Reflex Dry Cat Food

[mewawa]

I was thinkiing of buying reflex brand cat food in bulk for my cat, is it a good or bad cat food product?

 

[Kieka]

I wouldn't feed it to my cats unless there was no other choice. I looked up the ingredients:

Ingredients: Processed Animal Protein, Wheat, Corn, Animal Fat, Wheat Middlings, Corn Gluten, Dried Sugar Beet, Chicken Liver Aroma, Salt, Flaxseed, Dried Brewer's Yeast, Taurine.

Your only "meat" is animal protein, animal fat and aroma. Cats are obligated carnivores and need a diet rich in meat to sustain them. My little girl was fed a food similar to that at her hoarders home; she was a pound at 3/4 months old, extremely skinny, had chalk like poop, and very low energy. I've always felt the poor diet was to blame for her slow growth and poor condition when she first came to us. It kept her alive, but it didn't let her thrive.

It is nice that is has actual animal protein, but it is highly processed and likely poor quality. Plus all that starch and grain is not good for cats. They get no real nutritional benefit from it. You'd likely find yourself going through more of the food for your cat to meet their needs and seeing a weight increase as a result.

My general rules of thumb when it comes to food are:

1. Wet is better than dry. Cats don't drink a lot of water so wet helps increase their hydration which is better health wise.
2. Grains and starches should be limited when possible. Cats are carnivores and have evolved to need a meat rich diet. They don't handle starch or grains well so the less of it the better.
3. Look for foods over 30% protein (usually 9% of higher in wet because of water content). Ideally, I like the 40% range personally but if your current food is lower you would want to slowly up it.
4. Speaking of.... Diet changes should take time. Slow change from one food to the other to prevent problems.
5. Be aware of peas. If the label says "pea protein" or "potato protein" you can take some of the protein off the label in your head. Cats don't process plant proteins as well so while it may say 40% if pea protein is number three on the label the actual meat protein will be more like 25-30% range. I'll take 5% less protein if it is all animal.
6. You want to look for labels with named meats in the first five. Ideally nothing but meat for the first three

All that said, based on where that food is manufactured I am guessing you are in the East of the Mediterranean or maybe Middle Eastern (international geography really isn't my strong suit but the food is made in Turkey so I am guessing somewhere that way, apologies if I am assuming wrong). I know from other international members that it is difficult to find good food for cats in that area. Its also hard for us to evaluate or find the specific food they are asking about, I got lucky that there was an english translation of that foods brand web page. If you can post the names and labels of other foods we can help you evaluate other options in your area.