Why do so many cat foods have such a low meat content?

fairy_lights

There is always a lot of talk on this board about cat food, and something that comes up time and again is how whiskers/felix and many other brands are poor quality and all filler with a very low meat content. I'd never really given it any thought until I started comparing different types of food for my own cat and realised that some foods have a meat content as low as 4% :eek:
I don't understand how food like that can even be sold as pet food! It got me wondering if there are minimum standards pet food has to meet, or is it completely unregulated?
Obviously a better quality food is going to cost more to produce, but my local butchers sell huge bags of minced offal for a couple of quid, which works out cheaper than even cheap cat food with a very low meat content. It doesn't make sense to me!

danih

I Know!!!! I went into Asda on Monday looking for kitten food - they sold nothing with a meat content higher then 4%!!!! Didn't buy anything.

chocdonuty

I think the meat content is higher but when it's advertised as chicken then they have to put the amount of chicken in there, ie 4% but the rest can be any meat/fillers ect.
A lot of the supermarket food inc whiskas/felix is full of fillers and cereals that cats just don't need and if you can get your cats on a healthier diet then it's so much better and can be cheaper sometimes too!
Of course this does depend on how fussy your cat is!:D

fairy_lights

Ahh I see, so when the ingredients say 'chicken 4%' the food actually has a much higher meat content?
What proportion of meat to filler would be normal in supermarket food? I find it strange that they put the total meat % on the label because that's what a lot of people look for, surely.

HappyMJ

Tinned meat is mostly water. Water does not count as meat content.

gettingready

Whiskas.... always makes mi giggle when people say they feed their cats "whiskers"

fairy_lights

gettingready wrote: »

Whiskas.... always makes mi giggle when people say they feed their cats "whiskers"

It's called Whiskas?! I always thought it was Whiskers! Think I might need to improve on my reading skills, ha!

SavingPennies_2

Yep I've noticed this even with the so-called premium brands. I only buy Encore, the meat content is 75%, the highest I've found. It looks good enough for human consumption (if I wasn't a veggie!) and doesn't have that awful cat food smell.

peachyprice

fairy_lights wrote: »

There is always a lot of talk on this board about cat food, and something that comes up time and again is how whiskers/felix and many other brands are poor quality and all filler with a very low meat content. I'd never really given it any thought until I started comparing different types of food for my own cat and realised that some foods have a meat content as low as 4% :eek:

The labelling isn't very clear, but it's as Chocdonuty said, not 4% meat but 4% specific meat

chocdonuty wrote: »

I think the meat content is higher but when it's advertised as chicken then they have to put the amount of chicken in there, ie 4% but the rest can be any meat/fillers ect.

I'be just looked at a can of Sainsbury's own brand I have kicking about, their labelling is much clearer, it actually says 'meat content min 40% of including 4% chicken 4% turkey' But a lot of labelling seems to miss out the total meat content.

teddysmum

Meat, being the most expensive item, is replaced with cheap 'fillers' in economy foods.


I use Fish4Dogs (also make Fish4cats) and their cat range has minimum 65% fish of which 22% is fresh fish, with no cereal fillers. The foods are expensive, but I buy my dogs' food when it's on offer.

Mat_Lock

We acquired 2 cats last month and they have been fed on Whiskas as long as I know. Previous owner had whiskas pouches and dry food.

I know it's really bad so have been meaning to ween them off Whiskas. Just waiting for payday this friday to buy some really good food.

I've heard to ween them off it it's best to have a mix of old and new foods in percentages and slowly decrease the old and increase the new until they are on all the new stuff.

Can see that costing me a fortune haha but they are sooo worth it.