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canned food? buy cheep or not? I use to break the bank getting the expensive canned for my cats. then my vet told me that SOME friskies and fancy feast isnt all that bad for cats. I have found that some of the basic friskies are mostly meat.
for example, the Friskies Ocean Whitefish& tuna dinner: ocean whitefish, water,poultry by products,meat by products, liver, tuna, rice, and then all the vitimins and minerals.
Most of the normal "loaf" varities of friskies is mostly meat products, and the only other thing is rice, which is minimal.
you have to watch out for any of the other types though, such as "sliced, grilled, chunks or shredded" as these have alot of wheat glutin for texture.
Fancy Feast is the same way.
Now i know its not the best out there, but it DOES beat some of the more expensive canned foods, as you would be shocked have tons of corn, wheat glutin and other fillers.
When money allows, i still like to get EVO and other high quailty foods... but i am just letting you know that if you look for the right ones, some of the cheeper canned isnt so bad. Its not the same as dry.
By products are not good for our kitties and neither is the tuna or as they list it "ocean white fish", this is bad for their urinary tracts.
Gluten as you said is another nono. Just because it lists the rice not at the top, does not mean that there is not alot of it in there. Its all to do with the words they use and how they can get away with listing it the way you do, someone else will explain this better than I can in here, there is a website that talks just about this subject, but do you think I can remember it right now? lol!
I just try to feed the best I can find , and that is Wellness grain free right now.
your missing the point....i am explaining how to get the most good food for your money when you are broke.
and i disagree on the by-products. cat, and all animals eat liver and organ meat as a part of a healthy diet. and there is nothing wrong with tuna. Tuna is only bad for your cat when that is all you feed, because it lacks the right balance of minerals. rice is highly digestable as well.
so if you feel more comfortable feeding grain free wellness, thats fine. But at over a dollar a can, its not do able all the time
I understand both of your prospectives. I have always fed EVO and Instinct mostly because Rasha has herpes and any dip in nutrition and he's having an outbreak..... and also because I want them to have the best. BUT I see what you mean if you don't have enough money. I am looking currently for a cheaper canned food to feed every other feeding to stretch things out just because of how expensive everything has been getting. I hate to sacrifice quality but if things keep getting more expensive I may not be able to pay $80+ per month anymore.
The one thing I will disagree on is the by products. If by products meant things like liver, that would of course be ok but I'm not sure that's exactly what it is. I found this online and it sort of explains what I mean.
While it's true that cats in the wild eat the whole bodies of their catch (including the heads in some cases), the term "by-products" has become a "dirty word" to many cat experts, because of its misuse by some members of the cat food industry. As a result, we have traditionally counseled our readers to avoid by-products for this reason. (If you get a chance to read Ann Martin's gruesome but eye-opening book, "Food Pets Die For," you will see examples of the sort of things food manufacturers can legally put into their foods under the classification of "meat byproducts."
But that's just my opinion. I have been looking for a good cheaper food, but my search still continues. I have been thinking of home cooking and raw feeding and all of those things also. But there's really no way to know if it would actually help save money or not.
Yeah, by-products aren't bad in theory but the AAFCO definition is so loose that really bad things can end up in there.
Rasha, do you just want to supplement with canned still or do you want to keep feeding it as a meal? From what I remember you feed one meal of kibble and one meal of canned? I just thought if you only wanted to supplement because of moisture in the food and other things you could try the 100% meat canned foods. They don't have any vitamins in them but still have plenty of protein and moisture. Also, they are usually intended for dogs so they come in the 13 oz cans or about that size for a little more money than smaller cans of EVO (at least around here from what I remember). And as long as you cover and refrigerate it, it should last a couple days. Just a suggestion.
By-products aren't so bad as long as they come from a named source like CHICKEN by-products, TURKEY by-products. Then you know it is from a chicken or turkey at least.
It's when no definite source is named, like MEAT by-products. What the heck kind of animal did it come from? It could be anything from road kill to diseased animals left over from slaughter or even cats and dogs that have been PTS at clinics then picked up by a rendering service.
I know lots of cats that do eat Fancy Feast and Friskies and do well. Actually it's a personal preference as to what you feel comfortable feeding your cat. And I'd rather see someone feed FF or Friskies than some of the crappy dry food out there that's nothing but corn or wheat.
I understand your point on trying to find a cheaper food, but its hard, here is a site that lists all the nutritional values in most brands of cat food, if you look for the ones that have the least carbs in them they are probably your best bet. I know that the cheap 9lives chicken dinner has the least carbs and a few of the fancy feast flavours. I do find fancy feast quite expensive for such a small cans though.
http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html
Cost does not equate to quality. Some cheep products (of anythign) are great products, and we all knwo expensive products can be just trash sold for profit.
I'd say, decide what you want for your pet, do your research (I don't have much excuse anymore for most people who don't know what is important to them, to pets, etc. when the internet is so easy to use), and go from there.
Wilson,
Actually "by products" are QUITE good for kitties, as they are all those things cats would get if they were eating a mouse. Claws, bones, brains, eyes, etc.
I know we don't like the sound of it, cause it just sounds "cast off", but there is nothing wrong with meat biproducts for animals that naturally eat the entire animal.
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