Phil P. wrote:
But Steve, you *know* Fancy Feast and Friskies make *many* lower phosphorus
diets. You should have mentioned that fact rather than imply all their diets
are high in phosphorus.

That's a toughie. On one hand, he works for Science Diet, a rather
small company compared to Nestle[Purina] that specializes in food for
felines and canines. That company actually provides listings that
almost all the others cannot be bothered to. So if he wishes to
advocate, well, okay, a little provocation may be good. And you are
here to point out any questions about all of this. And it's good, also,
in a way, that Science Diet has Steve here. At least they care enough
to squawk.

On the other hand, I cannot see how a handful of their many product
constitute *many* lower phosphorus diets. I don't know much about this
stuff. But I counted up, just once, all the varieties of Fancy Feast,
and I counted somewhere around 60. Out of that 60, I found 5, based on
your posts and my readings, that I would consider acceptable phosphorus
levels for a feline diet. 5/60 = 1/12 which is, wait, 8.3%. That's not
a lot. For the average uninformed consumer, there is a 1 in 12 chance
of picking up a Fancy Feast that is reasonably safe in phosphorus
levels. That's not good. See later. I biased this counting because I
discounted beef products. See below.

If people only buy Fancy Feast for one meal a week, then, okay, not
much of a problem. If buying for everyday, well, what happens to a cat
on a diet where the phosphorus levels go start around usually 1% to 2%?
And the recommended or better levels are less than 1%, maybe around
0.7% for most cats, to be on the safe side?

Friskies has about 44 varieties. Maybe 9 are okay with 4 below 0.8%.

Fancy Feast has about 9 okay too. I count only 5 since I discard all
those with beef in it. Don't laugh. Mad cow disease and all that and my
cat won't touch the beef. Smart kitty. But 9/60 is a better count, so
that's 3/20 or 15% chance, almost double my original number of 8.3%. In
any case, the odds are against picking cans that are low in phosphorus.
A very good chance to pick cans that are high. Does it matter? It might
and some seem to think so. I might have miscounted Fancy Feast now.
They may have less varieties than they used to. They are repackaging
the brand.

I will search for the brands you list that are low. But it's all a
hassle since most of these products are high in phosphorus. I have to
inspect each can and most of the cans are very high in phosphorus. Does
it matter? I keep remember one vet when I discussed this with him
briefly. He said that all this is quite complex. But he does not see at
the vet hospital, [and this was a huge 24 hour/7 day vet hospital with
many vets and a trauma unit], does not see cats with urinary problems
who are fed Science Diet or Iams.

I remember that. We were discussing weight loss and not urinary tract
problems. This was just an aside that came out of our brief discussion
at a pet show. He was representing the animal hospital, not Science
Diet or Iams. But who knows. He seemed sincere and that is his
impression based on his experience, which may have been extensive. I
don't know. But after trying to get information from Nestle/Purina, I
come back to an old cliche:

If information is difficult to obtain or not readily available, then
that's a clear sign, all by itself, of something that is not good and
necessitates further scrutiny.