Royal Canin is a joke just like Science Diet. Overpriced and full of grains and corn that cats do not need!
Cats are carnivores. I believe in a grain free diet 100%. Especially after seeing how beautiful and fit my boyfriend's 1 year old cat is after being on a high quality dry food (switched a few times but is now on Acana) and wet food 3x a day (about 3oz/daily).
This is the ingredient listing for Acana Prairie:
Chicken meal, russet potato, fresh free-run chicken, peas, fresh deboned Lake Whitefish, chicken fat (naturally preserved with Vitamin E), fresh whole eggs, sun-cured alfalfa, fresh deboned walleye, salmon oil, pumpkin, apples, carrots, turnip greens, organic sea vegetables (kelp, bladderwrack, dulse), juniper berries, cranberries, Saskatoon berries, black currants, angelica root, chicory root, red clover, red raspberry leaf, dandelion root, peppermint leaf, marigold flowers
The difference in their chicken meal and most other 'meals' in foods is that this is HUMAN grade meat. Feed grade food that is in most other brands (purina, science diet, ect..) contain things like crushed up beaks, feet, meat from deceased animals... They can get away with really disgusting things in animal food. The grains used in animal foods can be moldy... really any quality goes.
Let's compare the Acana ingredients above with the Wellness chicken formula:
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Rice, Ground Barley, Ground Rice, Chicken Fat(preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Natural Chicken Flavor, Salmon Meal, Chicken Liver, Cranberries, Tomato Pomace, Olive Oil, Chicory Root Extract, Cranberry Extract Powder, Cranberry Fiber, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Kelp, Chondroitin Sulfate, Glucosamine, Hydrochloride, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Enterococcus Faecium, Lactobacillus Casei, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Taurine, Rosemary Extract.
There are so many things I can't pronounce in the Wellness listing. The first 5 ingredients contain 3 grains too... The grains may actually outweigh the real meat in the food if we add them up. The problem with a lot of dry foods is that they are scorched when they are cooked...so much that they burn away the natural nutrients and have to go in and add them back. The Acana/Orijen foods are uniquely cooked for a short 3 minutes while being tumbled around. This prevents that nutrient burning that happens in most commercially produced foods.
Purina cat food has higher levels of magnesium than most--which can cause kidney irritation. Watch out!! Older males are prone to these problems and feeding your cat these lower quality foods without really researching what they are is just asking for health issues.
I wouldn't feed any Wellness other than their Core line which is grain free. There are just better foods out there.
I'm Erika, no worries though.I sure can up the wet food feeding. Though Sassy is even more picky with that! She only will eatbrands with a specific texture and even then will barely eat half a small can. Our younger male goes over after finishing his and inhales her leftovers. I willup it though, thanks for the suggestion.
