What do you think of this food?

Here's the ingredient list:
Chicken, Meat Broth, Poultry Liver, Ocean Fish, Brewers Rice, Dried Egg Product, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Guar Gum, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Salt, DL-Methionine, Caramel, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Flax Meal, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Choline Chloride, Taurine, Tricalcium Phosphate

I'm not saying the brand yet, although I'm sure some of you will guess it. Anyway, what is good and what is bad about these ingredients?

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

Here's the ingredient list:
Chicken, Meat Broth, Poultry Liver, Ocean Fish, Brewers Rice, Dried Egg Product, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Guar Gum, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Salt, DL-Methionine, Caramel, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Flax Meal, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Choline Chloride, Taurine, Tricalcium Phosphate

I'm not saying the brand yet, although I'm sure some of you will guess it. Anyway, what is good and what is bad about these ingredients?

Click to expand...

It is the new Iams wet ..... Not bad but why not specify the broth.. Carmel is a way to hide wheat ... Barley is not a digestable grain and is closely related to wheat ( I know why they use it ) .... salt is high on the list ... It has two meat and three grains ... chn and fish with rice barley and flax ( I ask why in a wet food)
It is decent but in the same price range is far better

It's ok...however, I don't think a canned food needs that many grains (or beet pulp--works well in dry foods, but unnecessary for canned foods)

I was going to say it seems a bit grain heavy also...

Well, compared to the old one, is it better (I know I can find better if I manage to beg a ride off of someone to go 20 minutes away to the closest petsmart...or I could mail order...etc) since it no longer has by-products? Everything is totally different. The old kitten food even has lamb in it now. And the cans look exactly the same.

And now the kitten pouches have "meat by-product" in them, which they certainly didn't before.

Sharky, I knew you would know what it was.

Okay, I'm an idiot... I thought that it was only the new ones but apparently they have reformulated pretty much all of their products? They all used to have by-products and now it looks like it's just the chicken kind?

I don't like the salt either. That's kind of weird, and I don't understand why it's there anyway.

I always thought beet pulp (no sugar) was a good fiber. I've found things not on the company's websites that said so too...

This is kind of frustrating, because before I had it worked out which flavors and types were better, and now it's all flibbeldy flobbeldy.

And of course Zissou doesn't like it. *sigh* Goshdurnit!

Beet pulp is good fiber in a dry food ... the reasoning in a wet food is well beyond me... kind like three grains in a wet food... Not all of the cans have gotten better many still have by products but they have improved...

Have you looked for natural life at wal mart ??

I do not shop at Wal-mart for moral reasons. Do they sell it, well, basically anywhere else?

I am sure they do but I would imagine the other places are small pet stores...

I checked the natural life website and the nearest place they sell it is very far away. That's sad. I'll be close to a PetCo once I move in mid-August, and can finally look there. These new formulations for the Iams foods are really frustrating, but I think Zissou's just gonna have to hold out a couple weeks unless it makes her sick or she won't eat it.

Zissou also hates pate wet food, she only likes chunks. Can't blame her I guess, the pate looks kind of like the pureed food my mom has to feed some of the patients at the nursing home. I think that's why she didn't like Merrick. Can I convince her she likes pate somehow?

Oh, Zissou girl, whatever shall we do with you!

I'm planning on finding her a different wet food as soon as I move. It wasn't a top priority before but with all these changes now I'm going to do it near-first-thing. I'm sticking with the dry food for now though. It's not her main nutrition and she likes it and I think it's decent enough to not feel bad about it.

Will she eat Meow mix pouches???

That's the canned food my cats are currently eating and it does look better than the old Iams, it's moister too. I have a lot of Iams cans to feed still but I'm in the process of making some changes. I may not completely eliminate this food from their diet, as the canned pate Iams, the new one contains no by-products, only the chunks in gravy do contain meat by-products. As I am introducing better foods like Innova(for dry) and Evo and Merrick and other varieties I might discover into their diet my goal is that Iams will not be their main diet. I will consider the grain content of it and the salt which I hope is only a balanced level of salt.

Noticed Iams also has a picture on their new bags of dry foods of wholesome looking ingredients. This and the reformulation of their canned foods is probably to compete with other pet food companies and convince consumers that their food is made with the most wholesome ingredients, whether this is true we'll never know for sure. I was a die hard Iams fan for a while because of the abundance of information on their website that really has been convincing to me, but now Natura seems to be winning me over. They're like no other pet food company. This is what I like.

Typical pet food company says, "Feed dry food, it's better for the teeth. Take advantage of our Iams dental defense system. Or feed Hill's T/D or Science Diet Oral Care as the sole diet. Mixing with other foods is not reccommended or Cats don't need variety. They eat just to meet their energy needs. They should eat the same thing every day. "

Natura does not advise you whether to feed dry or canned. This decision is totally up to the consumer without their influence. Ask Natura if their dry food is good for the teeth. I asked a long time ago out of curiosity. Their response, "We are not formulating any prescription diets, for example dental diets, at this time." I don't know if they ever will make a dental diet. It doesn't seem to be a priority for them. They were too busy making the Evo diet, a first which Iams never did. Natura believes cats should have a variety of foods. That's why Innova has ingredients from the 5 food groups and Evo from the 4 food groups to exclude grains.

Typical pet food company says, "Do not feed your pet people food or table scraps." Natura believes in feeding people food to pets. They say, "never feed your pets anything you won't feed yourself." The vet Dr Belfield, had a powerful influence over the development of this company and he believes in supplementing your pet's diet with some healthy table scraps like fresh meat and veggies. I love how the ingredients on Innova reads so much like a grocery list. It doesn't get any more wholesome than this. So if we wanted to give our pets a treat, we could feed them an egg or a teaspoon of cottage cheese or fresh meat. Natura does not discourage this. Iams does.

She doesn't like fish very much. I don't know why. I looked at those Meow Mix pouches and every single one's main ingredient is fish. I bought a couple of them and that's the first food she's ever totally refused to eat . I also tried the friskies pouches and she liked them okay but the ingredients aren't any better and they're the same-ish price.

I think we're stuck with the Iams for about three more weeks, and then I can get to a pet store after I move and get her some better canned food.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

Well, compared to the old one, is it better (I know I can find better if I manage to beg a ride off of someone to go 20 minutes away to the closest petsmart...or I could mail order...etc)

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I don't know if they can do this in your area, but the other day one of my friends (who lives in NYC, so it may be just a city thing...) was telling me that Petco has a program where they automatically deliver food and litter direct to your door.... like you set it up for them to drop off once a month or once a week... whatever you need.. so that way you never run out and wouldn't have to keep ordering.

Ok, I just found it on their website.. it's called "Bottomless Bowl" http://www.petco.com/Content/Content...essbowl&Nav=16 (erm, I hope that link works... if not, go to petco.com and find it under "shopping services")

It turns out they also have better quality foods this way, as she gets food delivered that they don't carry in their stores but is a brand I quite like.

Anywho... it might be worth looking in to.

HTH!