Is Purina cat food a good brand? I heard it can give cats kidney disease..is that true?

Question

I dont like to spend a lot of $$$$ on cat food..but i was wondering if Purina cat food can eventually give cats Kidney faliure. Also, I feed my cat Fancy Feast dry cat food & wet, is that still a good brand too?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi, I have struggled with this too, one of my kitties has diabetes.  I had to change her food to high protein and low carbs, there are many flavors of fancy feast that is low carb, the ones with no gravy has less carbs. I cant feed my diabetic kitty dry food, she eats NO gravy Fancy Feast daily to keep her blood sugar down and gets 2 shots of insulin a day depending on what her blood sugar is, I have to test her before the shots. Best to keep the kitty healthy from the start, do research and come up with the best for your budget. I am attaching some links that help you with research. In the middle of one page there is a carb calorie list for canned and dry.. for your information  http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/index...  GOOD LUCK.  http://www.catnutrition.org/index.php

Answer 2

I don't know if it can give them kidney failure but it is a low quality cat food and so is Fancy Feast.

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 diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, 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 3

purina is a very good brand. thats what i feed my dogs and cats and my horse and chicken feed is purina ...its is not true it does not give your cat kidney disease!. ..i like fancy feast too... its also a good brand i just wish that they make it in a 40 pound bag .

Answer 4

I would not feed my cat's those brands either. Try Felidae, it's not as expensive as Wellness. I give my cats Solid Gold and they love it. A 11 pound bag would be about $12 depending which pet store you go to.

Answer 5

No, Purina is not especially good.

I don't believe a direct connection between it and kidney disease exists.

I believe it's just the fact that it's a) crappy food and b) dry.  It's dry food, regardless of brand, that could possibly lead to kidney problems down the road.

You'd do better to stick to the Fancy Feat canned food - or any canned food for that matter.

Answer 6

I have 3 cats and the only brand of dry cat food they will eat is Purina.  We tried switching them to a different brand once and they refused to eat it so we had to change back again.  So far all 3 are perfectly healthy and have never had any problems on that diet.  My oldest cat is almost 11 years old now.  I don't think any brand of cat food will give your cat kidney disease.  If that were true and provable they would pull the food from the market and reformulate it.  I know that feeding your cat too much human food can give it kidney problems.

Answer 7

Well we used to give my cat Purina, but we stopped giving it to him because it was giving him bathroom issues.  So we started giving him a different brand.  But I haven't heard anything about kidney failure.  I don't think they'd be doing so well if that was true.  But I just don't feed my cat Purina because it gives him stomach problems.

And Fancy Feast Wet and Dry is fine.  I give my kitten wet Fancy Feast once in the morning and once in the evening, with dry food in between there.  He will eat any flavor of it! :)

Answer 8

No matter the brand... it's DRY food in general that contributes to cats getting kidney failure.

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.

All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it’s almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), bladder stones, kidney stones,  urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall,  wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

I recommend varying the diet with a constant rotation of 2 to 4 different brands of  canned foods that your cat enjoys. If you do this, and allow your cat the same assortment they would have in nature when eating mice, bugs, birds and rabbits, your cat’s digestive system won't be so sensitive and you won't have to run around looking for a specific brand when your store is out. You will have a nice variety to choose from instead.

Canned foods I recommend you consider for your rotation:

Nature's Variety - http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.la...

Wellness Grain Free Formula’s - http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/cat_welln...

By Nature Organics - http://www.bynaturepetfoods.com/productp...

Organix -  http://www.castorpolluxpet.com/store/org...

Evanger's Holistic Pheasant - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/20089...

Evanger's Organic Braised Chicken - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50103...

Evanger's Turkey & Butternut Squash - http://www.evangersdogfood.com/cat/50111...