Pet Nutrition Thread: I see no problem with my cat's vegan diet.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Pet Nutrition Thread: I see no problem with my cat's vegan diet.

Organza Quiz: Nov 7, 2009

I've been noticing grain free dry food brands popping up around here and wondering if I should switch. Is there any nutritional difference between "grain free" cat foods and cat foods that have grains as filler if it looks like they have the same percentage protein/fat/everything else? Is it healthier for cats to be eating processed pumpkin compared to processed corn? I was under the impression that as carnivores they're pretty much not going to be processing anything other than the protein/fat/essential vitamin stuff.

Speaking of which, does cat food in the US have the little percentages on the side of the packet? I had assumed they didn't since I've never been able to find any info online about what percentage what any of the foods referred to in the thread are, but I noticed someone mentioning percentages earlier in the thread so now I'm wondering. If they do have them, could someone post a few of the breakdowns for the more popular foods mentioned in this thread? Basically it'd be really helpful if I had a better idea of how the brands mentioned here compared to the brands that are available in Australia so I know how I'm doing in terms of feeding the little monsters.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 03:06

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:00

Organza Quiz: Nov 7, 2009

Dr. Chaco posted:

Pet foods have the breakdown for protein, fat, moisture, fiber, and sometimes ash/minerals or specific vitamins listed on the labels. To get percentage of carbohydrates, you add the rest and subtract from 100.

If the nutrient breakdowns are similar, there shouldn't be much of a nutritional difference between grain-free formulas and formulas with grains. Some of the grain-free formulas will have more protein and fat, but you are correct that some of them just replace the grains with other starches, and that substitution is of no benefit except in the case of a grain allergy.

Thanks for the info on grain-free. I wasn't very clear about what I meant about the breakdowns so I'll rephrase: I'm in Australia and spend a lot of time looking at the percentage breakdowns when I'm trying to work out what food to buy because that seems like the best way to work it out since I've never seen specific recommendations for food that's available in Australia as opposed to the USA. I'd never seen people in the USA refer to the percentages, so I'd assumed that they weren't available on cat food in the USA. Since it seems like they are, I'd be grateful if someone would let me know what they look like on the "better" food brands, so I can compare it to what's available here and have a better idea of how well I'm doing at finding decent food for my cats to eat. It would just give some context to all the discussions about Blue Buffalo and Wellness or whatever.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 07:27

Organza Quiz: Nov 7, 2009

Crooked Booty posted:

Have you tried using google? Virtually every pet food company has the numbers you're looking for on their website.

I personally wouldn't feed a cat anything less than 40% protein (on a dry matter basis), and protein is definitely the most important number to look at. You shouldn't compare label percentages if they have different amounts of moisture without converting them to dry matter. Protein% listed on the label divided by (100 - %moisture) = dry matter protein%.

I seriously have spent a lot of time looking up cat foods online and only ever managed to find lists of ingredients rather than percentage breakdowns. That's where I got the impression that US foods didn't have the breakdowns on them, in fact. But I'll look again, maybe I just managed to totally miss it every time somehow.

EDIT: I think I was only looking at sites that sell the food rather than the actual brands' homepages before :doh:

Organza Quiz fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Sep 29, 2013

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 16:09

Organza Quiz: Nov 7, 2009

khy posted:

I would like some assistance please regarding cat food. While speaking with the Vet, the vet mentioned that recent studies show grain-free foods have been linked to heart disease in pets. A search of the subject DOES bring up articles about it for dogs, but not for cats. That said, I'm inclined to believe the vet is right and as such I'm wondering about a few things.

The treats I give her are most certainly NOT grain free. The treats I'm giving her now are Temptations Cat treats, which she adores - they DO have corn, rice, and wheat in them. She gets several treats daily, though I try not to spoil her TOO much with them. Would this be enough to give her some grain to offset the grain-free food?

I'm currently feeding my cat Solid Gold Indigo Moon, as it is listed in the OP as being one of the better dry foods. Wet food is problematic for multiple reasons, not the least of which is she just licks it a few times then leaves. Should I change to a different dry food? I know that the 'wet food is always better, use that' is the mantra, but for a dry food diet should I stick with what I've got or change it up?

The problem doesn't seem to be with grains or lack of grains specifically so much as a ton of new foods on the market which haven't been properly tested. The advice is to stick with established brands that have tested their foods over long periods. I don't think there's been any reports of cats having specific problems but it doesn't seem like bad advice to me to check if the food you're feeding your pet has actually been tested properly.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2019 06:21

Organza Quiz: Nov 7, 2009

RingDetective posted:

So I've got a ravenous little guy who needs grub. We just got him back after he was very poorly treated by another person. So, he's down a lot of weigh. We want to help him put on some weight but he also is highly at risk of becoming a fatty as he'll just eat and eat and eat forever if we let him.

We're up for getting him whatever is best. Checking the OP, I know that some of the mentioned brands have since fallen from grace. Is there a general "best" wet food to give him? While we want to get him good stuff price is something we need to be somewhat mindful of as we dropped a very silly amount of money at the vet getting him back to fighting form.

What species is the little guy?

# ¿ Oct 22, 2019 15:41

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