I'm still figuring out cat food ingredients, and what it all really means with all the marketing and actual truths. I did a semi deep dive this week, but I'm sure I'm at the tip of the iceberg.
SHORT BRIEF: I did a bunch of research/reading and my big question and the thing I have yet to master is- if one food has X thing thats bad, and another food has Y thing thats bad- how do you decide which is worst? below, I try to categorize by family/function of ingredients:
How bad is guar gum compared to agar agar or peas or lectin or tapioca or yucca extract or cassia gum ( I assume these all do the same thing, coagulate)
compared to say veggie fillers- cranberries, blue berries, artichokes, broccoli, ginger, alfalfa meal
compared to say- menadione sodium bisulfites
compared to say- wheat gluten, rice, soy, corn,
compared to say- added color, natural flavors
it seems like all cat food, no matter what state (dry, wet, raw, freeze dried), seems to have one of these or the other, and I just don't quite know how to stay away from which over which.
LONG BRIEF:
I adopted Korra at 2.5 years in late August, by mid Sept she was having skin and coughing issues- ultimately it was diagnosed for allergies and I switched her then turkey and chicken kibble (Purina One Sensitive Stomach & Skin Turkey and Royal Canin Mother and Baby Cat Chicken- she was one these two bc a. she was having skin issue and b. vet suggested Royal Canin mother and baby cat cause of extra vitamins as they just thought she was dealing with Upper respiratory infection) to a rabbit kibble (instinct limited diet ingredients rabbit). so since oct 2020, I've just gone with "korra is allergic to chicken and turkey for sure, but beef and fish are also top allergy culprits so I should avoid those too, just in case". little newbie me didn't really think much else. however, now, upon reading and researching her initial food (purina and Royal Canin), theres a bunch of wheat, and soy and other carbs in there thats bad and she could have been allergic to that, instead of the protein chicken/turkey. so maybe I'll go back and try a single chicken (without all the carbs) and a single turkey and confirm if she is indeed allergic to the protein or was it the wheat/soy/corn etc.
she's been only on kibble since oct bc during the whole allergy sickness phase, she cold turkey (no pun intended, lol) stopped eating wet food, despite eating it (& preferring) when I first brought her home in august/sept. so I decided I should try to get her to go back to wet (Cause of all the great things about it) even though I give her soup topper with her dry kibble every meal right now (but the wet food hydration is so much better or so they say) right now raw is out of the question, even though I know she'd love it, my partner is adamantly against it in fear of all the raw horror stories he's heard. we discussed it this am and almost fought about it so in the name of peace, its gonna be freeze dried, wet, or kibble in this household at least for the near future.
ultimately I don't think theres gonna be a perfect food (dry doesn't have hydration but good for teeth, wet has hydration but bad for teeth, raw is good but can cause GI issues, etc etc etc) , and its all probably based on owners preference at the end of the day. I'm strongly leaning towards Rawz wet food or Ziwi Wet Food right now plus Ziwi air dried kibble ; assuming I get her to transition to wet again. in terms of wet food- I've looked in evangers- super prem , tiki cat- after dark, dr. Elsey's- clean protein, fancy feast, instinct. I've looked into a ton of other dry food as well, but for the purposes of things- thats not the big question at the moment.
SHORT BRIEF: I did a bunch of research/reading and my big question and the thing I have yet to master is- if one food has X thing thats bad, and another food has Y thing thats bad- how do you decide which is worst? below, I try to categorize by family/function of ingredients:
How bad is guar gum compared to agar agar or peas or lectin or tapioca or yucca extract or cassia gum ( I assume these all do the same thing, coagulate)
compared to say veggie fillers- cranberries, blue berries, artichokes, broccoli, ginger, alfalfa meal
compared to say- menadione sodium bisulfites
compared to say- wheat gluten, rice, soy, corn,
compared to say- added color, natural flavors
it seems like all cat food, no matter what state (dry, wet, raw, freeze dried), seems to have one of these or the other, and I just don't quite know how to stay away from which over which.
LONG BRIEF:
I adopted Korra at 2.5 years in late August, by mid Sept she was having skin and coughing issues- ultimately it was diagnosed for allergies and I switched her then turkey and chicken kibble (Purina One Sensitive Stomach & Skin Turkey and Royal Canin Mother and Baby Cat Chicken- she was one these two bc a. she was having skin issue and b. vet suggested Royal Canin mother and baby cat cause of extra vitamins as they just thought she was dealing with Upper respiratory infection) to a rabbit kibble (instinct limited diet ingredients rabbit). so since oct 2020, I've just gone with "korra is allergic to chicken and turkey for sure, but beef and fish are also top allergy culprits so I should avoid those too, just in case". little newbie me didn't really think much else. however, now, upon reading and researching her initial food (purina and Royal Canin), theres a bunch of wheat, and soy and other carbs in there thats bad and she could have been allergic to that, instead of the protein chicken/turkey. so maybe I'll go back and try a single chicken (without all the carbs) and a single turkey and confirm if she is indeed allergic to the protein or was it the wheat/soy/corn etc.
she's been only on kibble since oct bc during the whole allergy sickness phase, she cold turkey (no pun intended, lol) stopped eating wet food, despite eating it (& preferring) when I first brought her home in august/sept. so I decided I should try to get her to go back to wet (Cause of all the great things about it) even though I give her soup topper with her dry kibble every meal right now (but the wet food hydration is so much better or so they say) right now raw is out of the question, even though I know she'd love it, my partner is adamantly against it in fear of all the raw horror stories he's heard. we discussed it this am and almost fought about it so in the name of peace, its gonna be freeze dried, wet, or kibble in this household at least for the near future.
ultimately I don't think theres gonna be a perfect food (dry doesn't have hydration but good for teeth, wet has hydration but bad for teeth, raw is good but can cause GI issues, etc etc etc) , and its all probably based on owners preference at the end of the day. I'm strongly leaning towards Rawz wet food or Ziwi Wet Food right now plus Ziwi air dried kibble ; assuming I get her to transition to wet again. in terms of wet food- I've looked in evangers- super prem , tiki cat- after dark, dr. Elsey's- clean protein, fancy feast, instinct. I've looked into a ton of other dry food as well, but for the purposes of things- thats not the big question at the moment.