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Thoughts on these brands?
- Thread starter momof3b1g
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- #3
Fancy Feast Classics (yes, some have fish further into the ingredient list so you'll have to decide). - Turkey&Giblet pate does not have fish.
PetSmart - Poultry Platter (bit of fish), Mixed Grill (no fish), Country Platter (no fish) / those are the PetSmart variants of Friskies.
If you're opposed to meat/poultry etc. by-products, then how about EVO 95%?
If you get the big can's they're fairly competitive in price.
In my opinion they're better than Wellness. Since wellness likes to sell you a garden plot at the same time. I have 2-3 Wellness big cans sitting around, just for variety I suppose but it's not good value for the dollar in my opinion and I wouldn't bother again.
Feel free to fire off an email to the companies asking for coupons, to try out their products. Usually you'll get something.
If you're hunting for carrageenan free foods, that list is small and others can chime in.
Edit - Isn't Natural Balance the one that had pebbles in it? Hmm, could happen to any brand I guess. I had the Duck&GreenPea one. My fella was luke warm on it. More than anything, it was exhausting for him to eat, with a few cat naps in between eating sessions.
PetSmart - Poultry Platter (bit of fish), Mixed Grill (no fish), Country Platter (no fish) / those are the PetSmart variants of Friskies.
If you're opposed to meat/poultry etc. by-products, then how about EVO 95%?
If you get the big can's they're fairly competitive in price.
In my opinion they're better than Wellness. Since wellness likes to sell you a garden plot at the same time. I have 2-3 Wellness big cans sitting around, just for variety I suppose but it's not good value for the dollar in my opinion and I wouldn't bother again.
Feel free to fire off an email to the companies asking for coupons, to try out their products. Usually you'll get something.
If you're hunting for carrageenan free foods, that list is small and others can chime in.
Edit - Isn't Natural Balance the one that had pebbles in it? Hmm, could happen to any brand I guess. I had the Duck&GreenPea one. My fella was luke warm on it. More than anything, it was exhausting for him to eat, with a few cat naps in between eating sessions.
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Evangers - ethical problems with the company (wrong meat found in dog food, past problems with plant hygiene, owners accused of witness bribery)
Natural Balance and Merrick - high carbs
BFF - don't remember much besides lots of fish flavors.
Brands I've fed:
Hound and Gatos (see my signature for links to online stores that sell single cans, can be hard to find but good quality and reasonably priced)
By Nature
Wellness
Natural Planet
Dave's has also released a 95% line. Dave's ingredient list seems similar to Wellness.
Do you have any price guidelines to stay within or any other requirements to meet? (no carrageenan? a certain texture? widely available?) Keep in mind that all cat food is going to have some sort of bad point associated with it, you just have to find one you and your kitties like which doesn't have a whole lot of evils. If you want the perfect food for your kitties you'll have to consider homemade food.
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Carb percentage in Fromm, IRR, is around 20%. I do remember considering the food, but rejecting it because of carb content.
I just tried working out the carb % of Fromm, I got something like over 30%. How high is carb too high for concern? Firstmate is 6.8%, Wellness Core 8%, Solid gold 9.1%, most other wet food are above 10%.
You want something about 10% or under for carbs. And yes, that eliminates a large amount of food.
You should also consider where the protein is coming from. Wellness Core and Solid Gold are known, respectable brands with high amounts of protein from ANIMAL sources. What you want to watch out for are foods that have acceptable protein levels (~50%) but whose protein comes from PLANT sources like soy, wheat gluten, or corn gluten.
If you want the full story on nutrition, go to
http://www.catinfo.org
a shorter summary is available at
http://www.fnae.org
Oh wow! under 10%, that makes my choices limited. Most other brands I rotate are around 15%. I'd wanted to add on Holistic Select, Merrick, Fromm, but while Holistic Select 15.9%, Merrick is 15% and Fromm over 20%, look like I'll just put that on hold. Thanks for the link, I do read from the 2 links every once in a while, I just can't remember every I've read though, lol...
Have you looked at Dr. Pierson's food chart? It lists the average macro content of cat food. This differs from the guaranteed analysis in that a lot of the numbers in the guaranteed analysis are minimums or maximums. So if a food is a minimum of 4% fat, that doesn't preclude it from having 5% or 6%. Some foods do better on Dr. Pierson's chart, others do worse. I screen out candidate food using guaranteed analysis numbers because it's more convenient when shopping for food in the store. After a while you get a pretty good idea of what the protein, fat, fiber, moisture, and ash have to add up to get to an acceptable carb percentage. So you can quickly add up the numbers in the store, and then turn to Dr. Pierson's chart when you get home.
http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf
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- #13
Where are you getting the high %'s for these? I havent seen canned food that high. I just looked up HS chicken and duck and came up with 7% Are you talking dry or canned?
I had the chart bookmarked long time ago, I have simply completely forgotton about that. I usually work out the carb % online first before going to the store to pick up the food. Any other brand I haven't worked out, I'll skip.
I am talking about canned food in Dry Matter. So you came up with 7%? I'll did the calculation a couple times and still came up with 15.9%.
I did bookmarked the chart long time ago, I simply forgot about it. I usually do my carb culculation before I pick them at the store, those new brands I haven't worked out, I'll skip.
I am talking about canned food, Dry Matter. I recalculate a few times using the spreadsheet calculator here and still come up with 15.9% dry matter.
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- #16
can you show me your calculations. I just started last night and are coming up with different amounts. Want to make sure I am doing it right.
When I look up Holistic Select, here is what their guaranteed analysis says:
Guaranteed Analysis
| Crude Protein | (min.) | 8.5% |
| Crude Fat | (min.) | 6.5% |
| Crude Fiber | (max.) | 1.0% |
| Moisture | (max.) | 78.0% |
| Ash | (max.) | 2.5% |
| Magnesium | (max.) | 0.028% |
| Taurine | (min.) | 0.05% |
8.5% protein +
6.5% fat +
1.0% fiber +
78% moisture +
2.5% ash =
96.5%
The remainder, 3.5% is carbs. But that is on an "as fed" basis. You want to find the dry matter basis, or the amount of dry matter (i.e., content that is not water) that is carbs. To do this, we divide the as fed percentage by the dry content percentage:
3.5%/22% = 15.9%
(the 22% dry content is derived by subtracting 78% moisture from 100%)
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Check this link on here http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis. Go to the bottom of the page and click a link to a spreadsheet calculator.
In general, if the food is 78% moisture, I've found you need to be around 2% carbs on an as fed basis to get in the 10% carb ballpark.
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- #20
