consists of udders, fur, hooves, beaks, feathers, tumors, glands, organs, etc..

Are you sure there isn't an Aldi near you? That's a box store, very cheap, and the Lux brand doesn't have sugar and contains real meat. How about Lidl (also a box store)? Its Opticat would be a step up and is probably even cheaper than the Edeka brand.

Let me put it this way: with the food you are feeding, you have no idea what's even in it.
It could contain any sort of animal parts: brains, feet, intestines, diseased animals or euthanized pets.
It could contain soy which can cause thyroid issues which would be life long and require medication every day and bloodwork every 6 months.
It could contain menadione which can cause liver failure, immune system weakness, anemia and allergic reactions.
It could contain dyes which can cause tumors of the brain and kidneys.

If you are inquiring about changing foods because you want to feed something better, I would Not feed this food.

Originally Posted by suzygoblin

the name of the food is edeka domino junior menue erstmahlzeit mit gefluegel
here is the website of the company making it, allthough the exact kind i have is not listed
http://www.edeka.de/EDEKA/Content/Ei...iernahrung.jsp

but how much does it matter which kind of meat is in it? isn't the important thing that she is eating meat?

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I googled the name of the food exactly as you gave it, and every link came up with puppy food instead of kitten food. Unfortunately, none of the sites included a list of ingredients. If you could list the ingredients in German rather than translating, I might be able to help.

the lidl by my house got kitten food, finally, so i switched to opticat.
the ingredients on the dry food are better than the whisked i was using. at least meat is the first ingredient now.

the wet food is in the same package with the same ingredients as the edeka brand. it looks and smells identical. it is 5 cents cheaper, so that makes it preferable to me.

she is now on optical junior wet and dry, and eats way more wet than dry food now, and i am happy about that.

she is growing, good digestion, shiny coat. i guess i don't have anything to worry about.
i add extra water to her wet food, and she drinks tons.

Originally Posted by suzygoblin

the lidl by my house got kitten food, finally, so i switched to opticat.
the ingredients on the dry food are better than the whisked i was using. at least meat is the first ingredient now.

the wet food is in the same package with the same ingredients as the edeka brand. it looks and smells identical. it is 5 cents cheaper, so that makes it preferable to me.

she is now on optical junior wet and dry, and eats way more wet than dry food now, and i am happy about that.

she is growing, good digestion, shiny coat. i guess i don't have anything to worry about.
i add extra water to her wet food, and she drinks tons.

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Great news!