What Flavors Of Before Grain Canned Does Your Cat Like?

[tilli]

Does the fruits and veggies help as a source of fiber and help with digestion?

It's just a marketing ploy. People think of fruits and veggies as wholesome, but cats don't need and can't properly utilize fruits and veggies because they are carnivores. They don't need fiber in their digestive tracts, that's an omnivore thing. A carnivore's digestive tract moves much faster and is adapted to digesting prey, not plants.

[catsmom21]

Originally Posted by movin2Reston

Does the fruits and veggies help as a source of fiber and help with digestion?

Not really. Cats are obligate carnivores and their bodies aren't designed to process vegetable matter. It's just expensive filler that pet food manufacturers have latched onto, because it sells pet food. The human thinks (and even vets are known to say this) "wow look at all those good fruits and veggies this must be a good food!"

When the truth is, the cats body does not really benefit from these things.

Unfortunately, when one wants to rotate brands, and has a finicky cat, sometimes it's a matter of lesser of two evils. So, for instance my Little Cat eats the Before Grain, every few days, but the other foods I've found that she will eat that meet my minimum criteria (no grain, no gluten, no powdered cellulose, no medadione sodium bisulfate, no artifical anything, no sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate, no dye) all contain some forms of fruits and veggies.

Where I can, I pick them out.

I like how well my cats are doing on the Before Grain, but that doesn't mean I trust the company, any more than I trust any other pet food manufacturer. For instance I loathe Purina, but I am just as suspicious of any other company as I am of Purina.

[movin2Reston]

Guess I was thinking it would be helpful when it comes to hairballs.

Originally Posted by tilli

It's just a marketing ploy. People think of fruits and veggies as wholesome, but cats don't need and can't properly utilize fruits and veggies because they are carnivores. They don't need fiber in their digestive tracts, that's an omnivore thing. A carnivore's digestive tract moves much faster and is adapted to digesting prey, not plants.

[movin2Reston]

I guess I am surprise that fruits and vegetables would actually make the product more expensive compared to Before Grain.

Between Wellness and Before Grain, would you expect to see any difference in feeding one or the other for effects on a cat?

I know many comment on how Wellness makes their cat's coat so shiny and their cat is full of energy; I assume the same holds true for Before Grain.

For now I am going with a 50/50 split between the two brands. I know the protein level is comparable, but Before Grain has a little less fat and a few less calories.

Originally Posted by catsmom21

Not really. Cats are obligate carnivores and their bodies aren't designed to process vegetable matter. It's just expensive filler that pet food manufacturers have latched onto, because it sells pet food. The human thinks (and even vets are known to say this) "wow look at all those good fruits and veggies this must be a good food!"

When the truth is, the cats body does not really benefit from these things.

Unfortunately, when one wants to rotate brands, and has a finicky cat, sometimes it's a matter of lesser of two evils. So, for instance my Little Cat eats the Before Grain, every few days, but the other foods I've found that she will eat that meet my minimum criteria (no grain, no gluten, no powdered cellulose, no medadione sodium bisulfate, no artifical anything, no sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate, no dye) all contain some forms of fruits and veggies.

Where I can, I pick them out.

I like how well my cats are doing on the Before Grain, but that doesn't mean I trust the company, any more than I trust any other pet food manufacturer. For instance I loathe Purina, but I am just as suspicious of any other company as I am of Purina.

[catsmom21]

Originally Posted by movin2Reston

I guess I am surprise that fruits and vegetables would actually make the product more expensive compared to Before Grain.

Between Wellness and Before Grain, would you expect to see any difference in feeding one or the other for effects on a cat?

I know many comment on how Wellness makes their cat's coat so shiny and their cat is full of energy; I assume the same holds true for Before Grain.

For now I am going with a 50/50 split between the two brands. I know the protein level is comparable, but Before Grain has a little less fat and a few less calories.

I did see a difference. Two years ago I was feeding Wellness almost exclusively to one of my adult females. Her coat was lush and her eyes were bright.

However, I was starting to notice some inconsistencies in the Wellness batches (this was about 2 years after the buy out) and I was impatient with the fruit and veggie fillers.

I gradually switched over to Before Grain. After about two months on the Before Grain, I couldn't believe the difference. I thought her coat had been as soft and luxurious as it could be. I was wrong. On the BG her coat is twice as nice. Her weight is easier to manage because BG has fewer calories. I'm not worried about fat content, cats are supposed to have animal fat. What they don't need is sugar, and you know what fruit is? Pure sugar.

Wellness turkey is still in her rotation, but only about once every two weeks.

[movin2Reston]

For both of my cats, one needs to lose about a pound (feeding her primarily one 5.5 oz can per day) and the other needs to gain about a pound (feeding her primarily Wellness since it is higher in calories and fat.

Once the one gains about a pound, I am planning on feeding them both primarily Before Grain.

You bring up an interesting point with the fruits and sugar content....we all know how big of a problem that has been for most humans.

Originally Posted by catsmom21

I did see a difference. Two years ago I was feeding Wellness almost exclusively to one of my adult females. Her coat was lush and her eyes were bright.

However, I was starting to notice some inconsistencies in the Wellness batches (this was about 2 years after the buy out) and I was impatient with the fruit and veggie fillers.

I gradually switched over to Before Grain. After about two months on the Before Grain, I couldn't believe the difference. I thought her coat had been as soft and luxurious as it could be. I was wrong. On the BG her coat is twice as nice. Her weight is easier to manage because BG has fewer calories. I'm not worried about fat content, cats are supposed to have animal fat. What they don't need is sugar, and you know what fruit is? Pure sugar.

Wellness turkey is still in her rotation, but only about once every two weeks.

[movin2Reston]

Both of my cats were enjoying the Turkey and Chicken flavors, but suddenly my one cat has turned her nose up to the Turkey flavor. Is the taste of it not as good as Chicken?