Cat Chow "Healthful Life"

Any thoughts on Cat Chow's "Healthful Life" flavor? Is it better than Cat Chow regular? There's apparently salmon, cheese, and carrots in it, and more protein. Good for its price?

Ingredients: chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, ground yellow corn, ground wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols (form of vitamin E), salmon, chicken, powdered cellulose, brewer's rice, soybean hulls, animal liver flavour, malt extract, phosphoric acid,calcium carbonate, salt, cranberries, choline chloride, dried carrots, dried cheese powder, dried spinach, potassium chloride, taurine, added colour (Yellow 6, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), zinc sulphate, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulphate, manganese sulphate, niacin, vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulphate, riboflavin supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulphite complex (source of vitamin K activity) and sodium selenite

Even though chicken by-product meal is the first ingredient, grains make up the next 4 ingredients. This is a very high carb food with very little actual muscle meat.

If the first three ingredients in a food aren't meat, I tend to toss it. From what I've found, there is not one Purina product that lists meat or even byproduct as all three of the top ingredients. Somewhere in there, there tends to be corn (in quite a few, corn comes four or five ingredients before any meats or byproducts!), soybean meal, or some sort of plant gluten meal.

I agree with the others. There are too many things in this food that do not sit well with me - corn gluten meal, soybean meal, ground yellow corn, ground wheat, powdered cellulose, brewer's rice, soybean hulls, added color. Cats' digestive systems are not meant to process these types of things and can lead to illnesses later down the road. Unfortunately, the regular Cat Chow is likely similar.

Are you also feeding wet food?

That doesn't sound very healthy. It's really carby and it has a lot of vegetables and fruits that aren't the best for cats. I looked up normal cat chow and it sounds even worse.

If you want healthy cats, I recommend switching to at least 50%wet and 50% dry, although that is hard to do. If you're going to stay with dry, make sure they get enough water and try to get another type with less grain. Make sure at least 2 of the first 3 ingredients are meat, at least.