Is fancy feast truly horrible for cats?

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terestrife

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oh my gosh what an adorable picture. it looks like a cats heaven! Dont your cats get sick or get diarrhea from eating so many different types of canned food though?
 
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terestrife

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terestrife, I don't know how much time you want to put into learning about feline nutrition, or what sites you've already read.
But a good starting point is a site written by a vet that advocates for species-appropriate feeding: http://www.catinfo.org
The argument for an all wet food diet has to do with how cats evolved. They are originally desert animals (basically all domestic cats are descended from the African Wild Cat), so they did not evolve the "thirst drive" that species like dogs and humans have. They are "built" to derive all their moisture needs from the food they eat, not by drinking water. Many cats do drink water - but do they drink enough?
Some will, some won't. But their digestive system also isn't built to constantly digest dry food. It can, but it isn't designed to. So opinions from people on whether dry food is "good" or "bad" are rather meaningless. Plenty of cats eat dry food and do great - some use dry food in limited quantities and the kitties do just fine. But when it comes to what is good for them and bad for them, their physiology is what matters, and that isn't opinion-based. Cats aren't "designed" to eat solely dry food. How much dry food to include - or not include - in a diet is a personal decision once one has an understanding of cats' physiology, IMO.
So when it comes to a question as re: is "XYZ food good or bad," IMO, there are two components. The first is the "macronutrient" profile of the food. There are six components: moisture, protein, fat, ash (minerals), fiber, and carbohydrates. To compare foods, the moisture is removed from the analysis - what you're left with is protein, fat, ash (minerals), fiber and carbohydrates. Lower one, another one must go up, as the total must always be 100%. Cats are obligate carnivores, and again, they are designed to consume small mammals. This means that they have evolved to eat a high protein, moderate fat, some minerals, and an essentially no carbohydrate content diet.
Their digestive systems are so specialized as carnivores (more so than dogs, which are carnivores, not obligate carnivores), that cats must have a number of fats and vitamins "preformed" in order to even utilize them. They cannot convert the beta carotene in many vegetables (like carrots), for instance, into vitamin A. They need vitamin A preformed - and in the wild, they get this from the tissues of muscle meat. They lack the digestive enzymes necessary to make that conversion. The same is true for Niacin, Vitamin D, the fatty acid arachadonic acid (AA), and they cannot convert the fatty acid alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) into its usable components. Plants are high in the omega 3s from ALA; meat is not. So omega 3s from plants are pretty much unusable to a cat. They have no amylase (digestive enzyme that digests carbohydrates) in their saliva: they do not use the typical pathways that humans and dogs use to digest carbohydrates as again, they do not have the same level of those digestive enzymes (technically, they use hexokinase, not glucokinase to digest carbs; this means carb digestion is slower in cats). There are more examples, but I think you get the idea.

So when considering whether a food is "good" or "bad," one of the primary questions is, is it species-appropriate for a cat? Is it high protein, low carb? (Again, to make this determination, the moisture has to be mathematically removed so just the nutrition available in the food content is analyzed. The guaranteed analysis provided by the manufacturer can be used to do this, though they use minimums and maximums, so numbers come out funny sometimes. This is an example of a Dry Matter Basis (DMB) calculator: http://catcentric.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DMB-Calculator.xlsx ).
Here is Fancy Feast classic chicken: http://www.fancyfeast.com/wet-cat-food/classic-chicken-feast/
On a dry-matter basis, using the guaranteed analysis, it is 50% protein, 22.7% fat, 6.8% fiber, 13.6% ash, and 6.8% carbohydrates.
A cat's natural diet (from a study of 27 feral cat diets around the world) on a dry matter basis is 62.7% protein, 22.8% fat, 11.8% ash, and 2.8% carbohydrates.
So clearly Fancy Feast classics style of food fits this profile of being species-appropriate. It is high protein,moderate fat, and low carb.

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After determining whether the macronutrient profile of the food is species-appropriate, the next question is - are the ingredients good? And that is a very subjective decision. It all depends upon whether someone is comfortable feeding various ingredients. Pet food, for the most part, is made from the waste - the leftovers - of human food production. The image of chicken breasts on a pet food package is great - but that is almost never what actually goes into "chicken" cat or dog food. Those breasts are removed to be sold to humans, and what is leftover is typically mechanically recovered for things like.. chicken nuggets. What's left over after everything that goes into human food is what goes into cat food. And that's where you have to start making decisions on what, in your opinion, is acceptable.
If you want to learn more, there are a number of threads on TCS where we chat about some of the ingredients.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245614/...by-products-meal-or-rather-not-think-about-it
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/249117/a-strange-question-about-by-products-meals-and-4d
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/246168/the-truth-about-carrageenan
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245844/cranberry
And for an overview of pet food in general: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239691/nutritionally-complete-assurances-for-our-pet-food
From an ingredients perspective, Fancy Feast isn't the greatest, but it is a LONG way from being the worst - and there are a LOT of pluses.

Fancy Feast classic chicken ingredients: Chicken, chicken broth, liver, meat by-products, fish, poultry by-products, artificial and natural flavors, calcium phosphate, guar gum, potassium chloride, added color, salt, magnesium sulfate, taurine, zinc sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide.
It has a rather simple ingredient list, it uses only animal proteins and has no grains - this is a BIG plus.
It does have artificial colors and flavors. Guar gum isn't good for diabetic cats - it's one of those ingredients that's otherwise subjective on whether you want to feed it or not. The links above will help as re: by-products. At least these are actual by-products, not "meal," so not rendered. They cannot be from 4D animals, so that's good.
Personally, I think "by products" are OK for cats. We may think offal is disgusting, but cats in the wild eat the entire animal. The issue as re: by-products in pet food is also summarized here: http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodandnutrition/f/byproducts.htm
There's no carageenan, no soy (which is one ingredient I choose to avoid at all costs), no "natural" questionable ingredients such as cranberry or rosemary extract - there are no vegetables (which are unnecessary in cat food IMO).... so really, a lot going for it.

I use Fancy Feast classics for the ferals in rotation with other canned foods. I feed my indoor-only pet kitties a home made raw diet.
Oh, wow, i think im dizzy!


lol i really appreciate you taking the time to type that out, and i found the information very helpful, and the links, as well.

i've been hearing a lot about making a raw home made diet for cats, do you find it a lot more expensive to make the food or buy the food? since you do both.
 

ldg

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Depending on what's available to you locally, commercial raw can cost about the same as feeding canned foods or really expensive kibble. I wrote an article on it actually, that has tables of cost comparison: http://catcentric.org/nutrition-and...y-cat-or-i-can-afford-to-feed-commercial-raw/ There are clickable tables at the end where you can see the cost information.

But I switched to raw because I wanted to have more control over what my cats eat. When I realized I'd be saving money doing it, I started the switch. Feeding home made raw is often the most cost effective method of feeding wet food. You can even just give your kitties some raw as a treat - there's no need to feed 100% raw. Some kitties love it right away - others need convincing it's food. :lol3:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/242250/survey-how-much-are-you-spending-per-cat-per-day

Since that thread, I've brought my costs down a lot. :)

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/249593/raw-feeding-costly
 
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smitten4kittens

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oh my gosh what an adorable picture. it looks like a cats heaven! Dont your cats get sick or get diarrhea from eating so many different types of canned food though?
I feed my cats about 30 different brands/flavors. I think it's good to have a lot of different food in the rotation. Some foods I like because they are organic,others are grain free, some have no by-products or anything artificial etc. I haven't found one food yet that would meet all my standards lol . By eating a variety they get the best from each. They have never gotten sick.
 

andrya

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oh my gosh what an adorable picture. it looks like a cats heaven! Dont your cats get sick or get diarrhea from eating so many different types of canned food though?
That's Tanner, he's the one with the dodgy stomach. 

For the most part the puking has stopped. Only Tanner was a chronic puker, and since going to the rotation, it's dropped dramatically. Now if he yaks something, l stop buying it (like Natures Variety).

l like the idea of the large rotation like the poster above me ^ as l want to cover all the bases of certain brands being on the high side or low side of certain ingredients. lt's the best way to even things out. Even the grains. l buy mostly grain free, but both lnnova and Friskies have rice, and l feed them both. Since switching, my chronically underweight Tanner has gained a nice amount of weight, he feels really good now.
 
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terestrife

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That's Tanner, he's the one with the dodgy stomach. 

For the most part the puking has stopped. Only Tanner was a chronic puker, and since going to the rotation, it's dropped dramatically. Now if he yaks something, l stop buying it (like Natures Variety).

l like the idea of the large rotation like the poster above me ^ as l want to cover all the bases of certain brands being on the high side or low side of certain ingredients. lt's the best way to even things out. Even the grains. l buy mostly grain free, but both lnnova and Friskies have rice, and l feed them both. Since switching, my chronically underweight Tanner has gained a nice amount of weight, he feels really good now.
dodgy stomach? he seems really happy among all those cans! lol i like the idea of having a variety of brands/flavors, so my cat can have the really good healthy cans, and some that aren't perfect.
 

otto

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I have been trying to feed my cat raw food. I give them Natures Valley Instinct Organic Raw Chicken. The problem is, they don't like it and I have never been able to get them to eat it without mixing it with canned food. Usually, the best I can do is 50/50. If I increase the raw more than that they don't like it.

I was mixing it with Fancy Feast but in an effort to be more health conscious, I started buying more expensive holistic brands. Of course, the healthier the food, the less they like it so I have to mix a higher percentage of the canned food. Since raw is the best, I have the dilemma of having to go back to the less healthy Fancy Feast to get them to eat the more healthy raw food.
I feed a combination of commercial raw, prey model raw, and canned. It's working great for me and my girls. :)

Go on over to the raw forum and start a thread, we'd love to have you!:wavey:
 

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I feed my cats about 30 different brands/flavors. I think it's good to have a lot of different food in the rotation. Some foods I like because they are organic,others are grain free, some have no by-products or anything artificial etc. I haven't found one food yet that would meet all my standards lol . By eating a variety they get the best from each. They have never gotten sick.
um does it cost allot to buy 30 different brands? i think its a great idea but i'm on a tight money thing with 14 pets hmm i could buy 14 different brands hahahaha
 

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um does it cost allot to buy 30 different brands? i think its a great idea but i'm on a tight money thing with 14 pets hmm i could buy 14 different brands hahahaha
:dk: Doesn't cost any more to buy 30 different brands than to buy 30 cans of the same thing! :lol3:
 

mewlittle

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Doesn't cost any more to buy 30 different brands than to buy 30 cans of the same thing!
K i was just curious because next time i order from the internet again i might pick more brands:)
 
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terestrife

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Oh man, i started giving my cat Wellness and Natural Balance, and now she wont eat Fancy Feast! She eats a little if shes hungry, but one time she wouldnt eat at all!

I think my cat believes she is a princess! So spoiled. lol
 

mewlittle

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Oh man, i started giving my cat Wellness and Natural Balance, and now she wont eat Fancy Feast! She eats a little if shes hungry, but one time she wouldnt eat at all!

I think my cat believes she is a princess! So spoiled. lol
just keep her on the wellness and natural balance ,fancy feast in my opinion sucks its like cat mcdonalds lol
 
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terestrife

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just keep her on the wellness and natural balance ,fancy feast in my opinion sucks its like cat mcdonalds lol
oooh, i love MCDs! lol anyway, yes, i'm probably going to do that, i dont want to force her to eat something she hates. It's healthier for her at least.
 

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^^^my cat Jazmine did that wen i walked away from my laptop -_- CATS I sweer
 

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Interesting, my cat has only ever vomited on cheap dry food, Alley Cat or some such trash. As soon as I could I got to Walmart and bought Purina Natural formula which she seems to be doing okay on. I too feed both but not wet every day as I cannot afford it and she is already fat. She spent time homeless so I don't monitor her intake of dry figuring she's happy and the vet said she is fine.
 
 
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