"Cat Food question"

"I've always bought my cat food at the supermarket. However my friend
who has a dog says she never does that because the food isn't good
enough quality. Is that the same for cats? Should I buy food at only pet
stores?"

Your friend is exactly right. Grocery store food contains by products (heads, feet, and intestines), ground corn (not very digestible), artificial colors, and chemical preservatives. But not everything in a pet store is good, either. I do demos for Nutro, our food doesn't have any of those ingredients, and helps with shedding, hairballs, cleans the teeth, helps reduce litter box odor, etc., and is available in all the big pet stores and feed stores. Of the brands available to me, it's the only one I'd consider feeding to my cats and dogs. Some other people highly recommend some other brands that I'm not real familiar with, so I'll let them tell you about those. But just read the labels, and make sure the 4 things I mentioned are not there, and you'll have a good start. BHA, BHT, and a couple others that it's too early in the day for me to remember and spell correctly are chemical preservatives.

Amber

Fatkitties makes a good point. Although keep in mind that it will also depend on what your cat likes. My cat loves Fancy Feast, and it's definately not the best food out there, also likes Iams. I got her everything I could, and since coming to these boards I have tried giving her other brands that are better, but with no luck. I do give her raw meat sometimes, but we are having texture issues with her, so it's really hard, as she does not want to chew it seems...

Pet stores have a bigger selection of foods than supermarkets. But I don't really know what you mean grocery store food??? The brand that the supermarket makes?
Also keep in mind as it was said that not everything is good in the pet store either, and the just because something is expensive doesn't mean it doesn't have byproducts. When I was looking at different brands science diet had it as well.

Hi, usually a supermarket just doesn't offer the premium quality foods. I personally no longer like to feed Iams, but some do and some feel it is a quality food - that would be the one possible exception since this is now sold in a supermarket.

I also feed some of the canned foods I find at my local market, because Fancy Feast helps re the hit or miss appetite of my kidney failure cat & gets him eating, and bottom line is he must eat.

The general advice that I give, is to buy the best quality food you can sensibly afford, choosing from brands that do not use corn gluten meal as their only protein source or as their first listed ingredient, looking for ingredients lists that have real meat/chicken/turkey or chicken meal as the first 3 ingredients. Avoid if possible, foods that contain ground/whole or cracked corn, that use multiple carb sources in the same food such as wheat and soy flour, corn, and/or rice/barley etc. Having one such as rice in the recipe is one thing, but having 3 or 4 is quite another.

Avoid foods that use BHA/BHT as a preservative, or have artificial flavors added or dyes/colorings.

Some brand names to consider - PetGuard, California Natural Chicken and Rice, Innova, Felidae, Nutro's Natural Choice Complete Care, Natural Balance, and for a decent food but in a lower price range than the foods above - PetSmart's own Authority brand.

hth!

That's great that you're looking for something better for your cat! The people here at TCS are so knowledgeable and recently helped me with the same issue. I had been feeding Clinton Science Diet and was distraught when I learned about the by-products and yuckies in it. I switched Clinton to Innova EVO dry and Natural Balance wet foods. I really like that Innova only uses human grade ingredients, and Natural Balance has cranberries in it which is supposed to be good for the urinary tract and comes in a fishy flavor. Clinton 's both foods and his energy is better and his coat looks healthier than ever!

Good Luck in your search!

I feed a mix of Purina Pro Plan, and Bil Jac cat food. The Bil jac is very diffrent in the way its made and even the way it looks. Its not like a normal kibble at all. its a palletable easy to crumble pellett. Its not avalible at petsmart..only smaller stores, and petfooddirect.com.

But really Pat&Alix has the best advice for you