Long Life On Fancy Feast

IndyJones

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That still doesn't mean companies don't use meat from things like minks or horses without the knowledge of aafco and nestle is known to import food from places outside of the states. Wagging train dog treats are made by nestle Purina and they have imported meat from China.

China has far fewer regulations than North America
 

IndyJones

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And that's yet another reason why I dislike nestle Purina, they use ingredients from China where health and safety regulations are lax
 

2BSH

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If it wasn't for the whole "meat by products " stuff in fancy feast I would give it to my guys. There is really no such thing as the perfect cat food. It's either filled with chemicals and fillers and sketchy questionable meat by products or it costs a million dollars and the cats don't want it. You can't win
 

bonepicker

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@babs' slave - My late Father's cat, Victoria, who ended up in my care after his death, started on Fancy Feast when it hit the market, in 1982, at age six. Eating Fancy Feast killed her twenty-four years later, a few days short of her thirtieth birthday.

;)

Fact: cats seem to love it.

Opinion: a happy cat will outlive any cat placed on rations which taste like wood putty.

Most of mine live into their early twenties; one has reached 26, one 24. Two of my current eleven have passed their twenty-first birthdays, and still seem quite animated. They also love Friskies Shreds and Wellness chicken, and everyone is healthy and active. Mine also eat dry food ad libitum, but always have access to canned food, and hence eat so little dry food that a bag lasts eleven cats over a month.

Caveat: their veterinarian sees them regularly (probably three times a month, on average), since he's a close Friend, and if anyone were to develop a problem, it would doubtless be caught early on.

Your girl's eighteen; you've clearly been doing something right. Keep doing it.
.
did the cat that lived to 30 go outside? I know they supplement their diets with moles and chipmunks
 

lisahe

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I don't have any problem with any meat product. What kind of animal or part of an animal is bad for cats to eat? I'm fine with that, lol.
I, too, am fine with byproducts!

I wouldn't want to feed a lot of foods with byproducts that contain, say, very high bone levels, lest it cause constipation, but plenty of foods contain organ meats and other animal parts that are listed individually but are considered byproducts. As an example, the most expensive food we feed, Feline Natural freeze-dried raw food, contains lamb heart, kidney, liver, and blood, plus bone, too, I believe. All of those ingredients can be part of byproducts. And all of them are great for cats in balanced foods! My biggest concerns with Fancy Feast are the more chemically ingredients (like menadione) but I've started feeding it once a week or so because it's low-carb, the cats love it, and it seems to agree with them (though the jury is still out on that). As 2BSH 2BSH says, there's no such thing as perfect food so I feed a little bit of several ingredients I don't really like.
 

IndyJones

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I have no problem with byproduct if it has a source like salmon byproduct for example, because I know it is salmon.

It's the fact that it's unspecified that I don't like.
 

IndyJones

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And yes Purina foods are a slurry of cheap chemicals. They always have a weird smell too. Higher quality foods do not have this smell to them. Hard to discribe but it's a stinky off smell like it's been left in the sun like fish that have washed up on the beach.
 

1 bruce 1

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I don't have any problem with any meat product. What kind of animal or part of an animal is bad for cats to eat? I'm fine with that, lol.
Same here. 90% of our raw menu is by products, or would be considered by products.
I just do prefer named meat sources, or at least "poultry" etc. "Meat" is an...interesting term to define and I'd prefer to not have to guess if it's cows, horses, or miscellaneous "the hell if we (company) knows" =D
I do think named by products and named meals get a really bad reputation from the internet. Meals are not bad. If you're looking for high protein, meals are GOOD, meat without the water. More bang for your buck!
 

2BSH

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Same here. 90% of our raw menu is by products, or would be considered by products.
I just do prefer named meat sources, or at least "poultry" etc. "Meat" is an...interesting term to define and I'd prefer to not have to guess if it's cows, horses, or miscellaneous "the hell if we (company) knows" =D
I do think named by products and named meals get a really bad reputation from the internet. Meals are not bad. If you're looking for high protein, meals are GOOD, meat without the water. More bang for your buck!
I definitely agree! I think named byproducts are great and very nutritious for cats! I actually wish more of the high end brand would include let’s say poultry by products. I have a problem with not knowing and guessing what it is that I’m feeding my cats. Why don’t they make mice meat cat food. I’ve always wondered that. :D
 

1 bruce 1

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And yes Purina foods are a slurry of cheap chemicals. They always have a weird smell too. Higher quality foods do not have this smell to them. Hard to discribe but it's a stinky off smell like it's been left in the sun like fish that have washed up on the beach.
I'm not in love with Purina. But some of their foods (and many other companies, not just purina), though IMO highly species inappropriate, aren't as much chemicals as they are words to replace a lot of the nutrition that's been extruded/baked/cooked/whatever out of the food. If you cook the crap out of corn, rice, chicken, and beef, there won't be much left nutrient wise and that must be added back, which puts us pet owners in a real problem area based on what we feel comfortable feeding, what we feel comfortable paying for, and what we feel our pets do best on.
I'm a die hard raw feeder but I'm not so die hard to realize that one of our guys was doing terribly on it. He's been a sickie his entire life and his digestion is so whacked from who knows what that raw foods did not agree.
No matter what we choose or where our beliefs lead us, we need to look at the pet and know if they're doing well or not, and we also need to take into consideration that some of us (me) have fed Purina cat foods to stray cats that are supplementing their own diets with mice, voles, bugs, the occasional rabbit or bird and other goodies.
I'm not "defending" Purina as I do not voluntarily feed it, btw =) Just realizing that some cats won't eat anything else and people need to realize they're not crap owners if they've tried other foods and their cats won't eat anything else.
=)
 

1 bruce 1

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I definitely agree! I think named byproducts are great and very nutritious for cats! I actually wish more of the high end brand would include let’s say poultry by products. I have a problem with not knowing and guessing what it is that I’m feeding my cats. Why don’t they make mice meat cat food. I’ve always wondered that. :D
They probably don't make it because the consumer markets initial reaction would be "EEEW!" Mice aren't viewed by most people as a "good, clean" source of protein for cats and most mice are viewed as vermin, diseased things. Non vegetarian humans like chicken, beef, and pork, and some of those only want pasture raised chicken, beef, and pork, so the cat food companies IMO play up to our OWN tastes to sell....same with the inclusion of "fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains", etc. Which probably wouldn't hurt a lot of cats but it might not do them any good, either. It just sounds good to us. Heck, my mouth is watering just typing it out, LOL!
When I started checking into raw feeding I was grossed out at how many people fed gross sounding stuff like chicken feet, gizzards, pork hearts, turkey necks, livers, spleen, *tripe, which smells like the east end of a cow going west*,etc. Tonight our guys got hearts, wings, gizzards, etc. They have also gotten things like dandelion greens and stuff medicinally, not a by product but stuff we go out of our way to kill on our lawns.
I am not freaked out anymore and see my pets enjoy them!
Then I read about certain aboriginal tribes prizing things like hearts and kidneys and taking all the organ meats (by products, etc.) for themselves and the dogs getting most of the plain, boring muscle meats and think it would probably be good to get some of this weird sounding stuff into my diet. But the stigma remains and I feel bile rise to the tip of my throat when I read about tripe stew and steamed beef heart and liver....
 

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My biggest concerns with Fancy Feast are the more chemically ingredients (like menadione)
lisahe lisahe - Have you read either of the scholarly papers in the AMA Journal regarding synthetic Vitamin K3 in conjunction with Vitamin C in prostate cancer remediation? The K3 analogue (menadione) actually drives certain necessary minerals to vital organs, replenishes connective tissue, and promotes healing in joints, along with its original purpose in animal feed - strengthening calcic bonds in bones and teeth.
.
 

sweetblackpaws

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It is the staple for my cats and has been for years. Except for my boy who is on prescription food. My girls love it and one has a sensitive stomach and other foods make her barf.
 

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I have no problem with byproduct if it has a source like salmon byproduct for example, because I know it is salmon.

It's the fact that it's unspecified that I don't like.
I don't mind it being unspecified. If it's meat, it's good for cats, I don't care what animals it's from. I wouldn't even mind if it were made from non-rotted roadkill or pre-dead animals (which isn't allowed in "fresh" by-products like those used in canned food, just in rendered products). But of course if I had a cat with dietary intolerances I can see how that would be a problem so I don't blame anyone for objecting to the lack of specificity. But cats eat meat, it doesn't matter what kind!
 

2BSH

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I don't mind it being unspecified. If it's meat, it's good for cats, I don't care what animals it's from. I wouldn't even mind if it were made from non-rotted roadkill or pre-dead animals (which isn't allowed in "fresh" by-products like those used in canned food, just in rendered products). But of course if I had a cat with dietary intolerances I can see how that would be a problem so I don't blame anyone for objecting to the lack of specificity. But cats eat meat, it doesn't matter what kind!
I can definitely see your point and it does change my point of view :thanks:
 

mekkababble

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I've been a fiend reading about the best canned cat food and what's bad about Fancy Feast. My last cat lived to be 21 and refused any wet brand that wasn't Fancy Feast (but she also had a sullen will to survive). She also free fed the prescription Kidney diet from Hill's I believe. My vet told me FF is basically junk food for cats so upgrade if possible.

You're going to have just as many people say "my cat lived to be X because they ate Y".

I think what kind of food you feed has less to do with the life of your cat than making sure you're giving your cat the best care and food you can reasonably afford.
 

sweetblackpaws

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We never bought expensive food growing up as a kid, and our cats lived to ripe old ages. The ones that didn't usually met an untimely death due to the perils of being outdoors.

Personally, my cats love Fancy Feast. I don't know how "good" it is, but it makes them happy. :blush:
 
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