"premium" Food Vs "economy" Food

[1 bruce 1]

The thing that bothers me when people say they've had cats live long lives is that I think the commercial foods available at the early and mid stages of those cats lives were not full of strange additives and ingredients like they are now.

Agreed.

 

[foxxycat]

I know some don't agree with feeding kibble to senior cats=but what does one do if senior kitty refuses wet food? We feed 2 table spoons a day of tuna with their supplements then they get 4Health-yes it has potatoes-but it seems to be better than corn. Kibble needs starches to hold together. We tried the expensive canned food which wihtout a food processor they won't eat...we tried mashing with a fork and add water to make it easier for them to eat-no go. Although it's been a year-maybe I could try feeding canned foods twice a week for now-my prior cat loved Fancy Feast. she hated all other foods-only liked the turkey fancy feast pate which I thought was reasonable canned food. Wish they would eat the higher quality foods..

yes the marketing gimicks are for people who don't know how to read. Most times it's all BS. Read the ingredients. I got in an argument with a young vet many years ago-she wanted my cat on science diet when I was already feeding her Eukenuba which back in 2001 was premium kibble-then they started adding corn meal into their formula. To this day they still have corn in it-which is too bad because Eukenuba was really really good kibble before they got greedy and filled it with garbage. The corn is what causes so many problems it seems. To find a food without corn, soy, or peas/potatoes is almost impossible for kibble.

To me most kibble smells like horse feed-the past 3 years I have noticed issues with kibble not being agreeable to the cats. it smells odd and they wont eat it..

 

[1 bruce 1]

I know some don't agree with feeding kibble to senior cats=but what does one do if senior kitty refuses wet food? We feed 2 table spoons a day of tuna with their supplements then they get 4Health-yes it has potatoes-but it seems to be better than corn. Kibble needs starches to hold together. We tried the expensive canned food which wihtout a food processor they won't eat...we tried mashing with a fork and add water to make it easier for them to eat-no go. Although it's been a year-maybe I could try feeding canned foods twice a week for now-my prior cat loved Fancy Feast. she hated all other foods-only liked the turkey fancy feast pate which I thought was reasonable canned food. Wish they would eat the higher quality foods..

yes the marketing gimicks are for people who don't know how to read. Most times it's all BS. Read the ingredients. I got in an argument with a young vet many years ago-she wanted my cat on science diet when I was already feeding her Eukenuba which back in 2001 was premium kibble-then they started adding corn meal into their formula. To this day they still have corn in it-which is too bad because Eukenuba was really really good kibble before they got greedy and filled it with garbage. The corn is what causes so many problems it seems. To find a food without corn, soy, or peas/potatoes is almost impossible for kibble.

To me most kibble smells like horse feed-the past 3 years I have noticed issues with kibble not being agreeable to the cats. it smells odd and they wont eat it..

They eat what they eat. In dogs it's easy to switch foods, if they have an iron gut a rapid switch after a short fast sometimes works and sometimes a slow method works, and for hunger strikes tough love prevails.
Cats don't operate that way.
I don't "love" feeding kibble especially to seniors, but I don't love a senior cat deprived of food with "you'll eat when you're hungry" attitude. I'd much rather see a senior cat happily eating what they like and are doing well on than a senior cat upset and stressed by a diet switch that isn't going well with the person stubbornly insisting they switch foods immediately. A senior cat is a tough sell for diet change. It can be done...usually...but it takes a lot of time patience and sometimes trickery!
Take it from a raw feeder if you will...when my raw fed cats go off food for whatever reason, I'll feed them whatever their little hearts desire and if it's kibble, fine! =) I wouldn't stress out over it. We do the best we can!!
When my cats were ill a few months ago everyone kind of turned onto Natural Balances LID's.

 

[Blakeney Green]

"Premium" is just a word meant to sound appealing to the customer, but it's pretty much a meaningless term. There is no standardized definition of what constitutes "premium" or guidelines for what a food must include (or not include) to label itself that way.

When I'm selecting a food, I look at protein content, protein sources, carb content, mineral content, moisture content, minimal fillers, and transparency in where ingredients are sourced.

Looking at those things will generally (though not always) steer toward the higher-end foods. I'm not buying them because they're higher-end, though, and there are some expensive brands I wouldn't use. It's all about what's actually in the food, not the packaging.

I do think food quality for pets is important. It's not the be-all and end-all of health - a lot of that is just genetic - but it can certainly either help or make things worse. It's not logical to me to say that humans are affected by the specifics of their diet but animals aren't. We're all living creatures who can be positive or negatively affected by what we put in our bodies.

 

[1 bruce 1]

"Premium" is just a word meant to sound appealing to the customer, but it's pretty much a meaningless term. There is no standardized definition of what constitutes "premium" or guidelines for what a food must include (or not include) to label itself that way.

When I'm selecting a food, I look at protein content, protein sources, carb content, mineral content, moisture content, minimal fillers, and transparency in where ingredients are sourced.

Looking at those things will generally (though not always) steer toward the higher-end foods. I'm not buying them because they're higher-end, though, and there are some expensive brands I wouldn't use. It's all about what's actually in the food, not the packaging.

I do think food quality for pets is important. It's not the be-all and end-all of health - a lot of that is just genetic - but it can certainly either help or make things worse. It's not logical to me to say that humans are affected by the specifics of their diet but animals aren't. We're all living creatures who can be positive or negatively affected by what we put in our bodies.

There are some expensive brands I would not consider because our training group (dogs) has some dogs on these brands that are not doing well, and the owners are paying out the rear for a food that just is not doing well for them. There have been numerous complaints with a few of these brands.
The genetics thing matters IMO. We had a stray Mother cat that had a few litters of kittens when I was growing up....she lived to be like 300 years old and all her kittens were long lived no matter what nurture threw at them.
Also, for commercial foods I don't want to see a REALLY short list of ingredients unless it's supplemental only (should state so on the label!) Then again, if a food is really good, I don't see the need for an ingredients list containing 90 ingredients. Food, more food, then any kind of supplemental vitamin/mineral stuff added in to replace what's lost in cooking is what I would personally aim for =)
IMO most important is keeping a watch on your cat or dog...if a "star rating" website gives it 4-5 out of 5 stars that's great but if your pet is puking, having diarrhea, losing hair, acting lethargic, it's NOT the food for them no matter how much internet experts say it's great. If you've been feeding a brand or type of food (of any description) for 6 months and your pets health is deteriorating, forget the star ratings/reviews and find something that works for them. JMO =)

 

[Blakeney Green]

Genetics are definitely a huge factor. I've had Zephyr and Maisie for almost the same length of time, they're close to the same age, and until Maisie had to go on a renal diet they ate the same foods. Zephyr has always had excellent health, whereas Maisie has had one health problem after another the entire time I've had him. There is really no environmental explanation - Zephyr just seems to have heartier genes than Maisie does.

That said, I think eating good food when he was a young cat has helped Maisie have the best chance possible with the genetic hand he was dealt. It probably could have been even worse.

 

[Gizmobius]

Definitely agree that genetics play a big part. I've only ever had four cats in my life and two of them are the ones I have now. My first cat lived to about 14 but was put to sleep when she developed leukemia, and her diet was primarily kibble from what I remember. Probably the cheapest dry food my parents could find. My second cat ate both good quality dry and canned, and whatever she'd catch outside, and was put to sleep at only 12 when she developed oral cancer.

My two now are on different diets. My boy is combination raw and canned and my female is wet food only, as low carb as I can get and I do avoid potatoes, peas, vitamin K, and carrageenan which I didn't for my previous cat. Will that make a difference? I hope so, but I also hope that their genetics will work in their favor as well and that the diet they're both on plays a part in the quality (and length!) of their lives.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Definitely agree that genetics play a big part. I've only ever had four cats in my life and two of them are the ones I have now. My first cat lived to about 14 but was put to sleep when she developed leukemia, and her diet was primarily kibble from what I remember. Probably the cheapest dry food my parents could find. My second cat ate both good quality dry and canned, and whatever she'd catch outside, and was put to sleep at only 12 when she developed oral cancer.

My two now are on different diets. My boy is combination raw and canned and my female is wet food only, as low carb as I can get and I do avoid potatoes, peas, vitamin K, and carrageenan which I didn't for my previous cat. Will that make a difference? I hope so, but I also hope that their genetics will work in their favor as well and that the diet they're both on plays a part in the quality (and length!) of their lives.

Our saying is that a good diet and good environmental practices can bring any living thing (human, dog, cat, horse, sheep, etc.) up to their genetic potential. If the genetics are rotten, they're rotten, and we have had a few instances of pets on good diets and free from exposure to a lot of crap die early from genetic diseases.
Some breeds of dogs and cats are predisposed to cancer. Our hope is that an individual dog or cat that has this predisposition is brought into a home where a good diet is fed and lots of fresh air, lots of exercise, lots of inter-species interaction and all the fancy bells and whistles, this predisposition can be delayed.
What sucks is having a dog or cat with predisposition dying middle aged. We do the best we can. They die too young and we wonder if we did something wrong, or we wonder if what we did right kept them from dying at half the age they met their death. We just don't know, but we just do the best we can with what we have.
I think if our animals, once passed on, could possibly somehow know our intentions and fears for their health and all we did to help them, they'd love us so much we wouldn't know what to do with that amount of love.
ETA: We had one diagnosed with heart disease that ultimately took this animals life, but the amount of research and learning and treatment options we studied and what we did and did not do and what we learned is invaluable and will be stored in our memories if this disease ever presents itself again. If we have a loved one (pet or human) die of a disease, we learn a lot, and IMO are better equip to handle that problem potentially cropping up in another loved one in the future. From our experiences and the learning curve, we won't feel so helpless.
They're awesome teachers.

 

[laura mae]

In regard to ingredients, I think that various ingredients are considered suspicious because there has been entirely speculative internet articles by sites like Mercola that says things like everyone but us grinds up chicken feather and cow hooves and the nostril and calls it "meat by-products." It has an air of "truthiness" and gains traction. The type of mineral or supplement in food has a suspicious chemical name, or readers are upset that certain types of supplements can have dire consequences.

I'm not a fan of foods that simply say "meat" or meat-by-product. And of course, "artificial flavor" isn't something I want to see. But then I took a look at Nulo and Fromm's and saw seafood as a consistent ingredient across flavors.

 

[1 bruce 1]

In regard to ingredients, I think that various ingredients are considered suspicious because there has been entirely speculative internet articles by sites like Mercola that says things like everyone but us grinds up chicken feather and cow hooves and the nostril and calls it "meat by-products." It has an air of "truthiness" and gains traction. The type of mineral or supplement in food has a suspicious chemical name, or readers are upset that certain types of supplements can have dire consequences.

I'm not a fan of foods that simply say "meat" or meat-by-product. And of course, "artificial flavor" isn't something I want to see. But then I took a look at Nulo and Fromm's and saw seafood as a consistent ingredient across flavors.

I've read some articles from that site and some seem to have a lot of truth, but some seem to be somewhat scare mongering.
Not just picking on Mercola, but some other sites along these lines seem to feel EVERYTHING gives us cancer...our food, our water, our air, the furniture we have in our homes, the mattresses we sleep on, the toothpaste we use, the hygiene products we use, the household cleaners no matter how green, etc. I do think some food issues are true, and water quality and air quality aren't so great but living on a dirt floor with no furniture, not showering, is the only way to avoid cancer...? If I didn't shower or hose off every day, birds would drop dead from the sky because I work up a sweat. My dogs's eyes would cross before they pass out and my cats would abandon ship with clothespins on their noses.
Then again there are sites and people who say that say NOTHING is dangerous and all piss poor food and crappy air and crappy water is OK, "don't ever ask questions, shh, 'its all good, gov'ment loves you", which I disagree with. We kind of fall in the middle of the camps.
We need to live life but be smart. If something makes us uncomfortable, we don't do it. If raw feeding our cats worries us with bones and bacteria, find a commercial food you like, are happy with, and your pets do well on. If commercial feeding makes a raw feeder cringe, don't do it.
IMO, raw feeders would do themselves a favor by keeping somewhat updated on the decent commercial foods on the slim chance they ever have a pet that is so immuno-compromised that a raw diet could be a problem, and commercial feeders that have the slightest interest in raw would do good to learn a bit in case they have that pet someday that doesn't do well on ANY commercial diet they try. It keeps the learning curve at bay and if a time intensive diet problem should ever arise, there's no fear from being 100% uneducated on an alternative and grants the owner a bit of prior information during a stressful and worrisome time.
JMO =)

 

[Timmer]

I had a cat who lived to be 18 and pretty much ate meow mix all of her life. Now she did develop mega colon when she was about 12 years old but I have no idea if that was because of the food.
I fed Timmer a mix of what's considered premium food and Fancy Feast. I felt guilty giving him Fancy Feast but he ate it and my vet told me don't feel bad about Fancy Feast. There is nothing wrong with it. He told me stick to the tried and true Purina foods and not feel bad at all about it. Timmer got IBD at 10 and passed away. I don't blame it on the food.
I just think it's all garbage really. I don't subscribe to the premium foods with peas and all that stuff in it.
I think we are all gonna die. Some of us, cats and people, are just genetically set to get certain diseases. That's how life is.
I want my cats eating and I don't want my cats picking at a $3.00 can of food that I'm gonna have to throw out. Been there, done that.

 

[laura mae]

I think a filler is a filler. Companies add peas, potatoes, soy protein, rice, blueberries, carrots, etc. to be able to fill a 3 oz can or 5.5 oz can.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of the $3.00 a can brands have the same ingredients and sources of meat and fillers processed and packed at the exact same plants. I remember during the melamine/wheat gluten poisoning, some of the premiums were the same as grocery store brands of canned food.

I think the food supply for pets is not boutique as we might like to believe. There are very likely shared meat suppliers among all of them. There are probably shared vitamin and supplement mixes that all the companies use.

And some brands with some pretty surprising---as in how does a cat process this--- ingredients like corn gluten meal can be super expensive. Hills, Royal Canin and their related vet diet lines come to mind.

I'm still a little suspicious of Thailand produced foods, but I buy Weruva for the constipated prone kitty.