Our previous cat ate like Willowy's for years, too... and she lived to be at least 16 or 17. She was pretty active for her age until almost the end, though she also had kidney disease, plus all sorts of other health issues, including IBD/lymphoma, which was her downfall. I think it was sensitivity to grains and/or fish that caused the digestive problems, but she was too frail for much testing. Low-carbs, high protein, and no carrageenan are the most important things to me in our cats' diet.Hmm. My first cats (we got when I was 10), 2 sisters, lived to be 21. They didn't eat Fancy Feast their entire lives though. They ate dry Cat Chow and dry Friskies for most of their lives, with various canned foods as an occasional treat. Back then, dry Friskies had ethoxyquin, which I think is worse than menadione :/. Anyway, they were diagnosed with kidney disease around age 16 and we switched them to canned food, mostly Fancy Feast but they did like some flavors of Friskies too. So they probably got all the controversial ingredients.
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.My girl is 18 and has been eating Fancy Feast Classic for probably years, and she's very healthy except for bad hearing. But TBH, I'm a little concerned with the fish addition and all the bad stuff I've been reading.
The AAFCO website says this about meat by-products:The thing that bothers me about fancy feast is the source of the ingredients but most importantly the fact that the second ingredient is "meat by products". I'm more thAn fine with poultry by products and such but what meat is meat by products actually. It could really be anything. Kind of scary
I knew that was recommended for dry food, but didn't know if it was for wet or not.So it' unspecified. I mentioned this in another post but it does allow the company to change the meat source without the consumer's knowledge. We all know a sudden change can cause stomach problems. That's why we mix foods when we switch them.
So it really could be parts of ANY mammal.... horse, etc. it's just scary not knowing what kind of meat it is.The AAFCO website says this about meat by-products:
“Meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially de-fatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.”
The Association of American Feed Control Officials > Consumers > What is in Pet Food
That is a legit concern, but AAFCO also says this:So it really could be parts of ANY mammal.... horse, etc. it's just scary not knowing what kind of meat it is.