From Purina, Friskies, 9Lives to Lams, there are so
many cat food manufactures out there with large corporation owning
several different product lines to cater to different market needs. For
example, Del Monte owns 9lives, Kibbles & Bits and Nature’s Recipe;
Mars owns Waltham, Sheba, Whiskers and Royal Canin; Procter &
Gamble owns Eukanuba and Iams; and Nestle owns Alpo, Friskies and
Ralston Purina, to just name a few.
If you are wondering what cat food brand is the best out there, this article might just help answer your question.
For
some strange reason, most highly likely to be for profit reasons, these
large companies products quality can differ to large extent. For
example, one large manufacturer’s “natural” cat food is touted as
premium with complete and balance nutrition with no artificial
preservatives. At the company product site, it describes the
differences between their natural formula and other premium cat food
and state that their line never uses beef or wheat. Only “highly
digestible ingredients like chicken and rabbit meat to provide for
protein, rice for carbohydrates…” are used.
Described to be
without any artificial preservative, flavors or color and that the
formula “uses protein and fat that are preserved with mixed
tocopherols, not synthetic preservatives.” This line does not use any
chemical preservatives, such as ethoxyquin, BHA or BHT. It is naturally
preserved with mixed tocopherols”, which is supposingly the best and
healthiest choice for cats.
On the other hand, the same company
produces another range of standard-fare commercial line cat food. This
line dry food label start off with the largest ingredient corn followed
by chicken by product meal, wheat, corn gluten meal, beef and bone
meal, preserved with BHA… and after some vitamin supplements, the label
notes caramel coloring, natural and artificial flavors, taurine, yellow
5, red 40 and blue 1.
A further research show that another large
cat food manufacturer’s “natural” product is virtually the same formula
of ingredients as its other product line, just noting that there are no
preservatives. (But both the regular and the “natural” product are
preserved with mixed tocopherols!)
A discerning consumer may find
flaw if not ethical concern when the very same company can tout the
healthy benefits of not having BHA and artificial colors in one of its
products while creating other products that do have BHA and artificial
colors.
One might need to question what that means with regard to
the premium food, and is there an ethical issue with having both a sort
of sub-premium food and supposed premium food while marketing the
nutrient wonders of both? Or are these companies looking out for their
own pockets or your cat health?
These questions are for the
consumer to ponder. You may or may not take issue with it.
Nevertheless, you do need to know that apart from reading the label,
“premium and natural” marketing tactics may not be true in all sense
that you think it is.
The answer when deciding what type of cat
food to feed your cat may not be the brand or even what company own the
product lines or how well done the marketing campaign is for the cat
food. The answer is really in the label as well as your own knowledge
and veterinary advice on what type of cat food is suitable for a
healthier and happier cat.
