Pro-Plan Vs. Nutrience

[Sarbear]

Hey Everybody...

I was trying to make the final decisions for my mix and I am having trouble deciding between Pro-Plan and Nutrience, both light formulas. The ingredience appear similar, I was hoping for a more experienced opinion.

:winkgrin: Sarah

P.S I'll put the websites up as soon as I can get my internet to respond quicker.

[PrettyHate]

I would personally go with Nutrience. Ive read a few bad things about Pro-Plan, and had some bad expereince with them myself and find no need to support them due to that.
Also Ive noticed that all of the ProPlan that Ive seen kicking around has by-products listed in their ingredients- this is something that I really try and stay away from as much as possible.

Incase you dont know what by-Products are they are basically the left overs of processing. Beaks, feathers, feet....all that good stuff.

It also contains soybean meal- something that only humans and pigs can actually digest. This means it will pass right through your hedgies system without your hedgie getting any benificial nutrience from it.

Here are the ingredients for the ProPlan that I think you may be talking about (not totally sure) ProPlan Chicken and Rice Senior
http://www.proplan.com/product_detail.aspx?pid=114

Chicken, brewers rice, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), corn gluten meal, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), wheat gluten, egg product, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain corn, brewers dried yeast, phosphoric acid, animal digest, potassium chloride, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, salt, choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, taurine, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, ascorbic acid (source of Vitamin C), manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
F-4624

and now for the Nutrience- the Adult Cat Senior Formula
http://www.hagen.com/usa/cats/nutrience/adultseniordetails.html

Ground corn, poultry meal, poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), brewers rice, dried beet pulp, poultry digest, yeast culture, lecithin, phosphoric acid, salt, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, L-lysine, DL-methionine, calcium propionate (preservative), choline chloride, shark cartilage, dried Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation extract, dried kelp, dried carob, dried turmeric, dried ginger, dried fennel, dried cayenne, dried rosemary, dried fenugreek, dried valeriana, rosemary extract, dried corn fermentation soluble product, yucca schidigera extract, iron proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc methionine complex, zinc oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, inositol, niacin, taurine, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, vitamin A acetate, riboflavin, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid.

The Nutrience contains poultry meal- which in my mind is better than just plan chicken because it is cooked and then weighted vs being weighed in then cooked. This might not make alot of sense to some, but when something is cooked it loses alot of fat and water- almost 66%. This means that if something is cooked frist, after all of the water and fat have been cooked away- you will actually need MORE chicken to make up the weight requirement. By going with a ______ meal you are getting up to 5 times as much meat as you would by going with just plain __________.

The ProPlan has 1% more fat (16% vs 15%) but is MUCH higher in protien (41% vs 26%). This is obviously because of the chicken by products that have been put into the food.

If this food is part of a mix I would go with the Nutrience hands down. Part of this decision is based on personal preference, and a dislike for the proplan brand in general. However, I know many people who use this food in their mix and have no problems at all. When It gets right down to it, neither foods are wonderful, but neither are all that bad either- there is definently worse stuff out there!

[Sarbear]

Thank you for your help, Nutirence it is!

[PrettyHate]

Thank you for your help, Nutirence it is!

Youre very welcome :)