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Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 5:41:31 PM   
Aneirin


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Joined: 3/18/2006
From: Tamaris
Status: offline 		Am just wondering about the different brands of cat food and what a cat will eat, what I want to know, is who tastes the stuff to decide whether soething is good, tasty, etc, or not ?

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 5:43:32 PM   
impishlilhellcat


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Joined: 3/26/2006
Status: offline 		I have a cat that is diabetic and she is on a high protein little to no carb diet to control her blood sugar. Diamond cat food or innova are both good brands they don't have the typical corn fillers that some of the lesser brands have.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 5:57:14 PM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		It seems that cats- ...a rash of vet bills.  The dry food is best.  Forget name brands.  a cat usually wont eat stuff that isnt ....very bad for the cat.  tho a cat will over eat.  

Anyhow the dollar store dry food is fine.  15 lbs for $7.    with dog food- some of it is cut or canner. meaning it is almost fit for humans.

look for protein content- compare the labels.  

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 6:41:10 PM   
LafayetteLady


Posts: 7683
Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Northern New Jersey
Status: offline 		honestly, I have a stray who adopted me (literally, she wandered in one day and never left).  She typically eats dry food.  I typically buy the cheapest.  She got pregnant a couple of weeks after introducing herself to us so now we have a kitten too.  Feeding mom wet food now, mixed with dry.  She's a bit of a snooty stray, will only drink bottled water, which MUST be very cold.  But she is a sweetie and in perfect health.  Unless there are health problems, I see no need to get the expensive stuff. 

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 8:02:25 PM   
PyrotheClown


Posts: 1950
Joined: 5/18/2009
Status: offline 		My cat eats any thing that moves....but aside from the unfortunate cricket,mouse,or rabbit, I just get her what ever food I can get for cheap in the big bags....I Mean Fuck, it's a cat, mine eats plastic bags(and razor blades, really), they're not that picky...Well, some are, but that's aside from the point.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 10:40:29 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		My cat "Bubba" eats "IAMS and once or twice a week I'll give him a can of wet food.
The vet said Iams has everything he needs and is good for his teeth.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 10:57:23 PM   
bamabbwsub


Posts: 566
Joined: 5/28/2007
Status: offline 		My only disagreement about the "cheap brands" is that you need to make sure that it states on the bag that it is "100% balanced and complete" nutrition.  If it doesn't state that, then it isn't providing your cat with all the essential vitamins and minerals that he or she needs.

Think of what your cat would eat if he or she were in the wild -- mice, squirrels, rabbits, etc.  Cats are major carnivores and need lots of protein.  Too many carbs can make your cat fat, which leads to diabetes.  A poor diet is also a cause of kidney failure.

You should definitely look at the ingredients list, and try to buy foods that have meat (chicken, lamb, etc.) as the #1 ingredient.  Dry cat food typically has a lot of grains and meals (corn, wheat, etc.) that are NOT good for your cat, although *some* of it is necessary as a binding agent.  I feed my cats Purina Pro, although I used to feed them a brand that Wal-Mart carried called Maxximum, but unfortunately, WM stopped carrying that brand for some reason.  If I could afford it (I just have too many cats), I'd feed them what is called "raw" food -- food that is basically all meat but has the necessary nutrients (such as taurine) added.

As for who taste-tests them...I dunno.  I'd sure hate to have that job (if such a job even exists).  LOL   I'm guessing that they put down various bowls made from different recipes and see if the subject cats prefer one over another?

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/1/2009 11:04:26 PM   
Vendaval


Posts: 10297
Joined: 1/15/2005
Status: offline 		Aneirin,

I suggest checking with a local veterinarian or a feed store that stocks food for livestock and all types of pets for these answers. Depending on the age and health of the animal different nutritional needs should be addressed. Male cats are prone to Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease and one of my kitties had to be treated for a blockage.


"Dietary management of feline urethral blockage and FLUTD is highly effective. A number of pet food companies produce these low magnesium diets so that the consumer and the cat have choices of types and flavors of food. The low magnesium diets prevent concentrations of the magnesium ion in the urinary tract from reaching levels that predispose to magnesium ammonium phosphate crystal formation. There are other types of crystals that can form, though, and sometimes these unusual crystals can cause trouble. The large majority of urinary tract crystals, though, can be prevented with modern, low magnesium diets."


http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/uo.html

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 4:17:38 AM   
Rainfire


Posts: 4047
Joined: 1/5/2009
Status: offline 		I agree with Vendaval, check with your vet. One thing I have learned over many, many years of being owned by a house full of cats, dogs, ferrets, hedgehogs, rabbits, hamsters, you name it, is that the quality of the food you feed your pet directly relates to their health. Better health means much less vet bills. My furbabies see the vet once a year for shots and that's about it. My preferred foods of choice are Wysong and Innova EVO. Nice high protein, mimimal in crap and fillers. Remember that whatever you put in, must come out. Garbage in the food makes for much stinky boxes.    At the minimum, I won't feed anything less than Iam's or Science Diet. Lumus argued with me on that one until He saw the difference the food can make in the cats health, energy and litter box!

Just one thing:  cats MUST have taurine in their diet, without it, they can go blind. Please make sure whatever you decide to feed that it has a high protein content with taurine.

Good luck.


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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 4:24:48 AM   
MsValentine


Posts: 82
Joined: 6/14/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Am just wondering about the different brands of cat food and what a cat will eat, what I want to know, is who tastes the stuff to decide whether soething is good, tasty, etc, or not ?


They test it out on other cats. I know this as I had a friend who worked for a big multinational that made pet food and she ran taste tests for new formulations with a panel of cat tasters.

Apparently they are cats which are known to react in certain ways to either stuff they like, love, hate or are neutral about and so they can tell from this what the consensus is and to what degree new formulations are indeed improvements.

These cat tasters are very valuable to the pet food manufacturers.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 4:35:02 AM   
Rainfire


Posts: 4047
Joined: 1/5/2009
Status: offline 		  They should have Punky on that panel - I have never met a more finicky cat in my life. The ironic thing is that he was a stray, someone abandoned him outside for some time before we brought him inside. For being abandoned and starving, that didn't stop his finickiness! 

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Or is this the beginning of the end?"
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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 6:41:06 AM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		it seems tho like in the past 10 years- people spending live  $500 on a cat.    My sisters cat has med problems... as does a friends in Canada.    The pic is my parrot.     Neither my cat or my parrot have a name. Anyhow- pets can be great.

My friend Marges cat, was killed by the Chinese tainted food a year or so ago. She bought the named brand.   It is tough to get mad over all that being that melamine is in the milk and harming UMs.!!!!!!!

I do give my cat the grease when I cook up some chicken.  It probably isnt good for the cat- but  .... I guess we will so.  :-0

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 1:31:50 PM   
olena


Posts: 97
Joined: 12/27/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Rainfire

I agree with Vendaval, check with your vet. One thing I have learned over many, many years of being owned by a house full of cats, dogs, ferrets, hedgehogs, rabbits, hamsters, you name it, is that the quality of the food you feed your pet directly relates to their health. Better health means much less vet bills. My furbabies see the vet once a year for shots and that's about it. My preferred foods of choice are Wysong and Innova EVO. Nice high protein, mimimal in crap and fillers. Remember that whatever you put in, must come out. Garbage in the food makes for much stinky boxes.    At the minimum, I won't feed anything less than Iam's or Science Diet. Lumus argued with me on that one until He saw the difference the food can make in the cats health, energy and litter box!

Just one thing:  cats MUST have taurine in their diet, without it, they can go blind. Please make sure whatever you decide to feed that it has a high protein content with taurine.

Good luck.



I agree with a lot here and especially this one.

Dry is recommended and unless you are a spoiler you do not want to get a cat hooked on the wet stuff. Make sure what you are feeding is age appropriate and any other medical issues of your cat. Generally not a great difference between low priced and high priced but there is some difference.

Often cats though will make it clear if they approve of what they are being fed or not.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/2/2009 2:30:38 PM   
sweetsub1957


Posts: 2201
Joined: 4/28/2009
Status: offline 		I get my cat "Indoor Only" dry food, as Blackie's been indoor-only ever since I moved into town.  He eats pretty much any brand and just chows down on it.  I also give him a few spoonsfool of Meow Mix brand wet food every evening with his medicine in it - he's very picky about his wet food - and he chows down on that too.  He's not big on people food. 

I do know it's not good to switch cat food and dog food, the protein content is different and switching isn't good for the critters.  I'm thinkin they probably half-starve the cats & then put down bowls of different brands of food for them to choose from.....see which ones they go for?  I know that cats don't like stale food either.  It's gotta be fresh.  Of course, I don't like stale potato chips either.  hahaha

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 4:24:05 AM   
Rainfire


Posts: 4047
Joined: 1/5/2009
Status: offline 		  Timely that this topic came up, a few hours after Lumus said He'd get a pet snake (I'm phobic of them) before we'd get a 3rd cat, #3 showed up meowing at our window in a rainstorm, begging politely to come in...... Guess who now has 3 cats?  (And NO snake?)


_____________________________

"I have sold my soul to the devil for You, will You still love me when I am soiled, stained and souless in my love for You?
Or is this the beginning of the end?"
Proud member of the Clan Scarlett O'Hair

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 5:54:41 AM   
SavageFaerie


Posts: 4377
Joined: 12/3/2004
From: NYC
Status: offline 		I love snakes, have had several over the years.  My favorite was a Albino Burmese Python.  We got her from a herpetologist  at the Fort worth Zoo when she was about the size of a garter snake...6 months later she was 14 ft. Now mind you we were extra responsible making sure their ( also had a regular Burmese) large cage was escape proof.  I stress this because of a story here in FL about a irresponsible owner that kept one in an aquarium which was not secure, it ended up badly after it got out.

As for cats.....her vet only deals with cats.  They stressed that wet food was necessary for good health.  With high protein and low carbs/  They even encouraged her not to offer dry food.. Although she did keep a bowl for snacking.

I'm not certain if it was stressed since Pyewacket was diabetic but the really stressed that wet food kept cats more healthy

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 6:17:44 AM   
Rainfire


Posts: 4047
Joined: 1/5/2009
Status: offline 		You can have them, Sage.... I am deathly phobic of them and I don't think Lumus quite understands exactly how badly it is. Xanax would not be enough to keep the panic under control with a snake in here. I'm not sure there's a med on this planet that's strong enough to let me live knowingly in the same place as a snake. 

I'll stick with the furries - cats, ferrets, hedgehogs (ok, so those are prickly, not furry) dogs, rabbits, hamsters, chinchillas, you name it. But not snakes.


_____________________________

"I have sold my soul to the devil for You, will You still love me when I am soiled, stained and souless in my love for You?
Or is this the beginning of the end?"
Proud member of the Clan Scarlett O'Hair

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 7:10:59 AM   
igor2003


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Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline 		I am going to do a bit of a hijack here since most of what I have read and heard pertains to dogs, but cats have also been included in a lot of what I have read.

The ingrediant label on a container of dog or cat food is exactly the same as it is on human food. The ingrediant that makes up the bigger share of the product is listed first and it goes down from there. At least for dogs, if the first ingrediant is "corn" or "corn meal" or something similar the food is going to be of low quality, and no, you can't always tell by the brand name or price.

If the ingrediant listed is specific like "beef meal" or "chicken meal" it is probably pretty good, but if it says, "animal meal" or "animal bi-products" you would be wise to avoid that particular brand of food. Animal bi-products can be almost anything...chicken feathers, hooves, horns, ROAD KILL, or even decomposing animals. Often meat packages from grocery stores that are beyond their sell date will be thrown in, styrofoam, shrink wrap, and all. And here is a real shocker...EUTHANIZED PETS that are discarded by the vet can be thrown into the mix, nylon collars, metal buckels, and all...and the worst of it is that these animals will still have the drugs used to kill the animal still active in the body, as well as any other medication those animals were taking...and it ends up in your pets food!

Even some national brands are known to use this type of ingrediant.

So please, whether you are a cat lover or a dog lover, do a little research, learn to read the ingrediant label and even if it means spending a few dollars more try to get the best food you can for your pets.

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 7:27:10 AM   
Rainfire


Posts: 4047
Joined: 1/5/2009
Status: offline 		  That's interesting to know but still gross..... I believe that it's the Wysong food that if I'm remember right is actually human grade and edible in an emergency, even if it might taste horrible. No filler there.

BTW, igor, you have mail...


_____________________________

"I have sold my soul to the devil for You, will You still love me when I am soiled, stained and souless in my love for You?
Or is this the beginning of the end?"
Proud member of the Clan Scarlett O'Hair

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RE: Cat Food? - 7/3/2009 10:19:41 AM   
LaTigresse


Posts: 26123
Joined: 1/15/2006
Status: offline 		I am all about Sojos for my canine and feline friends.

One thing to think about before asking your friendly vet for a recommendation, what do they sell? While my vet constantly praises the health of my animals, especially the condition of their teeth, and they both know what food I feed, they will always recommend the brand they sell. Not because it is the best, but because they want you to buy it from them. Coincidence? I think not.

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