Eukanuba Small Breed Reduced Fat??

[horsegal]

This was the only type of food i could find at my local store. Has anybody else used it? Here is its info:
Protein not less than 22%
Crude fat not less than 12% but not more than 12%
Fiber not more than 4%
Has: corn meal, chicken, chicken by-product meal, fish meal, ground whole grain sorghum

I will probably mix it with some of these: Natures Recipe Puppy, Authority Adult cat, CSFTCLS Lite, and Spikes Delite Hedgie food.
What would you reccomend. Im not sure what the others have in them because i havent been to a store that carries them. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

[horsegal]

Hmm... I spent more time looking around and I think I will use Natures Recipe Weight Control Cat and Eukanuba Small Breed Reduced Fat Dog and CSFTCLS Lite. These are the only ones I could find that have low fat. I will add bran flakes for fiber.

[HedgeMom]

Eukanuba not only uses Ethoxyquin as a preservative, which is not approved for human use and is actually a rubber additive, but it uses by product meal which is the cheapest protein souce possible. It's guts and feathers and beaks and feet and NO muscle meat. It has no place in any animal's diet, IMHO.

[horsegal]

Ok, I just started with it because I saw that the breeder my hedgie is coming from uses it and it was easily available. Do the others look ok? Can I just mix 2 or should I find another to use?

[chin_gal]

Don't know about Hedgies but a general rule for dog/cat food is if it has bi-products or chicken/meat meal in the first 5 or so ingrediants, it's crap. So, instead should have real meat/chicken/lamb...whatever. :) Corn meal is also just a filler, so you'll want the least in there as possible, and especially not in the first ingrediant.

[Steph]

I would also not feed Eukanuba. I am actually re-thinking my diet plan yet again. Sometimes too much is a bad thing I believe. I have cut out all but the CSFTCLSL from my mix again. I started a mix and had some hedgies start losing weight, going off feed, etc... Decided to switch back to one food as I'd done for many years previously and bang, they are all gaining, eating, etc... I just decided to not mess with something that worked for me for years. :)

[horsegal]

Ok, I looked around some more and decided that I will call the petstore and see if they have it and if they dont i can order it online. As of now I have decided on Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul Light and Wellness Super5Mix Lite Formula for Cats. I would like to add another. I considered Royal Canin but it doesnt seem to be as good as the others.

Ingredients for Royal Canin
Chicken Meal, corn, wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, brown rice, pea fiber, rice hulls, chicken, natural chicken flavor, beet pulp, chichen fat (naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract and citric acid)

[HedgeMom]

Just want to clarify something, chin_gal. Any meal that is just MEAL with a named meat (chicken meal, duck meal, trout meal) is actually excellent. A meal with "byproducts" in the middle is bad no matter what the meat source. And anything listed just as "meat meal" is just plain horrid.

Named meat meal is actually a concentration of muscle meats and is everything that is good and healthy about protein. Byproduct meals are guts, offal and trash trimmings. Skin, feathers, feet, etc,. and totally bad. "Meat meal" is just mystery meat. And you and I both know that that means the cats behind the cafeteria.

For those of you who don't know, animals that are euthanized by vets are picked up by protein renderers. They also pick up road kill, out of season killed wildlife and dead farm animals. They render these down into a meat meal and a rendered fat. This is bought by cheap animal food manufacturers and used as the protein source that is listed as "meat meal".

[Steph]

My vet won't even let us bring a euthanized animal home unless we cremate it first. It's just too dangerous for roaming pets, wildlife, etc... The body will still emit the poison and if dug up by a pet or wild animal it can kill them too.

[wyvernrider18]

Yes, Chicken Soup is very good. Right now, I use Premium Edge in my cats. Made by the same company, is pretty much the same quality, and is a few bucks cheaper. The only problem- I can get Premium Edge in Nebraska where I'm going to college, but I can't get it ANYWHERE is South Dakota, so I will be switching to Chicken Soup soon. IMO Royal Canin sucks because the prices on it are unbelievable. You should not have to pay $40+ bucks for like 15-20lbs of food. That's just ridiculous. That's more than I spend on food for myself in one shot! It's amazing how they'll jack up the price of the "special" foods.