Wet Food: Almo Nature, Applaws, or Bozita? Dry Food: Royal Canin Siamese or Taste of the Wild?

IrinaSaK said:

 
In my part of the world, where cat food is Whiskas, Cat Chow, Royal Canin and Gourmet, it is kind of hard to find out about recalls. I was following TOTW facebook page and this is how I found out. I guess it is bound to happen when you have a poorly regulated industry and when the quality of the ingredients are definitely not human grade.

I am starting to have serious questions about the way pet food is not only made, but also delivered. As I order all cat food from zooplus (it comes form Germany to Romania), I am pretty sure now that there are no serious rules regarding pet food transport - my last order arrived almost frozen, the cans were so cold. It was not a problem, but what will I do this summer, when there will be 40 C degrees (104 F)?

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I think it is just a reality of the manufacturing process that things will go wrong. When something is so mass-produced, it can suffer from quality control. By the way, some of the pet foods do use human-grade ingredients. However, this will be something different from brand to brand I suspect.

Re. the way pet food is made .. I have these concerns too .. I was in my local pet store just yesterday, and was looking at other canned diets, and couldn't find ANYTHING to get really excited about. I currently have my cat's on Nature's Variety canned and grain-free. I like the looks and smell of the NV canned, and everyone likes this. I purchased one can of Wild Calling recently, opened this and could not bring myself to feed this to my cats. I was revolted by the look and smell. Recently I purchased some samples of a commercial raw food that I have been considering. One pet store retailer is carrying it. I tried it on my crew recently and it was well received. So, the plan is to continue feeding some canned but supplement with raw each week as the raw by itself would be very cost-prohibitive.

I hear you re. the transport in the summer. If it were me I would start now to look into different suppliers and what their policies are in transporting products in warm weather. It could be that whoever is doing the transport, may be transporting stuff that requires a certain temperature?

S stephanieax7213 This may not help you, but here in Canada I have no trouble finding Almo Nature. Hopefully it's carried in pet stores where you're moving to in the States. Strange that they didn't respond to your email.

Thanks. Maybe I can order it online from a Canadian website. Do you know of one? I have sent three emails so far and am thinking of phoning their European HQ to get a phone number for the US distributor.

@oneandahalfcats

Thank you for clarifying about TOTW. I didn't realize that most Grain-Free dry foods need to contain something to replace the carbs. I have heard Blue Buffalo is a good brand and I heard it is fine to have some veggies and fruits in a food as long as it isn't too much. In the TOTW, I meant that Salmon and Venison should be the main meat source. I wasn't sure how to word it at the moment since I don't really have a lot of experience with cat food brands, so I thought flavor would work also. I do wish that the Venison and Salmon we're higher on the list, but I do understand that it would make the price more expensive. I do know that chicken is the main meat, but it doesn't really make sense to me when they highlight Venison and Salmon as being their main meat sourse. No where does it say anything about Chicken unless you look in the ingredients list. I do know that TOTW is better than a lot of the other store brought brands which is good. Also thank you for clarifying that TOTW doesn't have by-products in their food, it is such a relief to hear that. Unfortunately Nature's Variety and Hound & Gatos are not available where I am at.

@ IrinaSaK,

Thank you for you're helpful experience! It's a shame to hear that TOTW was recalled and that you're cats weren't impressed with it. I was curious and impressed with Applaws since their package says they are the first cat food to have 80% meat which sounds really good. I think Applaws might be a pretty good brand and it is Grain-Free. It's unfortunate that you consider Happy Cat Duck, Porta 21 chicken and Acana to just be "ok" cat foods. I really do wish they could make higher quality cat foods. Do you know anything about Orijen? I heard it is the best dry cat food brand, but I was wondering if it really is that much better than Applaws, Arcana, or the other brands.

It honestly breaks my heart to hear that RC Siamese isn't a good quality food at all. When I first learned how important cat nutriton was and how food really makes a difference, I wanted to get a better quality. I was feeding my cat Meow Mix and Whiskas for 8 years of his life since I didn't know they we're bad. It was horrifying to hear that feeding you're cats certain foods can make a impact on their life. It made me sad since I had no idea I was giving my baby food that wasn't giving him good nutrition and that was slowly killing him. The RC company markets their brand as the best cat food available, so it really made me angry to find out that it was barely better than Whiskas or Meow Mix. Heck RC is even more expensive than brands that are a lot better than it! It's sad because there are a lot of people that want to provide the best food for their animals and they believe they are by buying foods like RC or IAMS.

jenniator said:

 
@oneandahalfcats

Thank you for clarifying about TOTW. I didn't realize that most Grain-Free dry foods need to contain something to replace the carbs. I have heard Blue Buffalo is a good brand and I heard it is fine to have some veggies and fruits in a food as long as it isn't too much. In the TOTW, I meant that Salmon and Venison should be the main meat source. I wasn't sure how to word it at the moment since I don't really have a lot of experience with cat food brands, so I thought flavor would work also. I do wish that the Venison and Salmon we're higher on the list, but I do understand that it would make the price more expensive. I do know that chicken is the main meat, but it doesn't really make sense to me when they highlight Venison and Salmon as being their main meat sourse. No where does it say anything about Chicken unless you look in the ingredients list. I do know that TOTW is better than a lot of the other store brought brands which is good. Also thank you for clarifying that TOTW doesn't have by-products in their food, it is such a relief to hear that. Unfortunately Nature's Variety and Hound & Gatos are not available where I am at.

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I agree with you about the Roasted Venison and Salmon .. It would be nice if these were the main meat sources rather than the chicken. There is so much chicken in commercial pet foods! ..

Re. Acana and Orijen .. Both are made here in Canada and are considered good grain-free foods, however, between the two, the Orijen is much higher in meat protein and therefore better than the Acana. Here are some comments from the Champion company website (makers of Orijen and Acana)

1. MEAT CONTENT: ORIJEN is made with 75-80% meat, while ACANA has between 40 to 65%, depending on the formula.
2. FRESH MEAT: ORIJEN made with up to 50% of fresh meats, compared with ACANA which ranges from 9-30% of fresh meats.
3. FRESH MEAT VARIETY: ORIJEN features a minimum of 6 fresh meats, compared to ACANA which contains 3 different fresh meat ingredients. ORIJEN also features WholePrey ratios including meats, select organs, plus cartilage and marrow, all of which adds another Biologically Appropriate dimension to meat variety.
4. PROTEIN: ORIJEN foods range from 38% to 42% protein, while ACANA features protein levels of 25%-35%.
5. CARBOHYDRATE: ORIJEN diets for dogs have a maximum carbohydrate content of 25%, and 20% in the diets for cats. ACANA diets are typically in the 25-30% carbohydrate range. 

Put simply, ORIJEN and ACANA foods mimic the natural eating habits of your cat or dog with high fresh meat inclusions and low inclusion of carbohydrates. Although slightly lower in protein then ORIJEN, ACANA provides an unbeatable value and price point that makes Biologically Appropriate pet foods accessible to a wide range of pet lovers.

Orijen website : http://www.orijen.ca/cat-food/

Acana website : http://www.acana.com/products/regionals/

I have not used Orijen and I will not use it as I have almost totally weaned them off kibble. But back when I was considering feeding a better kibble I found both Acana and Orijen to have too much fish in every flavor (the thiaminaze in the fish breaks the thiamine in the cat's organism and that can lead to vitamin B deficiency, just to mention one of the reasons). It really is a hard task finding a good food. It is even harder with kibble - there really isn't a GOOD kibble out there - just look at the ingredients. There are ok dry foods that harm less then others. But I really do not think that cats can thrive on dry food.

I have used Orijen and it is a good food. It does have some fish in it but this is in smaller proportion to the other meat sources. If you showed someone just the ingredients list from the Orijen Regional Red, they might not know it was dry kibble food.

Some people due to their personal circumstances, may not have the ability to feed an all wet or raw diet. So the next best thing is to feed some wet and dry food that is high protein, low carb. The basic difference between good quality wet canned food and dry kibble is that the wet has all the moisture retained, the other is a dehydrated form, with all the moisture taken out. As long as food is complete and meets the dietary needs of the cat, and provided the cat is getting moisture either through water and/or some wet food, I don't see a problem with dry food per se but rather a lack of quality with a lot of dry foods.

@oneandahalfcats, I so wish it were that simple. Until June 2013 I was sure I was providing Sophie with the best diet ever, RC Exigent. And I am sure there are so many people like me, not knowing any better. So maybe there are people out there who could do an all wet/raw diet, but they just don't know they have this option.

Regarding dry food, unforunately, the lowest carb dry food still has 18% carbs, as a wet food has around 3% carbs. The % of protein in dry food takes into consideration and the % of protein that comes from plants, but the worst thing is that it is very hard to supplement the 10 % moisture in dry versurs the 70% moisture in wet. I doubt it that cats drink enough water to supplement the moisture, as they have such a low thirst drive. And there are so many weird ingredients in dry food - look at Orijen cat and kitten - peppermint leaves, red apples, peas, spinach carrots?!

And of course a diet consisting in Orijen is much better than one based on Cat Chow or Whiskas, but 'good' can mean different things depending on the comparison - dry is better than table scraps, but how can a cat thrive on something that is so fundamentally different than the natural diet?!

I learned this things the hard way, thinking that Sophie did so good on Royal Canin - until she had blood on her feces, crying in the litterbox and shedding like crazy. But it was not until Harley developed diarrhea and vomiting that I started reading more about nutrition and it all started making sense. Vomiting, diarrhea/constipation, hairballs and constant shedding are not normal. These are all symptoms of a bad diet. Unfortunately, some cats are more sensitive than others...

IrinaSaK said:

@oneandahalfcats, I so wish it were that simple. Until June 2013 I was sure I was providing Sophie with the best diet ever, RC Exigent. And I am sure there are so many people like me, not knowing any better. So maybe there are people out there who could do an all wet/raw diet, but they just don't know they have this option.

Regarding dry food, unforunately, the lowest carb dry food still has 18% carbs, as a wet food has around 3% carbs. The % of protein in dry food takes into consideration and the % of protein that comes from plants, but the worst thing is that it is very hard to supplement the 10 % moisture in dry versurs the 70% moisture in wet. I doubt it that cats drink enough water to supplement the moisture, as they have such a low thirst drive. And there are so many weird ingredients in dry food - look at Orijen cat and kitten - peppermint leaves, red apples, peas, spinach carrots?!

And of course a diet consisting in Orijen is much better than one based on Cat Chow or Whiskas, but 'good' can mean different things depending on the comparison - dry is better than table scraps, but how can a cat thrive on something that is so fundamentally different than the natural diet?!

I learned this things the hard way, thinking that Sophie did so good on Royal Canin - until she had blood on her feces, crying in the litterbox and shedding like crazy. But it was not until Harley developed diarrhea and vomiting that I started reading more about nutrition and it all started making sense. Vomiting, diarrhea/constipation, hairballs and constant shedding are not normal. These are all symptoms of a bad diet. Unfortunately, some cats are more sensitive than others...

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Yes, I would agree. There are cats that are more sensitive than others for sure. And I think this is what makes the difference and drives pet owners to seek better options when their pet becomes sick. Not every pet does and you have to wonder. It helps to look at the individual circumstances. If cats are being fed a dry diet, then they must get some moisture from somewhere. Be it wet food or drinking water. Fortunately, all of my cats are good drinkers, especially Max. But moreover, it just makes sense that a cat WILL drink more water when fed dry. Interestingly, since feeding more canned wet to my crew, I've noticed that they drink some water but not AS MUCH as they were getting on just dry. My cats have never had diarrhea, some very occasional vomiting but this was due to either eating too fast or the food being too rich. The main problem has been with Max's constipation - This is the reason for going to an all-wet diet for the most part but you know, he's been doing great and some of this I chalk up to the probiotics and salmon oil I have him on. I actually have not had to give SEB now for almost two weeks! The BMs are still happening. I recognize that these changes are good for all of my cats and will be the first to advocate for an all wet diet when possible. I still feed a bit of dry as my female Maggie, is not as fond of wet food as my boys. She will eat some wet canned, but to ensure that she is getting enough sustenance, I feed NV's grain-free rabbit at the moment and this accounts for about 20% of the diet. We are still in transition as I am incorporating some raw now. I am sure I could put down anything in front of the boys, and they would eat it. Its Maggie that is the stubborn hold out, but still working with her to find out what she really likes which, when this is determined, can hopefully be fed in a natural, species appropriate food.

For cats with definite food sensitivities and/or intestinal issues, it just makes sense to stay away from anything that is going to aggravate or compound problems with digestion and elimination. Keeping things simple in terms of feeding a high protein diet with as few other ingredients as possible. Re. the carbs and such in Orijen, yes, I see that and see it in many other holistic dry foods. Some of it is sources of fiber while other things may be to aid in digestion, provide antioxidant benefits, make stools less odorous? Its a shame that these things have to be there as they are probably in such small quantity that it is debatable whether they have any real benefit. Fortunately, they are usually down in the list of ingredients.

oneandahalfcats said:

 
I agree with you about the Roasted Venison and Salmon .. It would be nice if these were the main meat sources rather than the chicken. There is so much chicken in commercial pet foods! ..

Re. Acana and Orijen .. Both are made here in Canada and are considered good grain-free foods, however, between the two, the Orijen is much higher in meat protein and therefore better than the Acana. Here are some comments from the Champion company website (makers of Orijen and Acana)

1. MEAT CONTENT: ORIJEN is made with 75-80% meat, while ACANA has between 40 to 65%, depending on the formula.
2. FRESH MEAT: ORIJEN made with up to 50% of fresh meats, compared with ACANA which ranges from 9-30% of fresh meats.
3. FRESH MEAT VARIETY: ORIJEN features a minimum of 6 fresh meats, compared to ACANA which contains 3 different fresh meat ingredients. ORIJEN also features WholePrey ratios including meats, select organs, plus cartilage and marrow, all of which adds another Biologically Appropriate dimension to meat variety.
4. PROTEIN: ORIJEN foods range from 38% to 42% protein, while ACANA features protein levels of 25%-35%.
5. CARBOHYDRATE: ORIJEN diets for dogs have a maximum carbohydrate content of 25%, and 20% in the diets for cats. ACANA diets are typically in the 25-30% carbohydrate range. 

Put simply, ORIJEN and ACANA foods mimic the natural eating habits of your cat or dog with high fresh meat inclusions and low inclusion of carbohydrates. Although slightly lower in protein then ORIJEN, ACANA provides an unbeatable value and price point that makes Biologically Appropriate pet foods accessible to a wide range of pet lovers.

Orijen website : http://www.orijen.ca/cat-food/

Acana website : http://www.acana.com/products/regionals/

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Wow Orijen sounds like a wonderful brand! I wonder if Applaws and Orijen are similar since Applaws also has 80% meat. Thank you so much for compairing Acana and Orijen. They both seem like good quality food, but of course you can see Orijen is superior and a little more expensive. The good news is that Zooplus has a deal going on where 100% natural brands like Orijen have a 5 euro discount. I do have a question about Orijen though if you don't mind. On the European Zooplus, they have two different Orijen packs. One is Orijen Cat 6 Fish and the other one is Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten. I saw you mention that Orijen Regional Red was really good, but unfortunately Zooplus doesn't carry that one. I was wondering which one would be better out of the two I listed. I was thinking maybe Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten since I heard it's not good for cat's to eat a lot of fish. But I'm not sure if the Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten is only good for kittens and young adults. My cat is 8 years old, but I'm not sure if it matters or if that Orijen is made for all ages.

IrinaSaK said:

I have not used Orijen and I will not use it as I have almost totally weaned them off kibble. But back when I was considering feeding a better kibble I found both Acana and Orijen to have too much fish in every flavor (the thiaminaze in the fish breaks the thiamine in the cat's organism and that can lead to vitamin B deficiency, just to mention one of the reasons). It really is a hard task finding a good food. It is even harder with kibble - there really isn't a GOOD kibble out there - just look at the ingredients. There are ok dry foods that harm less then others. But I really do not think that cats can thrive on dry food.

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I understand that Kibble isn't the best thing for cats and it's not the only thing I feed my cat. I feed him wet food in the morning and leave out the dry food for him to graze. He has a lot of energy and likes grazing through out the day.I did hear that too much fish isn't good for cats, especially males. It really is difficult finding good cat food.

I saw you mention that you are sure there are people that don't know any better and think foods like RC are good brands. I have to agree with you since I am still new to learning about cat nutriton and a few months ago, I had no knowledge of any of it. I feel horrible since for 8 years of my cat's life, I fed him Meow MIx and Whiskas. I had no idea that those foods we're harmful to his health and we're full of junk. I found out from my husbands Aunt. She had several cats pass away from brands like Whiskas. It horrified me to learn that brands exsist that slowly kill you're animal. It really is horrible.I immediently switched to RC Siamese for Mew since I believed RC was considered a high quality brand. The RC brand markets themself as being the best brand and being able to keep pets healthy with all the nutrition their food has. It made me devistated to learn that RC was not much better than Whiskas and that they market themself up to be wonderful. I am determined to find good wet and dry food for Mew since I want the best life for him. I have heard about Raw feeding, but I don't know too much about it. It is difficult though to only feed Mew wet food since me and my husband are working all week and don't have much time at home. That's why I leave the Dry food out during the day for him, so he can graze. Since I also feed Mew dry, I want to give him the best dry food. I also have been feeding him high quality brands for the wet food like Catz Finefood and Animonda Carny. I also want to try Grau, Granatapet, and Feringa. I also made sure to get Mew a cat fountain so he drinks a lot of water. Even though I'm still new to cat nutrition and don't know a lot about it, I'm determined to find the best quality for Mew since he really does deserve it.

jenniator said:

 
Wow Orijen sounds like a wonderful brand! I wonder if Applaws and Orijen are similar since Applaws also has 80% meat. Thank you so much for compairing Acana and Orijen. They both seem like good quality food, but of course you can see Orijen is superior and a little more expensive. The good news is that Zooplus has a deal going on where 100% natural brands like Orijen have a 5 euro discount. I do have a question about Orijen though if you don't mind. On the European Zooplus, they have two different Orijen packs. One is Orijen Cat 6 Fish and the other one is Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten. I saw you mention that Orijen Regional Red was really good, but unfortunately Zooplus doesn't carry that one. I was wondering which one would be better out of the two I listed. I was thinking maybe Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten since I heard it's not good for cat's to eat a lot of fish. But I'm not sure if the Orijen Chicken Cat & Kitten is only good for kittens and young adults. My cat is 8 years old, but I'm not sure if it matters or if that Orijen is made for all ages.

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Yes, I don't feed my cats a lot of fish as a rule and think the Orijen 6-Fish contains too much fish. The Cat and Kitten would be the better choice here. Orijen dry foods are quite high in protein which makes it the better choice over Acana, but some cats may not handle this well. The Cat and Kitten has meat protein in the form of chicken and a bit of fish but also things like chicken and turkey liver which can drive up the calories. Perfect for a young growing cat that can use a lot of calories, but for adult cats, I think you will definitely want to control the portion size, especially as you are feeding wet canned as well. A little Orijen goes a very long way.

Regarding the water fountain: the plastic ones harvest a lot of bacteria, you can feel when you wash it, it is like a sludge that comes off really hard. Also, there appears to be a direct link between plastic bowls and cat acnea. I have a plastic cat mate fountain which I regret buying only because of the bacteria issue. I washed it twice a week and there was still a lot of build up, using only bottled water. My cats, however, love the fountain. Not only for drinking, but also for splashing water all over and soaking their paws.

oneandahalfcats said:

 
Yes, I don't feed my cats a lot of fish as a rule and think the Orijen 6-Fish contains too much fish. The Cat and Kitten would be the better choice here. Orijen dry foods are quite high in protein which makes it the better choice over Acana, but some cats may not handle this well. The Cat and Kitten has meat protein in the form of chicken and a bit of fish but also things like chicken and turkey liver which can drive up the calories. Perfect for a young growing cat that can use a lot of calories, but for adult cats, I think you will definitely want to control the portion size, especially as you are feeding wet canned as well. A little Orijen goes a very long way.

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I also try to avoid too much fish which is difficult since Mew loves fish. I'm glad that the Orijen dry food contains a lot of different meats since Mew loves eating food with a lot of different flavors instead of only one main meat flavor. Thank you for warningme about the amount of calories. I will make sure not to put a lot of it out at once.It actually is really good to hear Mew can eat the Cat and Kitten Chicken one since the Fish Orijen is more expensive. For a 6.8 kg of the Cat & Kitten Chicken, it is 54,90 euros. But the Fish Orijen is 62,90 euros. So that is really nice.

IrinaSaK said:

Regarding the water fountain: the plastic ones harvest a lot of bacteria, you can feel when you wash it, it is like a sludge that comes off really hard. Also, there appears to be a direct link between plastic bowls and cat acnea. I have a plastic cat mate fountain which I regret buying only because of the bacteria issue. I washed it twice a week and there was still a lot of build up, using only bottled water. My cats, however, love the fountain. Not only for drinking, but also for splashing water all over and soaking their paws.

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I wasn't aware that the plastic fountains have a lot of bacteria in them.I've only seen Plastic fountains though. Is there a different kind of fountain that gets less bacteria over time? I also have a Cat Mate fountain which Mew loves a lot. I wash it every week. It doesn't get a lot of build up since I only have one cat. In the U.S., I would only give Mew bottled water also. I would never give my cat something I wouldn't drink or find bad. But the Netherlands has wonderful drinking water and it is just as good as bottle water, so I give him tap water here. It's pretty cute that you're cats love playing in the fountain!