So I've got to ask...

I've been hanging around here for a bit and have noticed that a lot of people feed the Friskies canned food, many exclusively, and many people recommend it. I feed it occasionally, too, but not as a full feed because its always seemed like kitty McDonalds to me.

INGREDIENTS: Meat by-products (species not specified, which means that batches can vary depending upon what meat by-products were available at the time), Water sufficient for processing, Chicken, Poultry by-products (again, not species specific), Rice, Artificial and natural flavours (neither man nor beast requires artificial flavours), Calcium phosphate, Guar gum (questionable), Added colour (so the cat marvels at how pretty it is?), Potassium chloride, Minerals (not specified), Salt (unnecessary), Carrageenan (again, questionable), Taurine, Vitamins (again, not specified).

The guaranteed analysis is very limited, not showing phosphorus or magnesium content.

I don't mean anyone any offence. There are so many schools of thought when it comes to feeding cats and not one of them is right for every cat. I've just been scratching my head over this one for weeks now and finally had to ask. What's up with the Friskies?

I think when people talk about Friskies, it's more of a "lesser of evils" food. Compared to some other similarly priced foods, it's low grain and decent protein. I've seen wet foods that are both cheaper and significantly more expensive that start off with corn and include other grains and starches like flours, rice, soy, etc.

If people had the option to choose and afford something like Performatrin (which is my primary food of choice for our cats) where it's grain free, byproduct free (although that doesn't matter a lot to me), the non-fish formulas are fish free, and they list specific species, and generally it's better presented and less vague, I think most people would. Part of Friskies' selling points are that it's readily available, comes in bulk, comes in MANY varieties, and it's very affordable. For those who can't transit, order, or afford other brands but still subscribe to the idea that any wet food is better than dry food, Friskies is a good compromise. At the very least, it's not a bad thing to have in rotation.

You have to pick your battles. There's nothing wrong with someone - or their cat - preferring Friskies for their cats' diet, and there's nothing wrong with forgoing it because it doesn't meet your personal base requirements.

Thank you. Now all the Friskies posts make more sense to me. People feed what they feed. The bottom line is that the food is complete and balanced and working for the cat who is eating it.

I like the McDs analogy.   Anyway I like Friskies better than 9-lives ... which is not saying much though.    One thing I will recommend is to stick with the pate.   The various Friskies cubed, flaked, sliced, in gravy, etc uses extra gluten for processing into those shapes (this applies to other brands as well).   Thus the carb load is MUCH higher for these `fancy` varieties.