Does this sound like a "complete cat food" to you?

I just got a delivery of food samples yesterday. There are all different flavors, though half of them have tuna , and there aren't any indications of calcium or phosphorous levels, or taurine.

Beef fillets with chicken livers (pouch):
ingredients: beef fillets (50% minimum), chicken livers (4.1% minimum), vegetable gelling agent.
analysis: moisture 79%, crude protein 16%, crude fat 2%, crude ash 1.2%, crude fiber 0.2%
added vitamins: vitamin A (alpha-tocopherol) 30 mg./kg.

chicken fillets with surimi (canned "jelly"):
ingredients: chicken fillets (min. 48%), surimi (min. 6%), vegetable gelling agent
analysis:moisture 82%, crude protein 12%, crude fat 0.5%, crude ash 1.2%, crude fiber 0.1%
added vitamins: vitamin A (alpha-tocopherol) 3 mg./kg.

tuna and chicken with rice (canned):
ingredients: tuna Euthynus Affinis (25% minimum), chicken (25% minimum), rice (4.1%), water
analysis:moisture 80%, crude protein 14%, crude fat 0.8%, crude ash 1.8%, crude fiber 0.1%
added vitamins: vitamin A (alpha-tocopherol) 3 mg./kg.

I wouldnt think there "complete" but they read like petco s pet gold here and that is a complete food.. ... they may be getting taurine from the meat

They sound like a food in the UK called HiLife, it is complementary but can be fed with complete biscuits to make a complete diet.

It's an Italian brand (Schesir) which claims to be a complete cat food.

Well, the meat content is good, certainly better than some, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of grains, by products etc. It's just whether they can get enough nutrients from it -you could always feed with complete biscuits if you are unsure, or just give it them as a treat.

My two get dry food in the morning, anyway, so I'm not too concerned about them eating this. Jamie's two brothers are also insisting on small cans (must run in the family), and they only eat canned. Several new brands, consisting of just meat and/or fish and vegetable jelly, have been launched here, and I don't really trust the "complete food" labels.

that's ok then. It is tricky if they are labelled as complete, yet the ingredients don't sound enough to be complete, nor is there enough of a breakdown of nutrients to work it out.

if its made with boneless meat (thats what fillet means, right?), where does kitty get calcium?

That's what I'm wondering. I checked out the website, but there's no indication of calcium or phosphorous levels. I guess I'll have to get the importer to find out.

Originally Posted by jcat

It's an Italian brand (Schesir) which claims to be a complete cat food.

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Can you write to the company to ask them about taurine levels etc? It does remind me of the petgold foods at petco, which are complete and which my cats like (some of the time...can't be consistent you know or the human will get complacent!)

I sent an email (in English), and got a short reply: "Enough taurine from meat". No information on calcium, etc..
Actually, I'm more worried about too much phosphorous, because I've found that in some of these "(nearly) all meat" foods, there's more phosphorous than calcium. Jamie and ZsaZsa are cat milk addicts, and breakfast on dry food, so it probably won't hurt them, but what about cats that get just this brand?
We're still trying to get ZsaZsa to move completely to our neighbor's house (had another cat fight this week in the backyard), so I'm giving the neighbor her food. Today we tried the "beef fillet with chicken hearts". Jamie inhaled it, although it was in a "detestable" pouch, and ZsaZsa lost hers to Putzi, the neighbor's c.19-year-old, who never eats wet food. I then gave ZsaZsa a can of the chicken Schesir, and she devoured that. So it must be tasty. I always feed a variety of brands, so I'm not too worried about nutritional imbalances, but I know there'll be people who will switch to this brand completely, because they buy the "stick with one brand" argument. My neighbor was thrilled that Putzi ate the wet food, and asked me to order some for her, but at Putzi's age, too much phosphorous could do damage, too.

I understand, I'd worry too re the phosphorous...anything with fish seems to be higher in phos (in my opinion). I tried to find something comparable - petreat's tuna based with rice and shrimps was 1.10% phos, where as petreet's Beef and rice or chicken and rice was .75% (though they listed a petreet tuna with rice and crab surimi was just .65% phos...very nice!)wysong's just meat (au jus is the name) - the venison and the rabbit were 1.50% phos. For oldsters I want phos under 1%, the lower the better (rather see a .6 or .7%).

I think you will be okay because of the varying and rotation of foods, but anyone feeding just this to oldsters, I'd be concerned too.

Yes, I do wonder too. Taurine is of course in the meat, but fat seems to be low in two of the three. Calcium?? Probably too low as some said.

And why added A-vitamine? Would be probably better with extra E-vitamin...
Why they do add A-vitamin in the first one? there is a lot of A-vitamin in liver...

(I guess cats do need some a-vitamin, but too much A-vitamin is dangerous for cats)

Yellew flag by me, unless completed with additional food, feks the all-biscuits some mentioned.

By the way, meat by products are not as bad as many believes - not so good if they are majorpart, but minor part OK. They often having calcium too.

So it's ok to feed cats different brands of food? I know with the puppies it always made their tummys upset when I switched brands. I guess you learn something new everyday. I have learned more about cats in the past 3 months than I ever knew in my life.... I have had Salem and Isis for about 3 weeks but i took time to read up and decide that yes I wanted a cat. You couldn't take them away from me now unless of course you pried them out of my cold dead hands!!!!!

BTW what do you think about putting that vitiman spray on their food? It was suggested by a friend but I forgot to ask the vet about it earlier. Im gonna call him monday but I wanted yall's opinion also.

Originally Posted by jcat

I I'm not too worried about nutritional imbalances, but I know there'll be people who will switch to this brand completely, because they buy the "stick with one brand" argument.

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Originally Posted by Mom2SalemIsis

So it's ok to feed cats different brands of food? I know with the puppies it always made their tummys upset when I switched brands. I guess you learn something new everyday.

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Jamie insists on different foods all the time - in any one week I feed three different brands of dry, and three or four different brands of canned. Some cats do react with upset tummies, but I haven't had that experience. I have to constantly rotate brands he gets sick of.
The problem with feeding just one brand is, what do you do if it suddenly becomes unavailable? My mother had that happen with a cat she had. There was a horrible ice storm, and supplies weren't getting to the stores. She ended up calling everybody she knew or heard of who had a cat in order to get Ginger's preferred brand.
I have a different problem here (Europe). I feed a lot of imported foods, and sometimes a consignment gets stuck at customs, and that brand is unavailable for months. We've had that happen with Felidae and Solid Gold. Or the import regulations are changed, and certain foods can't be imported. That happened last year with Innova and California Natural.
Also, if your cat needs a special diet, it's easier to get her to accept the new food if she's used to some changes.
The vitamin sprays are unnecessary, IMO, if you're feeding good, balanced foods.

P.S. I'm glad to see you got your siggy straightened out.

Thanks for the info and noticing the siggy. It was becoming a real pain lol. I stayed up last night and made a thanksgiving one and a christmas one lol. I would love to make a long one like Holly"s and a few others Ive seen ill have to ask what demensions are used for one that long. Of course both siggys i made last night will have to be replaced because by that time Salem and Isis will be bigger and not look like kittens. I can't believe how much they have grown in just a few weeks!

Ciao