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Old 11-01-2013, 07:41 PM
 
51 posts, read 139,374 times
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Does anyone have experience with 4Health? I'm looking for a corn-free reasonably priced dry food (makes up about 1/4 of his diet, rest is wet) and I had it narrowed down to TOTW, 4Health and Kirklands food. My cat is lukewarm about fish flavors (he'll scarf down half a can of something fish flavored one day and not touch it the next night) which is why I have eliminated TOTW. I have a Costco nearby but no membership so I'm thinking 4Health is the best bet. Does anyone have any opinions All Stages Life vs. Indoor Formula? Indoor has more fiber but less protein.
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Old 11-01-2013, 09:32 PM
 
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I have no experience with 4Health so can't comment on how your cat may do on it.

The regular formula is probably the better one. The Indoor has less protein and more fiber and less fat. They achieved that by increasing the barley in it and adding cellulose. Cats have no need for any grain and cellulose is just filler. The Indoor most likely has less calorie ( by decreasing protein and fat) and adding fillers ( grains & cellulose ).

From experience, the couple of times I've tried going below 18% fat I haven't been happy with my cats coats. The fur is not so smooth, thick and shiny. It quickly loses its luster. IMO I'd go with the regular and if you're worried about calories just monitor how much you feed .
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Old 11-01-2013, 09:54 PM
 
Location: California
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I haven't tried 4Health but I agree with willow about avoiding the indoor formula. One of my cats is incredibly picky about food and Kirkland is the only dry food he eats consistently. So if your cat doesn't take to the 4Health it's probably worth getting a Costco membership.
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Old 11-02-2013, 08:18 AM
 
Location: Floyd Co, VA
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I haven't used the cat food but have used the dog food and it was fine. A number of friends in my humane society circle also use the dog food and are happy with it.

I have used the Costco - Kirkland cat food for my cats and they are fine with it. You might want to ask around and see if you know someone with a membership at Costco and ask them to either pick up a bag of it for you or see if you can go with them and check it out before you spend $55.00 to join.
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Old 11-02-2013, 06:40 PM
 
Location: In a house
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The ingredients are mostly crap in the All Life Stage formula (it's mostly crap, PLUS sawdust, in the Indoor forumula).

Chicken - okay that's a good first ingredient.

Chicken meal usually means cooked, powdered bones and connective tissue, beaks, claws, eyeballs, etc. All the stuff that would normally get thrown away, if you were to butcher the chicken from your own back yard for supper.

"Egg Product" - no idea what that's supposed to mean. Is it egg, or is it not egg?

Barley and rice are both grains - not useful for cats and can contribute to kidney problems. If it was in smaller quantities (rather than being the 5th and 6th ingredient respectively), it wouldn't kill them to have a palmful to graze on at night, as long as they were eating their wet food and you saw the level go down in their water dish every day.

Then salmon, then potatoes - potatoes are mostly starch, once they've been processed. That's actually -bad- for them, rather than being merely "not useful" for them.

There's "ocean fish meal" - which is anyone's guess. It could be tuna, or guppies, or sturgeon, or "mostly mercury with a fish flavor" for all you'd know. They don't have to identify it further, and it isn't likely they will.

The biggest problem with 4Health, is that they had cat food packaged and manufactured in the Diamond plants. And Diamond is notorious for having serious problems with their food qualities and factory sanitation, such that they've had a bunch of recalls (including the 4Health dry cat foods) as recent as May of this year.
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Old 11-02-2013, 08:26 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick View Post
The ingredients are mostly crap in the All Life Stage formula (it's mostly crap, PLUS sawdust, in the Indoor forumula).

Chicken - okay that's a good first ingredient.

Chicken meal usually means cooked, powdered bones and connective tissue, beaks, claws, eyeballs, etc. All the stuff that would normally get thrown away, if you were to butcher the chicken from your own back yard for supper.

"Egg Product" - no idea what that's supposed to mean. Is it egg, or is it not egg?

Barley and rice are both grains - not useful for cats and can contribute to kidney problems. If it was in smaller quantities (rather than being the 5th and 6th ingredient respectively), it wouldn't kill them to have a palmful to graze on at night, as long as they were eating their wet food and you saw the level go down in their water dish every day.

Then salmon, then potatoes - potatoes are mostly starch, once they've been processed. That's actually -bad- for them, rather than being merely "not useful" for them.

There's "ocean fish meal" - which is anyone's guess. It could be tuna, or guppies, or sturgeon, or "mostly mercury with a fish flavor" for all you'd know. They don't have to identify it further, and it isn't likely they will.

The biggest problem with 4Health, is that they had cat food packaged and manufactured in the Diamond plants. And Diamond is notorious for having serious problems with their food qualities and factory sanitation, such that they've had a bunch of recalls (including the 4Health dry cat foods) as recent as May of this year.


Actually chicken as a first ingredient in a dry food doesn't mean much. The ingredients are listed by the weight of them BEFORE processing. Chicken is full of water. Once that water is removed, that chicken drops well below all the grains and sawdust, which start out dry to begin with. Everything else you say I agree with.

OP: Why not just feed them all wet?
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Old 11-02-2013, 08:43 PM
 
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Thanks! I decided on Taste of the Wild and he seems to be liking it.

I've decided against all wet because at least for this year I'll be going away for a few days at a time for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Someone will look in on him once a day for some wet but the other meal will have to be dry. I'm worried that if he doesn't stay on some dry he will have issues with UTIs from reintroducing so quickly and simply won't like it anymore. He drinks plenty of water and I mix water with his wet food, so I'm not worried about dehydration. Hopefully after the new year I'll have him on an all wet diet.
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Old 11-02-2013, 09:09 PM
 
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Your concern about fish with the TOTW is a valid concern. Everything they make contains fish. I find that very...well fishy.

At least avoid feeding ANY canned foods that contain fish, to cut down on the amount of fish your cat will be eating. Fish is detrimental to urinary tract health in cats.
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Old 11-02-2013, 09:46 PM
 
Location: In a house
13,250 posts, read 42,622,995 times
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Originally Posted by catsmom21 View Post
Your concern about fish with the TOTW is a valid concern. Everything they make contains fish. I find that very...well fishy.

At least avoid feeding ANY canned foods that contain fish, to cut down on the amount of fish your cat will be eating. Fish is detrimental to urinary tract health in cats.
Actually it's mercury that's detrimental. We've been through this before catsmom. Cats DO eat fish, in the wild, and domestically. The only cats that don't ever eat fish in the wild, are cats that don't have access to them. There are some cats that especially enjoy fish, and some that will eat it as a semi-regular part of their diet. And some that only eat it when hunting hasn't been particularly successful, and there's a fish near the shore begging to be caught. And some cats that are specifically excellent fish-catchers, who enjoy swimming in the water, and eat fish as a steady part of their diet.

Most fish in most commercial cat foods come from questionable sources, or unknown sources. But some are not. BFF (from Weruva) uses wild-caught tuna and salmon, of the same quality that is sold for human consumption. So the mercury levels are minimal (compared to other commercial cat-foods, and even some human foods). Salmon is especially -good- for cats, as long as the mercury levels are tested and kept under a certain level (I have no idea what that level is, and it's late, so I won't be googling it). Wild-caught pacific salmon I believe has the lower mercury levels - again you'd have to do a search for the exact information, I might be remembering it wrong. But I have looked it up in the distant past and know the information is available.

I'm not sure of the source of Taste of the Wild, but presumably they also use wild-caught fish with reliable testing processes. There's something about them that wasn't so great - I think it had to do with their lack of transparency regarding carbohydrates. I can't remember what it was though.

You could splurge and go for Stella and Chewy's - they also have issues regarding exact calorie and other transparency - but they do guarantee their foods are 100% nutritionally complete and safe. Plus they're a small-batch company that uses a human-food kitchens and packaging plant, so they can be more sure of what's going into their bags than most other commercial brands. It comes dry, but it's intended to be rehydrated. This is dehydrated raw food and it is expensive, and comes in several flavors. It's a good food to use in a rotation but I wouldn't use it exclusively.

For dry, I use Purevita. My cat gets just a palmful to graze on at night so she doesn't bother us while we're trying to sleep. Other than that, she gets 1 3-ounce can in the morning, and 1 3-ounce pouch of BFF "Tuna and Chicken Charm Me" or something and beef whatever, the same time me and DH have supper.
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Old 11-02-2013, 09:58 PM
 
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Mercury is not the only concern for cats eating fish. There are many reasons to avoid it, especially for males. I am not a fan of dry food, and I am not a fan of Taste of the Wild, because the food is dry and because every formula contains fish. "Wild caught" doesn't really mean much, it says nothing about the quality of the fish used, just how it was caught.

Hopefully, with the bulk of the OP's cat's diet being canned with water added, the TOTW will not have detrimental urinary tract effects, but I would watch him closely all the same, and make sure any pet sitter also keeps a sharp eye on the litter box, (make sure the sitter knows what to watch for such as an unused box, or small spots of pee in the box) and that they see he gets his watery canned meals, too.
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