question about food,,,,

All or cats like the purina indoor formula cat chow. Is this decent stuff for the price? Tom

It's not the greatest food, IMO. I think it has a lot of fillers....

I think it is a just one step up from generic. In other words, not that great.
If price is an issue, my opinion is that the best dry foods available at the grocery store are iams and purinaone. You may notice that Purina makes 4 or 5 brands of cat food, and the order of the quality is roughly this:
cat chow/delicat, friskies, fancy feast, purina one, and pro plan.

Better foods are availble at the pet store, and nutro seems to be the one favored by most on this site.
Benefits of better food include longer life, less vet bills, less poo, and happier kitty. Also kitties will eat less of better food, so it as expensive as you might think. I try to feed mine quality food.
I use the dry fancy feast as treats.

I wouldnt use it ... I would use Nutro max, royal Canin way before the purina indoor... Not a fool proof way but if the grocery store has it dont buy it..

Originally Posted by sharky

I wouldnt use it ... I would use Nutro max, royal Canin way before the purina indoor... Not a fool proof way but if the grocery store has it dont buy it..

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I agree! My kitties love Nutro!!!

Hi Tom,

Here is a list of the first few ingredients in Purina Indoor formula cat chow:
"Corn Meal, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, soy flour, beef tallow preserved with mixed tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), cellulose, salmon meal, soybean hulls, malted barley flour, brewers dried yeast, natural flavors.."

I am highlighting in red all the ingredients that I would not feed if I had a choice. My first reason for suggesting you switch away from this is that the main ingredient is corn meal - corn is an allergen for cats, and corn meal is not even a protein source (corn gluten meal is, but I'd hate to see *that* listed first either), by products are not quality protein sources...as as you read through, the ONLY genuine protein here is salmon meal - and it is the 7th listed ingredient. Soybean hulls? filler..indigestible..bleagh.

Realizing that online prices do not necessarily match brick and mortar store prices, but for comparison's sake..one site lists an 18# bag of the Purina Indoor Formula for $13.99

You can get a very decent food - Authority Indoor Formula - a 20# bag for 17.99 - this is PetSmart's own brand, and here for comparison are it's first listed ingredients: "Chicken Meal,Brewers Rice,Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Corn,
Chicken,Dried Egg Products,Dried Beet Pulp,Natural Flavors,Dried Cellulose
Animal Fat Preserved with Vitamin E"

I'd be happier if it did not contain the ground corn, but this is a better food, for not that much more money.

Just my 2 cents

We live right by a wal mart so I get food there. I know they have the iams, would that be a much better one than the cat chow? Our vet is also right near buy, I never looked at what they have. They go through an awfull lot of the purina cat chow which also means alot of cat litter also lol.

I'm not surprised they are using up a lot of litter! A better quality food is more easily utilized by your cat, and results in lesser amount of box contents

I looked at the Iams Indoor Hairball formula, here are the ingredients:
"Chicken By-Product Meal, Chicken, Corn Grits, Corn Meal,Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Cellulose, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols"
so..for twice as much as the authority, you get corn grits and corn meal and ground whole grain sorghum, plus as your first ingredient chicken by-product meal. I don't think this is worth twice as much as the authority brand.

I am not familiar with what foods Walmart carries, if anyone can tell me? I'd be glad to research what the best one (imho!) of the bunch is

Are there any pet stores nearby or a feed store? There are several premium cat food brands to choose from. If you do a search on here you will see several discussions about the pros and cons of the various brands out there.

Hi - after extensive research (and taste tests!!), our bengals love the Nutro! They seem to eat less of it, but thrive on it...and the less litter is a plus too!!

Kaylene

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I'm not surprised they are using up a lot of litter! A better quality food is more easily utilized by your cat, and results in lesser amount of box contents

I looked at the Iams Indoor Hairball formula, here are the ingredients:
"Chicken By-Product Meal, Chicken, Corn Grits, Corn Meal,Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Cellulose, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols"
so..for twice as much as the authority, you get corn grits and corn meal and ground whole grain sorghum, plus as your first ingredient chicken by-product meal. I don't think this is worth twice as much as the authority brand.

I am not familiar with what foods Walmart carries, if anyone can tell me? I'd be glad to research what the best one (imho!) of the bunch is

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The best food carried in wal mart is called premium and is very similiar to Iams corn and by products arent the first ingrediants and it has digest and corn oil...

I just did some searching on the net and I found that my vet sells science diet brand cat food and probably others to, what are all your thought on this stuff?

My advice read the label... Science Diet is one I avaoid cept when it is a prescription formula for a reason ... Here is a quick lesson in food...

By products are heads feet and internal organs
Meat by products are heads feet and internal organs of any meat... could be horse , cow , chn , pigeon any mix ...

corn grd corn corn grits are harder to digest than wheat and rice it is also a high allergen


wheat is another allegen so avoid if that may be an issue


chn meal is basically dehydrated chn high protein low mosture and fat , it does not contain any by products

vitamin e and c are natural preserves ( these are good)... BHT BHA and Ethoquin are chemicals that can preserve ( best avoided since in humans there have been cancer links and other icky stuff... I try to avoid citric acid due to personal reasearch that only one type is a natural by product

Digest is another yukky thing someone else can chime in as to it...

Originally Posted by sharky

Digest is another yukky thing someone else can chime in as to it...

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Per this site click here for source of quote digest is:"Powder or liquid (soup, slurry) made from undecomposed animal tissue, broken down using chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis. The type of meat used is specified e.g. chicken, turkey, beef. Digests are ingredients not soluble in their natural state, but made soluble (hence useful as ingredients) with the use of heat, moisture and or chemicals/enzymes e.g. "Poultry Digest" may be processed chicken feet."

Yum...not.

I guess I will stop in at the vet and see what kinds they all have and go from there. I will see if they have Nutro or the Royal Canin. We also have a hardware store that has different animal and pet foods so maybe worth a look there. Now with 5 cats I will go broke feeding them the cheap stuff and all the cat litter they go through. I bet it costs more to feed the cats in a month then our 75 lb dog. Maybe I need to look into a better dog food also. Thanks for everyones help, I never realized there is such a difference in cat food. I give them all tuna now and then for a treat, is there anything wrong with giving them canned tuna now and then?

Originally Posted by Tom W

I give them all tuna now and then for a treat, is there anything wrong with giving them canned tuna now and then?

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Well, it depends - tuna in oil can deplete a cats vitamin e and lead to a disease called steatitis(mis-spelled that I'm sure, but it's late). So, it's best to use tuna in water (and really just spring water..many cans labelled tuna in water are actually in a veggie broth that includes soy and may included onion I believe).

Here is (yup I am a big proponent of articles!) one of the best articles, imo, on cats and tuna...read the whole thing! It is a pdf file, so you do need to have adobe acrobat's free reader installed on your system.
click here

Originally Posted by Tom W

I guess I will stop in at the vet and see what kinds they all have and go from there. I will see if they have Nutro or the Royal Canin. We also have a hardware store that has different animal and pet foods so maybe worth a look there. Now with 5 cats I will go broke feeding them the cheap stuff and all the cat litter they go through. I bet it costs more to feed the cats in a month then our 75 lb dog. Maybe I need to look into a better dog food also.

Thanks for everyones help, I never realized there is such a difference in cat food. I give them all tuna now and then for a treat, is there anything wrong with giving them canned tuna now and then?

Click to expand...

My advice(for what it's worth) if your going through too much litter-get off of commercial diet and feed raw and you wont have stinky poops and you won't have to worry about changing litter nearly as often. I know a raw meat diet cannot be maintained by everyone because of time issues but it's the best IMO. You save money not only on food but also vet bills and litter!

I use the light tuna that is in some thin stuff, not the heavy oil, I open the can and leave the lid in and push the lid into the tuna to drain off the oil the best I can before I give it to them. I have heard that to much tuna can be bad for them, something about plugging them up in some way I think it was. I haven't read the artical you posted yet on tuna but I will.

I fed my cat science diet for 10 years and never had a problem till I took him off it. Think about it, if the vet sells it, it has to be a pretty decent food. That is how I started my cat on it. When he was a kitty the vet recommend it to me. Also I have moved around alot and seem to find that all vets I have visited sell Science diet.

I am not familiar with what foods Walmart carries, if anyone can tell me? I'd be glad to research what the best one (imho!) of the bunch is [/quote]

Walmart pretty much carries the same thing as the grocery store. Walmart "special kitty" iams, meow mix, purina one, friskies, whiskas, cat chow, 9 lives, maybe deli cat. They have all the pouches and can foods of the same brand. My theory from what I read at this site is that purina one and iams are the best of whats available there. At least they don't have funky colors and stuff. What do cats need with red dye? Yuck.