I am sorry for this post, since it's not really a question but more of a loooong rant, but I simply have to get it out of my system, or I'd go crazy. I have moved to USA over 4 months ago and I am still looking for the best wet food options for my cats. I've read a lot about what is available here (thanks to this forum!), we tried a lot, and although it's much, much easier than at the beginning, it's not as good as I want it to be. But at least my cats have something to eat, mostly Rawz, Weruwa, Wellness Core, ZiwiPeak, Instinct, Koha Roo, Dr Elsey. I have to rotate otherwise they are bored with the flavours/brands. They eat pate only. But to me, there is something wrong with every single one of these brands.
So what frustrates me?
1. Lack of clarity of what are the proportions of each ingredient in the can. To give you an example, I used to deal with the following ingredients list, courtesy of European Union:
Veal:
70% veal* (muscle meat, heart, liver, lungs, kidney), 26.6% drinking water, 1% apricots, 1% pineapple, 1% minerals (Vitamin D3 (200 IU), taurine (1500mg), zinc [as zinc sulphate monohydrate] (15mg), manganese [as manganese-(II)-sulphate monohydrate] (3mg), iodine [as calcium iodate anhydrous] (0.75mg).), 0.15% linseed oil, 0.15% sea salt, 0.1% seaweed.
*Components: approx 50% muscle meat and heart (2/3 meat and 1/3 heart), approx. 50% offal (1/3 each of liver, lung and kidney).
or
Game & Chicken:
Chicken (55% incl. muscle meat, stock, liver), game (42% incl. muscle meat, heart, stock), salmon oil (1%), pomegranate seeds (1%), minerals (1%: Vitamin D3 (200 IU), taurine (1500mg), zinc [as zinc sulphate monohydrate] (15mg), manganese [as manganese-(II)-sulphate monohydrate] (3mg), iodine [as calcium iodate anhydrous] (0.75mg).)
Here in the USA, the ingredients proportions are not listed, everyone seems obsessed with first ingredient, or 5 first ingredients, without knowing how much % of all the ingredients it is. I still have troubles telling one brand of another because of that.
2. GELLING AGENTS. I truly don't understand why, why, why are all of these gums put into pates. Do cats really like the jelly texture? That was in fact the biggest problem for my cats at the beginning, they just couldn't get used to the texture, I still need to squash it with the fork for them to eat. And this seems to be harmful stuff! Some gums are being replaced by agar-agar but from what I read it is almost the same as carraageenan, and I did notice that the stools of one of my cats are soft after both carraageenan and agar agar. This is so frustrating. For some reason European pates do not have any gelling agents. Is this really necessary? The only brand without it seems to be Rawz but I'll rant about Rawz when I'll be raging on how expensive the quality food here is.
3. CLAY Seriously, clay in Instinct? I must stop giving it to my cats, it cannot be right.
4. Natural and artificial FLAVORS. Does meat really need the flavor to be added for cats to eat it? Even Rawz do it. What is this flavor...
5. SALT is everywhere. I tried to find salt free cans but I failed. One of my cats doesn't drink at all, and the other, drinking cat, started to drink so much more in here, and it makes me worried that the not-drinking cat doesn't wash out all this additional salt.
6. FISH is soooo common. I was always told to avoid feeding cats with fish so I'm super surprised how popular fish is in US cans. My cats like Weruwa but it is mostly based on fish so I want to get rid of this.
7. CHICKEN. Also, not easy to find chicken free cans, which I would like to since I hear caged chicken is still a thing. And back in Europe, when you see the word: 'chicken' in the ingredients list, you assume it's any, mostly the worst, part of chicken, unless specified what exact part of chicken it is. That's why the better producers always specify if it's muscle meat or offal etc. I rarely see this here.
8. PEAS. Green peas, chickpeas etc. Why, why, why? i understand it's cheap and filling, but since I am not buying cheap food but very expensive, I would expect that Instinct, ZiwiPeak would be free of it. I simply feel cheated when I see peas in the expensive product. But, to be fair, one of my cats seems to like peas a lot, at least
9. SUPPLEMENTs OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS. All cans are heavily supplemented, I guess it's a requirement. I think in Europe the emphasis is put on having vitamins etc from natural sources rather than artificial so I'm surprised to see it. I see that the coats of my cats are nice and shiny, so they do work, I'm just worried if there are any long term consequences. And IRON, I really truly don't understand why would you supplement meat with iron. What am I missing?
10. Lack of emphasis on TAURINE. In Europe taurine is so much talked about with reference to cat food, here it doesn't seem to be an issue. I'm hoping it's because it's taken for granted that it is enough. Although I heard this week it was a recall of some food because of the taurine. So do they get enough?
11. PRICE. I paid 72$ for Rabbit Rawz 24 cans (156 grams each). In Europe, I used to pay less than 32eur for 24 cans (200 grams each) for a good quality Grau (German brand, no gelling agents, no peas, no clay). And I really lived in one of the most expensive places in Europe (Luxembourg). It really hurts, because I don't think it's worth the price at all in comparision. And Hound&Gatos. They charge 102$ for 24 cans of Rabbit. It's a pity because it has good ingredients (apart from agar agar), but unfortunately and/or luckily, my cats didn't like the other flavors of this brand, so I am not even giving them the rabbit, because I am afraid they will like it (in general rabbit is their favourite flavor). 102$ for 24 cans?? I used to pay 43 eur for 24 cans (200 gr) of LID kangaroo.
12. I weight every can since I portion them between my two cats, and almost every can does not contain advertised 156 grams of the product, but 10-15 grams less. Again, I feel cheated.
13. Everyone seems to be so protective of American food, and as much as I understand it, I dream to have an option to buy some of the great German cans. But it doesn't seem to be an option. But maybe I could find a way to smuggle it.
I am thinking about transition to raw food but again, the idea of commercial raw is weird to me, especially that I would be willing to prepare food for my cats from the scratch (emotionally it would be difficult since I am vegetarian), but my vet has told me that the raw meat generally accessible is most likely filled with antibiotics and stuff I don't want to know about. So I am torn. If I buy the fresh meat in WholeFoods, would that be acceptable??
I always knew that changing the continent will not be easy for my cats (and me), and change in general is not easy, and I know I am in the denial phase :-) but I also know the frustration will pass, and I will find the best solution there is. But right now, I just want to scream :-))
Any thoughts, inspiration, ideas, responses to my questions, will be greatly appreciated. And sorry if my English is not always understandable.
So what frustrates me?
1. Lack of clarity of what are the proportions of each ingredient in the can. To give you an example, I used to deal with the following ingredients list, courtesy of European Union:
Veal:
70% veal* (muscle meat, heart, liver, lungs, kidney), 26.6% drinking water, 1% apricots, 1% pineapple, 1% minerals (Vitamin D3 (200 IU), taurine (1500mg), zinc [as zinc sulphate monohydrate] (15mg), manganese [as manganese-(II)-sulphate monohydrate] (3mg), iodine [as calcium iodate anhydrous] (0.75mg).), 0.15% linseed oil, 0.15% sea salt, 0.1% seaweed.
*Components: approx 50% muscle meat and heart (2/3 meat and 1/3 heart), approx. 50% offal (1/3 each of liver, lung and kidney).
or
Game & Chicken:
Chicken (55% incl. muscle meat, stock, liver), game (42% incl. muscle meat, heart, stock), salmon oil (1%), pomegranate seeds (1%), minerals (1%: Vitamin D3 (200 IU), taurine (1500mg), zinc [as zinc sulphate monohydrate] (15mg), manganese [as manganese-(II)-sulphate monohydrate] (3mg), iodine [as calcium iodate anhydrous] (0.75mg).)
Here in the USA, the ingredients proportions are not listed, everyone seems obsessed with first ingredient, or 5 first ingredients, without knowing how much % of all the ingredients it is. I still have troubles telling one brand of another because of that.
2. GELLING AGENTS. I truly don't understand why, why, why are all of these gums put into pates. Do cats really like the jelly texture? That was in fact the biggest problem for my cats at the beginning, they just couldn't get used to the texture, I still need to squash it with the fork for them to eat. And this seems to be harmful stuff! Some gums are being replaced by agar-agar but from what I read it is almost the same as carraageenan, and I did notice that the stools of one of my cats are soft after both carraageenan and agar agar. This is so frustrating. For some reason European pates do not have any gelling agents. Is this really necessary? The only brand without it seems to be Rawz but I'll rant about Rawz when I'll be raging on how expensive the quality food here is.
3. CLAY Seriously, clay in Instinct? I must stop giving it to my cats, it cannot be right.
4. Natural and artificial FLAVORS. Does meat really need the flavor to be added for cats to eat it? Even Rawz do it. What is this flavor...
5. SALT is everywhere. I tried to find salt free cans but I failed. One of my cats doesn't drink at all, and the other, drinking cat, started to drink so much more in here, and it makes me worried that the not-drinking cat doesn't wash out all this additional salt.
6. FISH is soooo common. I was always told to avoid feeding cats with fish so I'm super surprised how popular fish is in US cans. My cats like Weruwa but it is mostly based on fish so I want to get rid of this.
7. CHICKEN. Also, not easy to find chicken free cans, which I would like to since I hear caged chicken is still a thing. And back in Europe, when you see the word: 'chicken' in the ingredients list, you assume it's any, mostly the worst, part of chicken, unless specified what exact part of chicken it is. That's why the better producers always specify if it's muscle meat or offal etc. I rarely see this here.
8. PEAS. Green peas, chickpeas etc. Why, why, why? i understand it's cheap and filling, but since I am not buying cheap food but very expensive, I would expect that Instinct, ZiwiPeak would be free of it. I simply feel cheated when I see peas in the expensive product. But, to be fair, one of my cats seems to like peas a lot, at least
9. SUPPLEMENTs OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS. All cans are heavily supplemented, I guess it's a requirement. I think in Europe the emphasis is put on having vitamins etc from natural sources rather than artificial so I'm surprised to see it. I see that the coats of my cats are nice and shiny, so they do work, I'm just worried if there are any long term consequences. And IRON, I really truly don't understand why would you supplement meat with iron. What am I missing?
10. Lack of emphasis on TAURINE. In Europe taurine is so much talked about with reference to cat food, here it doesn't seem to be an issue. I'm hoping it's because it's taken for granted that it is enough. Although I heard this week it was a recall of some food because of the taurine. So do they get enough?
11. PRICE. I paid 72$ for Rabbit Rawz 24 cans (156 grams each). In Europe, I used to pay less than 32eur for 24 cans (200 grams each) for a good quality Grau (German brand, no gelling agents, no peas, no clay). And I really lived in one of the most expensive places in Europe (Luxembourg). It really hurts, because I don't think it's worth the price at all in comparision. And Hound&Gatos. They charge 102$ for 24 cans of Rabbit. It's a pity because it has good ingredients (apart from agar agar), but unfortunately and/or luckily, my cats didn't like the other flavors of this brand, so I am not even giving them the rabbit, because I am afraid they will like it (in general rabbit is their favourite flavor). 102$ for 24 cans?? I used to pay 43 eur for 24 cans (200 gr) of LID kangaroo.
12. I weight every can since I portion them between my two cats, and almost every can does not contain advertised 156 grams of the product, but 10-15 grams less. Again, I feel cheated.
13. Everyone seems to be so protective of American food, and as much as I understand it, I dream to have an option to buy some of the great German cans. But it doesn't seem to be an option. But maybe I could find a way to smuggle it.
I am thinking about transition to raw food but again, the idea of commercial raw is weird to me, especially that I would be willing to prepare food for my cats from the scratch (emotionally it would be difficult since I am vegetarian), but my vet has told me that the raw meat generally accessible is most likely filled with antibiotics and stuff I don't want to know about. So I am torn. If I buy the fresh meat in WholeFoods, would that be acceptable??
I always knew that changing the continent will not be easy for my cats (and me), and change in general is not easy, and I know I am in the denial phase :-) but I also know the frustration will pass, and I will find the best solution there is. But right now, I just want to scream :-))
Any thoughts, inspiration, ideas, responses to my questions, will be greatly appreciated. And sorry if my English is not always understandable.