Cross Breeds - What is the best cat food you can buy in a store for cats?

What is the best cat food you can buy in a store for cats?

I want to be sure that I am feeding my cats the best food that I can afford. , They are both very active cats and are fit as far as cats go. I would like to plump them up a bit, LOL

Public Comments

i would pick fancy feast
The best out there is raw food, but you have to specially order the mix or make it yourself. Next to that, canned Wellness CORE or Innova EVO are top notch. Expensive, and sometimes hard to find, but they are tops. After that, regular Wellness, Innova, Merrick's, Blue Buffalo, Orijin, Felidae, Chicken soup for the cat lovers soul, Weruva, are all top brands. Stay away from anything sold in the grocery store (although, Chicken soup is available in some stores now, its a great mid-range brand) or Target/Walmart type stores. The best thing you can do is learn to read ingredients. Stay away from anything containing fillers like corn, soy, wheat. Stay away from any nondescript meat (like "animal" or "fish" meat). Stay away from anything that lists any sort of by-products. Don't buy a food just because its expensive either, brands like Science Diet, Purina, and Royal Canin are all drastically overpriced for the quality. Edit: Iams = overpriced again and filled with by-products. Fancy Feast is just crap, its absolutely disgusting.
If you are talking about the grocery store, then the only thing I would recommend is IAMS. Remember, the better foods may cost more, but it will last longer because your cats will not need to eat as much.
Cats prefer FRESH food, Buy them fresh fish, fresh meat etc in addition to tinned food (which is mostly just junk). Also cats are killers, so do they get enough hunting for mice and birds? One last point: DO NOT OVER-FEED YOUR CATS. A plump cat is an unhealthy cat. Like a human.
Orijen, best cat food. bl
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat. Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things? http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s, constipation, and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. ( Have a fat cat?) An even bigger problem is that it IS dry and it dehydrates no matter how much your cat drinks Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food. Cats are not naturally big drinkers. 95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Think about it. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive. http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPRODUCTS Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food. Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=librhttp:/ /www.felinefuture.com/?p=470ary&act=show&item=doesdryfoodcleantheteeth Please read about cat nutrition. http://www.catinfo.org/ http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm Nutritional Education Program website page for the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Notice who they are receiving grants from for this program http://mypetcarnivore.com/educational_grant.htm
Stay away from Iams or Eukanuba.These are both owned by Procter & Gamble which is notorious for animal testing in labs.Plus the food is garbage. I like Solid Gold.As do my six.
Wellness CORE or Innova EVO... dry (my cat hates canned food). I wouldn't feed my cat anything else (and she refuses to eat anything else). Cats are pure carnivores so they need high protein, low carb diets (as opposed to dogs who are omnivores and need diets similar to humans). Core and Evo are the best dry/canned foods for this. Avoid "Indoor Cat" formulas like the plague, they have high levels of carbs and are terrible for cats.
Try Go-Cat, it's great! Cats love it, it makes them stronger, and if your cat doesn't like tinned food, it's even better. It's also nutritional, and a balanced meal... have a look at the website ******************************* http://www.go-cat.co.uk/ ******************************* and the adverts are funny too! lol It's cheap too!
The cheapest one that they will eat. All cat food has to be made to follow certain guidelines so they are all pretty much equal. Put out a continual feeder of dry food that they can get to whenever they want something to eat. Also fresh water.
While it’s true that Wellness CORE and Halo are all top-notch foods, what you need to consider is that most pet owners can’t afford the high-dollar foods. I recommend guidelines to use to choose the best food for your pet, you, and your budget. Select a food that has a whole meat as the first ingredient (i.e. chicken, salmon, chicken meal) and ensure it does *not* say ‘by-product’ in the first two ingredients. The worst quality cat foods will usually read ‘chicken by-product meal, whole ground corn’. Corn is a cheap filler that provides next to no nutritional value whatsoever. Examples of such good quality foods are Halo, Nature’s Best, Innova, and Purina ONE Natural Blends (adult only). These foods are usually only found at Petsmart or Petco, so if you don’t live close to one, I recommend buying several bags and storing them in airtight food storage bins. Foods sold in grocery stores and Walmart are good examples of what the very worst foods are, which include Meow Mix, DeliCat, Friskies, 9 Lives, The Goodlife Recipe, Purina Cat Chow (and Dog Chow), Fancy Feast, etc. Now, I have seen some Targets sell Purina ONE Natural Blends. Purina ONE and Purina ONE Natural Blends are the best foods you will find in grocery stores, Walmart, or Target. The other important component is the protein content. Kitten food should be 40-41% protein, and adult food should have 34-36% protein, depending on their activity level. Remember, just because the food is more expensive does NOT means it’s better—you are paying for the protein content. A perfect example of this is Purina ProPlan Adult cat food—it contains 40% protein, which is way too much for an adult. Too much protein can lead to early onset obesity and Diabetes. Instead, I use Purina ONE Natural Blends, which has wholesome ingredients, no by-products, no artificial fillers, no dyes, and has 34% protein. I have FIVE cats on this food, and they are all of appropriate weight for their breed/body type (I also keep them happy and active). As for vet-recommended foods such as Science Diet, it’s all a marketing gimmick. This food is created and marketed by none other than vets, and it should come as no surprise that they get a kick-back from the food they sell. If you apply the above guidelines to a bag of Science Diet, you’ll see that it does not meet them. They use a grain as the primary ingredient, followed closely by a corn product, which is the equivalent of feeding your child mainly bread and cereal every day. It’s a filler, and causes obesity and generates digestive upset, loose stools, and gas, and guess what that means? You’ll be at the vet’s office more for problems related to these issues, and your cat will likely have Diabetes or kidney failure earlier in life. Do your cats a favor—do your own research. Vets are in the business to make MONEY, so much so that one of my rules of thumb in finding a good vet is one that doesn’t try to shove Science Diet down my throat. Feed mostly dry food with maybe a 1/4 of a can daily for kittens and only as an occasional treat for adults, as wet food does build up on the teeth and cause tartar and gum problems if not given regular dental cleanings. While it is true that wet food provides moisture, if your cat drinks an adequate amount of water, this should not be a problem. Again, individual needs for individual cats. If your cat doesn’t drink hardly any water, after ruling out a medical problem, feed a bit of wet food daily, and get their teeth cleaned regularly. Do *not* free-feed; feed small meals throughout the day. Kittens less than 3.5 mos should be fed 4-5 times/day, kittens 3.5 mos to a year 3-4 times/day, and adults can be fed 2 or 3 times/day (i.e. in the morning, when you get home from work, and right before bed). See the bag for daily feeding amounts. If the bag says 2 cups/day and you feed 4x/day, you would feed ½ cup at each feeding. Free-feeding keeps a constant amount of acid in your pets’ stomach which can lead to kidney and liver problems later in life. Furthermore, small meals several times per day allows for a higher metabolism which helps prevent obesity. Hairballs—Don’t switch to a hairball-specific food as they almost always have a grain as the first ingredient; keep your cat on their normal diet and use a hairball supplement. Both treats and a paste are available. No people food! Cat’s digestive systems do *not* process people food in the way ours do, particularly milk, chicken, and any ground or processed meat. Do not ever mix food brands—each food is specifically formulated to create a balanced diet—mixing can cause disastrous results as it can create vitamin and mineral imbalances which can lead to serious health problems. Hope all this info helps. And for anyone else out there, please feel free to email me with your pet questions at holly06petlover@yahoo.com . I'm always happy to help and advise!