Good canned foods: what to look for?

I know this topic has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a post
that puts it all together. If you would state what to look for in
canned food (from health and nutrition point of view), I would
volunteer to put it together in one post.

Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)
Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

Carbs: If we mush have some, which ones are acceptable, which ones not?

Sodium, Mg, Ca, Phosphorous (any others?): Ideal %? Acceptable %?

Anything else?

Which of this information is not available on cans themselves and must
be obtained some other way?

To minimize confusion, please stay with canned food. We can have a
separate thread about dry food if there is interest.

"AlexZ" wrote in message
...
I know this topic has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a post
that puts it all together. If you would state what to look for in
canned food (from health and nutrition point of view), I would
volunteer to put it together in one post.

Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)
Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

Carbs: If we mush have some, which ones are acceptable, which ones not?

Sodium, Mg, Ca, Phosphorous (any others?): Ideal %? Acceptable %?

Anything else?

Which of this information is not available on cans themselves and must
be obtained some other way?

To minimize confusion, please stay with canned food. We can have a
separate thread about dry food if there is interest.

I think it would be a good idea to post information about optimum
nutritional data. However, there are already some web sites that post the
actual nutritional analysis by brand and variety, so you may simply be
duplicating work that has already been done. Here are some examples
(including both canned and dry food, although I realize that your request
was for canned food only):

KatKarma nutritional analysis of canned cat food (ordered by phosphorus
content):
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm
KatKarma nutritional analysis of dry cat food (ordered by phosphorus
content):
http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dryfood.htm
Janet & Binky's Canned Cat Food Nutritional Information (includes calories):
http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmpeerson/canfood.html
Janet & Binky's Dry Cat Food Nutritional Information (includes calories):
http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmpeerson/dryfood.html

MaryL

"AlexZ" wrote in message
...
I know this topic has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a post
that puts it all together. If you would state what to look for in
canned food (from health and nutrition point of view), I would
volunteer to put it together in one post.

Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)
Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

I only buy canned cat food in which the first ingredient reads "beef,
chicken, fish, turkey," etc., in other words, not by-products. I have
found that this is true only of premium foods and a few cheaper brands.
When I last looked into the nutrition in canned food, I found that if the
first ingredient is real meat, the other nutrition is usually good.

One exception might be if your cat is allergic to wheat gluten. Some of
the FF brands that have meat as a first ingredient have wheat gluten.

AlexZ wrote:
Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)

Absolutely! Cats are carnivores, nor herbivores. I don't feed by-products.

Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

Some fish may contain high ammounts of heavy metals.

Carbs: If we mush have some, which ones are acceptable, which ones not?

In my experience, tubers are better than grains.

Sodium, Mg, Ca, Phosphorous (any others?): Ideal %? Acceptable %?

Not sure about that, but I don't worry about it if I'm feeding a good
quality food.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

"AlexZ" wrote in message
...
I know this topic has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a post
that puts it all together. If you would state what to look for in
canned food (from health and nutrition point of view), I would
volunteer to put it together in one post.

Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)
Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

Carbs: If we mush have some, which ones are acceptable, which ones not?

Sodium, Mg, Ca, Phosphorous (any others?): Ideal %? Acceptable %?

Anything else?

Which of this information is not available on cans themselves and must
be obtained some other way?

To minimize confusion, please stay with canned food. We can have a
separate thread about dry food if there is interest.

I'm certainly no expert, but I tend towards the 'groovy, natural' stuff...
Innova, Welness brand etc... I preffer to see ingredients like 'chicken' not
'chiken meal' & 'brown rice' not 'rice flour'... The less processed, the
better in my book...
--
Mathew
Butler to 3 cats: Chablis, Muscat & Sage
En Vino Veritas


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"Mathew Kagis" wrote in message

I'm certainly no expert, but I tend towards the 'groovy, natural' stuff...
Innova, Welness brand etc... I preffer to see ingredients like 'chicken'
not
'chiken meal' & 'brown rice' not 'rice flour'... The less processed, the
better in my book...

All this 'natural' food is all well and good, but doesn't it depend on the
cat? Short of starving your furball for a week (which I haven't tried yet),
my cat will only eat Iams type hard cat chow. So far, I estimate that I've
invested a good $100 on other brands of cat food, including various canned
types and aside from a little bitty piece of processed cheese once in
awhile, she won't eat anything else. This includes her not liking various
types of people food like chicken, shrimp, tuna and cream.

Upscale wrote:
All this 'natural' food is all well and good, but doesn't it depend on the
cat? Short of starving your furball for a week (which I haven't tried yet),

I don't recommend starving your cat to force him/her to eat a certain
brand of food. You can't outstubborn a cat. Which is why ours don't eat
only Innova/Felidae/etc. They don't like it as much as they like Nutro.


--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

"Upscale" wrote in message
...

All this 'natural' food is all well and good, but doesn't it depend on the
cat? Short of starving your furball for a week (which I haven't tried
yet),
my cat will only eat Iams type hard cat chow. So far, I estimate that I've
invested a good $100 on other brands of cat food, including various canned
types and aside from a little bitty piece of processed cheese once in
awhile, she won't eat anything else. This includes her not liking various
types of people food like chicken, shrimp, tuna and cream.

Have you tried a gradual blending of new food into the Iams? Just a
thought... Mine are not so particular & don't (so far) seem to object to
variety when it comest to their dry kibble... When it comes to 'gooshy'
food... If it comes from a can... It MUST be good!
--
Mathew
Butler to 3 cats: Chablis, Muscat & Sage
En Vino Veritas


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"Mathew Kagis" wrote in message

Have you tried a gradual blending of new food into the Iams? Just a
thought... Mine are not so particular & don't (so far) seem to object to
variety when it comest to their dry kibble... When it comes to 'gooshy'
food... If it comes from a can... It MUST be good!

Yes, I did try blending various new foods, but it's a little difficult to
blend moist food with dry kibble. When I first brought my six month old
Deetoo home from animal services, I had all this special cat food ready for
her which she refused to touch. Fortunately, the shelter had included a few
packages of Performatrim which is what they fed all their cats. The Iams was
the closest I could find to that in the local stores and she went for it.

I guess I shouldn't be complaining. Iams cat chow and water, it's a very
simple and easy food regimen. Obviously, it's working because my little
sweetie is big and strong like a bull.

"AlexZ" wrote in message
...
I know this topic has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a post
that puts it all together. If you would state what to look for in
canned food (from health and nutrition point of view), I would
volunteer to put it together in one post.

Meat content: First few items should be meat? (By-products ok?)
Avoid or at least minimize fish and other seafood?

Carbs: If we mush have some, which ones are acceptable, which ones not?

Sodium, Mg, Ca, Phosphorous (any others?): Ideal %? Acceptable %?

Anything else?

Which of this information is not available on cans themselves and must
be obtained some other way?

To minimize confusion, please stay with canned food. We can have a
separate thread about dry food if there is interest.

In the UK I have found that my cat will eat (this is a big thing with my cat
who would rather starve than eat something he doesn't like) Somerfields
Premium Chicken in Supermeat. it has 14% chicken as opposed to 4% in most
other brands.