Holistic Select-odd Ingredients

My cats love it. It is only $33 for 12 13oz cans. According to the catfooddb.com it is high protein and fat,zero carbs. Lots of fruit and peppermint. Not sure if I should try it on my cat with a sensitive tummy because of all the ingredients compared to dr elseys which she can eat

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Broth, Turkey, Ground Flaxseed, Tricalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Apple Powder, Cranberry Powder, Pumpkin Powder, Salmon Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Taurine, Cassia Gum, Xanthan Gum, Chicory Root Extract, Choline Chloride, Salt, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Blueberry Powder, Papaya Powder, Pomegranate Powder, Vitamin E Supplement, Peppermint Leaf Powder, Cinnamon, Fennel Powder, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract

I know cats should not eat much fish. Does that include salmon oil?

No, salmon oil is not included in that recommendation, and is a healthy addition If the food is truly zero carbs, than the fruits and veggies make up a very small portion of the food and are used only for natural vitamins and minerals, as fruits and veggies are mostly carbs.

All those powders are not powder anymore when moisture is added. I suspect it is supposed to make it sound less fruit and vegetable heavy than it is. It's just trickery. They may as well list the whole ingredient, apples, blueberries, papayas, cranberries, peppermint, etc. When you put it that way, it's looking a lot les appropriate for a cat. It's all going to make the food the wrong pH for optimal digestion. Meat and meat-based protein is what triggers stomach acid production. This highly acidic environment is needed further downstream for the digestive enzymes and bile to function properly. All those fruits and vegetables make this environment less acidic and digestion less effective. Then there's the xanthum gum. That stuff wrecks my IBD kitty. She looks miserable, her stomach churns, and her poops are soup. Every cat is different but Krista does not endorse xanthum gum. That food would be a firm "no" for us.

Salmon oil is probably the best thing this food has going for it. Not enough to salvage it though.

I've been using HS's turkey pate for several months, I haven't had any negative issues with it. Despite the fruit powders, it's still on the lower carb end.

I like that it doesn't have any peas. One of my cats needs extra fat in his diet, otherwise he'll get constipated and with HS, I don't need to give any laxatives or add extra fat to his diet.

My other cat though does better on slightly lower fat (due to EPI) so she can't have too much of this food. I've been pretty pleased with it overall, I'm going to be changing their diet a bit but I'll keep HS in rotation.

My cats prefer the turkey pate vs the chicken.

daftcat75 said:

All those powders are not powder anymore when moisture is added. I suspect it is supposed to make it sound less fruit and vegetable heavy than it is. It's just trickery. They may as well list the whole ingredient, apples, blueberries, papayas, cranberries, peppermint, etc. When you put it that way, it's looking a lot les appropriate for a cat. It's all going to make the food the wrong pH for optimal digestion. Meat and meat-based protein is what triggers stomach acid production. This highly acidic environment is needed further downstream for the digestive enzymes and bile to function properly. All those fruits and vegetables make this environment less acidic and digestion less effective. Then there's the xanthum gum. That stuff wrecks my IBD kitty. She looks miserable, her stomach churns, and her poops are soup. Every cat is different but Krista does not endorse xanthum gum. That food would be a firm "no" for us.

Click to expand...

Wow! Interesting stuff. I will give none to my cat with a weak tummy and keep an eye on my other 2 cats to see how they react. I wonder why the food is given 5 stars for ingredients and nutrition

Holistic Select has been a staple for Jem since I got him last summer and he’s doing really well on it! He doesn’t have any stomach sensitivities so I can’t speak to that. As for the quality though, it has good ratings according both to cat food database and to Dr. Pierson’s breakdown list, and fits my budget (mostly- he gets Holistic Select for his wet food 5 days of the week and fancy feast the other two for budget reasons). Would I prefer a food with fewer fruit/veg powders? Probably! But for what’s available to me it works great. My guess is as others have mentioned those ingredients are there for vitamins/minerals, and are small enough quantities that even with the moisture of the food it’s not harmful. There are human multivitamins that get their nutrients from whole fruits and vegetables, and this seems likely to be a similar thing to me.

One of my cats will not eat it so back to wellness core chicken. The price has lowered

maggie101 said:

One of my cats will not eat it so back to wellness core chicken. The price has lowered

Click to expand...

Take that back. Price has not changed

I had this food for my cats in their rotation before they developed cat allergies I can't say it will be good for sensitive tummies. It didn't work well for them when those issues started up.