Where can I find the more nutricious (sp) types of food for my cats? We currently use dry (from Costco -Chicken and Rice) plus Friskies wet 1-2x a day.
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Are Costco and Friskies nutritious?
- Thread starter rachelinaz
- Start Date
"Nutritious" is a personal opinion. There is definitely a bigger variety at any pet store you go to, although it may be more expensive. Friskies is not that bad in my opinion.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Thank you. I just don't want them to have just garbage.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #4
I just want to make sure I am dong Ok by my babies. They do love the Friskies with gravey. The dry has chicken as it's #1 item. I know not all of it is great, but I amhappy chicken, rice and brown rice are in the top 5 ingedients.
Rice and brown rice aren't good. They're fillers, and they just take up space where there could be meat. I personally prefer the Friskies pates because the gravies have carrageenan, but it's ok.
Gravy formulas have more carbs, so I would switch to pate style if possible. There are plenty of places to get better grades of cat food including Petco, Petsmart, independent pet stores, grooming parlors with pet boutiques, and online ordering. You should educate yourself before going in, though, rather than relying on the packaging. Some of the foods can have nice looking labels and be full of carbs.
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2013
- Messages
- 1,437
- Purraise
- 179
Depending on your budget and what is available in your area, there are many good, nutritious foods. Below are some suggestions :
Wet Canned
Nature's Variety Instinct - High protein, Grain-free/low carb and carageenan-free - http://www.instinctpetfood.com/cats / There is also a PRIDE line of wet canned that contains the same ingredients, but will contain guar gum as these varieties are chunky and shredded style.
Authority : This is a PetSmart brand that is by-product-free/carageenan-free and low to no grains - http://www.authoritypetnutrition.com/cat-products/adult/chicken-recipe.shtml
GO Brand : This is a grain-free, carageenan-free wet canned pate style food. There are a few fish varieties that I would avoid, but there are chicken, turkey and duck varieties available as well - http://www.petcurean.com/for-cats/go/
Fancy Feast Classic Pates - Grain-free and mosly carageenan-free if you stick to the pates - http://www.fancyfeast.com/gourmet-cat-products/wet-cat-food/classic/chicken-feast
Dry Food
Nature's Variety Instinct - Grain-free/Gluten-free and low carb dry kibble, raw boosted kibble, and commercial raw meat products. There are also limited ingredient varieties of the dry kibble if your cat has a food sensitivity - http://www.instinctpetfood.com/instinct-healthy-natural-kibble-products-cats
Orijen - High protein (eight sources of protein in the list of ingredients), grain-free and low (glycemic) carb dry kibble - http://www.orijen.ca/products/cat-food/dry-cat-food/cat-kitten/
EVO - Grain-free/Gluten-free, Potato-free - http://www.naturapet.com/products/1441
I would say that it is okay to feed a bit of gravy-based canned as a treat, but just limit the amount and frequency of feeding this.
Friskies canned contains rice and carageenan. All canned and dry food formulas will contain some carbs or grains and carbs. That said, I would sooner see brown rice in canned and kibble than say corn, wheat and barley as there is nutritional value in brown rice and it is far more digestible. But the more important issue may be that some studies suggest that brown rice can interfere with taurine levels in cats. If a pet food company has made allowances for this by adding a greater amount of taurine, the risk isn't as great. It just depends on the amount of rice versus taurine in a food.
Last edited:
The friskies pates don't have carrageenan. Even still, I recommend Fancy Feast over friskies any day.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2013
- Messages
- 1,437
- Purraise
- 179
Is this the dry food that you are feeding : http://petfoodtalk.com/catfoodreviews/kirkland-cat-food/
At first glance it looks like it might be a decent food, but the company is a subsidiary of Diamond Pet foods which has had some recalls in the recent past, so I would just keep an eye on the recall list.
Here is the list of ingredients for the Friskies Chicken and Liver Pate, as one example :
Ingredients
Water sufficient for processing, poultry by-products, meat by-products, liver, fish, chicken, rice, artificial and natural flavors, salt, guar gum, added color, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, choline chloride, carrageenan, magnesium sulfate, taurine, thiamine mononitrate, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide. B-6053
http://www.friskies.com/Cat-Food/Wet-Cat-Food/Classic-Pate-Liver-Chicken-Dinner
As it can be challenging to find a canned without carageenan, feeding a bit of carageenan is okay so long as you are feeding a bit of other, better foods as well.
Last edited:
Oh wow, I didn't see that. Sorry. The words on the can are so small, when I was looking for it on the ingredient list I couldn't see it
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2013
- Messages
- 1,437
- Purraise
- 179
I know. Its even worse when trying to read a fancy feast can, or weruva and anything in a 3 ounce can, it seems.
Oh wow, I didn't see that. Sorry. The words on the can are so small, when I was looking for it on the ingredient list I couldn't see it
Last edited:
You may want to take a look at these articles -
Choosing The Right Food for Your Cat and you
Tips to Increase Your Cat's Water Intake
How Much Food Should I Feed My Cat?
How to Compare Cat Foods & Calculate Carbs: Dry Matter Basis
Grain-Free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?
What Makes the Best Canned Cat Food?
Choosing the Right Dry Cat Food
Also, we have a cat food reviews section here -
http://www.thecatsite.com/products/category/cat-food
