Cat Food Recommendations?

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Zanna
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Cat Food Recommendations?

Post by Zanna »

I’ve grown up with cats all my life, and now that I’m 20 I have my own cat who I am fully responsible for. This means I am anxious over most decisions I make concerning her, and food has become an issue.

She used to eat Meow Mix (indoor cat kind), and when that ran out I was planning on buying more of the same until I started reading on several websites that it has little to no nutritional value. Same goes for other familiar brands like Purina. After an anxious call with my mother (who probably believes I am losing my mind), I decided to purchase a bag of adult indoor food from the brand Hills (I believe it’s called). This is apparently highly recommended by vets and it ranked high on the websites I visited. And man, was that bag expensive! A smaller bag was around thirty dollars! Lucky for me, I had a few dollars off with my PetSmart membership.

Does anyone have any food recommendations? I hate to keep changing food on my cat and I want to buy her the very best but as a college student who works for minimum wage, the truth is that I can’t afford it :( I am also aware that this site is UK based and I’m American, but hopefully our cat food brands are mostly the same haha.

Thanks in advance!
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Mollycat
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Re: Cat Food Recommendations?

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Our cat food brands are quite different, even the Hills brand I believe the recipe is slightly altered for the UK market.

Cat food is a question without answers, or rather without one answer, it does have a zillion answers for a zillion cat owners, and unfortunately a good proportion of owners get fanatical about their beliefs about it. At one extreme are the exclusively raw feeders who point ot the cat's ancestors 9000 years ago as evidence that cats should eat nothing but raw meat, when science shows the cat's gut has grown longer in that time to deal with cooked meat and more carbs and today's domestic cat is no more a wild cat than a chihuahua is a wolf. Only 50-100 years ago cats in the first world ate what today's Middle Eastern, African and East European street cats still eat today - some begged scraps and some hunted vermin. The very best quality and expensive diet (including raw) won't prevent your cat from getting kidney failure at "only" 10 or 12 years of age, which was at one time considered a reasonable age.

There are trash cheap foods, but all foods must meet minimum standards, and if you offer a range of foods in rotation not only do you keep your cat flexible in her tastes but you also minimise the risk of deficiencies. And if you want to get into the complex world of ingredient analysis, you can support what's missing - for instance if you're concerned your cat's diet is low in vital taurine, treats could be a weekly meal with heart meat added. Cats can manipulate us but we can play their game too, my girl never finishes a wet food meal so I put her three time a week supplement on a small amount of minced (ground) turkey thigh to make sure she eats it all.

A word of caution on vet recommendations. Compare the price the vet is charging you for a bag of food with what you pay for the exact same food in store or on the internet. Hills and others have put so much research into slightly altered foods to support specific medical needs - Hills was the first to make a food to support kidney failure, and are the first to produce an ultra low iodine food to manage hyperthyroidism without drugs. They have a very important role in cat care ... for cats with health condition management needs. This does not necessarily make them better at making general cat food. But most importantly, no vet offers you a choice of brands, they will all put a single brand in front of you. Just like big pharmaceuticals, if a healthcare professional pushes their brand on patients, it's worth money, and it's the vet who gets the Caribbean cruise you are helping to pay for.

A mix of wet and dry food, as in offer both not literally mix them in a bowl, not too cheap, reasonable protein content and no gimmicks like cranberry or steamed broccoli, and human grade food is nonesense for cats, who need offal and skin and fat. I have never bought commercial cat treats, but I do give my cats a little fresh meat raw while I prepare and cooked while I'm eating my food. Fresh meat is a great treat. You can also make your own jerky type dried meat for them without all the chemicals and additives.

But I would say your most important tool is to keep her tastes broad and flexible, give her different and new foods and don't get stuck in a rut or let her get obsessed with one brand, the internet is full of people desperate because the only food their cat will eat has changed or is no longer available.
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fjm
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Re: Cat Food Recommendations?

Post by fjm »

Welcome! As you have already discovered choosing food can be a mine field - one source will tell you that if you feed anything other than prey model raw you are poisoning your cat, another that only a food formulated by a major company employing veterinary nutritionists can possibly meet your cat's needs, and then there is every stage of opinion in between.

Basic advice:
Choose a complete food - some are labelled complementary, which means they should be thought of as occasional treats rather than an every day diet
Choose something your cat enjoys - this can be the trickiest one! Ask for free samples - they are often available online. And, of course, something that does not cause digestive upsets.
If your cat will accept it and it doesn't cause problems, change foods frequently, feeding different textures and flavours.
If you can afford it, choose one that is mostly named meat - it will be more expensive to buy but your cat may need less of it so it will balance out. Look for the highest meat content you can afford in any case.
If your cat is a kitten, or over 8 years old, look at foods formulated for that life stage. Kittens need more protein and calories while they are growing; older cats may benefit from reduced phosphorus.

You can add small bits of healthy things from your own food - eggs, unseasoned fat free meat, a tiny taste of cheese, for example. Some cats enjoy fruit and vegetables, but that is less common.

Many foods are only available online - I have heard good things about chewy.com. As a very general rule you will find a much wider range of better quality foods online than in your local grocery or big box store. Don't be tempted to buy the giant economy size bags, though - your cat will go off it and it will go stale long before the bag is finished! But many, many cats have lived long, healthy, happy lives eating food from supermarket shelves - I'm not sure there is sufficient difference between Hills and Purina, for example, to justify a big price differential.

[Cross posting with Mollycat - you will see our advice is very similar.]
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Mollycat
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Re: Cat Food Recommendations?

Post by Mollycat »

fjm wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:06 am [Cross posting with Mollycat - you will see our advice is very similar.]
That's because we're right of course ............................................................. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Zanna
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Re: Cat Food Recommendations?

Post by Zanna »

Mollycat wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:16 am
fjm wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:06 am [Cross posting with Mollycat - you will see our advice is very similar.]
That's because we're right of course ............................................................. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Thank y’all!! I appreciate you both. I will definitely keep all of this in mind as I look for food. I had tried to make a pet profile on chewy a couple days ago but the site (or my WiFi) was having problems, but I will try again today! Off to PetSmart I go for now, but I will definitely start ordering online as you said. Thanks again!
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