Comprehensive cat food poll - what do you feed your cats?

Originally Posted by Russian Blue

Thanks so much for posting this list. I've been slowly gathering a list like the one above and adding it to my 'wish list' for future book purchases.

You have now made it much easier for me. Thank you George!

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Ditto!

Spotz

Originally Posted by Russian Blue

Thanks so much for posting this list. I've been slowly gathering a list like the one above and adding it to my 'wish list' for future book purchases. You have now made it much easier for me. Thank you George!

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You're welcome.
- george

Dusty eats chicken soup dry and a rotation of chicken soup, wellness and nutro cans

Muffin eats Iams dry and friskies fine cut pouches. Not my first choice for her but she is rather picky. She also gets a lot of fresh chicken, shrimp etc

my boys get Medi-Cal Mature kibbles, and Weight Control kibbles, in the morning (though with the summer heat it's more like free choice, as they all prefer to take little periodic nibbles when it's so hot)
At night they all get Medi-Cal reducing canned or mature canned (they like the reducing better, though none of them are presently overweight... so they get extra kibbles when they get reducing canned)

.maggie

Royal Canin dry and California Natural dry
Natural Life and Newman's Organics wet

I've read in a pet food review that Chicken Soup is pet food grade, not human grade meat. Just for those wanting to know.

Here's a link to the review:

Chicken Soup Review

Originally Posted by woodsygirl

I've read in a pet food review that Chicken Soup is pet food grade, not human grade meat. Just for those wanting to know.
Here's a link to the review:
Chicken Soup Review

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Thanks; I stand corrected.
- george

Molly is a picky eater so we get Iams for the cats , However Paige gets chicken and Tuna a couple of times a month, but only because Molly doesn't seem at all interested in people food. otherwise they'd both get those treats. (and occasionally the smallest amount of milk. Her stomach handles it and she loves it so much. I have found that she's more aggressive after milk though so that's becoming pretty rare.)

I had been feeding Bella Nutro Natural Balance and then tried Chicken Soup but she didn't seem too thrilled with either one. When I switched her to Authority (hey, it ain't the greatest but I had a coupon for a free bag) she really took to it, but I don't know if it's because of the taste or the texture because of her tender gums - after I get her gum stitched back up I intend to switch back, probably to Nutro because that's what I'll be feeding my ferals.

I remember seeing an episode of Animal Cops where this lady was feeding her cats a vegeterian diet and she made them all blind (due to the lack of taurine).

I see a lot of you use Royal Canin. I can not find any info on them on the web. Do they use human-grade products? I remember trying innova once and my cats wouldn't touch the stuff, they would have rather starved!

Oh and something else, I'm not sure if this is true or not but a vet told me this once. A lot of veterinarians recommend Science Diet because Science Diet provides scholarships for vet school in which they sign a contract to promote their products. Anyone know if this is true?

Sarah

Originally Posted by PrissyKitty

I remember seeing an episode of Animal Cops where this lady was feeding her cats a vegeterian diet and she made them all blind (due to the lack of taurine).

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Feeding a straight vegetarian diet to a cat is a definite no-no.

But apparently, it is possible for some cats to survive on such a diet if taurine and other supplements are included, and this seems to be the case with such brands like Evolution, Vegecat, and Wysong's canned vegetarian cat food; just Google-ing about this topic brings up a lot of anectodal evidence about cats doing fine on these diets.

(Personally, I don't advocate vegetarian food for cats, but hey, it is there for people who are set in that lifestyle.)

By the way, here's a recent article on the debate about vegetarian food for cats: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18767

- george

Originally Posted by PrissyKitty

I see a lot of you use Royal Canin. I can not find any info on them on the web. Do they use human-grade products? I remember trying innova once and my cats wouldn't touch the stuff, they would have rather starved!

Oh and something else, I'm not sure if this is true or not but a vet told me this once. A lot of veterinarians recommend Science Diet because Science Diet provides scholarships for vet school in which they sign a contract to promote their products. Anyone know if this is true?

Sarah

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Royal Canin (http://www.royalcanin.com) is considered pet food-grade, not human-grade, although it seems their "Sensible Choice" brand comes closer to being human-grade quality. (By the way, Royal Canin is owned by Mars, the multinational candy bar company. The other pet food brands owned by Mars include Kal Kan, Pedigree, Sheba, Whiskas, and Waltham.)

Regarding whether Hill's (the makers of Science Diet) promotes their products through vets, this is true. Hill's is not the only one doing this; the other big global pet food manufacturers -- Iams and Purina in particular -- do this as well. For more info, check out the book Food Pets Die For.

- george

Originally Posted by woodsygirl

Royal Canin dry and California Natural dry
Natural Life and Newman's Organics wet

I've read in a pet food review that Chicken Soup is pet food grade, not human grade meat. Just for those wanting to know.

Here's a link to the review:

Chicken Soup Review

Click to expand...

Actually, she thanks them for not using a term "human grade" because she says there is no such thing as "human grade".

Originally Posted by allissa

Actually, she thanks them for not using a term "human grade" because she says there is no such thing as "human grade".

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Hmm, interesting. I checked out the Chicken Lover's website and this is the first time I've heard of a pet food company not wanting to define their food as human-grade. Perhaps calling it as just super-premium or ultra-premium would be better. But for better or for worse, it seems nowadays that human-grade is another term used interchangeably to describe the high-end packaged pet food.

But perhaps human-grade could be used to describe some foods that have been created in USDA-approved kitchens, like Halo's canned Spot's Stew.

Perhaps I should've separated the human-grade from the super/ultra-premium foods. Oh well, maybe in the next poll...

- george

They are currently eating a dry pet food grade food (two dry pet food grade foods, actually, two of them are eating Science Diet, the other is eating Royal Canin), but I am looking to switch them to a dry human grade food.

Both of my boys eat a mix of Nutro Max Cat and Nutro Indoor formula (both dry)... I'm looking into switching to Nutro's weight management formula because they boys are getting a bit hefty. (= As a treat they sometimes get canned Nutro food.

My kittens eat Eukanuba dry food. I get the special kitten formula and they both seem to love it. It works especially well since I'm free feeding them for now. I've also kind of shied away from the canned food because I'm afraid they'll respond the way my dog did. One winter I started adding canned food into her diet and after that she refused to eat the dry. It took months to get her to accept her regular food again. Based on that previous experience, I figure if the kittens are happy with simple dry food, I'm not about to rock the boat.

I voted: Fresh meat - homemade raw with or without pre-mix, because we are here in the house slowly trying to switch to BARF. But it is hard since this way of feeding your cats is not so used here in Denmark ( Mostly catowners feed with the wellknown brand such as Iams, Eukanuba, Hills ect.)So I find meat in the supermarkets as we do not have any firm here which have specialised in selling BARF food for cats.

I have recently started a danish list on yahoogroups where I hope I can exchange receipes and other tips some day, but the list is not huge and we are all beginners so we miss experts who can understand danish.

I am very nerveous about if I give my cats enough taurine ect in their diets, how do I ensure myself that they get what they need of the important amino acid??

Spiin and Purrs
Camilla

Originally Posted by Peacemaker

I am very nerveous about if I give my cats enough taurine ect in their diets, how do I ensure myself that they get what they need of the important amino acid??
Camilla

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Camilla,

There's a good section on feline taurine requirements starting on page 41 of the book "Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats."

The Pitcairns say that raw meat contains a sufficient enough level of taurine (30 to 50 milligrams) for cats. But, if you want to play it safe, you can add a capsule or tablet of taurine, and many vitamin-mineral supplements for cats already contain enough taurine as well. You can get these from most nutrition/health stores or holistic pet food stores.

But what you really should do first is consult with a vet who is familiar with raw diets, and also check out the Rawpaws list on Yahoo for a lot of good up-to-date info on BARF diets.

good luck,
- george

I feed him Natural Balance...where do they even sell chicken soup? I never see it anywhere