What is the difference between "chicken meal" and "chicken" on the ingredients label of dry cat food? I am trying to find a really good dry food - Redford will NOT eat canned - high nutrition but not super high in protein. Redford has chronic renal failure, and has done really well with his Sub-Q fluid injections for the past 3 yrs. But now he has cut way back on his food intake, and lost almost half his weight. He used to be about 13 lbs., and now is about 6 lbs. The vet said part of that is his CRF, and part is his age; he will be 18 in Oct.
He also has arthritis and an ear infection, so besides the sub-q fluids, we give him an oral antibiotic (love those pill pockets!) and a nightly shot of gabapentin for pain relief. She (the vet) suggested using kitten food for extra calories, but we also have to be careful about not getting something really high protein because that exacerbates the CRF.
So I am trying to read labels, but it is getting really confusing!
Do any of you have a similar problem, and if so, what choice did you make regarding food? And is chicken meal better/worse or similar to plain chicken?
Any help will be appreciated by both me and our sweet boy, Redford. Thanks!
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Cats & Kittens
About cat food
(9 posts)-
Posted 2 years ago by rainingwolf #
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--And btw, Mitzi, who is 16 yrs. will only eat canned food, so there is no problem of her eating Redford's food and not getting her needs met properly.
Posted 2 years ago by rainingwolf #
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chicken meal is way better than chicken in dry food. cat food companies will make the ingrediant list before anything is cooked; cat food ingrediants are listed by wieght. raw chicken wieghs a lot so it gets put first on the list...until you cook it then it moves back down to the fifth-sixth ingrediant.
chicken meal however is already cooked so it does not have much water and remains the top ingrediant when made into cat food.
this lists good brands of dry later on in the thread: http://www.dailykitten.com/chat/topic/16684
california natural has lower protein and good ingrediant list: http://www.californianaturalpet.com/products/default.asp?panel=ga&id=72
wet food - are you saying that he won't eat wet or that he can't because it is too low of protein?
Posted 2 years ago by furryfriends50 #
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No, he just will not eat canned food at all-he sniffs it, sometimes licks the juice off if he is mad at Mitzi (she hates when he does that, LOL!) but usually just turns and walks away with a disgusted look!
Thanks for the link re: good cat foods. I remember the conversations, but couldn't seem to find the URL.Posted 2 years ago by rainingwolf #
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Orangies just have discriminating taste! ;-)
Posted 2 years ago by rainingwolf #
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I've posted before, I have the same problem with Abby.... she is a true, die hard kibble addict!.....I feed her Wellness Core (thanks to F50, it's the best grade of dry food I can find on a consistent basis that she will eat......
.. I try to get her to drink a lot of water, I change her bowl 2-3 times a day, which helps, because every time I give her fresh, she seems to like that and drink more!....she is healthy so far, and fine (only 4 yrs)... but I do wish she would eat a combo of wet and dry!
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No chicken meal is for sure better than chicken.
Definition: Chicken Meal: chicken which has been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size.
Definition: Chicken is the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken- exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, and entrails.
chicken meal has way less water in it when they begin putting the ingrediants together, making it stay the top ingrediant even after the cat food is cooked. you grind it - you loss a lot of the water. so barely any of the wieght when they wiegh the chicken comes from water.
chicken - most of chicken is water. a lot of water. so naturally chicken is going to wiegh a lot before cooking it, which is when they put the ingrediant list together to make it look better. you have to remember than dry cat food is only around 8% moisture, so try taking something from 80% moisture down to 8% and you end up with a lot less of that product. after cooking/manufacturing chicken is actually the 5th or 6th ingrediant by wieght.
Ingrediant lists for cat food are put together before actually cooking the product down to that 8% moisture content. They wiegh the ingrediants and heaviest goes on top of the list/lightest on the bottom. Water wieghs a lot so that is why chicken can make the top of the list.
However most of the better cat foods have chicken AND chicken meal as the top ingrediants on the list..even though chicken should technically be 6th.
wet food yes chicken is better...but dry chicken meal.
Posted 2 years ago by furryfriends50 #
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