[lowlight]

I mentioned in another thread that we bought some Iam's canned food from Park n Shop, and our cat wouldn't eat it. She normally eats the Iam's canned food from Red Carrot (the pet store at the top of APM mall)

Curious, I checked out the labels for differences. The stuff from the pet store is labeled as "Premium Cat Food" and from the grocery store it is labeled as "Adult Cat Food". Ironically, the grocery store variety is more expensive (about $5.50 per can instead of $4 per can).

Here are the ingredients:

Grocery Store Version:

Meat Broth, chicken, Poultry Liver, Tuna, Wheat Gluten, Ocean Fish, Dried Beet Pulp, Meat By-Products, Fish Oil, Natural Flavors, Guar Gum, Salt, Titanium Dioxide, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Vitamins, Minerals

Pet Store Version:

Salmon Broth, Ocean Fish, Beef Liver, Chicken, Corn Oil, Brewers Rice, Dried Egg Product, Fish Meal, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Brewers Yeast, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Vitamins, Minerals, Taurine

As you can see, the grocery store version has a lot of filler (gluten, beet pulp, guar gum) which cats obviously don't need to feed on considering they are a 'pure carnivore'. It also contains meat by-products, "natural flavors," more salts, and even a dye (Titanium dioxide).

Now I'm not an expert so I can't give that kind of advice here.. But as you can see, the Iam's being sold in grocery stores is no different than any other cheap grocery store brand, filled with junk that your cat doesn't need.

[nina_70]

Very interesting!
Note that cats do naturally eat some grains and greens in the wild, but processed fillers such as wheat gluten are totally unecessary. The 3 main differences I see from these cans are:

1/ Excess processed filler in the grocery version vs. pet store just like you mentioned.

2/ Meat by-products in the grocery version vs. none in the pet store. Meat by-products are used in many lesser-grade cat feeds, and can mean allot of things. They're basically the excess (unused) parts of the animals, ground down and rendered. Normally I try to avoid any feed with this and look for feeds with a specific, named protein source.

3/ Salmon broth as the main ingredient vs. beef broth in the pet store version. Either one is fine, but your cat might just have a preference for the salmon flavor (I know mine do)

[lowlight]

Actually it's "meat" broth, not "beef" broth... that could mean anything!

[nina_70]

You're right! I missed that. Even worse...you have no idea where it's coming from!

[jeffonthego]

To my mind this is an all-too-typical example of a company devaluing its brand. When I had cats years ago, Iams was well regarded as a premium cat food brand. But a move like this just cheapens their reputation in my view. And if that's not enough, there is also a campaign against them for cruelty in their development process: http://www.iamscruelty.com/

[nina_70]

jeffonthego - Very interesting! I didn't know about that. We used to be iams fans 4-5 years ago, but we switched away from it a few years back. Now, we feed our cats more natural brands with absolute minimal additives/fillers such as Natural Balance, Azmira, Organix, Innova....it's certainly improved their coats (and I like to think their health, but that we'll only be able to tell over time...)