It’s so frustrating to think that after spending hours upon hours of researching, desperately trying to find out what’s best for your cat, you can come up more confused and disoriented about cat food than when you started. The issue with trying to search for the absolute best food for your cat is that it feels like an impossible quest.
The Mish-Mash of Opinions & Uncertainty
Apparently, there are some cat foods that are terrible – others that are average – a few that are very good, but which ones are which?
If you go by high protein count, you could still end up with a cat food that makes your pet sick. If you go for wet food over dry food because it keeps your cat better hydrated, you could still fret over the fact that you may have ended up grabbing the wrong type of wet food, one that is potentially worse than the kibble you used to feed your cat. If you go with a raw diet, you could end up harming your cat by not including the right minerals and nutrients a cat needs in his or her meals – after all, it’s not easy getting the balance right.
There are people who make their entire decision of which cat food to feed their kitties based on myths, like the myth that dry cat food is better for your kitty’s teeth, for instance. I know I was fed this information from a vet and until I took the time to research it thoroughly, I didn’t know there was even information out there that said otherwise.
Others base their decision of what to feed their cat purely on what’s most popular, (or what the most popular dry food or wet food is, if they have a preference between the two). This line of thinking does make sense: most commonly used cat foods should be better than ones that are not commonly bought, but are they? Or is popularity down to dollars companies have spent on advertising alone?
It’s frustrating, and hella annoying, and honestly the reason why I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say, “This is the best cat food period,” on this blog.
Why Is There No End-All-Be-All?
There are so many opinions out there, so many explanations that contradict each other, that I think it boils down to this:
We need more research done on the topic.
Because the only way we can get a definite answer – of what cats want and need in their diets to make them the healthiest they can be – is if science takes a front seat and does what it does best: research and find the correct answers to our questions.
It’s frustrating enough trying to get straight answers about human nutrition (Are we supposed to be cutting down on steaks? On sweets? On calories in general or something specific?); getting straight answers about feline nutrition is out of this ball game hard. When we’re making guesses like, “Maybe all kibble is terrible because it’s nothing like what cats eat in the wild,” “Maybe cats need no carbs in their diet,” and “Maybe if I just feed my cat raw meat all the time he or she will be really healthy” – it’s because science doesn’t yet have the answers for us that put all these questions to rest. And it would be absolutely lovely to have the answers to these questions, but I honestly don’t see that happening in the very near future.
Without Any Definitive Answers, What Can You Do?
So what can you do? Consult your vet. Ask him or her about their opinion with regards to cat food. They’ve dealt with a lot more healthy and sick pets than you have. Don’t assume they’re puppets for the pet food industry right off the bat, chances are they’re just as concerned about the pets that come through their clinics as you – and they certainly wouldn’t give advice to you that they believed would harm your pet. If you don’t like your vet, you think he or she doesn’t know what they’re talking about, get a new one. If you want to do your own research on the topic and find an answer you think is best, do that as well. Do what works best for you, but know that there isn’t an end all be all of “the best cat food” known to people yet because we haven’t done adequate scientific studies on cats and their diets. While it’d be lovely to know what’s best, we don’t yet.
Things seem to be one heck of a lot better than they were in the past. We have uncovered a lot of issues with pet food formulas in the past that have made pet food companies change their recipes. They are trying to give us what we want, I’d say – because if they weren’t, no one would be buying their food.
If we are all collectively very serious about our pets’ health as we have been, the future looks wonderful for store-bought pet food. Why? Because no one’s buying cat food they think is sub par or unhealthy for their pets. Giant corporations want to sell, and the amount of bad press they’d get for putting unhealthy pet food out there that makes cats sick would do untold damage.
Picture from post Feeding the Neighbourhood Cats I: Martha
How to Change the Future of Pet Food
What can you do to make the pet food industry a better place? Rate and review good and bad pet food on Amazon and other places online. Why? This helps pet owners who are desperately trying to find a good product to be able to make an informed decision, it helps hurt sales for pet foods that are making kitties sick, and it helps encourage the sale of good products so that worse pet food companies can then follow the trend of quality production in suit.
You can influence the pet food industry. You don’t have to take what’s given to you at face value. You want a line of cat products that fulfills the goals you want fulfilled (a kibble with high protein and very low carbs, a wet food that doesn’t have very much sugar added) complain until it gets done. Give those 1 star reviews where it’s fair, and those 5 star reviews where you see fit. You can influence the industry to be better, you really can.
Unfortunately, there’s no answer to the question of what the best cat food is right now. But while the cat food industry isn’t perfect, it’s better today than it was in decades past, and it will become better yet with our guidance. Keep up the passion you guys have for your pets’ health and don’t just let big businesses get away with selling sub-par products, and we can really make a huge difference in the future of pet food.
I have 4 cats as well and I do know all too well about fussy kitties, I have tried high end and low end foods but it’s always the same. They get tired and bored with it or start throwing it up, they get wet food in the mornings and in the evenings, dry food during the day. So far Friskies is the most tolweable foos for them. Hills diet, recommended by my Vet, the turn their noses up at, as with most other high dollar wet foods, I have Iams dry but its not a winner with them, either, maybe I will try a mix of dry… Sure is frustrating
It is really frustrating when you really want to switch them, but they’re just not having it!
I would definitely try mixing the food you want them to be on in with the “favourite” food. Try a little bit of the new food mixed in at first then increase over time.
Good luck!
My cats go crazy for dry food. Seems to me they put something addictive in it.
I actually feel like cats love the crunchy texture of dry food.
My cat will eat corn nuts if I offer them to him while lately he’s even passing up cheese. So I don’t think it’s a flavour thing.
I can’t blame them, I love crunchy things, too!
I have found a mixture of high protein, my vet had recommended starting by mixing several together so my to didn’t become finicky. She also advised lookino for the first 6 ingredients to be real food, meat. If this helps. It seems it’s a hard thing to find sometimes and am really sad at what I have found in some foods😕. My two new kittens are 8 months, and my cat that past away in July was 26.
Rainie
That makes a lot of sense, from mixing several together to looking for the first ingredients to all be real food.
I totally agree about feeling sad when you find strange things in foods. I also find it a bit frustrating how most high end food brands only use chicken primarily, since I’ve heard you should be feeding your cat from multiple protein sources and that’s hard when so much is chicken based? I don’t even know.. I just hope the future is better for commercial cat foods, and I think it will be since we’re all taking our pets so much more seriously and willing to pay much more to keep them healthy than before.
Thank you for stopping by with your advice! I will definitely remember it as I think it’s great.
So very helpful. You have devoted an enormous amount of time and have provided invaluable information. thank you so much. really appreciate your help.
Thanks a bunch, Gloria! Really glad you found the information helpful, and I’ll continue to try to put articles out there to help even more 🙂
xo
One of these companies needs to make cat food from mice and rats without fillers and without stuff that’s been treated with Roundup.
my cat is allergic 2 a lot of cat food wet and dry.
Purina needs to lower their prices also. 18 to $20 for a 5 lb bag of food is ridiculous!
I couldn’t agree more about creating a mice and rat cat food without fillers and stuff that’s been treated with Roundup. The pet industry already breeds plenty of mice and rats for reptile consumption (I had to feed my ball python thawed out frozen rats, so I know). Same goes for adding insects to cat food (which, again, they’re already breeding crickets and stuff for reptile consumption), which is affordable, scale-able, and very healthy for cats; they supplement their diets with insects and even eat bugs when living completely indoors after all! I do think there would be enough of us who would buy these kinds of products for our cats, though I’m sure most would feel too squeamish initially. If enough people ranted and raved about the good health their pets had on such products, as well as the undoubtedly cheaper end result, I’m sure more and more pet owners would jump on board.
I don’t even look at the prices of cat food anymore, just try to get the lowest price I can for the cat food brand I think is best (Avery’s on Royal Canin right now and it’s been good for him), and stomach the cost. He’s had issues with sensitive stomach and vomiting, and I’d rather pay more for food than have him develop health issues and have to pay for a vet to fix a problem later.. saves him any pain and discomfort and maybe saves me money in the long run, too.
Definitely think if they were making cat food out of mice, rats, and insects rather than primarily poultry it would be cheaper as well as better. Though maybe I’m wrong.
The trouble I got is I have four cats and there fussy as hell as to what they eat unless I’m eating it of course then a paw appears from underneath the table and directed to my plate..no seriously my four are fussy tried all sorts and they soon get fed up of it but we feed them dry and wet food we normally leave a bowl of a good quality dry food down and at 6pm feed them wet food they have had all the top brands so we just bulk buy a mixture and try to make sure they have some variety its 15:21 I am in the kitchen and I got my bengal Tyke screaming at me cause he thinks its six o’clock… Oh I have just bought one of those things that you put dry food into and they are meant to paw into it to get food to drop down mmmm not working to well yet !!! the Burmese female Bonnie has no trouble opening every cupboard and draw in the house.. Oh and wardrobes..
Oh my word! I feel you on getting into cupboards and drawers when they shouldn’t be in – we used to house sit a cat who was like that, and then my mother had that issue with her cat opening kitchen cupboards, so she had to buy some of those child proof add ons to the cabinet doors to make sure her too-clever cat didn’t get in any longer!
Sounds like you have a hard road ahead of you trying to regain order, but it’s doable, just take it one step at a time. Definitely, trying to get the dry food dispenser was a great first step. I hope it starts working for you soon! Let me know how things go!
Elise, I must agree on the point that there is no product available such called the best. I always try to change the food for my pet named Arise, But yet to find the best like you. Thank you for the useful post, expecting some more related to this. Bookmarked you.
Thanks, Lee! Definitely hope we find some amazing new products hitting the market in the next few years 🙂
I find this article very helpful for myself and my feline friends 🙂 I believe there are a lot of cat lovers are hesitant about choosing the right food among wet food, dry food and raw diet. You’re also right that there’s no answer to the question of what the best cat food is right now. Thank you for great article, Elise!
Thanks! And thank you for stopping by with a comment, Sarah!
You did a great job tackling a very tough and sometimes controversial subject.
Thank you so much! 🙂