purina cat food

[oksk89]

hi... i currently feed Purina Pro Plan Total CAre kitten food... but i read somewhere that categorized foods into 3 categories: good, medium, and bad. it said purina under the bad section... :( so im wondernig if it is bad, and if it is, WHY its bad... and what i should change to... i live in korea, so my choices are pretty limited.. lol.

thanks

[PrettyHate]

Here are the ingredients for the Pro Plan. I anything that is in red are ingredients that you should stay away from.

Ingredients
Chicken, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), soybean meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal, fish meal, soy protein isolate, wheat gluten, natural flavors, egg product, phosphoric acid, salt, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, choline chloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), taurine, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, ascorbic acid (source of Vitamin C), riboflavin supplement, DL-Methionine, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, citric acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.

By products contain things like feathers, feet, bones etc. It is pretty gross.

Only humans and pigs can fully digest soy (although I notice that many high quality foods still contain it...so this wouldnt be my main concern.)

A high quality food should have no by products. Instead, the it should contain a type of meat meal. Keep in mind that chicken is more digestable than lamb, or beef. Meal is cooked, and then weighted, so all of the extra fat and water is cooked out of it. By doing this you are getting more meat. 1 lb of not cooked meat is equal to almost 5 pounds of cooked meat.
Always try to go for a meat meal as the main ingredient.

Try to stay away from foods that have bone meal, or blood meal in them. Basically these are sprayed down over the kibbles to make them taste better to your animal. If you need to spray blood over something to make it taste better, I think that says enough about the food itself. :pukey:

Try to stay away from fillers. Things like corn, and rice...those are fillers. Instead of adding major nutrients to the food, they provide little, and pass right through your animals system instead of being absorbed.

Pro Plan doesnt contain this, but I will mention it just beceause -
Stay away from foods that contain BHA, BHT or ethoxiquin (spelling). It has been linked to cancer.

As well, youre feeding your little guy a kitten food. Kitten foods in gereral contain alot more fat than adult foods do. Hedgies do not need this extra fat (even if they are babies), because they are prone to getting obese, and getting something called fatty liver disease.

Some good foods to look for are (Im not sure if they are available in Korea or not): Wellness, chicken soup for the cat lovers soul, Wysong, Buffalo Blue. Look up these ingredients and compare them to the ones found in ProPlan. Youll easily be able to see the difference :)

If you cant find any of those, Im sure that there are other high quality foods around. If you really arent able to find anything, I would definently switch over from the kitten formula, to an adult one or even lite one of the ProPlan. Although I am almost certain that they have to have something better than it available :)

I hope that this helps some. Good luck

[oksk89]

thanks a lot! for the good info ^^

[oksk89]

yay after searching for CSFTCLS, i found a site that sells it !!

[Kalandra]

In addition to the items that prettyhate mentioned. It is well worth noting that the food contains a lot of grain product in its first few ingredients.

According to some pet food ingredient websites and books corn gluten meal, whole grain (or ground) corn, and brewer's rice all contain no nutritional value. Corn is also noted to be the cuase of many food allergies in dogs and cats. It is typically noted to avoid food products that contain high amounts of these, especially if they show in the first 5 ingredients as these are the ingredients that make up the bulk of the food. Oh and one last note (since it is #5 in the ingredients) beef tallow is rendered fat. It comes from the left over scraps.

Other cat foods that are fairly common in pet stores around here are: royal canin 38, & Natural Balance. Since you are in Korea there may be brands which we don't have here that are just as good or better than our own. Just check the ingredients and pick the best foods you can. Your best bet when feeding hedgehogs is to provide a variety of dry foods, as well as provide cooked meat, vegetables, fruit and bugs to your little one. We don't know the exact dietary requirements of hedgehogs so providing them with a variety is the best we can do right now.

[CoquiMom]

Generally any brand that is sold at a grocery store is bad.

Glad you found a place that sells the Chicken Soup. :)