Royal Canin thoughts?

rouie · Oct 7, 2016

Hello my friends!

My new 4-month old, Persian kitten has been having some digestive issues (diarrhea). We have been giving him Blue Buffalo wet and dry food. At one point, we had noticed some tiny amounts of blood in his stools, but the fecal and urine samples came back normal, so the vet said that if his digestive issues continued to consider changing his food brand. She hinted that Royal Canin was good. What is your experience with it? I also have a 2-year old cat and I've struggled so much to separate their food. They love to get into each other's food... Any tips? Lol. Thank you in advance

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NewYork1303 · Oct 7, 2016

Rouie said:
Hello my friends!

My new 4-month old, Persian kitten has been having some digestive issues (diarrhea). We have been giving him Blue Buffalo wet and dry food. At one point, we had noticed some tiny amounts of blood in his stools, but the fecal and urine samples came back normal, so the vet said that if his digestive issues continued to consider changing his food brand. She hinted that Royal Canin was good. What is your experience with it? I also have a 2-year old cat and I've struggled so much to separate their food. They love to get into each other's food... Any tips? Lol. Thank you in advance

.

Royal Canin is basically overpriced junk. IT isn't very good as cat food goes. Has a lot of grains in it which are unnecessary for cats. Vets reccommend it since many of them are paid to recommend it. Also vets on the whole know little to nothing about cat nutrition. That said, I've never had any problems with it. We fed it to one of our cats when she was a kitten and was recovering from a URI. Our cats now eat Nature's Variety Instinct. They love this food and have been doing well on this.

beautygladi · Oct 7, 2016

Royal canin to cat food is the equivalent of Beats by dr dre to headphones; overpriced and not necessarily the best there is out their...
Royal canin spends a lot of time researching and looking at the science of nutrition however, in my opinion, they have gone about it a little... wrong when it comes to cat food. Royal canin specializes in dog food and honestly are waaaaayyyyy over priced for their ingredient list.
There is a lot of controversy on corn, and unfortunately, this is an ingredient in all their food.
I wouldnt say vets dont know cat nutrition, but vetrinarians are put through college with help from big name brands like royal canin, science diet and purina, which can lead to... a lil favoritism in the vet world.
I believe do a lot of research and find what you thinknis right. What i like may not be something that you would like.

Natures variety is a very good brand. Great ingredient list, very palatable to cats and great option for protiens. They have everything from your standard chicken to duck, rabbit, venison...

Natural balance is what i feed to my cats. I really enjoy their take on brand loyalty as you can read the food testings for your bag of food online. Their ingredient list is in my opinion, better than blue (one of my cats has some serious allergies) and they dont have quite the negative rep as some large brands have gotten in the last few years... i really like their limited ingredient food as what is on the ingedient list is what is in rhe food (surprisingly not all brands can say that...) some of their foods are high in carbs however so if you want to stay away from carbs, stick to their grain free formulas

Wellness cat food is another of thos really good cat food brands that have a great reputation i adored their indoor formula, but my cats got sick of it... their ingredient list is amazing and they dont use by products, have fruits and vegies and use high quality proteins

Other really good foods ive heard of but havent tried myself are Halo, organix, taste of the wild,earthborn holistic, orijin

Go out and do some research if you like royal canin than stick to it otherwise heres a start of a list for you. Hope this helps....

beautygladi · Oct 7, 2016

Rouie said:
Hello my friends!

They love to get into each other's food... Any tips? Lol. Thank you in advance .

My age range for my cats are spread out and so i like to favor foods that fit all age groups for dry and supplement canned kitten food daily. Otherwise you could feed them in separate rooms and see of that helps.... out of site out of mind. Only put out what they eat in one sitting this way so it doesnt work the best gor kittens... unless you can put out portions throughout the day....

rouie · Oct 7, 2016

NewYork1303 said:
Royal Canin is basically overpriced junk. IT isn't very good as cat food goes. Has a lot of grains in it which are unnecessary for cats. Vets reccommend it since many of them are paid to recommend it. Also vets on the whole know little to nothing about cat nutrition. That said, I've never had any problems with it. We fed it to one of our cats when she was a kitten and was recovering from a URI. Our cats now eat Nature's Variety Instinct. They love this food and have been doing well on this.

Thank you for the recommendation. Nature's Variety sounds great from the review that I read. Do you buy the raw boost or the regular? What are your thoughts on both? Also, I've never bought raw food...do you think that there's any risk of contamination from it being raw? Like for instance, if I put the cats' bowls in the sink with ours... I know it's probably a dumb concern, but it crossed my mind.

rouie · Oct 7, 2016

beautygladi said:
Royal canin to cat food is the equivalent of Beats by dr dre to headphones; overpriced and not necessarily the best there is out their...
Royal canin spends a lot of time researching and looking at the science of nutrition however, in my opinion, they have gone about it a little... wrong when it comes to cat food. Royal canin specializes in dog food and honestly are waaaaayyyyy over priced for their ingredient list.
There is a lot of controversy on corn, and unfortunately, this is an ingredient in all their food.
I wouldnt say vets dont know cat nutrition, but vetrinarians are put through college with help from big name brands like royal canin, science diet and purina, which can lead to... a lil favoritism in the vet world.
I believe do a lot of research and find what you thinknis right. What i like may not be something that you would like.

Natures variety is a very good brand. Great ingredient list, very palatable to cats and great option for protiens. They have everything from your standard chicken to duck, rabbit, venison...

Natural balance is what i feed to my cats. I really enjoy their take on brand loyalty as you can read the food testings for your bag of food online. Their ingredient list is in my opinion, better than blue (one of my cats has some serious allergies) and they dont have quite the negative rep as some large brands have gotten in the last few years... i really like their limited ingredient food as what is on the ingedient list is what is in rhe food (surprisingly not all brands can say that...) some of their foods are high in carbs however so if you want to stay away from carbs, stick to their grain free formulas

Wellness cat food is another of thos really good cat food brands that have a great reputation i adored their indoor formula, but my cats got sick of it... their ingredient list is amazing and they dont use by products, have fruits and vegies and use high quality proteins

Other really good foods ive heard of but havent tried myself are Halo, organix, taste of the wild,earthborn holistic, orijin

Go out and do some research if you like royal canin than stick to it otherwise heres a start of a list for you. Hope this helps....

Wow, this definitely helps!! I appreciate your thorough reviews on each brand. I am considering Nature's Variety, but I'm wondering whether I should get the regular or raw boost. In regards to the raw boost, I'm concerned about potential contamination from it being raw. Would you happen to have any thoughts on this?

beautygladi · Oct 7, 2016

Raw boost is made in a way that there is little to no contamination. I actually mix the rawboost mixers into my cats food everynow and then because they love it. I work at a pet store and actually got to talk to the companys reps. I wish incould remember the website they gave me... but i do remember them telling me that the way they freeze dry makes sure all the good stuff stays while no bad can grow. Ive watched the guy pop one in his mouth to make a point! I wouldnt recomens eating them but if one of their representatives is confident enough to put one in his mouth i wouldnt worry too much about contamination.

NewYork1303 · Oct 7, 2016

Rouie said:
Thank you for the recommendation. Nature's Variety sounds great from the review that I read. Do you buy the raw boost or the regular? What are your thoughts on both? Also, I've never bought raw food...do you think that there's any risk of contamination from it being raw? Like for instance, if I put the cats' bowls in the sink with ours... I know it's probably a dumb concern, but it crossed my mind.

I use the regular one- because one of my cats doesn't like freeze dried food so I knew it wouldn't go over with him. I don't see anything wrong with raw boost though. It's just more expensive.

trickytree · Oct 7, 2016

Royal Canin is decades old, well established brand from France. They do not sell junk. They have an excellent research department and are firm believers in sciences.

Both my kittens are eating Royal Canin products and there are no complaints from them. My family has fed Royal Canin to their pets - again no problems.

I would listen to your vet who would know far more about animals than most who post here, including me.

manx · Oct 8, 2016

TrickyTree said:
Royal Canin is decades old, well established brand from France. They do not sell junk. They have an excellent research department and are firm believers in sciences.

Both my kittens are eating Royal Canin products and there are no complaints from them. My family has fed Royal Canin to their pets - again no problems.

I would listen to your vet who would know far more about animals than most who post here, including me.

The science of pet food is controversial.

Foods like Royal Canin, Science Diet, Iams, etc meet a cats nutritional need. Definitely. But it isn't the best nutrition.

You could feed a human a paste containing all the minerals and vitamins and protein, fat, and carb levels they need. Yeah the human will be nutritionally sound but his faeces will be too large, urine too dilute, his tummy frequently upset, indigestion, nausea, vomit occasionally (aka hairballs) and becomes overweight over time.

I just described a cat on a dry food only diet. We humans don't always notice the symptoms because cats are incredibly good at hiding pain.

Just because a food provides a cat the nutrients doesn't mean it's the best. Cats only eat human prepared foods because we slather it in flavoring.

There's a difference in feeding biologically appropriate food. It's not an immediate outward appearance, but a biological internal one.

I love vets. But in the vet world, their is a divide between Old School and New School. Old School being the older vet generation, which believe in grains and corn, and the New School, who believe in species appropriate diets. As such, a lot of the research on pet food coming out seemingly conflicts with other new research.

In the end, do your OWN research. And come to your OWN conclusion. View the topic from both sides, hear testimonials from both sides. Don't bias yourself.

What works for your cat is fine, but please keep what I said in mind.

LTS3 · Oct 8, 2016

Vets often recommend brands of food but you do not need to go along with the suggestion. Feed your cat whatever brand of food you like, unless your cat has a medical condition which may require a prescription food or a certain type of food like low carb or low phosphorus and you need to keep the vet in the loop it because food may affect the medical condition.

Rouie said:
Thank you for the recommendation. Nature's Variety sounds great from the review that I read. Do you buy the raw boost or the regular? What are your thoughts on both? Also, I've never bought raw food...do you think that there's any risk of contamination from it being raw? Like for instance, if I put the cats' bowls in the sink with ours... I know it's probably a dumb concern, but it crossed my mind.

Nature's Vareity Instinct is a good brand. I feed the NV raw and wash my cats' bowls in the same sink with the same sponge as my own dishes. I've never had a problem with contamination at all. You could use different sponges if you wanted to and santize the sponge after each use.

The only difference between the original NV dry food and the Raw Boost one is that the Raw Boost is exactly the originals with freeze dried raw added to it at a slighlty higher cost. Some cats might not like freeze dried raw so you may want to start with the originals and buy a separate bag of the NV freeze dried mixers and add a few to each meal to see if your cats like it or now.

There is no contamination at all by feeding feeze dried raw or frozen raw. Many are specially processed to reduce the risk of bacteria. Just wash the bowls in hot soapy water after your cats are done eating. Unless you are immunocomproised in some way or live with people who are or are really sloppy about washing dishes properly, don't worry about contamination

NewYork1303 · Oct 8, 2016

TrickyTree said:
Royal Canin is decades old, well established brand from France. They do not sell junk. They have an excellent research department and are firm believers in sciences.

Both my kittens are eating Royal Canin products and there are no complaints from them. My family has fed Royal Canin to their pets - again no problems.

I would listen to your vet who would know far more about animals than most who post here, including me.

I meant no offense calling it junk. But it is overpriced for its ingredients list. Brewers rice, corn, wheat, corn meal, and peas all show up close to the top of the list (first or second) for most of the recipes. None of these are anything cats need- they're cheap fillers. A cat left to its own devices will eat some grass, but they don't graze like cows or sheep. Most of their diet is comprised of mice, birds, and other meat products. It logically follows then that cat food should have mostly meat with perhaps a small amount of vegetation/grain. This food is more expensive or the same price as Nature's Variety depending on formulas. By comparison the top ingredients in Nature's Variety are chicken meal, chicken fat, chicken, and fish meal. There are still vegetables in there somewhere- but they are close to the bottom of the list and you won't find any corn, wheat, or peas. Royal Canin's ingredient list compares much more closely with Iams- a brand that can be purchased for almost 20 dollars cheaper.

I forgot to add when we started discussing this that cats do need wet food as well as dry. For wet food, my cats eat Weruva, Sheba, Fancy Feast, and Nutro. This is just my rotation- people can choose their own by looking at their price range and the ingredients. I don't use nature's variety canned food - but this is because I cannot find a variety pack of their foods and I prefer to have more flavors to mix things up. I also feel using various brands is good just in case something is recalled and you can't get it for a while.

trickytree · Oct 8, 2016

Manx said:
In the end, do your OWN research. And come to your OWN conclusion. View the topic from both sides, hear testimonials from both sides. Don't bias yourself.

What works for your cat is fine, but please keep what I said in mind.

Thanks. Will do. And please heed your own advise.

trickytree · Oct 8, 2016

NewYork1303 said:
I meant no offense calling it junk. But it is overpriced for its ingredients list. Brewers rice, corn, wheat, corn meal, and peas all show up close to the top of the list (first or second) for most of the recipes. None of these are anything cats need- they're cheap fillers. A cat left to its own devices will eat some grass, but they don't graze like cows or sheep. Most of their diet is comprised of mice, birds, and other meat products. It logically follows then that cat food should have mostly meat with perhaps a small amount of vegetation/grain. This food is more expensive or the same price as Nature's Variety depending on formulas. By comparison the top ingredients in Nature's Variety are chicken meal, chicken fat, chicken, and fish meal. There are still vegetables in there somewhere- but they are close to the bottom of the list and you won't find any corn, wheat, or peas. Royal Canin's ingredient list compares much more closely with Iams- a brand that can be purchased for almost 20 dollars cheaper.

I forgot to add when we started discussing this that cats do need wet food as well as dry. For wet food, my cats eat Weruva, Sheba, Fancy Feast, and Nutro. This is just my rotation- people can choose their own by looking at their price range and the ingredients. I don't use nature's variety canned food - but this is because I cannot find a variety pack of their foods and I prefer to have more flavors to mix things up. I also feel using various brands is good just in case something is recalled and you can't get it for a while.

Not much filler listed at the beginning of the list of ingredients.

IMG_20161008_172333.jpg

trickytree
Oct 8, 2016

NewYork1303 · Oct 8, 2016

True. I was talking about the dry food. Still there is wheat and brewers rice in there- which are fillers. For 1/3 the price you can purchase Fancy Feast or Sheba pates. Both which have no grains at all. My point is that for a cheaper price you can easily find food that is equivalent or even better.

moorspede · Oct 9, 2016

"Not much filler listed at the beginning of the list of ingredients."

Ha! My pouch of Cat Instinctive admits to the following ingredients:

COMPOSITION: meat and animal derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin, minerals, various sugars. ADDITIVES (per kg): Nutritional additives: Vitamin D3: 770 IU, E1 (Iron): 2.3 mg, E2 (Iodine): 0.15 mg, E4 (Copper): 1.1 mg, E5 (Manganese): 0.7 mg, E6 (Zinc): 7 mg. ANALYTICAL CONSTITUENTS: Protein: 11.8% - Fat content: 4.5% - Crude ash: 1.3% - Crude fibres: 0.8% - Moisture: 80%.

I had no idea, for example, it contained carageenan. It's a pity neither will eat anything else.

manx · Oct 11, 2016

TrickyTree said:
Thanks. Will do. And please heed your own advise.

Thank you for the concern but I'd never dispense advice I haven't followed myself.

And I've researched using all kinds of sourced over many months and came to my own conclusion, that being that Royal Canin isn't a good food. You are very welcome to your own opinion, that being RC is a good food. And that's perfectly OK. I have no problem with your opinion as long as you have no issue with mine

We're here to politely discuss, not rudely argue.

msserena · Oct 11, 2016

If you want to feed quality, stay away from Royal Canin. They make good vet diets, but you couldn't pay me to feed their regular food to my cats, it's chock full of crap. Pretty much every vet will want you to feed your animal Royal Canin or Science Diet. It's always one or the other. I am very choosy & only feed the higher end brands. You can check this out

http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far

If your cat will eat from the 1st or 2nd choice list, you're gonna be doing great for your kitty. I have foods from both lists inter-mixed. My cats are terribly picky so basically I had to do a lot of buying & trying. Hopefully you or someone you know has a dog that can eat the rejects!

And for raw, after the plate is empty, I put it in the sink with a little soap, get water to mix & let it soak until all the dried stuff can wash down the drain. Then I put the plate in the dishwasher. easy peasy. The thing you have to watch out for is when you feed hunks of meat, I put them on a plate with a bath towel open all the way, she'll take it off the plate, outside of the towel & drop it on the floor. Or they could take a chunk & run off with it, mine have done that before. I think of all the salmonella I'm walking around on but I haven't had an issue with getting sick yet. Just wash your hands with soap & water.

Oh & if you do decide on Nature's Variety, it's a great food, make sure you stick with the Instinct line. The other ones are crap. They are high in fat so you're also gonna have to watch for weight gain. I've got a fatty now due to 3 years on that food. I made the switch to Weruva (non fish) a little over a month ago. Since I've been feeding my cats raw food, I can't really get them to eat the canned!

Royal Canin thoughts?

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