Is Fancy Feast a Good Cat Food?

[catlover1028]

Hi everyone! I was looking through some of the posts and it seems like a lot of people feed their cats Fancy Feast. I have 3 cats along with 4 dogs so I am always open to cheap but healthy cat food. I was just wondering so if you have any advice I would really appreciate it.

 

[catapault]

Welcome Catlover1028. I'm one of the people who feed Fancy Feast but I only use the Classic Beef Feast and Classic Turkey and Giblets. No carbs such as wheat gluten, corn gluten, etc. Generally the cost is 57 cents / 3 ounce can.

I also feed the Sheba pate which cost 50 cents / 3 ounce can.

Read the labels in that aggravatingly tiny print. You want to look for meat as first couple of ingredients, by-products further down the list, little or no fish, and low or no carbohydrates.

 

[LTS3]

Fancy Feast Classic / Gourmet pate canned foods are fine to feed to cats. The other canned food lines (Gravy Lovers, Elegant Medleys, etc) tend to be high in carbs because of the starches used to thicken the gravy and there tends to more gravy than actual food. They are ok to feed once in awhile, though. The little 3 oz cans of Fancy Feast (and other brands as well) will end up costing a lot over time since you have to buy a ton of cans. One cat may eat as many as 3 or 4 of the 3 oz cans in a single day.

Fancy Feast dry food has poor quality ingredients so I wouldn't feed that.

There are a few threads that discusses affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272192/affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/327692/cheapest-most-affordable-grain-free-or-healthiest-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/330459/...conomical-way-to-buy-friskies-canned-cat-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/334633/cheapest-way-to-feed-my-cats-well

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292890/4health-now-has-affordable-grain-free-wet-food

Since you have dogs, you can feed the Nature's Variety Instinct Originals canned dog foods to both your dogs and cats. The formula for dogs is the exact same as the formula for cats, taurine included. I'm not sure about the other NV canned dog food lines so I would err on the side of caution and not feed those to a cat. The Nature's Variety Instinct Originals is available in a large 13.2 oz can which you can split up among your pets. The selection at Petco and other chain pet stores may be limited and you probably can't buy an entire case so look for an independent pet store in the area that sells the brand http://www.instinctpetfood.com/store-locator

If you need to feed some dry food, go with the highest quality grain-free brand that your cats will eat and you can afford.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

I don't feed it exclusively, but I do primarily to my current ten cats, and I have nearly since it came on the market, in 1982.  In more than three decades, I've seen almost no general health or nutrition problems, and with a single exception in more then two dozen cats over those years, mine generally exceed 18 years of age, with a few over 20 years, and one (a Siamese, of course) over 25.

Mine are free-fed, including quality dry food, which means that you do need to be certain they're exercising regularly, since in more than 90% of recorded cases, feline obesity is owed more to a sedentary lifestyle rather than to "over feeding," (Citation: countless studies and scholarly articles in the two leading veterinary journals.) and mine are also monitored regularly for amino acid levels and given CBC and thyroid hormone level tests on a regular basis, as well as informal clinical exams any time my veterinarian comes over for pizza, chicken wings or bacon-double-cheese cheeseburgers (clearly, neither of us monitors his health in the same fashion as our collective cats' health).

I recommend it to Friends for their cats, and also recommend pizza, chicken wings or bacon-double-cheese cheeseburgers for cat owners, because Life is just too short to eat salads every day.

.

 

[IndyJones]

The biggest concern with this food is they do source from China. Personally I don't trust food from China but maybe I'm just paranoid after my old Chartreux got sick from the Menu Foods recall of 2007.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

The biggest concern with this food is they do source from China. Personally I don't trust food from China but maybe I'm just paranoid after my old Chartreux got sick from the Menu Foods recall of 2007.

Frankly I don't blame you one bit, still 80 percent of the current Tilapia supply - the most widely-consumed fish in America - 382.2 million pounds per year - comes from China, along with 51 percent of Cod on the U.S. market (70.7 million pounds per year), one half of the apple juice sold in the United States (367 million gallons per year), 34 percent of processed mushrooms  (62.9 million pounds per year) and very nearly one-third of all garlic sold in the U.S. (217.5 million pounds per year).

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/231731-top-5-imported-foods-from-china-you-should-avoid/

.

 

[maggiedemi]

My cats eat Fancy Feast once in a while. But we mostly use Friskies since it is twice the size. My cats used to love pate, but now they won't eat it. I tried all 59 flavors of Friskies and these are the only ones they liked:

Friskies Shreds- all 8 of them
Cat Concoctions With Chicken in Creamy Crabby Sauce
Cat Concoctions With Cod in Cheesy Bacon Flavored Sauce
SauceSations Chicken & Turkey Dinner in Cheesy Sauce
SauceSations With Beef in Creamy Sauce
SauceSations With Salmon & Tuna in Creamy Sauce

Indoor Chunky Chicken & Turkey Casserole
Indoor Homestyle Turkey Dinner
Indoor Saucy Seafood Bake
Indoor Flaked Ocean Whitefish Dinner

I know pate is supposed to be healthier, but they won't eat it anymore! I'm going to see what other brands I can find in shreds or chunks.

 

[IndyJones]

Wellness makes cubed and shredded. Plus it's grain free.

http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/m/categories.aspx?pet=cat&pt=2&pl=0&ct=6

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

Wellness makes cubed and shredded. Plus it's grain free.

http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/m/categories.aspx?pet=cat&pt=2&pl=0&ct=6

They're very good products, and my White Tip just loves the Wellness Signature Selects shredded boneless chicken and beef entrée, but their products are a tad pricey (about $1.75 for the 2.8 ounce cans, in full cases, currently on sale at chewy.com) - roughly seven times the cost of Friskies.

.

 

[IndyJones]

They're very good products, and my White Tip just loves the Wellness Signature Selects shredded boneless chicken and beef entrée, but their products are a tad pricey (about $1.75 for the 2.8 ounce cans, in full cases, currently on sale at chewy.com) - roughly seven times the cost of Friskies.

.

Well know what they say you get what you pay for.

For me it's worth it knowing my cat isn't getting a food that's sourced from menu foods (simmons).

Another benefit of high quality food is you feed less since it isn't full of junk

The Chinese food source is still poisoning pets from what I've read. Recently a batch of dog treats was making dogs sick. Sourced from China

 

[catlover1028]

Thank you everyone! You are all so helpful and this is why I joined TCS. I will look into Fancy Feast. I'll also check out Nature's Variety canned dog food. Thanks again!

 

[Texas Sandman]

It really all depends on what you mean by "good", and which variety of fancy feast to which you refer. I'd refer you to Lisa Pierson's Cat Food Nutrition tables, which haven't been updated in a very long time, but are still worth their weight in gold for foods that have been around a long time like fancy feast.

http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Many of the "classic" varieties are good for diabetic cats (low carbs). But if you have a cat with renal failure issues, phosphorus content can be quite important. For a growing young cat you want lots of calcium and phosphorus. For a renal insufficiency cat, that's poison and can be hard to take care of no matter how much phosphate binder you mix in.

I had a cat, Mr. Sluggo who developed diabetes at age 11 and I used the fancy feast beef & chicken classic to get him into remission and fed it to him when he fell out of remission a few years later. But then about a year before I felt I had to put him down, he detached his retinas and went blind due to sudden onset of hypertension and renal insufficiency and the high phosphate content became very problematic. So, the fancy feast was poison, really. Of course, if your cat won't eat a particular food, it's totally useless, and you may have to hunt around to find a food your kitty will actually eat. Nobody has ever shown high protein content is harmful to a renal failure cat. And my vet who literally wrote the book on cats for other vets thinks it's criminal to starve a cat of protein even with renal failure. But nobody will argue with the notion a high phosphorus content in the food will hasten decline of renal function and kill a renal failure cat.

Currently, I have a young kitty, "Sluggito" after Mr. Sluggo with diarrhea issues I need to get probiotics and naturopathic diarrhea meds into and again the fancy feast beef & chicken classic is ideal. But because of the phosphorus content, I need to keep Sluggo's old buddy, Rudy (with polycystic kidney disease & fully grown) out of it. It's a chore, but I need to feed them separately.

Care & feeding of a finicky creature with medical issues is a difficult, time-consuming affair. Good luck!

 

[mitty009]

Hi everyone! I was looking through some of the posts and it seems like a lot of people feed their cats Fancy Feast. I have 3 cats along with 4 dogs so I am always open to cheap but healthy cat food. I was just wondering so if you have any advice I would really appreciate it.

I never feed fancy feast... it contains many bad things such as meat by product, and wheat gluten... those are so BAD to cats... stay away from fancy feast

 

[tuffsmom]

I feed FF , but only the classic. My cat has eaten this wet food for 2 and a half years and never had a throw-up. He loves it and is very healthy with a shiny coat.

 

[carebare]

My cats had Fancy Feast for a very long time. However, if I had to do it over, I would upgrade their diets. I think poor quality food contributes to underlying health issues such as IBS or food intolerances.

 

[happilyretired]

With my first cat (over 30 years ago), I knew nothing at all, and she loved Fancy Feast (canned), so that's what she ate. She was almost 20 when she died, and prior to her final year had never had any health issues at all.

I try to get my cats to eat better food these days, but I will feed Fancy Feast at times.

 

[EmmiTemmi]

My two boys love Fancy Feast, and for its price, it's a really good wet cat food available. I intersperse it with several other varieties of canned food, but Fancy Feast (classic pate) is the main one. If you're looking for healthy but cheap, Fancy Feast is the food for you!

 

[cryptic]

Honestly, you get what you pay for. Usually low cost foods aren't nutritionally inclined. I don't believe Fancy Feast is healthy whatsoever, but everyone has differing opinions. Cats like it because it's basically junk food - who doesn't like candy bars and chips at every meal? Full of fillers and other harmful ingredients. I mean... if you find the stuff in gas stations, how good is it, really?
Food to avoid:
ANYTHING Purina. Including Fancy Feast, Broths, Cat Chow, Cat Complete, One, Friskies, etc. (Sorry, FF lovers) Meow Mix, Hills Science Diet, Royal Canin, IAMS, Whiskas, 9Lives, anything store-brand generic usually. These all are filled with bad stuff like corn/byproduct - avoid foods that have corn/soy fillers, heavy with grains, byproduct, etc. Purina is going to give you all of that.
My advice? Raw or homecooked. Kitties won't get a better meal elsewhere, and you can take solace in the fact that you know what is in their food. Fromm makes great kibble but it's heavy with fruits and veggies so make sure your kitties get a good source of meat elsewhere. I feed my girls Blue Buffalo dry (definitely not the best but we're on the transition to a raw diet) as well as Rad Cat and Freshpet. They're also getting Natural Balance toppers and some boiled chicken as well. They're thriving, weights are ideal, and their coats have never looked shinier! I've noticed since cooking their own food and putting them on raw, they don't shed as much and their stools aren't as smelly. (Means they're absorbing more out of their meals, less crap to pass!)

 

[Texas Sandman]

The fancy feast classic variety isn't in any sense of the word "junk". There is no gluten as claimed by a prior poster. In fact, there are no grains of any kind in it. The beef and chicken classic comes in at a very satisfactory even for feline diabetes 5% dry matter carbs. Basic Principle: Cats are obligate carnivores. In this food, the first, second, and third ingredients are MEAT. You look at the food some (even on this board) consider "good" cat food and the ingredient list features prominently things no cat should be eating (barley, corn, wheat, yada, yada, yada). If you want to figure out how "good" a cat food is, start by looking at the ingredient list, not listening to some so-called "expert" on the internet like this. If you see only meat, that's a "good" food for a cat. If you see potatoes, peas, rice, corn, barley, wheat that's bad. Possibly terrible.

Candy bars are bad for you & your cat. And while you may need to get your veggies, your feline friend needs that like a hole in the head. Cats have no biologic need for carbohydrate at all. They generate all the energy they need from protein. And if you want to see what a cat eats in the wild, look at a mouse (roughly 2% dry matter carbs). The Catkins Diet is their natural ancestral diet.

That's all.