(snoozers, at the old apt.)
So I'm thinking about changing the type of cat food I buy our cats. Woah, I know right? Can you even prepare yourself for the awesomeness of this post??? In all seriousness, I am trying to make more of an effort to be more green and natural, switching out our toothpaste (Toms), my deodorant (also, Toms brand), cleaning products (Method). I have always tried to buy pretty healthy foods for us and love shopping at Trader Joes and buying an item or two at Whole Foods. When I go to the bigger chains, I try to buy the cheapest organic or atleast more affordable healthiest options. So now I'm onto trying to buy better food for the furry members of our family. I was a total crazy person at Target the other day, reading the ingredient labels of all the cat foods and I don't know if it is just me but they all look the same? They all seemed to have by product meal as their first ingredient and that sounds like bad eats to me. I ended up buying a small bag of Purina One 'Indoor Advantage'. I don't know if I like the sound of it, with a name like that it seems like it will give my cats super strength and if we got into a fight, they would win.
What do you feed your animals? What do you recommend? And do I have to spend $30/bag to feel good about their food or am I just being silly?
Tinker, Beto and Pirate thank you for your feedback.
All of the food from places like Target does have the same ingredients, and sadly, it is all bad :(
ReplyDeleteI buy Natural Balance from Amazon... the largest bag is pretty expensive (I think $45-50??) but it lasts for about 2 months and shipping is free. Amazon has better prices than pet stores or grocery stores!
I did a ton of research about this two years ago when we switched over to all natural cleaning and cosmetics too. Natural Balance is the most affordable, but Nutro and Wellness are good brands as well! All kitties deserve to eat healthy food like we do!
We tried to change cat foods once, not too long ago. Mr. Jones had an allergic reaction to it and ended up with some colon issues. It was not pretty. I wish we could go organic, but at this point, I'm scared to change anything with him!
ReplyDeleteCarson has changed cat food every single time it's time to buy food. This time the cat sat at her dish and meowed at us for 5 hours before she gave in and ate it.
ReplyDeleteHe really is looking for something that isn't wheat based. Right now she's eating something from the Science Diet. Before that it was something from PetCo that had 1, 2, or 3 on it.
Just a note on buying the big bags of food... our vet has cautioned against it, because the food sits around so long and can degrade over time. It pains me not to buy by the unit price, but she makes a good point, I suppose. :)
ReplyDeleteI used to work at a cat hospital, and Science Diet was the food of choice, but that's was due to some partnership so I'm not sure how much of what they said to believe... that said, the vets I worked with also recommended other foods. Here are the main things to take into consideration:
ReplyDeleteAnything you get at a grocery store is not a good food. The only exception is that they sell Wellness food at Whole Foods; anything else is a generic-ish food that has a lot of bad filler and is cheap because it's no good. Go to a petstore!
The first three products are the most important, and the FIRST product is the most important of those three. The first one should be a meat, and not a byproduct. I've actually never found a food that doesn't have something that sounds iffy in the first 3 ingredients, so I try to pay attention more to the first ingredient.
All pet foods have an AAFCO statement that says the food is either "formulated" (they just threw together the "right" nutrients) or "tested" (they test-fed animals for 6 months before putting in on the shelf). Science Diet said to always go with tested, but other people have suggested that they says that because they're a giant corporation who can *afford* to test, and other perfectly good pet food companies can't afford to run those tests. I still try to go with tested because that makes more sense to my mind.
A lot of animals don't do well on grain, though that's not a hard and fast rule. We fed my dog Science Diet Sensitive Stomach or Lamb & Rice and she vomited every day. We switched to a food with higher quality ingredients, and she' been great ever since. Still grain in there.
The food I love for her is Innova, and the people who make Innova make a few other foods too that are really good. It's a little pricier, but not a lot pricier, and I have seen a big difference in how she feels and how much she likes the food. One of our cats is on Wellness & Science Diet because it works fine for her, but I might switch her soon. The other is on prescription only food, so we can't change that...
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have questions.
thanks for all the tips!
ReplyDeleteMegan- I ended up buying nutro, so far so good!