Learning to read the composition of feed
Division of feed into classes
There are 4 classes of feeds:
"Economy": feeds that are made from low-quality raw materials, mainly by-products (meat industry waste, what has not been eaten by humans, that is, beaks, skin, hooves, tripe waste, tumors.), cereals (usually low grade, also waste) and soy, and also, various chemicals, flavor enhancers, dyes (to attract owners with colorful beautiful granules).
"Premium": the composition includes products of higher quality, the main source of protein is meat products, the meat content is an order of magnitude higher than in "economy" feeds. The composition contains vitamins, minerals.
"Super premium": it is characterized by high digestibility by the body, a high content of meat, high-quality cereals, and the best ones are made without "cereal" filling. The composition is balanced. The composition contains vitamins and minerals.
"Holistic" is a new generation of super–premium feed, the creation of which has become a whole philosophy in the pet industry. Their main difference from conventional products are ingredients that are suitable for food not only animals, but also people.
Unfortunately, the most widely advertised feeds are "Economy Class" feeds.
In order for you to evaluate the composition of the feed yourself correctly and choose a suitable diet for your pet, we will look at the mysterious inscriptions on the package "Composition" and "Comparative analysis". What, to what and why.
If we consider the composition of feed, then first of all you need to look at the ingredients at the beginning of the list — those that are in the first place are the basis of the feed, then the products are arranged in descending order. The basis of natural cat feeding is meat. This means that the basis of ready-made diets should also be meat in the first place. The composition of the feed may change over time, so you need to not only blindly believe someone's words or the inscription "super premium" on the package, but carefully read the composition on the package - meat should be in the first place and there should be a lot of it. Separately, I want to say about such components as carrots, lentils, pumpkin, apples and the like. All vegetable and fruit components are added only as a source of vitamins, and not for variety in the diet.
The basic rules of feeding are simple:
- It is desirable to give dry and wet food to one company, even better — one line. In different diets — different composition.
- A cat should always have enough water freely available!
- Changing the feed is a very big stress for the gastrointestinal tract of the cat, so the transition should be carried out smoothly, by mixing the new feed into the old one for 7-10 days. The new feed is mixed incrementally — on the first day 1/6 of the portion, then we increase, on the last day of the old feed there should be quite a bit in the portion.
- It is impossible to feed with high—quality feeds from different companies, again - stress and imbalance, because each feed has its own composition. There is no need to feed one super-food today, and another next week. To mix different feeds of the same company, for example, to take and feed a week with a Proplan "wool withdrawal" , a week with a Proplan "Delicate" , and a week with a Proplan "sterilized", is not forbidden, but it will not be useful either, since by such feeding you will not achieve the "3 in 1" effect, but you will reduce all the effects at no. At the same time, it is possible to change tastes, that is, part of the time to feed the same Proplan "Delicat" with turkey, and part of it with fish, although cats are not particularly picky in this regard, one constant taste of food does not bother them, but there are exceptions.
- I have heard the opinion that it is impossible to feed cats with holistic food all the time. This is not true. Holistic is just a grain—free feed. They can be fed constantly. And sterilized and neutered — you can also feed holistic.
Now let's analyze the composition of the feed.
The ingredients in the feed are written in descending order.
There are so many feeds at the moment that it is unrealistic to cover and disassemble all this diversity. We have already figured out that first of all you need to look at the composition, meat should be in the first place in the composition.
MEAT. If the word "dehydrated" comes before the name of the meat ingredient, then there is as much of it as it is written, if there is no such word, then the amount of the ingredient in its raw form is indicated, and after evaporation of water (this is done in the manufacture of dry food), its weight remains at best 1/3 part and such an ingredient will no longer stand in the first place. The name of the animal from which the meat is taken should also be indicated (for example, chicken meat, rabbit meat, chicken liver, etc.) We avoid such names as - poultry meat flour, chicken meat flour.
CEREALS. The presence of cereals in large quantities is also not very welcome. The cat does not need cereals, as it is announced in a beautiful advertisement on TV. If you look at the diet of a village cat, it is a mouse, that is, meat (protein, amino acids), bones—skin (calcium, phosphorus), stomach-insides (taurine, vitamins, vegetable fibers — stomach contents), blood (minerals). Grain crops are acceptable in the feed, but their quantity should be small and certainly should not be in the first place. Rice and oatmeal are the most suitable, since they are digested better than other cereals, their content is desirable in whole form, and not in the form of flour (again, flour is milled residues from industries that do not go to human food). Sorghum is a good source of carbohydrates, BUT it is almost indigestible and can cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract.
POTATO. Potatoes are an excellent source of carbohydrates. And cats don't digest carbohydrates. It contains many useful substances. Does not cause allergies.
OFFAL. The mysterious ingredient — "animal by—products" - is not necessarily liver, lungs, scar... it is more often processed horns, hooves, bones, intestines with contents, beaks, heads, ligaments, tumors, skin, diseased organs, blood, urea (a product of natural processing, allows you to salt the feed with urine for attractiveness and not specify "salt" in the composition).
FRUITS / VEGETABLES. The presence of fruits, vegetables, lactobacilli, probiotics and plants in the feed is good. Especially if they are indicated in their entirety, and not in the form of powder / paste.
FAT. Animal fat (and pork fat) is usually the lowest—grade and cheapest fat, unlike fish and chicken (not to be confused with poultry, it is unclear from whom made!). Many feeds sin by its presence, including very expensive ones.
BALLAST. Corn and corn gluten, corn flour, cellulose powder, wheat flour, wheat gluten are cheap fillers, are an allergen for many animals. It is best to avoid them altogether or minimize them.
PRESERVATIVES/ANTIOXIDANTS. BHA and/or BHT, Ethoxyquine, Propyl Gallate, Propylene Glycol (EWG additives) are toxic preservatives. Many, even super-premium feeds, contain the antioxidant E324. Toxic. At the same time, the same brands, but more expensive diets, contain safe antioxidants — vitamin E and citric acid. Tocopherols are natural compounds used as natural preservatives. And some preservatives are not required by the manufacturer to indicate on the feed packaging at all. If the preservative is natural (vitamin E — tocopherol, C — ascorbic acid, herbal extracts, extracts and oils), then the manufacturer will proudly indicate this on the packaging.
FLOUR / POWDER. It is also necessary to distinguish products and the result of their processing. So, for example, fish (indicating what kind of fish) is good, fish meal is not very good (a product of processing fish waste, fish heads and pieces of fish, without specifying). Egg is good, dry egg powder is worse (a product from egg processing waste, underdeveloped eggs, shells). Flour from offal — I already said above, what kind of offal gets into the feed, flour from this is even worse, the nutritional value is even lower. Barley is a good source of carbohydrates, crushed barley loses all its useful properties. Crushed rice also loses most of its properties.
SOY. Soy protein concentrate is a questionable ingredient, cheap and allergic. In principle, the presence of soy and its products is not a plus for feed.
YEASTS. They are often used to impart flavor and volume, do not carry a nutritional load, a potential allergen for many animals. Brewer's yeast is a good source of vitamin B.
DYES. Cheap feeds, to attract owners, are made multicolored. And it is unlikely that a natural dye is added there.
So, you took the feed package and read the composition.
Pros: meat ingredients with an indication of the source are in the first places in the composition, if they are indicated in raw form, we divide the mass by 3 and push it far back in the list, if dehydrated, then there is really a lot of this ingredient; fruits, vegetables, probiotics, whole grains, eggs, oil with an indication of the source (flaxseed oil for example), fat indicating the source (chicken, duck, beef fat is good, but pork, animal, poultry fat is bad), natural preservatives (tocopherol, vitamin E, citric acid, vitamin C), vitamins, minerals, glucosamine, chondroitin.
Cons: offal, flour and powders of unknown origin (meat-bone, fish, poultry, all without specifying the exact source), fats of unknown origin (animal, poultry, this includes pork fat, the source is indicated and it does not please), preservatives / EWG additives (BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, etc.), grain by-products (beer rice, grain flour, gluten, crushed grains), cereals in the first places in the composition (especially if they occupy several places in the top five ingredients), corn in large quantities and corn products (flour, gluten), dyes, soy, cellulose, sugar, caramel.
You need to pay attention to the total amount of one product in different forms. If chicken is in the first place, and corn is in the second, corn flour is in the fourth, corn gluten is in the seventh ... corn is corn everywhere, and if you add up all the presented corn options, then it will turn out much more than chicken.
Guaranteed analysis and digestibility of feed
The guaranteed analysis should be indicated on the feed package, it shows the content of protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, ash and water in the feed.
PROTEIN is the most important component of feed. Good sources of protein are chicken, beef, veal, game, heart, in general — "muscle meat", as well as eggs. Since cats are carnivores, their body requires protein of animal origin. Vegetable proteins — legumes, wheat, soy, corn, should not form the basis of the diet. In the mice eaten, vegetable proteins are found in small quantities in the stomach. Feed manufacturers usually designate the amount of protein as a proportion of raw protein, without specifying what origin the protein is (which means we do not know what value it carries for our pet). And then the composition that we considered above comes to our aid.
Therefore, when choosing food, we focus not only on guaranteed analysis, but also on the composition and how this or that food is absorbed by your cat.
The main indicator of a good feed is its digestibility. To understand how the food is digested, you need to look into the cat's tray after defecation — the feces should be brown, well-shaped, soft (not very hard and not liquid, should keep its shape), without inclusions of mucus and blood, and its amount should not exceed 25% of what is eaten. The larger the volume of feces in relation to the food eaten, the worse this food is absorbed. And the higher the daily feed rate, the lower the quality of this feed.
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