[BluePhoenix]

We have two kittens that we have been feeding a small portion of wet food once a day.

I myself bought Iams kitten (wet food), and they have been eating that for the past 2 weeks. The supply I bought ran out today and my mother got my father to go out and buy more.

I told him that the Iams kitten wet food is not at the Grocery Store he frequents and to just wait until I can go get it tomorrow.
I buy the regular Iams kitten wet food cans for 0.79$ CDN at W-mart..

He comes home today with No Name wet cat food.

As mentioned in another post (about me asking about reasonable cost dry food) my dad is cheap.. with capital letters.

He got 4 of the same sized can of this wet food for 1.20$ CDN. No Name Brand.

"Luxury Ocean Whitefish & Tuna Dinner" - Ingredients: Ocean Whitefish, Poultry By Products, Meat By Products, Rice Flour, Tuna, Guar Gum, Titanium dioxide, Sodium tripolyphosphate, salt, Potassium chloride, Choline chloride, Vitamins and Minerals, Carrageenan, Iron oxide, Water Sufficient for Processing

"Luxury Tuna Dinner" Ingredients: Ocean fish, Tuna, Meat By Products, Poultry By Products, Rice Flour, Guar Gum, Sodium tripolyphosphate, iodized salt, Potassium chloride, Carrageenan, Iron oxide, Vitamins and Minerals, Water Sufficient for Processing

"Luxury Seafood Dinner" Ingredients: Ocean fish, Poultry By Products, Meat By Products, Rice Flour, Vegetable Gums, iodized salt, Natural Flavour, natural colour, plus all the necessary vitamins and minerals required for the complete nutrition of your car and Water Sufficient for Processing

This are ingredients as listed on the tin.

I pretty much think this stuff is worthless. Any thoughts on this?

I've come to the conclusion that my dad will simply not spend a few more pennies for the kittens.
I told him when we first got them that what we were looking for is meat as the first 2-3 ingredients.. and NO meat by-products..
Of course, his cheap mind must have overruled his memory when he was out buying this stuff.. he come's back and says: "By Products are still meat".. and asked him "what do you think those by products are?"

He looked at the ingredients and saw that the "Tuna Dinner" had two meats up front so has come to his own conclusion that that's the one he'll get from now on..

Any advice here? What can I say?

Are the fishes a reasonable source of meat and protein for the kittens?
I was under the impression that Chicken is much better and that any seafood isnt really good at all.

What's a reasonably priced wet food out there that we can hopefully come to a comprise on that is still healthy and nutritious for the cats?

I guess I don't mind spending the money on Iams every week, it's just a matter of me keeping it in stock. I told my mom that a day or two without wet food wouldnt kill them.. she didn't seem to listen.



Help!

bp

 

[drjean]

no name cat food

Better read your Iams labels again...a lot of Iams foods contain byproducts, too (though there are a few that are okay).

I am not crazy about fish for kittens. In fact I'm not crazy about fish for cats except occasionally (once a week at most). Lots of reasons, including the pollutants such as heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins etc. that accumulate in predatory fish like salmon and tuna. Even whitefish and herring are carnivorous. Fish seems to aggravate urinary tract problems in sensitive cats. Plus cats easily become tuna junkies and won't eat anything else. Kittens need to be exposed to as many kinds of food as possible when they're young, to prevent them being finicky when they're older.

Have your dad read my article on Selecting a Good Commercial Pet Food in our free article library, http://www.littlebigcat.com/?action=library. The truth is that penny-pinching on food--the very basis of health, and the foundation of the kitten's growth--will very likely cost big bucks in veterinary bills down the road.

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[Bean]

Biproducts are used in human products too. And although not "bad", I doubt they contain the nutrients that the meat would.

I had a friend who works in the chicken trade to inform me what this actually is:

For chickens, white meat (and white meat meal for chicken strips and nuggets) is basically the white meat on a chicken you are familiar with (thighs and such). Meat used for meal is no difference than meat sold as boneless skinless products on market shelves - no difference in quality. It either goes one route or the other.

Dark meat is the dark meat - legs and such; meat closer to the bone. Again, the meal is of the same quality whether it is whole or meal. Products that list that they contain a percentage of white meat in the meal are mixed with dark meat.

Then there's the rest. Cheap nuggets usually contain this type of meal - I forgot the term that it's listed as on the box. I think it says something along the lines of "chicken byproducts" or something similar. This is the type of meal that when you cut it open, it's darker brown and the consistancy of the meat is quite even.

This is how it is made: when the white and dark meat are stripped off the carcass, what is left is obviously the skeleton, but with excess meat on it that could not be removed. The carass is then boiled to cook it, and then the whole carass - bones, cartilage and excess meat - is ground up into a fine meal that is used for these lower grade products. So not only does it contain typical meat (obviously mostly dark), but it contains all parts of the chicken that would otherwise be thrown away (of course, without the parts that would be stripped before processing - meaning the head, guts and feathers). And this is what by products are. He informed me that it isn't bad for you, and is perfectly healthy. But the meat to bone ratio is obviously much higher than in other products (mind you it's all ground up to the same consistancy).

 

[AngelZoo]

Well I suppose it's what you have access to. If you can only obtain the canned food from grocery stores, they will all be about the same, most of them having by-products. The really cheap stuff, which is similar to a lot of the other canned foods in those places is Special Kitty, I know you can buy that at walmart, a large can 16oz? for $.025 !

 

[kitkat]

I feed my cats canned food by Wellness, Solid Gold, and Innova. Another one they like that is a bit cheaper and more accessible at regular pet stores is Nutro Natural in the pouches. They're about $0.49 and cats love it with all the gravy in it. I think Iams is about the same price I think maybe a few cents less but Iams has by products and Nutro Natural doesn't.

 

[AngelZoo]

Yeah the Nutro Natural Pouches are cool. I haven't had a cat yet that isn't crazy about those chunky bites in gravy! lol