I got our cat, Sherlock Potato Pancake, various kinds of cat foods to try. I'm not that keen on kibble because of claims about the long-term impact on the digestive system, liver and kidneys, but my vet's evasive answer seemed to suggest it's ok, and nothing on the 3 different vet association (US and overseas) sites suggested otherwise. It's a learning experience and I wish I could afford to make his food for him.
If you're data driven, you may want to look at this chart by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM that teaches about a cat's nutritional needs. She also mentions some "supplemental-only" and "addictive" foods, and talks about why dry food can be bad. https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/
Importantly, she wrote that the first 5 ingredients on the list should be meat, and please note that if the word "meat" isn't included ("chicken" is not the same as "chicken meat") do NOT assume it means meat because it can include ANY part of the chicken, including internal organs, fat, feet, heads, and skin. "Meal" also is not the same as meat (e.g. Chicken meal is the dry rendered product from a combination of clean chicken flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from whole carcasses of chicken, except feathers, heads, feet and entrails.)
- animal (not plant)-based protein (>50% calories).
- moderate fat (~20-40% calories)
- very low carbohydrate (1-2% calories)
- water-rich (~70%)
You may be surprised to see how little protein your favorite brand has, but it's from 2017 so is not current and proprietary recipes may have already changed (e.g. Aldi's Heart to Tail Indoor Cat Formulation was changed to Indoor Formula)!
Frustratingly, when I went to Meijer, which has a large supply of pet food - 1.5 aisles for cats alone - and Kroger's, which has less than 1/2 of an aisle, but I couldn't find any of the lesser-known brands. I didn't look at supplements and treats. I was disappointed to see that NONE of them met the standards above, not Friskies, Whiskas, Beyond and other Purina products, Fancy Feast, Meow Mix, Blue Buffalo, Iams, Luvsome, Crave, Rachael Ray, 9 Lives, and more. I also didn't see the AAFCO approval, although I wasn't looking terribly hard and wasn't sure what exactly it looked like. Brands like Friskies, Fancy feast and Purina Kit & Kaboodle had grain (corn) listed as the first ingredient, with others, like Luvsom, having grains in the top 2-3 ingredients. Lines touting "grain-free" substituted the carbohydrate sources from grains with legumes (peas, soy, chickpeas, etc.), which contain a lot of protein, and sweet potatoes - but cats need animal protein, as well as taurine, which is only in animals, and ALA, DHA and EPA (the Omega-3 fatty acids), which come from oily fish, shrimp, certain seeds and their oil (like chia, linseed, flaxseed, mustard, sunflower, pine, pumpkin), and nuts (like walnuts {English have the most, Black the least}, pistachios and pecans). The top carb sources I saw were peas and, even more often, corn. Brewer's Yeast is also often listed. Some products, like Reveal, were only pure meat and consomme. So, in essence, I'll have to go elsewhere to feed my cat.
Although many articles recommend the well-known brands, one article suggests that some products by the most famous brands: Fancy Feast, Meow Mix, Special Kitty, Friskies, Whiskas, Royal Kanin, 9 Lives, Iams, Purina and Hill's, are actually bad for our cats. You may find it interesting to note that the URL says 2017, so they may just reuse the same article each year, meaning it's fraudulent, at the worst. This article seems to support those claims - brands like Purina, Friskies, Hill's, Whiskas, Rachael Ray, Royal Canin, Iams and Nine Lives all score from medium to poor (in that order). You may find that an individual package that is as good as the top brands (Nom Nom, Ziwi Peak, Smalls, Lotus, Crave & Nulo) with the medium-grade brands, but it's not likely with the low-scoring ones. Sadly, the list is missing many other brands. I guess the more dollars that are put into marketing, the less is left over for your cat's health?!
As the FDA doesn't regulate pet food, say Dr. Carly Fox, Staff Doctor at NYC’s Animal Medical Center, and Dr. Kim Williams-VanDuzer doesn’t recommend any pet food without the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) label. I left a message at the AAFCO's number and will update if/when they answer. Note that membership in AAFCO is voluntary for companies, so it's not a regulatory body. On average, AAFCO gets about $35,000/year from the federal government based on the last 10 years, with the rest coming from grants and other "non-federal" sources (i.e. unspecified). What they do with it is unclear, other than to fund conventions and, one would hope, testing.
Your Tax Dollars Supporting AAFCO is a must-read and leads me to believe that AAFCO doesn't have pets' best interests at heart. I say this because they don't list the results for any brands (approved or not), they don't give out their standards, ingredients recommendations and the like for free and the consumer section was robust but not very useful.
As he was a cute, little kitten, I got food labeled for kittens or all ages. It was all wet in cans or sachets, although I'm not thrilled about the latter because they probably heat the sachets to sterilize them (a food-industry practice), resulting in plastic chemicals leaching into the food. The sachets generally had more gravy than the canned food, and gravy is usually thickened using starch (corn, wheat, rice).
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There wasn't a wet one that he did NOT like but it seemed like the serving size recommended on the can was not enough for him, because he'd growl protectively the entire time he ate them. I tried different meat types, but I avoided tuna fr in all brands because of the possibility of mercury being in it.
- Soulistic sachets was 50/50 liquid and substance. Too liquidy.
- Hill's Science Diet was mostly meat pate.
- Weruva was the same.
- Tiki sachets had less liquid than Soulistic.
- Heart to Tail (Aldi) Premium Cat Food has questionable ingredients that suggest they don't use much meat, and way too much carbohydrates (corn, wheat, brewer's yeast), and the nutrition facts are too small to read. Also, one can of the salmon type (I also get turkey & giblets) caused him to lose his appetite and have vomiting and diarrhea for 3 days. The pates come in a gravy that Sherlock enjoys.
Once he was about 4 months old, I got some kibble.
- Heart to Tail (Aldi) Indoor Cat Formula, which he initially liked fairly well, but then we discovered he became much more interested if we put in a few tablespoons of water.
- Chicken Soup for the Soul didn't seem to be his favorite. Even if I wetted it (which is better for cats but decreases how long it'll last after being nibbled at), he still didn't seem thrilled.
- Heart to Tail (Aldi) Complete Nutrition has too much corn meal in it, although he likes it better than the CSftS. In fact, the guaranteed analysis shows only 34% protein, 13% fat, 12% moisture, 4.5% fiber, and 320 kcal ME/cup, which are not a good fit for what is needed. The analysis of vitamins and minerals is short and, except for low phosphorus, disappointing, so I won't be buying it again.
- Aldi doesn't publish nutrition information and ingredients lists on the Internet for the Heart to Tail series - not even a photo of the side with that info.
I'd love to get some credible knowledge on cat food from people who are actually experts instead of industry shills and vets who are overly influenced by pet food companies' money. Anecdotal reports aren't really all that useful because of extenuating circumstances (such as the relationship between the MRD1 gene and cats being killed by certain flea poisons) and lack of objective data, controls, analysis, etc.
Sherlock says: "Please don't feed your canines and felines vegetarian/vegan foods; we are obligate carnivores, not herbivores!"
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