I got two free samples of Fancy Feast, and now all of my cats are Fancy Feast addicts! Is Fancy Feast an okay food to feed? They're on Iams right now and I've been hoping to switch them to Purina Pro Plan, but they'll hardly touch anything that's not Fancy Feast. So is Fancy Feast wet food healthier? I finally got my 7yo cat to accept wet cat food and she won't go near the dry, same with my 3yo, but I'm not trying to switch the kittens yet.
Does anyone feed Fancy Feast?
Thank you!!! Hi Follower!
I used to feed Fancy Feast until one of my cats developed Struvite stones which my vet attributed to the grain in the food as a possible source of the condition. We switched her to a grainless food, ( Wellness) and with treatment and the change of diet, she never developed stones again.
Fancy Feast also contains meat by-products which are not the most nutritious meat products. For a fascinating read about what really is in most of our commercial brands of cat food, check out this article:
http://naturalcathealth.blogspot.com/200...
One of my cats who developed food allergies, which in part my vet suspects was due to feeding Fancy Feast, has developed IBD We switched him to Natural Balance Venison and Peas. He receives a dose of Pepcid A/c daily as well, and has not vomited in over two months. We had been using Fancy Feast for one cat who was addicted to it, but we were able to switch her over to Wellness, with patience..
I may be the ony responder who thinks that Fancy Feast is not the most nutritious or appropriate diet, but as a former user who learned the hard way, I felt that adding this information for your consideration was important.
"The better brands of pet food, such as many 鈥渟uper-premium,鈥?鈥渘atural,鈥?and 鈥渙rganic鈥?varieties, do not use by-products"
Excellent feline nutrition information is becoming more widely available to us:
http://www.catinfo.org/
For more information about what is in our pet food and how it affects its quality, visit:
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=3...
If you do decide to switch products, make sure to do this slowly, and feed a high quality kitten food to the little ones.
Hope this helps!
Troublesniffer
Owned by cats for over 40 years
Former Siamese and Oriental Shorthair breeder
Freelance writer/blogger for http://www.petside.com/
Edit: Darksong's response is purrfect! I've fed my cats Fancy Feast for years and they are healthy as can be. I like that they have so many flavors since they get a bit picky at times and I can get them interested in food again with a different flavor. The last 2 I adopted I was told they would only eat Science Diet, well they turned their noses up at it and refused to eat it, I put Fancy Feast out for them and they march right up and eat it. I feed Nutro Max cat dry to my cat. I feed fancy feast wet to him only because he won't touch any of the other healthier wet foods. He is like yours and hooked on Fancy feast. I think it is in the middle nutrition wise. It's not the best but not the worse either. I feed my cat, 13 years old Fancy Feast. Even tho she only has 2 teeth, she still loves it. It's great in nutrition and comes in all sorts of flavors. If I thought it wasn't good for her I wouldn't give it too her. She does fine with Fancy Feast. Fancy Feast is fine. It's one of the best in terms of nutrition and cats liking it. My cats don't like Iams, I have some and they scratch at it like they do their litter! Not at all. Fancy Feast, Iams, And Purina Pro Plan are all low quality cat foods actually. And wet food is actually healthier for cats than dry!
Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that aren't safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.
Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.
Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.
Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.
Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.
Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!
Before following your vet's food recommendation, keep in mind that vets get /very/ little nutritional training during their schooling. Besides that, what training they /do/ get is usually sponsored or taught by the crappy pet food companies! They also often get paid to sell some of their products at their clinics (Science Diet, Royal Canin etc.)
A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.
Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.
Another option, if you can't find anywhere around you that sells good foods, is to order your pet food online. Here's an excellent place to do so: http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/
Remember that foods should be switched gradually (mixing new slowly in with the old over about a two week period), especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.
Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:
http://www.barfworld.com/
http://www.rawfedcats.org/
http://www.rawfed.com/
http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...
Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least (cats barely even chew their dry food and, really, does a pretzel clean /your/ teeth? Cats should have their teeth brushed with cat toothbrushes and cat toothpaste at least a few times a week as well as see the vet for dental cleanings when necessary /regardless/ of what they are being fed). Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:
http://www.catinfo.org/ (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...
http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...
Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.
More:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... I agree Wellness is a great can food, I just wish my kitties agreed!! THEY hated it, I prefer it for them.. It did have a funny smell to it, heck but my kitties wont eat broiled or boiled chicken or turkey from my stove what made me think they would eat human grade cat food? I have tired all the No grain canned foods since I need a LOW carb one for my diabetic cat the gourmet variety of fancy feast has 2-6 % carbs and the other store grain brands are 18-28% cats only need 4-10% carbs. I use wellness CORE cat food for their dry its only 12% so with the fancy feast 2-6% it balances the carbs for all my kitties my diabetic cats blood sugar went down over 200 points switching from the Hill science diet that was 18-47 % carbs that's HUGE in grains.. to the Core and fancy feast gourmet varity, try to avoid the gravy added one, that adds more carbs to the food.. even the weight control HILLS SD is too high in carbs and not enough protein.... see website for carb protein percentages.. GOOD LUCK Canned fancy feast is not the worst thing you can feed your cat. Any *canned* food is better than even the best dry food.
BUT... let me break this down for you.
One 3oz. Can of fancy feast (with questionable ingredients) is $0.50 or higher
OR
One 12 oz. can of Wellness (with great ingredients and grain free) for $1.99 and break it into 3 oz. portions which is also $.50 cents per serving.
Why not buy Wellness instead of fancy feast since the price is the same but the food is better? If you were standing at the meat counter in your grocery store and you had a choice of hamburger or fillet mignon both at $0.50 per serving... you would choise the Fillet, right? Why not offer your cats the same. And go ahead and get you kittens on wet asap to! :o)
Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.
All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats.
So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it鈥檚 almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.
Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), constipation, bladder stones, kidney stones, urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.
Overall, wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs鈥?not our cats.
I recommend varying the diet with a constant rotation of 2 to 4 different brands of canned foods that your cat enjoys. If you do this, and allow your cat the same assortment they would have in nature when eating mice, bugs, birds and rabbits, your cat鈥檚 digestive system won't be so sensitive and you won't have to run around looking for a specific brand when your store is out. You will have a nice variety to choose from instead.
Canned foods I recommend you consider for your rotation:
Nature's Variety - http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.la...
Wellness Grain Free Formula鈥檚 - http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/cat_welln...
By Nature Organics - http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/productp...
Organix - http://www.castorpolluxpet.com/store/org...
Evanger's Holistic Pheasant - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/20089...
Evanger's Organic Braised Chicken - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50103...
Evanger's Turkey & Butternut Squash - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50111...
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