Vegetables In Wet Cat Food

[Tashanasha]

Some of you already know what a struggle it is to get non-fish wet cat food here in China. Recently I stumbled upon a new brand, and ordered their shredded chicken.

Today it arrived and it turned out that it also contains whole vegetables, like peas and carrots.

It comes in little bags, 100g each, and the little guy ate 4 of them today so it's safe to assume that he likes it, but I know that he isn't supposed to be eating vegetables so now I'm in a pickle.

Should I order more and incorporate it into our rotation? Is it safe for him to eat vegetables? How many vegetables are too many?

 

[lisahe]

Vegetables are such a problem! I prefer not to feed our cats many vegetables so I stay away from anything carby, particularly potatoes, peas, and carrots, which have become ubiquitous. Some vegetables -- like potatoes and peas -- are particularly pernicious because they're included as protein, raising the protein stats for the food. That looks good in the numbers but cats don't process vegetable protein well. I'm not so concerned about non-carby vegetables -- e.g. kale -- that are used in certain foods for vitamins instead of synthetic vitamins. The cats' Primal raw food has vegetables for that purpose but the carbs are low. There are lots of trade-offs with cat food!

My personal view is that any carby vegetables are too many carby vegetables but, taken objectively, the question of health and safety can be a sticky one. (I'm sure you've seen emotional posts about this!) Cats are carnivores but many seem to do okay with vegetables, at least for a time -- our previous cat, for example, ate dry food loaded with wheat, corn, and other things cats shouldn't eat and she lived a long life, though she had serious digestive issues that may have been (likely, I think) caused by her inappropriate diet. I learned a lot about feline nutrition and cat foods when she was sick and swore to feed our next cats differently. Meaning to feed them meaty wet foods and nothing with high carbs! One of current cats vomits from potato and I've seen mentions on the site of other cats who've been sick (diarrhea) most likely from food with peas. Cats just aren't designed to handle that stuff so we stay away from all of it. I would never feed lots of carby vegetables as part of a cat's regular diet. Meaning that I'd likely stay away from that food, though I understand that you may be faced with difficult choices, like fish or vegetables. Ouch.

All that said... How much vegetable matter is there in the food? Could it be picked out!?

 

[BlueJay]

I avoid wet foods with veggies as well, because I know that they aren't providing any nutritional value to my kitty. There are many trade-offs involved in buying one wet food over another!

 

[sabrinah]

If the option is wet food that all contains fish or non-fishy foods that have some veggies, I personally prefer the veggies. Too much fish isn't a great idea. I would add the non-fish veggie containing food to your rotation

 

[purrsnickety]

If the option is wet food that all contains fish or non-fishy foods that have some veggies, I personally prefer the veggies. Too much fish isn't a great idea. I would add the non-fish veggie containing food to your rotation

I agree. Low carb options are available. I have a bigger problem with Natural Flavor listed as a fifth ingredient—that fifth I feel should not be an unknown variable and prefer not to see it anywhere on the list.