Pet Food Ingredients

[moggymania]

...and some other links for those that are worried about the reliability of the pet food article I linked to earlier:

Google search results full of articles from all over on the topic

Cat Food Uncovered -- in-depth research project performed by a university student

About.com Cats Forum article

Amazon.com page for book "Food Pets Die For" along

Comments

[moggymania]

Hey there! :)

Trying to remember... I know that PetSmart carries the good litter and foods, but they charge more for food than some other retailers. I haven't bought from PetCo in a while, I don't think their selection was quite as good... Chances are that the *best* prices you'll get will be from a feed store -- large animal feed stores (easier if you live in a semi-rural area) get their stuff in bulk, then charge lower prices. PetSmart/PetCo seem to charge slightly higher because most people are only aware of them, and won't think to go anywhere else (so they pay whatever price is offered there).

Innova is very good, but their site's "store" search engine says it's not sold through PetSmart/PetCo -- looks like you could only get it at feed/pet stores. (I know it's available in my local feed store, but IIRC the price was high.) PetGuard is good, but I've never seen it in any of the stores I've been in at all!

For the money (since I know you're in a situation similar to mine :) the best I've seen is Chicken Soup For The Cat's Soul (or is it Cat Lover's Soul?) and Felidae. They both have high-quality ingredients and the lowest of the top-brand prices (about $1/pound if you get a big bag) -- lower than some of the middle-range brands, bizarrely. (The middle-range ones, like Nutro Natural, use inferior ingredients but then fool people by charging $1.50 per pound.)

The best way to find out where the stores near you are at is to use a "store locator" from the website of whatever food you're interested in. :)

Felidae's (owned by Canidae) is here:
http://www.canidae.com:591/canidae-retailers/search.htm

Chicken Soup's is here:
http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/ChickenSoup/cslocator_distributors.php

I hope that this helps. :)

[beginning]

Uh-oh, litter's a problem, too?

Looks like the big pet grooming place in town carries Felidae, as well as a feed store in the next town over.

One thing I'm confused about: Everything I'm reading says cats can't digest fruits, vegetables, and cereals (other than rice) well, but everything seems to contain things like apples and carrots. I don't get it.

My mom just said "It feels like we've never fed our cats before!" It sounds weird, but I get what she's saying. We're both all paranoid now, and we keep looking at Cleo (the girl cat, currently curled up next to Mom) apologetically.

[moggymania]

I know the feeling... I lost several cats to things they never should have died from, especially at their ages, and I still wonder whether they'd have lived a full life if I had known better back then. Since I nursed one through renal failure and then had a horrible experience when she had to be put down, I *really* obsess over whether I could have saved her had I known more.

Part of the issue with vegetables/fruits is actually similar to in humans -- some things are more digestible than others. Like with corn: it doesn't get digested much, and just passes through as stool. White rice doesn't have much nutrition in it at all (you want whole-grain brown rice), wheat often invokes allergies... Cats *do* have to have a small amount of fruits/vegetables in order to do well, because their bodies are naturally designed to digest whole (aside from bones) mice and birds, so they get a blend of around 1/3 meat, 1/3 grain, 1/3 vegetable.

I'm not sure why some are advertising apples and so forth, aside from that it might be a way of signaling that they aren't using corn or other indigestible foods as that third. (In the case of cranberries, this is important as they can help maintain urinary tract health.)

Litter is something I need to get off my butt and write an info entry about... I've known about this issue for quite a while, since I have a cousin that is a vet tech and warned me, but the manufacturer of my favorite (Swheat Scoop) now has a good page of links and letters explaining the problem:
http://www.swheatscoop.com/safety.html