Authority or Nutro Natural Choice? Which is the better cat food?

Question

I went to pet smart to get my cat a better brand of food than he is on. I read the ingredients ect and these to seemed real close. I asked the girl working which was better and she gave me a confused look and said ummmm either should be ok.

I just want to know which is better?

Answer 1

don't go to pet smart, go to pet-co and get Wellness, it is the best cat food on earth, read the ingredients and judge for yourself, there is no by-products no corn gluten or wheat gluten or soy, it is MEAT, and even smells like chicken, the p**p is less often and doesn't smell and they eat less of it because it is so rich

Answer 2

After trying almost every brand there is, better to me is defined as the food your cat will eat.  I endorse the higher end dry foods and will not buy the grocery store products, but have not had success with the higher end wet choices.  I have come to the conclusion that a mid-grade wet supplemented by a higher end dry is the best way to go, but finding what your cat will eat can be the real challenge. I have had the opportunity to take many bags of food to the shelters because my cat just would not eat.  Best Wishes!

Answer 3

Authority was also involved in a recall.  To be honest, I don't really know which is better of the two.  Just take a look at the ingredients and make sure there are no grains, glutens, or by-products.  I can't speak for either brand though.  Sorry I can't be much more help, I just saw that someone said Nutro was part of the recall, but so was Authority.  Good luck with your kitty and his food.

Answer 4

I don't know which is better but neither are very high quality.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)

Answer 5

They are both better choices than any of the grocery store brands.  Of the two, I'd choose the Authority simply because Nutro was involved in the recall of last year, and Authority was not.  They are very close I will agree with you there.  Is it possible for you to get the smallest quantity of both of them, and see which your cat prefers?  The Nutro has a largish pellet shape (I'm guessing you are buying dry food) and that is appealing to some cats and not to others.