Choosing the right pet food for your animals is, oddly enough, a rather difficult decision (or at least it should be). With so many options available, it’s easy to get confused and misled. The pet food industry is a $25 billion/year market and with all that money comes the power of marketing and branding. There are so many brands and types of pet food under labels such as “all natural”, “organic”, “wholesome”, and the like that one can’t help but be suckered into buying the label hype. So how can a good pet owner decipher all this marketing and make the best nutritional choice for their animals? It’s actually pretty simple; read the ingredients and the nutritional analysis, just like you would when buying food for yourself.

My Story

Years ago, when I got my first cat Oliver, I, like most early pet owners, wanted a food that was “good” but also affordable. A friend of mine had suggested Eukanuba as being the best brand available. So I rollerbladed (yes, I was an early teenager in the mid 90’s) down to Petco to check it out. The food was a little pricey but the bag was nice and cool looking and just looked like it must be a good food (I was a kid…ok?).

Anyway, I kept Oliver on this diet for a good while until a year or so after I got my second cat, Kona. Kona eventually developed FLUTD and had to be placed on a prescription food made by Science Diet. This diet had very low levels of minerals to prevent struvite crystals. My vet told me that it would be alright to feed Oliver this food as well so for a long while I fed both cats this prescription food. To make a long story short, Kona had to be put down because of his disease and Oliver was put down a short while after because of what I believe was FIP (though I did not have enough money at the time for diagnosis or treatment and the vet seemed indifferent about finding a cause).

Now, I’m not saying specifically that diet caused my cat’s diseases but I am now of the firm belief that it certainly didn’t help them. After I lost Kona, I set out on a quest to educate myself on pet nutrition in the hope that next time I could somehow avoid this kind of outcome. I picked up the book The Nature of Animal Healing by Martin Goldstein. This book was one of the best and most informative book on pet health and nutrition that I have read. I highly recommend it. Anyway, Fast forward a few years and I now have two more cats and since the beginning I have been feeding them Spa Select from Blue Buffalo. This food is relatively good and is in the mid range price wise. Overall I have had a good experience with it. However, after trying the indoor type, my cats seemed to not like the flavor much. I myself thought that smell of the indoor type was pretty awful so I can imagine how difficult eating it was for them. Thus, I decided to checkout what new brands and types are available these days.

This past weekend I visited a new pet store in my neighborhood called Choice Pet Market in northern Glendale. It’s one of those “upscale” pet stores that carry higher-quality pet foods and supplies.I found the workers relatively helpful and the store was in good condition with a large selection of cat and dog food. They do have some other pet related items like fish supplies and such but the prices on those items were pretty high. The food prices however were what you might expect from a specialty store but overall not too bad.

After talking with the sales person about the popular brands of both dry and can cat food, I decided to go with Taste of the Wild; a grain-free dry food that is high in protein and quality ingredients. It also has fruits and vegetables which (according to my research) experts highly recommend. As for the can food, we went with the Wellness CORE. The Wellness CORE brand is considered one of the very best feline dry foods available but it is of course rather expensive. However, their can food is about $1.50/5.5oz can which is not too bad in comparison to the other options. Also grain free, high protein and low fat; this can option is very good.

Of course the true test is in the taste. While it is a little early to give any feedback on the taste or behavioral effects on my cats, mixing a little in with their current feed last night they did seem a little more interested. Prior to putting the bag away, my cats were actually trying to rip a hole in the new bag so it must be a good sign that they liked the smell.

What I’ve Learned

OK, enough about me, you’re really here to know about choosing a quality pet food for your animals! Well, as I said before, it comes down to the ingredients and guaranteed analysis. In general (and you should do research/get advice for your specific case) when shopping for pet food, you should pay special attention to the first ten ingredients of the food you are looking at. Here are some tips I have found from various places on the web:

• You should see predominantly protein sources like chicken, beef, lamb, pork, turkey, various fish, or venison.  Items ending in “meal” here are fine…for instance “chicken meal” or “lamb meal.”
• Stay away from protein sources labeled “by-product” or “meat/beef and bone meal.” These are probably the lowest quality protein sources you can find and generally consist of meat sources deemed unsuitable for human consumption (think left over carcasses and such…also translated as “parts other than meat”).
• “Flavor” means just that, not actual meat.
• “Rendered” products can vary greatly in quality and can possibly be from what are considered 4D animals (dead, diseased, disabled, and dying). There have also been claims that this can include euthanized animals from vets.
• Try to get grain-free foods. Grains like rice and wheat are used as fillers and are not as nutritious as quality protein sources.
• If the food smells overly bad to you, don’t give it your animals. I mean, your not exactly going to love the smell of pet food anyway, but it should not smell “bad.”
• If you buy a large bag (as it is usually much cheaper to do so), be sure to store the dry food in an air tight container away from heat and moisture.
• Cats should be getting about 50% of their nutrition from wet foods. Mix it up a bit with quality brands and flavors.
• Look for more natural preservatives in the ingredient list. Avoid BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin.

As I said, this is simply a collection of information I found online. There are a number of sources on animal nutrition and to get a good idea, you should really research a bunch of them, don’t just read on article and consider it the truth (especially from a  food manufacturer). While there may be a great number of opinions out there (everything from a pure raw meat diet to a more practical [in both cost and time] balanced method like I use), always remember to check with your vet first and to think reasonable about any advice you are going to follow.

Some good resources

http://www.petfoodratings.net/ - A great resource covering a large number of pet foods. Rated for many different aspects of pet nutrition.
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/ - Great resource for feline health issues. Probably have one for dogs too.
http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?more=1&p=359 - Great article on pet food and industry practices

Tags: animal, brands, nutrition, pet food