Expensive vs Inexpensive Cat Foods

Its all the same stuff made by the same people. You are paying for marketing and a pretty bag.
One just has to read the ingredient label and will find this not true.
Ingredients are listed in the order the present in the food. Quality foods will have named meat sources, named organ sources such as beef liver or chicken liver not just the word liver. There will be no by products and no corn.
 
We've been using 4health All Stages from TSC for a long time but we think our oldest may be having some stomach or digestion issues so we may need to switch. I hope we don't have to try and feed him separate from the other two, that would be a pain since they've always been on free feeding. Don't worry neither of the adults are over weight, they both weigh in around 14 lbs.
 
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Picked up a 12 pound bag of Purina Beyond grain free salmon dry cat food. I had a coupon that needed to be used before 3/31.
One of my cats, Shadow, won't eat it, so I need to feed 12 pounds of it to Eva, who will eat it.

I was going to get Purina Beyond organic chicken dry cat food and I'd bet Shadow would have eaten that but it's not for indoor cats.
 
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I know with cats its a little different as some are finicky. As a kid we always had a pet cat. Maybe because it reminds me of my youth but I adore the "typical" slightly chubby black and white cats. I guess all I knew as a kid and to this day think they are way cool. We all have preference cats and dogs are cool. We still once in a while go to the "shelter" to check out the cats. I always wondered how it would get along with my dog.

Now with dogs, I already posted what I fed above but I dont know if this can be done with cats because they are finicky.

We never ever feed our dog one brand of food. More like 6 brands and over time way more then 6, he gets a different brand or type everyday of the week with his dinner time canned food and all the human food toppings mentioned.
The reason for this, for us, is variety. As a human I dont think I would be healthy eating the same brand of food everyday, I look at pet food as borderline poison so by switching around brands if there is a harmful element in one, it will be missing the other and if there is a good element in one he wont be missing out on anything. So we buy cases at a time, then mix up the brands in the cases and every night it is a different food and most likely a different brand.

A lot of people do not know, pet foods companies do not test their batches of food for nutrients ect. They use computer models that will deliver the amount of nutrients on the label based on the food sources that are put into a mixture. There are only a very few brands that test and off the top of my head I cant remember.

As far as our dogs dry food breakfast (which I equate to eating Burger King) which is dry kibble and a small bowl of lactose free skim milk, we only buy small bags and once that bag is gone, we buy a different brand of the same high quality to replace it.

Im just posting this because if I had a cat I would do the same, in fact I would do the same with any animal.
I have a salt water reef tank, been keeping reef species since around 1990. Even my salt water fish and creatures get a different kind of food everyday, mostly always frozen. Not flake.
 
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I love how vets recommend Hills and Royal Canin, both have fillers and by products, and Royal Canin has cellulose as one of the ingredients, you know paper. When I got my cat six years ago I spent hours after hours researching what food I would feed him. He was on Pet Curean Go dry for years when he lost his taste for it. He is now on Rachael Ray Nutrish with Orejin freeze dried treats.
 
I love how vets recommend Hills and Royal Canin, both have fillers and by products, and Royal Canin has cellulose as one of the ingredients, you know paper. When I got my cat six years ago I spent hours after hours researching what food I would feed him. He was on Pet Curean Go dry for years when he lost his taste for it. He is now on Rachael Ray Nutrish with Orejin freeze dried treats.
Cellulose is also found in higher end foods.

Big Pet Food(Mars, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive) sponsors many DVM programs at “ag schools”(like UC Davis, Cal Poly SLO, Colorado State, et al). And their “vet line/prescription” food is marketed like brand name drugs are to humans.
 
Is it OK to feed my 2 house cats Purina Beyond organic chicken and egg recipe dry food?
It's not made specifically for indoor cats.
 
Oh man reminds me of a King of the Hill where Hank gets the G.I.s cat named Duke....and ends up spending thousands on it....and food.
I bought my three Maine Coons some 45.00 a bag food......would not touch it....the stray outside took a few bites and walked off....buy them cheap friskies they chow down that cost 7 bucks a bag.
 
Picked up a 12 pound bag of Purina Beyond grain free salmon dry cat food. I had a coupon that needed to be used before 3/31.
One of my cats, Shadow, won't eat it, so I need to feed 12 pounds of it to Eva, who will eat it.

I was going to get Purina Beyond organic chicken dry cat food and I'd bet Shadow would have eaten that but it's not for indoor cats.
Well, you could do worse but let me explain about Purina and all the less expensive brands.
Purina advertises this as #1 ingredient Salmon with a nice fresh piece of Salmon on the bag, yum... looks great!
However the amount of actual Salmon protein in the bag would be about 7 ingredients down the list. So this is pretty much a bag of chicken meal and pea protein and that is ok as long as one understands that, its certainly better then other discount brands found in super markets.
Also one other thing to note, "Grain Free" is not superior to something with rice ect in it over the actual type of protein in the bag. In this case, chicken meal, pea protein, dried egg. Actual Salmon Protein would be at the bottom of the list.

Anyway, its good to never feed only one brand of food to any animal just like a human would not eat one brand.

Here is why, the Salmon listed as first is before it is processed, meaning wet salmon, once it is dried and free of water there is almost nothing left, by far chicken meal protein is most prevalent and even then to get the protein up to the level printed on the bag they have to add pea protein (which you know is plant based) as well as dried eggs. There is very little "Salmon" in this bag.
Here is the label right from Purina. BTW it lists as a 11 Lb bag but sure I have the right one.

INGREDIENTS: Salmon, pea starch, chicken meal, pea protein, canola meal, cassava root flour, dried egg product, powdered cellulose, dried yeast, dried sweet potatoes, pea fiber, beef fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, natural flavor, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, sodium bisulfate, potassium chloride, whole cranberries, salt, taurine, DL-Methionine, choline chloride, MINERALS [zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], VITAMINS [Vitamin E supplement, niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin B-12 supplement, riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K), Vitamin D-3 supplement, biotin (Vitamin B-7)], L-Lysine monohydrochloride, Vitamin E supplement, dried Bacillus coagulans fermentation product. C424319

 
Is it OK to feed my 2 house cats Purina Beyond organic chicken and egg recipe dry food?
It's not made specifically for indoor cats.
If you are going to feed your pet any food its best to mix between brands to make sure one food is not lacking in anything.
Also if possible and you can afford the cost, wet food is ALWAYS better.
We feed our dog about 6 or more different brands of wet food. The cheapest wet food we mix in is Purina Organic canned food. Its the closest that Purina comes to a quality food.
I see similar Purina Organic Wet canned food is available for cats. I found a few and the ingredients actually are what they present. If this is all someone can afford I would be 100% ok thinking you are doing good for your pet and actually think anyone would be doing good for their pet by mixing in the Purina Organic line with other high quality protein foods. If there is ONE thing Purina can do, it is quality control, they are so big and have the budget for feed for all different animals. The key here is only buy their so called best which would be the Organic Beyond line in the canned version.

BEYOND ORGANIC CHICKEN AND CARROT RECIPE PATÉ NATURAL CAT FOOD WITH ADDED VITAMINS, MINERALS & NUTRIENTS
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:
Crude Protein (Min) 7.0% Crude Fat (Min) 5.0% Crude Fiber (Max) 1.0% Moisture (Max) 78.0% Ash (Max) 3.2% Taurine (Min) 0.05%
INGREDIENTS: Organic chicken, organic chicken broth, organic chicken liver, organic carrots, MINERALS [potassium chloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide], organic guar gum, choline chloride, taurine, salt, VITAMINS [thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin E supplement, niacin (Vitamin B-3), calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Vitamin A supplement, riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), Vitamin B-12 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), Vitamin D-3 supplement]. B434320

 
Also note to the above ^^^ dont forget that there is nothing wrong with adding a little human food protein to the pet food, in fact people food in many cases is less expensive but you still want to feed the pet food as it has the necessary vitamins and minerals added.
But you can sprinkle some REAL TUNA, SALMON, MACKEREL from Walmart into your pet food. Just go to the isle in Walmart and buy the cheapest Tuna or any of the above and mix a little into the food, put the rest in the fridge and use a little every day.

Here is what a REAL quality cat food looks like, there are many different bands out there, this is one of the most expensive but sometimes if diligent you find it on sale -

Compare these ingredients to the Purina
Chicken, Chicken Broth, Sunflower Seed Oil, Calcium Lactate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Salt, Magnesium Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Zinc Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

You will find this across the whole line

Here are some other known for quality brands and there are more, just read the labels, I you only feed dry I would look at the same companies, then check the ingredients, also I am a big believer (if your cat eats it) in not feeding the same brand all the time and mixing it up.
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Oh man reminds me of a King of the Hill where Hank gets the G.I.s cat named Duke....and ends up spending thousands on it....and food.
I bought my three Maine Coons some 45.00 a bag food......would not touch it....the stray outside took a few bites and walked off....buy them cheap friskies they chow down that cost 7 bucks a bag.
My two coons get Nature's Variety Ultimate Protein (Chicken). It's crazy expensive but I don't have to feed them as much in terms of volume.
 
I got two 3 lb bags of this dry cat food, it was quite a deal at $4.24 each and BOGO free.
My cats like both kinds, the chicken and salmon.

Evolve pet food
 
Also note to the above ^^^ dont forget that there is nothing wrong with adding a little human food protein to the pet food, in fact people food in many cases is less expensive but you still want to feed the pet food as it has the necessary vitamins and minerals added.
But you can sprinkle some REAL TUNA, SALMON, MACKEREL from Walmart into your pet food. Just go to the isle in Walmart and buy the cheapest Tuna or any of the above and mix a little into the food, put the rest in the fridge and use a little every day.


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One of my cats is super picky and if I start mixing things into a food he accepts, he's apt to refuse it. I've seen him do it many times.
He likes Friskies gravy wet food mixed with his Purina One Indoor dry food. He will eat that any times of the day or night.
He also likes Evolve grain free dry.

I hear you about most cats not needing grain free food.
I think many people feed grain free cat food thinking they're doing a good thing but it's often not necessary.

There is a Kirkland dry cat food that gets high marks and is about $3 a pound on amazon.
When I run out of Purina 1 I may get some Kirkland.
 
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