Is fancy feast truly horrible for cats?

[divakitty2]

Hi , My first post , So I'm going to get right to it..We adopted a young Calico about 3 years ago, then Jan of this year we adopted another female..{ Callie is the Calico , and Pasha Presley , is the rock star, diva...in picture of my avatar She was so sick from a illness she picked up and gave to Callie, It was close, but we got them both well, after it was missed by our vets , partner...Dr. Bruce our vet, helped pay, { he said it should have been caught by his staff } nice gesture ..So from then on we decided in order to keep healthy, to try grain free dry, which comes in many flavors, and sizes..On the wet I have to say I tried 4 different cases, but because we donate some to shelters, or strays it does not go to waste...Pasha was sick from birth pretty much , we had seen her when she was in the back being treated and were told not to pet her..I saw her up for adoption and remembered her from months earlier. thinking she is 2 cute..{ she knows , it 2 } After 3 weeks to took to her food, with a new appetite..Callie on the other hand is picky, we call her  *Our Lady * she is so smart..I would go around from room -2- room calling where's Callie, even if I saw her I would pretend I didn't . { she'd hide under a cover on our chaise lounge , then run out an smack my ankle, and go hide somewhere else } Since we were feeding both dry and of the Fancy Feast { the Appetizers } ... I was surprised to read

the main ingredients were chicken by products and meal etc...Since changing to Merrick's, variety pack of 8 flavors { grain free , with fruits, and veggies } love this food, it is a Pate' with very little of those seen in the can.. { Callie would spit out the peas and such } so this is loved by both equally , I have not tried their dry yet, but am anxious to..We love our fur-ever babies...~!~

 

[just mike]

I have six cats and all of them thrive on fancy feast. They turn there noses up at any other brand. I have no problems with it. I also have a bowl of dry down at all times for them to nibble natural balance.. I would buy a better brand if they would eat it.

 

The kids are so fussy sometimes :lol3: Mine get very little kibble but what I give them is Nutro Max Cat. I tried to transition them to the Nutro Natural Choice but they would have none of it. They want what little Max Cat kibble I give them daily. I can mix their wet up, and do. They get different brands of cat food and don't give me too many problems over it. They've gotten used to the Nutro brands and really like it but my indoor cats turn their noses up at FF while the feral cat loves FF and turns her nose up at the premium brands. Go figure!

 

[dmand]

Please understand that most cat foods fall under the jourisdiction of the american vet assoc or something like that.. that means that most cat food suppliers try to stay withing the guidelines set up by the association... HOWEVER,  the association tries to also moderate their guidelines in order to keep the suppliers happy... That means, the guidelines agree to a certain amount of sugar, carbs, molasses, corn syrup, fillers, corn, all designed to appease the suppliers need to keep costs down, and quantity up. HOWEVER, cats are carnivores, not vegetarians, and CAN AND DO BECOME DIABETIC !! The cat stomach and intestines are not designed like humans, or even dogs. They do not need roughage or vegetables, and cannot digest as such. The terrible amount of sugary products allowed in the cat food causes the cats great distress, while also addicting them to the sugary flavors. THINK ABOUT THIS: Have you ever seen, or thought of, a hungry cat going into a barn and eating corn meal, corn grain??? No, because by nature these are not appealing and are unhealthy for the cat, as explained above. BUT,  WHAT ELSE IS DRY CAT FOOD????  Even flavored with meat, what do you think is the largest ingredient in that bag? DIABETES is not a cat disease by nature and history!! But we now have diabetic cats, of which I have one!!!  From what I have been able to learn online, is that the majority of cat food, either can or dry, is composed of ingredients that are added for quantity, flavor, and cost. These include WHEAT GLUTEN, MOLASSES, CORN SYRUP, RICE, POTATOES, GREENS, ""Some of the most expensive of the “wet” cat foods available today contain hideous amounts of completely unnecessary plant-derived ingredients like corn, corn flour, corn grits, corn gluten, rice, rice flour, wheat, wheat gluten, soy protein, potato, sweet potato, carrots, apples, cranberries, blueberries and similar." as quoted by Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, on her site: www.yourdiabeticcat.com Please take the time, and it may be a lot to understand and such, but review articles on the web in order to keep your cat healthy!

 

[minka]

nevermind

 

[terestrife]

nevermind

i got an email with your post before you deleted. just wanted to let you know that since my post, i have transitioned my cat to All wet food, and she has been doing much better. she eats an entire 5.5-6oz can a day. i split it into 3 meals. she has not thrown up, and is really well. thanks for the advice.

 

[drbobcat]

Just a sideline for those of us relatively new to the raw diet regimen, and don't laugh!  Do raw diets change the odor and consistency of cat feces?  Some wet foods result in really smelly, soft bm's. 

 

[minka]

just wanted to let you know that since my post, i have transitioned my cat to All wet food, and she has been doing much better. she eats an entire 5.5-6oz can a day. i split it into 3 meals. she has not thrown up, and is really well. thanks for the advice.

Awesome! That's wonderful

Just a sideline for those of us relatively new to the raw diet regimen, and don't laugh!  Do raw diets change the odor and consistency of cat feces?  Some wet foods result in really smelly, soft bm's. 

The smelly poops usually happen because the wet food has less grains than the dry, and those grains were basically masking a condition that the cat already had. (Not a disease necessarily, mind you, just intestinal upset)
So it's normal to have weird poops on wet, you just have to ride it out.

The case usually does not apply to raw however. You will actually end up with smaller, drier, less smelly poops :-)

 

[pbmaltzman]

I use Innova Evo dry food... keep it out all the time.  A have a couple of cats who prefer dry food to canned.  I have 6 cats:

Friday, LH red tortie F, 11-1/2 years old.

Mocha, LH tortie-and-white F, 7-1/2 years old.

Harvey, LH brown/black tabby M, about 2 years old.

Millie, DSH tortie F, about 1 year old (has had 2 litters of kittens, though).

Blondie, DSH buff-colored tabby F, 5 months old.

Sassy, DSH gray tabby F, 5 months old.

My fussiest cat is actually Blondie, one of the kittens.  I was having trouble feeding the kittens solid food until recently.  Now, MIllie is an excellent mama.  The boys (rehomed) and Sassy would pretty much eat anything their mom would eat, but not Blondie.  She also had goopy eyes, which were only temporarily helped by eyewash on a cotton pad.

I recalled that a higher-fat diet had helped my own case of dry eyes, and it helped Blondie.  I started giving them canned salmon, canned tuna, and chunked-up leftover meats of various kinds.  I also roast a chicken here and there, strip the meat off and chunk it up, and then mix with canned tuna and feed it to them.  All of them seem to go for that.

I know that tecnically I shouldn't be feeding them fish every day, but the EFAs are good for them.  When I renew my Costco membership, I will start buying their canned salmon for the cats again.  When I get hold of fresh salmon and cook it for them, they go nuts.  It's a pain to debone the stuff for them, but (fior instance) the oldest cat can tell the difference between canned and fresh cooked.

They have also eaten Fussie Cat brand well.  I plan to start making raw homemade stuff once we are out of California; I have a Tasin grinder which I bought for that purpose.  I have giten them Evo canned food, but they are not as enthusiastic about it.  The older ones will also eat Friskies and Fancy Feast canned.  I also sometimes give them raw hamburger and leftover cut-up cooked meats. We have a pet food store here which sells a lot of the premium brands, and will try more brands on thm to see which ones they like. Have also given them scrambled and sunny-side-up eggs, also goats' milk.

Pam Maltzman

 

[pbmaltzman]

I have a book by Michelle T. Bernard, "Raising Cats Naturally," the recommendations of which I want to implement once we have moved out of California (money is gonna be really tight for a while).  I have found that cats do need a bit more fat in thir diets, though, as noted above regarding Blondie the kitten and her dry, goopy eyes.  She still gets occasional eye boogers, but not like she had before.  I also sometimes give the cats unsalted Kerrygold butter.  They seem to want to inspect whatever I'm eating too, whether or not they end up actually eating it.

 

[catfella]

Wow, the amount of information in this thread was astonishing!

 

[otto]

I use Innova Evo dry food... keep it out all the time.  A have a couple of cats who prefer dry food to canned.  I have 6 cats:

Friday, LH red tortie F, 11-1/2 years old.
Mocha, LH tortie-and-white F, 7-1/2 years old.
Harvey, LH brown/black tabby M, about 2 years old.
Millie, DSH tortie F, about 1 year old (has had 2 litters of kittens, though).
Blondie, DSH buff-colored tabby F, 5 months old.
Sassy, DSH gray tabby F, 5 months old.

My fussiest cat is actually Blondie, one of the kittens.  I was having trouble feeding the kittens solid food until recently.  Now, MIllie is an excellent mama.  The boys (rehomed) and Sassy would pretty much eat anything their mom would eat, but not Blondie.  She also had goopy eyes, which were only temporarily helped by eyewash on a cotton pad.

I recalled that a higher-fat diet had helped my own case of dry eyes, and it helped Blondie.  I started giving them canned salmon, canned tuna, and chunked-up leftover meats of various kinds.  I also roast a chicken here and there, strip the meat off and chunk it up, and then mix with canned tuna and feed it to them.  All of them seem to go for that.

I know that tecnically I shouldn't be feeding them fish every day, but the EFAs are good for them.  When I renew my Costco membership, I will start buying their canned salmon for the cats again.  When I get hold of fresh salmon and cook it for them, they go nuts.  It's a pain to debone the stuff for them, but (fior instance) the oldest cat can tell the difference between canned and fresh cooked.

They have also eaten Fussie Cat brand well.  I plan to start making raw homemade stuff once we are out of California; I have a Tasin grinder which I bought for that purpose.  I have giten them Evo canned food, but they are not as enthusiastic about it.  The older ones will also eat Friskies and Fancy Feast canned.  I also sometimes give them raw hamburger and leftover cut-up cooked meats. We have a pet food store here which sells a lot of the premium brands, and will try more brands on thm to see which ones they like. Have also given them scrambled and sunny-side-up eggs, also goats' milk.


Pam Maltzman

This is not at all a good diet for cats. It is not at all balanced, and you are correct that cats should not have so much fish, especially tuna. Cooked human food or canned human fish once in a while as a small treat is one thing. But not as a regular diet. I hope that is what you meant and that your cats are eating canned cat food as their daily diet.

 

[sivyaleah]

Currently, I have been feeding Casper a rotation of all Blue's flavors for breakfast- he likes all of them (except anything with duck in it), is partial to the ones that are chunky as opposed to pate, but I try and stay away from the fish ones for the most part - he'll get maybe one a week if that.  Dinner is Blue Buffalo's Basics - the turkey one.  I had been using Orijens but that has become just about impossible to find now.  

Our new kitty (( think we're renaming her Cocoa Bean now) came to us from her foster home eating a rotation of good food also; Chicken Soup's hairball forumula (she's a long hair cat), Before the Grain's poultry versions (rarely fish also - the foster said the only fish she would feed are ones that possibly they could catch on their own in nature such as salmon; i.e. no cat is hunting in the ocean for tuna lol), and the last one is Natural Balance indoor.  

She also gets kibble; a combo of PureVita and another one which the foster mom had in a plastic baggie so I don't remember the name of it (she told me but there was so much info being passed to me, it may have been Chicken Soup's).  She also was putting about a teaspoon or two of pumpkin puree into her food a couple of times a week so I've continued to do that also.  Thankfully I was able to find organic pure pumpkin in my supermarket.  She mentioned giving her cats probiotics - but I need to research this, and not so sure I'll continue on that course.

Since Casper has tasted all of her food and likes it (funny thing is all of them are pate - so maybe it's just the Blue brand pate he isn't into), I'll switch over to those brands for him once all of his food is gone, to make things easier for us.  In fact, my food cost will probably remain relatively constant since although he's a good eater and not picky, the one problem was he wouldn't eat leftovers.  He really disliked reheated canned food the next day.  Because of that, I was buying the 3 oz cans, which cost as much as or nearly the same as the larger 5.5 oz cans of the brands she is using.  She's a lot smaller than he is (he's like 13 pounds, if she's even 8 I'd be shocked), so I'm pretty sure I can split a can in the morning between them.  She almost never eats an entire 1/2 can, or rarely.  Plus I noticed one of the brands I mentioned is actually 6oz, which is even better.

Only wish the brands I'll now be using were carried closer to home.  I have a PetSmart about a mile away, but they don't have any of these new foods there.  I'll have to go a bit further away for them, not terribly but enough to make it a special trip out of the area.  Guess I'll have to do some real stocking up when I do go! 

 

[ollieoxenfree]

Awesome! That's wonderful

The smelly poops usually happen because the wet food has less grains than the dry, and those grains were basically masking a condition that the cat already had. (Not a disease necessarily, mind you, just intestinal upset)
So it's normal to have weird poops on wet, you just have to ride it out.
The case usually does not apply to raw however. You will actually end up with smaller, drier, less smelly poops :-)

What you said there at the end- that raw fed cats will get "smaller, drier, less smelly poops". I am interested in this because my cat eats dry Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul adult food and a couple times a week he will get a full tin of Fancy Feast  and his poops are smaller, drier and less smelly than when he was on another holistic food. Can someone explain the poop thing to me? lol

 

[Willowy]

The more digestible the food is, the less poop there will be. Kibbles have a lot of grains/starches, which cats don't digest well, so there's a lot of poop. Some canned foods have a lot of veggies, which cats also don't digest well. So, more poop. I guess your kitty digests Fancy Feast pretty well . The Classic formulas are pretty low carb and are grain free so that's probably why.

 

[ollieoxenfree]

Great news Thanks !

 

[peer jones]

I feed my cats both dry and canned. Yes, some say feed all canned or raw.. well it's my preference to feed dry and canned. I would feed raw if I could. Tiger has a super sensitive tummy to some canned foods so I have to be careful what he gets. He does great on dry though and gets plenty of water during the day. Miagi & Angel eat dry and canned and also get plenty of water. It's all a matter of preference. You can feed both if you like. Feed what you are comfortable with.

Kat -Kat sulks like crazy if he doesn't have some 'crunchy' food.

My wife still mixes a little Meow Mix in with canned food in morning but he seems to prefer two bowls side by side so he can swap between them

 

[aeroflot57]

I have six cats (had seven, but Freckles had to be put to sleep becasue of acute kidney disease when he was 19 years old). I now have another cat who has kidney disease in the early stages, and another two cats (who were eating fancy feast sliced chicken) who now have crystals in their urine.I've had to stop the dry food for all of them, because after eating dry food, three of them consistenly throw up. I was also told that feeding cats dry food came about because it is cheaper and more convenient for humans, but since cats are obligate carnivores, feeding cats dry food is a big contributor to kidney failure and urinary problems because they don't get enough moisture in their food. I'd rather not take the chance after spending over $1000 on Kosmo being in the hospital last month with IV fluids. He is doing better now (I give him Kidney Gold, which I found on http://www.petwellbeing.com. The only problem is, with one cat on Royal Canin veterinary food for kidney failure, and two on Royal Canin veterinary food for urinary problems, I'm spending way too much money on cat food. I get 24 cans for $31.00, but they are those small cans, so I end up feeding the six of them six of those cans a day, and I'm not sure they are getting enough food, becasue they always look at me like they want to eat. I definitely want to find a cheaper, healthier wet food to feed the other three cats who so far are not sick, although it is problematic getting them to eat the right food from the right dish, but if I try to put any of them in another room to eat, they won't touch their food. Still, so far I've got three big plates, one with renal failure food, which the one cat eats and the others sample from, and the other two plates for the urinary food. I try to keep the other cats away from the renal food because it doesn't have enough protein for a healthy cat, and I'm not even sure if it's sufficient for my kidney failure cat, because he is so skinny now. Any suggestions?

 

[catspaw66]

Welcome to TCS, Aeroflot57. The Fancy Feast Classic pate and the Friskies pate are not all that bad. They are relatively grain-free, don't have a lot of additives, and are a lot less expensive. Of the Friskies, the Poultry Platter is the best nutritionally. Try to stay away from the ones that have gravy, like shreds and bits, the gravy is loaded with carbs.

 

[aeroflot57]

Thank you for the welcome. I will take a look at the Friskies brand. Unfortunately, my cats all like the morsels and gravy. In fact, they wouldn't eat any of the prescription foods until I found Royal Canin Renal Morsels and Gravy and Royal Canin Urinary Morsels and Gravy. It has been troubling to me--that even the so called "healthy" canned foods for cats have fruit or vegetables in them, which cats don't need. Cats are obligate carnivores, and the only non-veterinary food (other than raw food) I have been able to find that does not have fruits and veggies or all that other stuff cats don't need, is Instinctive Choice by Life's Abundance, (lifesabundance.com) which also has an excellent high protein dry food. My six cats (formerly seven--R.I.P., Freckles)  and Kosmo, who is 15 years old has chronic kidney disease (CKD), and my two Flamepoints (inherited from my mother when she passed away five years ago) Mama Ki and Papillon, (Papillon is pictured in my profile picture) have crystals in their urine, after years of eating dry food from the vet and fancy feast or other commercial food.

I've been really upset and feeling guilty since I found out that the food I've been feeding them for years is bad for cats--shouldn't have dry food, or vegetables, wheat, corn, gluten, corn starch, fruit, or any of that other stuff in it. (There should be a law preventing pet food manufacturers from putting unnecessary crap in pet food). So, I'm presently going broke trying to make it up to them by feeding them veterinary food according to their specific needs. I would love to feed them the Life's Abundance Dry Food, but Kosmo, with the CKD also has pacreatitis, and throws up any time he eats any dry food, even if it's soaked in unsalted chicken broth, so it's hard for me to feed dry food to only a few of my cats, but it does get expensive paying for all this veterinary canned food, although I will say that the cat pans don't have to be changed as often because they aren't eating all that extra stuff that they can't digest in most dry food and commercial wet food.

The Instinctive Choice canned food is about $5 cheaper per case than the vet food, (would be $10 cheaper, but they charge shipping) and if I feed it to the three cats who don't have kidney disease or crystals in their urine, Druscilla, Pumpkin, and Juno,  then the veterinary food for the others lasts longer. I just wish I could figure out how to feed the Life's Abundance dry food to some cats and not others, because I don't like stressing out Kosmo by trying to feed him in a separate room. He won't eat if I separate him from the others. Any suggestions?

 

[katluver4life]

Hello, so sorry your kitties are having these issues.

Please do not feel guilty for just not knowing. Few of us did at one time or another. I personally have no experience with the issues you are having, but many here have. First some links you may find helpful.

http://feline-nutrition.org/health/diet-kidney-disease-and-the-urinary-tract

and

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

You may want to start your own thread about your specific questions as it will receive more direct answers. Hope this helps as a start.