How do cats benefit from higher grade foods?
Court F asked:
I’ve read a lot about how Friskies is cheap/bad food and the more expensive, grain free brands are better. I don’t mind paying more for a brand such as Wellness, but someone cite specific benefits to feeding cats the “better” food?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cats.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’ve read a lot about how Friskies is cheap/bad food and the more expensive, grain free brands are better. I don’t mind paying more for a brand such as Wellness, but someone cite specific benefits to feeding cats the “better” food?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
The main benefit is your cat will be getting more nutrition per feeding. Ingredients considered to be fillers, like corn/wheat gluten, by-products, etc, hold no nutritional value to your cat, yet the cat fills up on it. Its like smothering vegetables in chocolate syrup, half of what you eat is good, but half is bad, yet you are just as full as if it were ALL good. Grain free means that your cat will be getting as close to 100% actual nutrition as possible, but some cats don’t like grain free food (mine love it) so don’t get discouraged. This is wonderful that you want to feed your cat better!! Just remember to transition slowly, and you will have VERY happy cats :)))
In addition, it means your cat will have to eat less to get all the nutrition it needs, will be slimmer in comparison, and have higher energy due to eating the right foods. You know how after fast food you kinda just want to take a nap? But after a good, hearty well cooked meal you feel happy? This is your body’s reaction to healthy ingredients, its no different in cats. Their coat will be shinier and healthier because of the natural oils included in all the protein, and their bowel movements (gross, I know) will be more “pleasant” because there will be less stinky waste
Hope this clears some stuff up for you!!
July 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Feeding your cat a lower quality food is the same as feeding a kid McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s just not healthy.
Wellness is an excellent food (that’s what I feed my babies). Since I’ve been feeding it to them i’ve noticed that they’re all MUCH more active, they’re all at perfect weights, their coats are gorgeous, they’re more playful and affectionate and I can tell that they’re much happier.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Yes I can site many especially since my cat got diabetes from eating dry food crap
They don’t get fat
They don’t get blocked and need an operation
They don’t get diabetes, irritable bowel, bumps on the chin and base of tail from food allergies
They won’t get kidney disease at 10 years of age
Their coat is shinier and not dried out
Cats become more active
They eat less cause they don”t have to eat more food to get the same thing
Can I promise you your cat wil stay healthier and live longer? NO Just like people smoke and eat garbage all their lives and still live to be 100, cats can too. If you take a thousand cats though, you would see the difference in the numbers
If you can;’t afford wellness, even going to a middle grade food would be better then dry food and crappy canned foods
Hope this helps
July 21st, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I have always feed my cats Wellness and they love it. I moved in with a friend and now her car eats it too and his coat has completely changed. He is so soft and much more active. The cats also eat less, if we run out of food I will buy a small box of friskies to get by for the night. When I give it to them they eat more and they eat it much faster.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Better nutrition is better for cats the same way better nutrition is better for humans….. I’m not sure what the real question is here. Better nutrition = better overall health… no matter what species of animal you’re talking about. Personally, I feed my gang of 3 Evo… they love it and are all doing well on it. And they seem to go through it more slowly than the cheaper foods… more nutrient dense means they eat less of it… so it ends up being pretty cost effective from my experience.
July 25th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Cheap foods are cheap because they are made with cheap ingredients. Stuff that would have otherwise been hauled off to the landfill is eagerly bought up by the big pet food companies and put in cat food. By-products are all the scrap parts that have been deemed unfit for human consumption - beaks, hides, tendons, spinal chords, intestines, spleens, spoiled and diseased meat, and even tumors. It’s a very low quality protein source for your cat. And corn - nature never intended for cats to eat grains, yet its the main ingredient of cheaper cat foods. Grains are the reason that cats become overweight and develop diabetes.
Better foods are made with little to no grain, and certainly no corn! They also contain a named muscle meat as their protein source. Much better to be feeding your cat “chicken” than “animal guts”.
The health benefits? The same ones that we humans get from eating a healthy diet. We can’t argue that eating hot dogs and potato chips is a healthy diet - and that there are no health ramifications farther down the road. Same thing for our cats. Feeding a species-appropriate and healthy diet for our cats is really an investment in their future health.
I get a lot of foster cats in rescue who’ve been fed a junk food diet their whole lives. The get switched to a premium diet (Wellness, EVO) right away, and the difference in them in just a month’s time is astounding. They become soft and sleek, and just plain look - better.