I feed a homemade raw diet to my own kitties but I give Fancy Feast (FF) to my foster kitties. My fosters are usually sick or underweight kittens so it is important that they eat and FF, in my experience appeals to most cats. But I've noticed the price of FF has been steadily rising as has the price of most things. I started to wonder if there might be a cheaper but equivalent quality wise alternative. The by-products in FF don't bother me as long as they aren't the only animal source and aren't the first ingredient. And I use only the low carb selections.
So, I started looking around. My current foster, Mickey, is obese so to make life easier for myself I wanted to look at foods that had about the same number of calories per ounce as FF which is around 30. Since most foods don't have the calorie information on the cans or even on the company web site I created a spreadsheet to calculate the calories from the guaranteed analysis or from more accurate information if available on the company web site.
And as long as I was working with a spreadsheet and calories I thought I might as well calculate how many calories are from protein, fat and carbs. I included the price of each product as the price per 100 kcal (calorie) as a way of "leveling the field". If a food is cheaper than FF but provides fewer calories it may not actually be cheaper because of having to feed more of it.
I started adding products to my spreadsheet and got a surprise. A high percentage of the calories in some foods that are generally considered "high quality" comes from fat! That isn't necessarily a problem. Cats do quite well on high fat diets. But, I think it says something about the real quality of a food. Lean meat is much higher nutrients than fat. I always prefer as many of the nutrients as possible come from animal products. If a food is high in fat it is likely that more nutrients are coming from added supplements than would be the case in a lower fat food.
I do think it is possible for a food to be too high in fat though and I think the EVO 95% products are too high. They come in at 73% of calories from fat, 25% from protein and 2% from carbs. Compare that with what has been determined to be a feral cats typical diet composition: 46% calories from fat, 52% from protein and 2% from carbs. Now we know why the EVO 95% products are relatively cheap!
One thing I have to mention is that for some of the foods I had to use the guaranteed analysis values for the protein/fat percentages. Those values are the minimums for the food rather than the actual amounts. In some cases the average or "as fed" values are available on the manufacturers web site. If the as fed values are available I used those because they should be more accurate. If the as fed values aren't available the carb % may be lower than what is shown in the table but the protein and fat %s can't be lower.
Bottom line, some people looking for a high quality canned food look for a food that is low in carbs. I was surprised to find that some of these low carb foods are quite high in fat and so may not be deserving of a label of "high quality" especially if the high food food comes with a high price tag.
As always, everyone has to decide for themselves what criteria to use when choosing a food. In the end I decided to try the by Nature products. They seem like a good value to me.
The spreadsheet
So, I started looking around. My current foster, Mickey, is obese so to make life easier for myself I wanted to look at foods that had about the same number of calories per ounce as FF which is around 30. Since most foods don't have the calorie information on the cans or even on the company web site I created a spreadsheet to calculate the calories from the guaranteed analysis or from more accurate information if available on the company web site.
And as long as I was working with a spreadsheet and calories I thought I might as well calculate how many calories are from protein, fat and carbs. I included the price of each product as the price per 100 kcal (calorie) as a way of "leveling the field". If a food is cheaper than FF but provides fewer calories it may not actually be cheaper because of having to feed more of it.
I started adding products to my spreadsheet and got a surprise. A high percentage of the calories in some foods that are generally considered "high quality" comes from fat! That isn't necessarily a problem. Cats do quite well on high fat diets. But, I think it says something about the real quality of a food. Lean meat is much higher nutrients than fat. I always prefer as many of the nutrients as possible come from animal products. If a food is high in fat it is likely that more nutrients are coming from added supplements than would be the case in a lower fat food.
I do think it is possible for a food to be too high in fat though and I think the EVO 95% products are too high. They come in at 73% of calories from fat, 25% from protein and 2% from carbs. Compare that with what has been determined to be a feral cats typical diet composition: 46% calories from fat, 52% from protein and 2% from carbs. Now we know why the EVO 95% products are relatively cheap!
One thing I have to mention is that for some of the foods I had to use the guaranteed analysis values for the protein/fat percentages. Those values are the minimums for the food rather than the actual amounts. In some cases the average or "as fed" values are available on the manufacturers web site. If the as fed values are available I used those because they should be more accurate. If the as fed values aren't available the carb % may be lower than what is shown in the table but the protein and fat %s can't be lower.
Bottom line, some people looking for a high quality canned food look for a food that is low in carbs. I was surprised to find that some of these low carb foods are quite high in fat and so may not be deserving of a label of "high quality" especially if the high food food comes with a high price tag.
As always, everyone has to decide for themselves what criteria to use when choosing a food. In the end I decided to try the by Nature products. They seem like a good value to me.
The spreadsheet