Chicken bad for cats? - short rant plus questionQu

[sylorna]

Ok, so I'm back from my local pet store and am pretty annoyed.

We just moved to the area and 2 out of 3 times that I've been into the closest pet store I have had an employee lecture me on grain-free feeding.  I seriously have spent hours and hours and hours talking with you guys, reading other posts on the forum, talking with various vets, and doing my own ingredient research....not to mention the time and money spent on finding food all 3 cats will eat.

We feed Natural Balance reduced cal formula and chicken soup reduced cal.  When I tried going grain free (taste of the wild) all of our cats started gaining weight rapidly, and that is not an option for my male cat, as he is already overweight and has a heart condition....I have explored the basics of raw and am not ready for that kind of commitment.  I also have a picky female who gets stuck on a brand and wont let go.  In short, I like feeding NB and CS and my cats seem to be healthy and happy on it.

Anyway, I just get so tired of people coming at me with this high and mighty attitude because some rep has told them something, or because the store is trying to push something, or because they assume that because I'm feeding food with grain in it I don't know better.  It makes me want to scream!

Rant over

Question:  So during my interaction with this overly helpful sales lady, she tried to tell me that one of the reasons why chicken soup is bad for cats is because they have found a correlation between feeding chicken and cancer in cats.  Later she also tried to blame kidney failure on chicken as well.

Has anyone heard of such things?  When I pointed out that male cats shouldn't have too much fish due to their urinary tracts, and that if you cut chicken out as well, you have eliminated most options, she suggested turkey, rabbit, venison, beef, etc.  I just don't buy it.

 

[Willowy]

LOL, you should have grabbed any food off the shelf and showed her the ingredients. . .almost all cat foods have chicken. Chicken Soup has actually less chicken than most foods (the name has nothing to do with the ingredients). Or, you know, asked to see the studies :tongue2:..

 

[mewlittle]

i never heard just a thing on the chicken part rolls eyes and some employees at pet stores say that stuff so you can spend more money on pet food so they can have more money in there pocket<my opinion

here is some other no grain cat food you can try nature variety instinct wet and dry before grain wet and dry solid gold indigo moon dry solid gold wet I find them vary good my cats haven't had a rapid weight gain on it and seems to be happier

 

[auntie crazy]

I have read of studies linking kibble to both cancer and kidney failure, but never processed chicken... or any other type of meat, actually.

I call bogus.

AC

P.S. What you really want is carb-free (or very low-carb) products. Grain-free and carb-free are not synonymous, although they are often treated as such. Manufacturing companies know this, so they create products that are "grain-free" but heavy in other carb products (potatoes, tapioca, etc.)... these products sell to owners who aren't aware of the difference and poof, their kitties begin gaining weight and suffering the other maladies the owners were trying to avoid by seeking grain-free products in the first place.

 

[sylorna]

yeah, I think the issue that I had was her approach, and the fact that I wasn't looking for food advice, but rather to find out if they had more CS. 

The fact that she came out with this chicken=cancer thing just made the situation mind numbing.