Health food store cat food...

I usually feed my cats a mixture of Innova and Chicken soup wet and dry. After going to my local health food store yesterday, I picked up a few cans of what seemed to be good at food. Does anyone have any good/bad comments about these foods? They are rarely mentioned here.

Pet Guard
Lick Your Chops
Precise
Spot's Stew


Thanks all!

I've used PetGuard before (canned). I've tried the chicken types (cat's didn't like them) and the Rabbit and Venison ones. The rabbit and venison ones the cats ate, however, my one cat would kind of choke on them because they were really dry like meatloaf. Their dryness made them really hard to "squish" around and serve so I stopped getting it.

Oops, I used Precise before too... but the cat's didn't like it.

I never heard of any of these.

So far my cats hate the Spot's Stew and the Lick your Chops....but they really liked the Chicken and Brewer's Rice Pet Guard. I'm gonna try Precise tomorrow. The Pet Guard looks like a really good food:

Ingredients:
Chicken, Chicken Broth, Mackerel, Ocean Fish, Chicken Liver, Wheat Germ, Dried Yeast, Guar Gum, Dried Kelp, Sunflower Oil, Calcium Ascorbate (Ester-C), Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, plus essential vitamins and minerals.

I currently normally feed the Innova wet:
Turkey Chicken Spring Water Whole Eggs Ground White Rice Chicken Fat Potatoes Herring Sunflower Oil Apples Carrots Whole Pasteurized Milk
Fish Oil Alfalfa Sprouts Garlic Locust Bean Gum Vitamins/Minerals

They really seem to perfer the Innova so far the best...

Have you tried California Natural from Natura (same makers of Innova) yet? I think your cats would really like that since they like the innova and I think you'll find the ingredients are what you are looking for.

Mynx has become finicky from my trying different pet foods and will now only eat California Natural (I usually use the chicken and rice one but I give him the venison ones sometimes..).

Lets see... dry food:

Chicken
Chicken Meal
Ground Brown Rice
Chicken Fat
Sunflower Oil
Flaxseed
Vitamins/Minerals

The wet food (chicken and rice):

Chicken
Chicken Broth
Herring
Egg
Ground Brown Rice
Sunflower Oil
Flaxseed
Guar Gum
Vitamins/Minerals

Good luck on your cat food quest.

THESE ARE MY OPINIONS ON THE DRY FOOD!

I put the bad ingredients in bold red text. If you would like to know why each one of these ingredients are bad, let me know. I will be happy to explain or recommend any cat food.

PM me if you have a cat food question, I can show you which ingredients are good and bad in your cats food. I can also recommend a cat food that will fit in with your budget!

PetGuard Premium Cat & Kitten Dry Food

Ingredients:

Fresh Chicken, Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Whole Ground Corn, Brown Rice, Sunflower Oil, Ground Whole Wheat, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Fish Oil, Dried Whole Eggs, Dried Kelp, Dried Whey, Brewer's Yeast, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: PetGuard has way to many fillers. There really isn't that much meat in it either.

Lick Your Chops Kitten & Cat

Ingredients:

Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Rice, Chicken Fat(Naturally Preserved with Tocopherols and Rosemary Extract), Sunflower Oil(Naturally Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Rosemary Extract), Dried Whole Egg Product, Flaxseed Meal, Dried Skim Milk Powder, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Dried Kelp, Garlic Powder, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: Much better than PetGuard! Only one ingredient listed has no benefit to cats. Once again though, there's not enough meat in it.

Precise Feline Adult Foundation Formula

Ingredients:

Chicken Meal, Ground Yellow Corn, Ground Brown Rice, Corn Gluten Meal,Poultry Fat(preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbyl Palmitate), Whole Wheat Flour, Soybean Meal, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Cheese, Dried Whey, Lecithin, Brewers Dried Yeast , vitamins and minerals.

IMO: I see meat listed once. Then you have corn listed twice. There is way to many fillers and not enough meat in this food.

Here's what I feed my cats, ferals and all!

Chicken Soup For The Cat Lover's Soul Adult Cat Light Formula

Chicken, salmon, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, whole grain white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potatoes, cracked pearled barley, millet, turkey, duck, flaxseed, egg product, natural chicken flavor, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, kelp, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: See how many times a meat is listed? There is chicken, salmon, chicken meal, turkey and duck in this food. They use healthy grains and preserve naturally. It also has natural chicken flavor.

THESE ARE MY OPINIONS ON THE WET FOOD!

PetGuard Chicken & Wheat Germ Dinner

Ingredients:

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Mackerel, Ocean Fish, Chicken Liver, Wheat Germ, Dried Yeast, Guar Gum, Dried Kelp, Sunflower Oil, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: There is so much meat in this wet food!

Lick-Your-Chops Chicken Canned Dinner For Cats

Ingredients:

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Chicken Liver, Brown Rice Flour, Rice Gluten, Egg Product, Carrots, Vegetable Gums, Sunflower Oil, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: Why so much rice? It would be okay if it was only listed once. Better then most wet foods though!

Precise Fabulous Feline Turkey Formula

Ingredients:

Turkey, Turkey Broth, Chicken Liver, Brown Rice, Oat Bran, Dried Egg Product, Lecithin, Brewers Dried Yeast, Guar Gum, vitamins and minerals.

IMO: This is also a great wet food. It isn't packed with fillers and not by-products are listed.

Spot's Stew for Cats "Original Recipe"

Ingredients:

Chicken, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Celery, Chicken Liver, Carrots, Green Beans, Water, Green Peas, Turkey, Calcium Lactate, Soy Sauce, Dried Kelp, Garlic Powder, Choline Chloride, Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Gluconate, Taurine.

IMO: Yummy! Everything in this food is awesome. I want some for my kitties!

Thank you so much for your generous responses to my question! I agree with what most of what you all wrote. I think I am going to continue feeding the dry mixture of Innova and Chicken soup...and switch the wet food between Pet Guard, Innova and possibly Precise providing that they like it. They hate the Chicken soup wet food and also dislike Lick Your Chops and Spot's Stew....

why is Brewers Yeast bad?

Originally posted by Dana
why is Brewers Yeast bad?

Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing

My cats really love the Innova cans too.
I've tried Spots Stew but non of them seemed to really care for it, all them loved the Petguard cans and some of them liked the Precise cans.

Crazy Cat Lover: Im also curious about why Fish Oil is bad...Am I correct in assuming its because the type of fish is not specified?

Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Celery, Carrots, Green Beans, green peas, soy sauce? I don't know, my cats do not go out in the garden and eat these things. Way too many plants in here for a cat. Ok, I have had a cat eat grean beans before, but just a taste. I have read that garlic is bad for cats as well. Once again, what is good for us humans does not mean it is good for a cat. I have tried some of these others mentioned, my cats did not like them and made a few sick with a lot of gas! I still feed mine Eukanuba. The first 3 ingredients are: Chicken, chicken liver, chicken by product meal. Yes, there is corn and rice, but there is not much they can do about that. But, here is the part I like the best and I have not seen this on some of the other foods. While most foods will state that their brand meets or exceeds the AAFCO standards, Eukanuba states this: Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate that Eukanuba chicken and rice formula provides complete and balanced nutrion. My cats hate everything else. They do get a serving of raw turkey twice a week as well. Some will not eat the raw meat, but my Pixie Bobs go crazy for it. All I have to say is turkey and they come running. I would say that most foods are ok, but I will not feed mine a food that has all those vegetables in them.

I personally agree with you Amberthebobcat. I'm actually surprised that something for cats contains soy sauce... has anyone ever seen the sodium content on soy sauce? EGADS! I've heard that garlic is bad for cats as well... since it's from the same family as onions and onions are highly toxic to cats. Sometimes I think that fancy foods are a little too fancy...

Here's an interesting article I found on this subject. The author is great and gives a fairly unbiased view in my opinion.

Cat food

Woodsygirl, thank you so much for that link. It was so informative! My cats so far like the Precise, Innova and Pet Guard. I bought Natural Life, wellness and evolve. Yeah, I found an amazing pet store near me that sells all of these foods! The foods that I am mentioning in this post are canned only. My kitties are more than happy with their Innova/Chicken soup dry mixture!


Thank you all!

Brewer's Yeast

Brewer's yeast is the non-fermentive, non-extracted yeast that results as a by-product of the brewing of beer and ale.

Although brewer's yeast is a good source of Vitamin B, it is a potential allergen for some animals.

Fish Oil

Fish oil is the oil from rendering (cooking down) whole fish.

According to AAFCO definition, fish oil can contain cannery refuse; damaged, defective, or superfluous edible material produced during, or left over from, a manufacturing or industrial process. Many pet food manufacturers use this generic type of oil.

AmbertheBobcat: You are right about that. I was disappointed when I opened the can of Spot's Stew....I agree there were way too many veggies in there and did'nt seem to be much meat at all. I could understand why this might not be very appealing to many felines.
IMO, it seems like some of the ingredients in some foods (apples,ect.) are only there in miniscule amounts for the purpose of attracting the cat owner rather than for any benefit to the cat.
A food with a variety of grains does'nt neccessarily = a high grain content. Some foods use small amounts of several grains while others use larger amounts of only one or two. I'm sure you won't find a cat in the wild eating very many of any of the ingredients that are in pet foods.
BTW, your Pixie Bobs are gorgeous!


Crazy Cat Lover: Thanks for the explanations.


Woodsygirl: Good article, thanks for sharing it.

Yeah, I was shocked too when I opened a can of Spot's Stew and saw whole green beans in it. I mean, it seriously looked good enough for me to eat, which I can understand why it is so appealing to pet parents.

But for kitties? Mine thought I was crazy when I put it down...even my feral did too! haha!

I've never seen or heard of these brands, but it seems to me that a lot of things in their ingredient lists are there to appeal to the owner rather than give exceptional nutrition to the cat, but that's JMHO.

I don't think there's any real reason to avoid brewers yeast in a food. It can be an allergen, but so can any ingredient. Natural Balance and Felidae have yeast, and they are generally thought of to be excellent holistic kibbles. I don't see any real problem with fish oil-it's an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids. Innova has fish oil in it and I consider it to be a wonderful kibble.

On a side note, has anyone tried the new Pro Plan canned foods? My cats love them, and some of their flavors have very good ingredients. Here's the list for their Ocean Fish & Crab (and yes, you can see the scales )

Ingredients:
Ocean fish, water sufficient for processing, crab, vegetable oil, guar gum, carrageenan, Vitamin E supplement, Vitamin A supplement, zinc sulfate, thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), manganese sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Vitamin D-3 supplement. A-4659