My cat is eating horrible food

My cat used to eat dry cat food of various brands, basically the cheap stuff you find in grocery stores.  After having a urinary problem, my family and I switched him over to wet food.  We get the store brand, Western Family.  I've been knowing it's pretty bad for him for a while, but he seems to like it, and has been healthy.  I would really like to switch him to Blue Buffalo or a raw diet, but unfortunately I am a minor, and don't have any source of income.  What makes it even worse is that I just read this: http://vonhapsburg.homestead.com/petfood.html

This made me truly disgusted.  I seriously need to change his food!

The only problem is that I can't afford any new food, and I don't think my parents would be willing to switch it. Please help!

Honestly, some store brand canned foods are fairly decent (but store brand dry foods are trash). Can you put the ingredient list here (or at least the first 10 ingredients)? There may be no reason to change.

Fancy Feast Classics aren't too bad and are usually carried by even grocery stores and shouldn't cost more than what you already feed. Try and see if your parents will switch to that. Tell them good food is like an insurance plan for the future. :nod:

Minka said:

Fancy Feast Classics aren't too bad and are usually carried by even grocery stores and shouldn't cost more than what you already feed. Try and see if your parents will switch to that. Tell them good food is like an insurance plan for the future. :nod:

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Hmm, FF is pretty expensive around here. Usually 60 cents for a 3-ounce can, while store brand costs 40 cents for a 5.5-ounce can and Friskies is 50 cents. So FF is more than double the cost (and more expensive per ounce than buying EVO in the 13-ounce can!). I'm not sure the parents would agree to buying "fancy expensive food in the tiny cans" (

FF classics are not too bad if you can find them at a decent price somewhere.  If you have a Petsmart somewhere near you, you might want to check their brand.  It's called Authority I believe.  I have not checked the ingredients in a long time though so you would want to read the ingredient listings on it to find out what it's made of.  It is probably less expensive than the FF brand.
 

You're in a tough spot because your parents control the situation. The only way to get them to spend more (and it still may not work) is to explain that a better diet will lead to less vet visits. 

You all are so nice and helpful.

Yeah... I think Fancy Feast may still be too expensive.  I think maybe he'll just have to keep on eating the same food until I can get a job or something.  

Here are the ingredients for his food: Ingredients: Meat By-products, Poultry By-products, Sufficient Water for Processing, Turkey, Poultry Giblets, Fish, Egg Product, Guar Gum, Salt, Titanium Dioxide, Carrageenan, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Choline Chloride, Vitamins: (Vitamin E, A, B12, D3 Supplements, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals: (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Taurine.

[font=Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Unfortunately, I don't think the vet thing would work, because they don't really believe in taking animals to the vet.  I guess I'm stuck here.[/font]

There's nothing horrible in those ingredients. If it had brewer's rice, wheat middlings, powdered cellulose, etc., I'd say it was pretty bad. But that looks just as good as Friskies or Fancy Feast . Wet foods are almost always better quality than kibbles. He should be fine.

It's good to have a variety, though. Do they buy different flavors or just one kind? Like I said, avoid fish flavors, but a good variety of the non-fish flavors would be best.

I agree - the ingredients don't look that bad!

But I understand how you feel. I remember when I found out what was in pet food. I make home made food for our cats now. :nod:

I think that food is okay for now. *thumbs up*

The only things that really aren't good in there are the byproducts, so if you can look for a food around the same price range (Friskies, Whiskas, etc) where the chicken, turkey, beef or salmon comes BEFORE the byproducts, I'm sure your cat will be okay. If the real meat is before the byproducts, it means that there is more real meat than byproducts, which is good.

I understand your concern though. I agree with NutroMike too, try the Petsmart brand food. If you shop around for different brands and stuff, you will find something that you feel more comfortable feeding your cat.

I just did a quick search on Petsmart for you too. I found Grreat Choice (Ocean whitefish comes before byproducts, plus only 0.40 cents). I get the situation you are in too, because we were feeding my cats cheap food as well. I have no job either, and I'm a student so I really had no say until my mom jumped on the holistic bandwagon.

Remember, cheaper quality food isn't going to kill your cat. Whatever you can afford is the best diet for him .

Sorry for the double post but I forgot to add. I feed my ferals this Feline Fayre cat food, I get it for 0.30 cents at Walmart. NO by products or fillers, only chicken and tuna and vitamins. I give this to my ferals and they love it. I live in Canada though, so I'm not sure you can find it where you are.

hi i have recently have had trouble finding feline fayre in walmart stores.  have been from peterborough, ont to mississauga , ont.  any help in finding this food would be greatly appreciated.  i foster many cats/ strays.  veronicka