Ready-made cat food is a great option for a tailed pet. However, many owners are afraid to purchase such feed, especially dry, as they believe that they are harmful to health. Experts say: high-quality ready-made feed is an excellent alternative to natural nutrition, you just need to choose it correctly. And to do this, you need to compare the food for cats, figure out what types it happens, and analyze the composition of existing brands.
Types of feed
In order to make a comparison and analysis of food for cats, you need to understand what the classification of feed is and by what principle it is built. The myth is popular that absolutely all prepared feeds, both dry and wet, carry only health problems in the future. But often with any disease or problem, veterinarians recommend switching to a ready-made feed from the treatment line. Where do fears come from, even if professional breeders and veterinarians feed their pets industrial feed?
Ready-made cat foods are divided into four classes:
- economy;
- Premium
- super premium;
- holistic.
These categories vary in both composition and price. Super-premium and holistic are feed categories recommended by veterinarians. They will bring only benefits to the animal, and in quality they are in no way inferior to natural food. Premium is a good budget option for animals with good health. But the economy-class feeds popular among ordinary people are precisely the cause of numerous diseases.
Cheap Foods - Enemies of Cat Health
Comparison of cat food will start with the popular inexpensive food. No owner loving his pet should give an economy-class food to a cat! These brands are well advertised, in abundance presented on the shelves of supermarkets and pet stores. Often they are sold by weight.
Read the composition of such feed. In the first place will be such ingredients as cornmeal, cereals, corn gluten, rice, bone meal, animal fat, soy flour. And only in the last place you will see chicken offal (some foods do not even have them!). And under the name of chicken flour, meat and bone meal or meat products can be hidden processed feathers, beaks, hooves, bones. It is clear that there is absolutely nothing edible for a cat in such a product, not to mention some usefulness!
What makes baleen predators eat like that? Aggressive chemical flavors and flavors! They addictive to the animal, clog taste buds and other, better food, the cat seems fresh and tasteless to the cat. Since there are few nutrients in cheap food, you need to eat more to saturate it. Cats have to eat 2-3 times more cheap food, often eat a lot, and in nature they don’t stuff their bellies for days.
For normal digestion, the cat should drink 2-3 times more water than it ate dry food. When eating economy-class food, this does not happen, since its volume is too large. Gradually, such improper feeding leads to diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. A common diagnosis found in cats eating cheap feeds is urolithiasis. Examples of economy-class feeds are: Kitekat, Whiskas, Friskies, Cat and Feed, Purina, Oscar.
Premium Food - Minimum Required
We continue to compare cat food. Premium feeds cost a little more than the house-keeper, but their composition is already edible. The feed also includes cereals, flour and animal fat, but there are chicken offal and meat in it. Such a composition cannot be called ideal, but it no longer harms the animal’s health.
The daily norm of a good premium-class feed is much smaller in volume, which means that it does not give such a catastrophic load on the kidneys. Many cat owners choose the premium class, as it is inexpensive, and nothing threatens the health of the pet. Such food can be safely given to a cat all his life.
Premium feeds include Royal Canin, Hills, PurinaProPlan, Eukanuba. At the same time, the products of the first two brands are so high-quality that some experts classify them as super-premium. At the same time, there are unscrupulous manufacturers. For example, Purina Cat Chow economy food is similar in name to Purina ProPlan premium and super premium products.
Super premium class is all that a cat needs
Thinking about what your tailed companion will eat? Comparison of cat food continues with a super-premium study recommended by all veterinarians and breeders. Really high-quality ingredients are used for the production, and the amount of protein is strictly controlled (excess protein is harmful for cats). The amount of dyes and flavorings in this food is minimal.
If your cat eats super-premium food, then you can be sure that she gets enough of all the necessary substances in sufficient quantities without harm to health. A comparison of premium cat food comes down to the choice of ingredients. For example, some cats cannot tolerate chicken, and for them there are rulers based on turkey or fish. Super-premium class includes such feeds as 1st Choice, Bosch SANABELLE, Arden Grange, ProNature Holistic.
Holistic - class - the best professional feed
The category of holistic includes the highest quality feed of the highest price category. It is this food that feeds the pets of famous nurseries. If we continue to compare dry cat food in composition, then the first places on the holistic label will be chicken or salmon, chicken (salmon) flour, starch or potatoes, peas, chicken (salmon) fat.
At the same time, the advantage and disadvantage is the lack of chemical flavors and flavorings. Therefore, if an animal used to eat feed with an abundance of chemical additives, then a new product did not attract him at first. Even if a cat initially refuses high-quality food, then you should not immediately give it flavored. You will not begin to feed the child chips just because he likes the taste? Wait a moment, and the tailed picks will taste new food. Holists include: Innova, Golden Eagle Holistic, GO and NOW Natural holistic, GRANDORF Natural & Healthy.
What to look for when choosing feed
The newly made cat owner, who first got into the pet store, is simply lost at the sight of a huge shelf with feed. What will a little companion eat? Comparison and analysis of cat food is difficult in such conditions, but nothing is impossible. The choice of brand of food should be approached responsibly and pay attention not only to the bright labels on the packages and price, but also to what is written in small print.
First of all, pay attention to the country of origin. The best feeds are produced in Europe and the USA. Immediately cut off the cheapest brands of domestic production, there is nothing useful in them. The next step is the analysis of the composition to assess its usefulness or possible harm.
Analysis of the composition of feed for cats. Harmful ingredients
Compare food for cats by reading their composition. It may include ingredients that are harmful to the health of the animal.
- Refuse the purchase if you see sugar, caramel, cellulose or propylene glycol in the feed.
- Dye E 127 provokes the development of cancer.
- Do not assume that the offal indicated in the composition of cheap food is a healthy liver, heart, lungs. Under this word, feathers, beaks, hooves and other wastes of the meat industry are most often masked.
- The word "meat" also does not guarantee its presence in the composition in our understanding. At best, it will be scraps of skin. The responsible producer indicates what kind of meat it is and what kind of meat it is.
- Antioxidants E324, 320 and 321 affect the liver.
- The presence of chemical preservatives, flavors and flavors can also not be considered a plus.
Analysis of feed for cats. The composition of good food
What the composition of the feed should look like:
- At least 35% of the meat is chicken, turkey, beef, rabbit, fish.
- 20% milk or egg protein.
- 10% quality offal.
- Not more than 25% of plant fibers. Corn, rice, potatoes, wheat, oats, peas - these are necessary plant components, but they should not serve to save on meat.
- Vitamin supplements.
Comparison of food for cats of different classes
So, you already have an idea what feed classes are and how they differ. Let's compare them by market availability, fame and percentage of digestibility.
Everyone knows the budget feed immediately on the shelf, even if he does not have a cat. They are widely advertised on television and we can safely say that it is advertising costs that occupy the lion's share of their cost. You can buy such food in any supermarket, they differ only in taste. Their digestibility is only 60-65%.
Higher quality premium. These feeds are also inexpensive, but their composition is no longer scary. A bit of meat and offal, a significant proportion of plant components. Such feeds have several rulers by age. The names are also well known, although the advertisement is not so aggressive. Digestibility - 70-75%.
Super premium class is already quite high price. Their advertising can be seen extremely rarely, and the names are known only to owners of purebred cats. Feed of this class is sold only in pet stores and veterinary pharmacies. They have a lot of meat, no flavoring. Cat breeds are taken into account. Digestibility - 85-95%.
Holistic - the most expensive natural feed. They are advertised only in specialized publications for professional breeders and veterinarians. Absorbed completely. It contains no artificial additives, only meat and a small amount of plant ingredients. Most likely this type of feed will have to be ordered individually.
Wet feed
So, we have already made a comparison of dry food for cats. And what about wet foods? It turns out that their composition is almost identical to dry food, and the whole difference is the presence of jelly. Therefore, the comparison of cat food with jelly in bags is the same as dry. True, there are several nuances.
Manufacturers of wet foods often cheat in the composition. For example, if on a jar it is indicated that fiber is only 5% in the dry residue, then at a humidity of 80% it turns out that fiber occupies exactly a quarter of the entire jar.
Also pay attention if the composition indicates meat in the first places, but at the end there is a whole list of different types of flour. After adding up the total amount of plant ingredients, it can turn out that they occupy almost half of the composition.
Another trick is the phrase "tasteful." If the food is shrimp-flavored, then you are unlikely to find them in the composition. But the abundance of flavors and flavors is guaranteed.
Comparison of the composition of feed for cats will help you find the brand most suitable for your pet. Read the label carefully, be responsible for the choice, and the fluffy beauty will be grateful to you.