Evidence that "premium" food = healthier cat?

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by darlili

Interesting that the raw companies haven't been more into going through certification studies, as was indicated above - any particular reason for that, other than perhaps not having deeper financial pockets? I'd think it'd be a good marketing tool, if nothing else.

Probably the expense. It's a tiny market. I expect a lot of raw feeders are like me, they start out buying the premixed from such companies but quickly realize both how easy and how beneficial it is to do themselves. They might also see the certification as being of negligable value since most consumers have no idea what it is.

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by mschauer

Probably the expense. It's a tiny market. I expect a lot of raw feeders are like me, they start out buying the premixed from such companies but quickly realize both how easy and how beneficial it is to do themselves. They might also see the certification as being of negligable value since most consumers have no idea what it is.

Shocking to me was in 5 plus years working in the PF industry the only thing folks knew was the AFFCO seal and what it was ( not the logistics of it )... More shocking to me was the amount of food s then that were NOT affco approved on Big store and Small store shelves...

 

[sohni]

What would be the markers of good food results? I wonder if a blood sugar reading would be helpful. I think it would be hard to measure coat quality or stool size... (well, maybe not hard so much as gross in the case of stool size/consistency

)

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by Sohni

What would be the markers of good food results? I wonder if a blood sugar reading would be helpful. I think it would be hard to measure coat quality or stool size... (well, maybe not hard so much as gross in the case of stool size/consistency

)

they use stool amount by wt in dog so that cant be that hard outside how many kitties pooed in the box ... blood sugar could be a marker not sure how good unless someone did blood x amount of time after eating

 

[katiemae1277]

I personally felt better about feeding my cats a premium-ish food, like someone said, sure a human can live a long life on junk food, but you'd be healthier if you ate better

As for Arlyn's statements of feeding a better food equaling less cost in the litter department, i can vouch for that. I used to feed Chicken Soup and then one of my cats, Chaos (appropriately named

) got a urinary blockage and now i have to feed them all a scrip food because with 14 cats and my schedule, i cannot schedule feed. Now, this food may be designed to prevent crystals and all, but it is, IMO, a very low-quality food with the first 2 ingredients being corn derivatives. Long story short, I am using double the amount of litter I did before because they are pooping like crazy because they eat this stuff like crazy

The bags are 18 lbs and I'm lucky if it lasts me 10 days

It may not be as easy to tell with only a couple cats regarding the litter, but with my crew, I can totally tell

 

[cazlee]

In so far as scientific studies in animals, I can't cite any.

The way I look at food in general, be it for me or for a pet is - anyone can survive meeting minimum nutritional requirements. To truly thrive you have to get your food from a variety of sources. The closer to their natural state - the better. Studies in humans have lead to a variety of papers regarding how the body absorbs nutrition, and how certain combination of nutrients are absorbed better accompanied by each other. Another example that comes to mind is the iron from protein sources tends to be absorbed by the body better than iron from vegetable sources. Also when it comes to tummy upsets because of switching food up - well, if all you ate was cheerios for a month straight, your tummy would be pretty out of whack if you suddenly ate a salad. Or anything else for that matter. Your digestive system adjusts according to what it has to break down.

We're really just another animal... so in my mind, the logic stands for the same to apply to our pets. Peanut gets a decent quality dry food that I treat like a stop-gap. It's always there if she wants it. She never wants for food, and probably eats better than I do. Her dry diet is supplemented by as good quality of canned as I can get, poached (lean, no-additives) meats, and pretty much anything feline-safe that she's interested in as a treat. Don't kill me for not getting into the raw kick, poached might be a little different to digest but at least I don't have to worry about getting her sick.

It works for me, it makes sense to me, Peanut has never had a tummy upset out of either end, she's a healthy weight and otherwise generally a happy and healthy cat. Do what works for you and makes sense to you and adjust if needed.

 

[Willowy]

Originally Posted by sharky

More shocking to me was the amount of food s then that were NOT affco approved on Big store and Small store shelves...

Are there a lot of non-AAFCO-approved brands out there now? I looked and couldn't find any. Not even at the farm store. I wanted to find one so I could see how the ingredients differed from the AAFCO-approved brands.

My first cats were raised on Friskies, and this was back when it was preserved with ethoxyquin. Ugh. Well, they're 19 now and have never had serious health issues (besides having CRF---but they don't require treatment at this point, and I think all old cats have some degree of CRF). But they're half Siamese, and Siamese are longer-lived naturally, and they have been eating higher-quality brands for quite a few years now.

Anyway, the main reason I feed my cats a "premium" (Chicken Soup) brand is because of litterbox odor and barfing. I tried a bunch of other brands......Cat Chow, Purina ONE, Maxximum, etc. On Cat Chow and foods of similar quality, the litterbox odor was terrible. They did pretty well on a mix of Maxximum and Purina ONE, but then they raised the price on Maxximum and I can get Chicken Soup for less. On just Purina ONE they barfed too much.

There are ingredients I simply will not stand for, even when choosing an inexpensive food for the ferals. BHA/BHT, meat protein farther down than the second ingredient, etc. Special Kitty, regular Meow Mix, grocery store brand, etc.......all contain BHA/BHT or have basically NO meat in them. So no. The ferals get Purina Cat Chow usually. I do NOT think grocery-store brands are nutritionally adequate, AAFCO certification notwithstanding.

 

[howtoholdacat]

I feed my cats Wellness because it addresses so many issues we had around here: UTI, hairballs (badly), and one cat who was ill with no know cause so I was looking for a food free of corn, etc. It's worked out great for us. I swear, we haven't had one hairball since I switched to it and I'll stand by that food.

On the other hand, our dog eats a food packed with fillers (I tried to switch her but she wouldn't eat so we settled for a brand we could all agree on.) She's outlived her breed life expectancy by about 2 years now. People routinely think she's 10 years younger than she actually is and she's had cancer for 2 years. It makes me suspect that good genes are the real benefit for her.

Still, I'd prefer to feed a quality food as some other posters mentioned it cuts down on litter waste and in my opinion on the smell of said waste. Furthermore, I've seen an overall improvement of my cat's weight, coat, skin and activity level since I made the switch.

 

[optionken]

Originally Posted by darlili

<Go to feline diabetes.com and see what happens with cats when they are switched to better foods. Go to the yahoo ibd group and the crf group. In all of these groupos you can actually see the proof in the numbers. The glucose numbers the creatinine and bun numbers>

Are there any clinical studies supporting this out of any of the vet schools at all?

Hi
Sharky made a good point about seeing results with healthy animals versus sick ones.
I don't believe there are studies nor will there be in our life time because who will pay to step on their own foot?
Is a pet food company going to finance a study that may show their highest grossing products aren't as good as the lowest profit margin products?
While I am on this, who will finance a study that could possible show vaccinations lasting the lifetime of a cat????