Opinion On Purina Beyond Duck & Sweet Potato Recipe?

Azazel

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Here’s my assessment:

Side note - I’m assuming that the animal protein/meat ingredients included in this food are equivalent to how we would define them in human food in my assessment (pet food regulations are very broad and often include diseased animals in their definitions of things like “chicken” and “duck”).

I like that it has duck, liver, and chicken in its first 5 ingredients. I try not to feed anything with fish in it on a regular basis as it’s a known allergen and can be high in metals.

Other ingredients I don’t like: sweet potatoes, carrots, guar gum. Cats are obligate carnivores and have no need for veggies.

Based on the presented as fed values, here are my calculations for percentage of calories from protein/fat/carb. What we’re looking for here is animal protein above 50%, moderate fat around 30-40%, and low carbs below 10%.

Protein: 41%
Fat: 50%
Carbs: 8%

These values are pretty decent as far as canned foods go and it’s good that most of the protein is probably from animal meat since I don’t see any pea protein in the ingredient list. But, there is sweet potato so some of that protein is probably not animal-protein which is not good for an obligate carnivore.

The “egg product” can be good, or it could be bad. Again, part of the problem is that we as consumers don’t know what “egg product” might consist of when we see it on a label.

And, of course, it’s canned and high in moisture so it gets points for that.

Finally, I’m not a big fan of Purina and I would stay away from the brand as I don’t like supporting the big box brands that control the pet food industry. I don’t think that we will ever see improvements in pet food quality if we continue to support these big brands. Many people don’t care which brands they support though, so that’s up to you.
 

maggie101

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But if your cat eats 2 3 oz cans,twice that amount. I mix it in with more expensive food with low carb. I get the wild prey Turkey, liver and quail
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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Welp, turns out there was no need for it as my gramps brought raw chicken and now she's eating fine-as-dandies again now that I boiled some and added it to her kibble. Thank you both anyways! I think I will probably end up just buying frozen duck at some point rather than the canned food as spec really isn't fond of it as she is of freshly cooked meat. Whatever makes her happy, I'm ok with!
 

Azazel

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Just make sure you’re following an established recipe if you’re doing homemade food because just feeding duck won’t be nutritionally complete and will lead to malnutrition. You can check out the raw and homemade sub forum here to learn more.
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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Just make sure you’re following an established recipe if you’re doing homemade food because just feeding duck won’t be nutritionally complete and will lead to malnutrition. You can check out the raw and homemade sub forum here to learn more.
Oh yea! Def not feeding raw ever in a million years - just not possible with my living space nor am I confident in such. I just add meat and "toppers" to her dry food for moisture and to spice it up but she went thru a bout of slowness and lack of apatite due to schedule change + the weather (cooling down, more storms) and admittedly she fed off me because right then I stressed myself into a horrid cold + was PMSING; so I wanted to switch to something more fattening to compensate with her dry to make up for the slowing down. She doesn't like her current dry however I'm trying to utilize it anyways however possible because I blew 40$ on like; five bags of it and it's fair quality (meets aafco standards; grain free; the usual) .. but again; she doesn't like the actual taste but adding freshly boiled chicken meat (SPECIFICALLY the fatty bits) seems to have much more wiggle room and variation (i could mash up just the skin as a topper; tender meat; squishier bits; chunks; strips; a pate) compared to canned which is pretty much very stable and dormant, not the thing for her as unlike a lot of cats; she seems to go through phases OFTEN and switches her tastes like no ones business - she forces me to be creative. :cloud9: Sometimes it's Sheba; sometimes it's a duck egg; sometimes a chicken egg; sometimes sardines; sometimes chicken; sometimes just kibble; sometimes makerel (actually; ALL the time but I refuse to make fish a part of her main diet) etc etc, she's a handful. BUT! She's back to being active; just changed phases and prefers walks to actual playing; and wants boiled chicken with her kibble instead of sheba with kibble. If only they could just tell you these things. :hyper: She seems to only want sheba with water; my guess is that it's not flavorful enough to cover the taste of the dry.
 
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Just make sure you’re following an established recipe if you’re doing homemade food because just feeding duck won’t be nutritionally complete and will lead to malnutrition. You can check out the raw and homemade sub forum here to learn more.
OH but can I ask a dumb question? I'm gonna! Adding room temp water doesn't affect the food nutritionally; does it? I read that taurine has a low heat tolerance so I use room temp or cold water to add to her sheba wetfood for extra water intake; thoughts on that? Is it okay in her dry food, as well?
 

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Using chicken, duck or other foods she likes as toppers is perfectly fine and healthy too. If you’re not making it nutritionally complete then the rule is that it shouldn’t make up more than 10% of what they’re eating in a day.
 

Azazel

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OH but can I ask a dumb question? I'm gonna! Adding room temp water doesn't affect the food nutritionally; does it? I read that taurine has a low heat tolerance so I use room temp or cold water to add to her sheba wetfood for extra water intake; thoughts on that? Is it okay in her dry food, as well?
I think it’s fine to add room temp water if she eats the food right away, but I wouldn’t leave it sitting out. If she’s okay with cold water then you can just do that. If the reason for adding water is to warm her food, a trick I use sometimes is to warm a stainless steel bowl with hot water and then put the food in that (after you dump the water out).
 

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Oh yea! Def not feeding raw ever in a million years - just not possible with my living space nor am I confident in such. I just add meat and "toppers" to her dry food for moisture and to spice it up but she went thru a bout of slowness and lack of apatite due to schedule change + the weather (cooling down, more storms) and admittedly she fed off me because right then I stressed myself into a horrid cold + was PMSING; so I wanted to switch to something more fattening to compensate with her dry to make up for the slowing down. She doesn't like her current dry however I'm trying to utilize it anyways however possible because I blew 40$ on like; five bags of it and it's fair quality (meets aafco standards; grain free; the usual) .. but again; she doesn't like the actual taste but adding freshly boiled chicken meat (SPECIFICALLY the fatty bits) seems to have much more wiggle room and variation (i could mash up just the skin as a topper; tender meat; squishier bits; chunks; strips; a pate) compared to canned which is pretty much very stable and dormant, not the thing for her as unlike a lot of cats; she seems to go through phases OFTEN and switches her tastes like no ones business - she forces me to be creative. :cloud9: Sometimes it's Sheba; sometimes it's a duck egg; sometimes a chicken egg; sometimes sardines; sometimes chicken; sometimes just kibble; sometimes makerel (actually; ALL the time but I refuse to make fish a part of her main diet) etc etc, she's a handful. BUT! She's back to being active; just changed phases and prefers walks to actual playing; and wants boiled chicken with her kibble instead of sheba with kibble. If only they could just tell you these things. :hyper: She seems to only want sheba with water; my guess is that it's not flavorful enough to cover the taste of the dry.

Companies will give you samples. Adding water to the food then heating in the micro will make it sloppy
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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I think it’s fine to add room temp water if she eats the food right away, but I wouldn’t leave it sitting out. If she’s okay with cold water then you can just do that. If the reason for adding water is to warm her food, a trick I use sometimes is to warm a stainless steel bowl with hot water and then put the food in that (after you dump the water out).
Yea! I make sure to feed very very tiny portions at a time throughout the day to cut back on waste because she just prefers tiny handfuls every few hours and we used to run through food that way like nobodies business ! Strangely enough her current phase is room temp; it went from warm to almost frozen to regular; main thing is that it's no older than an hour. If it's older than an hour, it's trash!
Using chicken, duck or other foods she likes as toppers is perfectly fine and healthy too. If you’re not making it nutritionally complete then the rule is that it shouldn’t make up more than 10% of what they’re eating in a day.
I like that rule! Good to note. I'm going to try to trick her into eating more of her sheba or kibble tomorrow as she's eaten lots of chicken today; though sheba is fine if she refuses kibble; despite that it's over priced for what it's worth.. :spew:
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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Companies will give you samples. Adding water to the food then heating in the micro will make it sloppy
Unrelated and random but you just reminded me of the time when I was a little kid and I tried to microwave that cheap horrid friskies wet food and it EXPLODED ! Not the can, I put it in a bowl, and the actual food bursted in under eight seconds - whatever they put in that food has to be bad ! :eek:
 

Azazel

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Unrelated and random but you just reminded me of the time when I was a little kid and I tried to microwave that cheap horrid friskies wet food and it EXPLODED ! Not the can, I put it in a bowl, and the actual food bursted in under eight seconds - whatever they put in that food has to be bad ! :eek:
Yikes.

The truth is that we really don’t know the quality of what goes into any pet food. As I mentioned in my initial assessment, we can only assume that when an ingredient list says “chicken” what it means is disease free and whole pieces of chicken. But, according to US pet food regulations, “chicken” on pet food labels can actually have multiple different meanings, and can include diseased meat. This is one of the primary reasons I decided to make my own food. The pet food industry is just not regulated enough for me to feel good about feeding pet food. I’m not okay with just assuming.

So, this is all to say that the cooked chicken that you’re giving your cat is probably the highest quality thing she’s eating. It’s just not nutritionally complete enough to sustain a cat on its own, but could be with the right recipe.
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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Yikes.

The truth is that we really don’t know the quality of what goes into any pet food. As I mentioned in my initial assessment, we can only assume that when an ingredient list says “chicken” what it means is disease free and whole pieces of chicken. But, according to US pet food regulations, “chicken” on pet food labels can actually have multiple different meanings, and can include diseased meat. This is one of the primary reasons I decided to make my own food. The pet food industry is just not regulated enough for me to feel good about feeding pet food. I’m not okay with just assuming.

So, this is all to say that the cooked chicken that you’re giving your cat is probably the highest quality thing she’s eating. It’s just not nutritionally complete enough to sustain a cat on its own, but could be with the right recipe.
True! I'd love to do a homemade diet but my mental illness would never allow it; I've got extreme paranoia and lots of trauma built around Specter (we lived in a toxic environment for the better half of our relationship) and just can't seem to trust myself with making her food or even considering it, maybe one day, but the best we can do is heavy research on her food and buy from companies that aren't huge bankrupt wackjobs & the highest reviewed brands as of now, I'm going to be switching her dryfood to American Journey Turkey And Chicken and I think I'm going to stick with sheba and boiled meat as her wetfood, thank you again for the help, my brain ain't right!

It would be so cool if we were able to feed a live diet though, that's something I dream of. Letting her hunt and kill prey you've bred and raised yourself.. Goals

To close this I would like to include some historical photos of spec I just found. fIRST adult spec.
JJI.jpg
 

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Azazel

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True! I'd love to do a homemade diet but my mental illness would never allow it; I've got extreme paranoia and lots of trauma built around Specter (we lived in a toxic environment for the better half of our relationship) and just can't seem to trust myself with making her food or even considering it, maybe one day, but the best we can do is heavy research on her food and buy from companies that aren't huge bankrupt wackjobs & the highest reviewed brands as of now, I'm going to be switching her dryfood to American Journey Turkey And Chicken and I think I'm going to stick with sheba and boiled meat as her wetfood, thank you again for the help, my brain ain't right!

It would be so cool if we were able to feed a live diet though, that's something I dream of. Letting her hunt and kill prey you've bred and raised yourself.. Goals

To close this I would like to include some historical photos of spec I just found. fIRST adult spec. View attachment 300296
I completely understand. I had tons of anxiety when I first started making my own food. I still sometimes worry that I didn’t put enough of an ingredient in it. I take solace in knowing that nutrition needs are usually met in the long term, not daily. So as long as my recipes are sound in the long run my cats will be fine. Confidence also just comes with experience.

I think you’re doing the best that you can for your kitty! :petcat:
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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I completely understand. I had tons of anxiety when I first started making my own food. I still sometimes worry that I didn’t put enough of an ingredient in it. I take solace in knowing that nutrition needs are usually met in the long term, not daily. So as long as my recipes are sound in the long run my cats will be fine. Confidence also just comes with experience.

I think you’re doing the best that you can for your kitty! :petcat:
I bet! Omg, I can just see myself wasting so much out of my irrational paranoia about "did soap end up in this? did I somehow poison this? did someone ELSE poison this while I stepped outside??" I didn't know that fact, very interesting; makes sense.. I imagine in the wild they don't meet their needs daily much at all; good to note. I also like the confidence part; very true! My first cat (when I was a kid) was chronically ill and in terrible shape and died early; but it was very good for my home-healing skills and I've gotten more confident in those abilities due to that, so maybe in the future we can start dipping our toes into the waters of homeade food as we grow.. I think I'll always just some sort of kibble though to be safe; just to be sure she's getting what she needs; at least every few days.. Do you freeze yours? Curious as to how yours is made, I know most people make it in batches and freeze it, do you do that?
 

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I bet! Omg, I can just see myself wasting so much out of my irrational paranoia about "did soap end up in this? did I somehow poison this? did someone ELSE poison this while I stepped outside??" I didn't know that fact, very interesting; makes sense.. I imagine in the wild they don't meet their needs daily much at all; good to note. I also like the confidence part; very true! My first cat (when I was a kid) was chronically ill and in terrible shape and died early; but it was very good for my home-healing skills and I've gotten more confident in those abilities due to that, so maybe in the future we can start dipping our toes into the waters of homeade food as we grow.. I think I'll always just some sort of kibble though to be safe; just to be sure she's getting what she needs; at least every few days.. Do you freeze yours? Curious as to how yours is made, I know most people make it in batches and freeze it, do you do that?
I make big batches that last about 2-3 weeks and freeze them into daily portions. My cats also get a meal of canned food every day in their timed feeders while we are at work. I think the important thing is to do lots of research and connect with other homemade feeders online for support when you’re just starting out. Although I started before I joined this forum, some of the members on these forums really helped me out when I had to change my formula to bone-free.
 
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SpecterOhPossum

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I make big batches that last about 2-3 weeks and freeze them into daily portions. My cats also get a meal of canned food every day in their timed feeders while we are at work. I think the important thing is to do lots of research and connect with other homemade feeders online for support when you’re just starting out. Although I started before I joined this forum, some of the members on these forums really helped me out when I had to change my formula to bone-free.
Interesting! I am also considering just stopping kibble altogether & buying wet fully; as it costs extra money and we just end up wasting it anyways. Have your cats been on homeade for their entire lives - if so, how old are they? Also; if you don't mind me asking, why bone free? I know bones are dangerous but people tell me that they need them so I am super curious about them.. Mine doesn't get bones tho
 

Azazel

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Interesting! I am also considering just stopping kibble altogether & buying wet fully; as it costs extra money and we just end up wasting it anyways. Have your cats been on homeade for their entire lives - if so, how old are they? Also; if you don't mind me asking, why bone free? I know bones are dangerous but people tell me that they need them so I am super curious about them.. Mine doesn't get bones tho
My two boys have been on raw since they were kittens, my girl I adopted when she was 1-2 years and transitioned her from kibble to raw. Bones are really nutritious and good to include (in the right amount). But they are high in phosphorus and one of our cats (the girl) had elevated phosphorus levels last year when we adopted her which can be a sign of early kidney disease so we switched to a bone free recipe to be safe. She’s back to norma now but we don’t want to take any chances. We use eggshell powder instead as a calcium source.
 
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