Question about cat food--Walmart vs. online pet food suppliers?

Maxx Nutrition is good for Walmart food, but you can do much better than that. The worry about Walmart is where the ingredients come from - probably China, which means they are of questionable quality and purity. I order most of my cat food from www.Petfooddirect.com. Once you order, they will send you e-coupons at least once a month for 13-22% off. More than pays for the shipping fees! Given the price of gas, and driving to a pet store, it's not such a bad deal. If you're afraid to order a case of canned food, here is a site were you can order by the can, to try it out first http://www.waggintails.com/

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I used to feed my cat a mix of canned with gravy and dry. I gave my cat diabetes with this and realize looking back over many many years of owning a cat that I also had 2 cats who had UTI's so often that finally I had to have them put down as I could no longer afford all the vet bills. Had they had only wet food with low carbs (gravy is carbs) they probably would not have had the problems.

Once my girl became diabetic I found a forum with people (4000 plus) who had found the same thing. Dry food was bad. Now I wasn't positive but began to study and of course the most apparent thing, (had I been thinking and going in that direction) is cats are obligate carnivores. Dogs over years of being domesticated had bodies who adjusted to eating flours and fruits and veggies in their food. Cats have never done that. A cat needs high protein low carb (under 10% carbs) in a wet diet. Not wetting down dry but canned.

I have a very long thing I could put here but I will shorten it to a couple links and beg you to read them. I want to say that when a cat gets high protein wet food they get full faster and eat less. You also save money in the vet department.

Contrary to what many people will say while Wellness wet no grain is great it is something some can't afford. There are many cheaper store brands that are good and work well and are on Janet and Binkys Food Chart which I will also include.

Dry food being good for teeth fallacy please read;

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=libra...

http://www.catinfo.org/

read this article for all the healthy choices

in food for your cat.

http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/ca...

Janet and Binky's Cat food chart

I would really like to hear from you as to what you decide to do. I am wondering how good my advice is as regard to convincing people to change to wet. Thank you!!

Make your own cat food, your cats will be healthier and more energetic because of it. Commercial pet food has only been around for 60+ years... and pets have been worse off because of the fillers, etc. that the stock priced minded

corporations called a "balanced diet for your pet". No animal

in their right mind would eat the stuff if they were not reliant on

humans for their survival. Check out the book:

Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats: The Ultimate Diet’ by Kymthy Schultze

Your cat would be better off fed a quality meat canned food like Fancy Feast, also available from Walmart. Your cost would not be greatly different, but it would increase the longevity of your cat and minimize your vet bills. Dry food is linked to obesity, diabetes and urinary tract issues among other things. Even the worst canned food is better than any quality of dry.

I've heard of Maxximum. It may be the best dry food available at Wal-Mart, but it's not very good. You may want to look for Purina Pro Plan Selects Natural Chicken and Brown Rice, but I don't think Wal-Mart carries it (and it's way overpriced anyway).

It would obviously be preferable to order online if Wal-Mart is the only B&M that you have access to. PetFoodDirect has pretty reasonable prices and a good selection, but shipping can of course be a little pricey. You might want to put your email address on their mailing list. They sometimes put out coupons for as much as 22% off. There are also some cash back sites like FatWallet that may give you a modest rebate on PFD purchases.

But even without a great coupon, you could buy some foods from PFD for prices that are similar to what I pay locally, especially if you order bulk quantities. For example, I pay $19 + tax for a 6.6 lb bag of EVO. You could pay about the same price by weight if you ordered a 15.4 lb bag from PFD. Personally, I would order food online if I was in your situation.

Oh, and if you're apprehensive about ordering a large quantity of food that your cat hasn't tasted, then try contacting the manufacturer. Tell them you are interested in their food but you do not live near a retailer (use the store locater to confirm if you need to), and ask them if they can mail you a sample. I know some companies are willing to send or sell sample bags in these situations.

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It's nice that people have arrived to share some of the "dry food is going to kill your cat" propaganda with us. Unfortunately, my cat will only eat wet food when I've just opened the can. She simply refuses to eat "old" wet food, regardless of what I try. That means I'm lucky if she eats one ounce of wet food before I toss the rest. So what am I supposed to do? Buy five cans of food per day, 150 cans per month? Or maybe try raw food? I'll start doing that when one of you offers to pay for my cat's food, ok? Anyway, have you guys even read your own propaganda?

"The average dry food contains 35-50 percent carbohydrates... A high quality canned food, on the other hand, contains approximately 3-5 percent carbohydrates."

Well, Innova EVO dry is 50% protein, 22% fat, and only 7% carbohydrates, and that is what my cat is going to eat. I'm happy with it, and at ~$7 per month, it's what I can afford. I've heard several people say, "dry food gave my cat diabetes," but I still haven't heard anyone say, "EVO dry food gave my cat diabetes." Dry foods are not all the same. And personally, if I felt that I could afford to spend $50 a month on cat food, then I would probably rescue a few more cats and feed them all EVO dry instead of feeding "a high quality canned food" to only one cat.

What Bonnie may not have noticed in one of her own links is that the percentage of calories from carbs is lower in EVO dry than in most canned foods. So Bonnie, why are you so hell-bent on convincing people to feed wet food? Most cats do very well on a quality dry food, and it's just dishonest to say that all dry foods are high in carbs. People like yourself and Ken should have fed your cats better quality food. Misleading other cat owners won't change what happened to your cats. My cat is NOT fat, and there is no reason for anyone to believe that she will get diabetes. Some of us did our research on cat food BEFORE our cats became obese and developed serious health problems.