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Raising kittens or a kitten can be quite a challenging task. If you fail to care for it well, it may develop medical complications and even early death. To avert such a situation, one of the areas you need to be creative with is feeding your kitten. The foods you feed your kitten on play a significant role on the development of your kitten. In order to have a healthy adult cat, you need to ensure your raise a healthy kitten. There are so many kitten food brands and choosing the best can be a challenge.
Felix is a cat formula brand under the Purina Company known for the manufacture of formulas for cats in different life stages. The Kitten As Good As It Looks is one of the formulas under this brand. According to the company, this formula is made with ingredients that cater for your kitten’s nutritional needs.
Is this formula as good as it is made to look or is it one of the over-hyped formulas that are just average? Let’s find out.
The ingredients
This formula gives your kitten 3 x4 varying flavors that are combined in one pack. According to the Felix brand company, the flavors give you a wide range of menus to feed your cat on.
You have a choice between meat menus:
- 3 x with Chicken
- 3 x with Beef
- 3 x with Rabbit
- 3 x with Lamb
Fish variety:
- 3 x with Salmon
- 3 x with Plaice
- 3 x with Cod
- 3 x with Tuna
Vegetable variety:
- 3 x with Beef & Carrot
- 3 x with Chicken & Tomato
- 3 x with Salmon & Courgette
- 3 x with Trout & Green Beans
Depending on the variety pack you choose, the ingredients below are present:
Meat, meat by products, fish, and fish by-products, vegetable protein extract, sugar and minerals, EC additives.
The meat – The meat in any cat food should be from non by-product sources. While meats or meat meals are excellent sources of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and a slew of other positive benefits for cats. Since cats are obligate carnivores, meat is the most important ingredient in any cat food. Always make sure meat products are labeled in a way that you can tell which animal the meat is coming from and also do not purchase cat food with meat or poultry by-products included.
Meat by-products – This is about the lowest quality meat product that can be included in any cat food. We are very disappointed to see this ingredient listed. Meat By-Products are parts of slaughtered animals including the lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue, and stomach and intestines freed of their contents. In addition, meat by-products can also legally contain animals that were dead, dying, or diseased before slaughtering. Many times, animals with tumors are ground and processed, meaning, ground up cancerous tumors could legally be included in your pets food. While unlikely, it can even legally include road kill. Perhaps worst of all, this ingredient COULD include meat from euthanized cats, dogs, horses, or other animals. Meat by-product is an unnamed meat source and you never know for sure where it is coming from or what animals are being used. Also note that meat by-products are not approved for human consumption. It consists of unwanted parts only acceptable in the pet food or feed industries. This is one of the most controversial meat ingredients that could be included and there is much to be concerned about when purchasing any pet food that includes meat by-products.
Fish – The fish used in canned pet foods usually includes parts of the fish not typically used for human consumption. It is high in phosphorus and magnesium, which can be an issue in cats with a history of urinary tract disorders or kidney disease. Most fish used in pet food is that of very low quality, including farmed fish and discarded fish that is deemed unacceptable for human consumption. There is also a risk of mercury exposure as many types of fish contain a high mercury level. Over long periods of time, this can become hazardous. It is also important to try and find a cat food with ethoxyquin free fish. Most cat food brands do not disclose if their fish is ethoxyquin free and if it isn’t, that could pose some problems. Most cats love the taste of fish and will be happy to eat it, but it isn’t part of a regular diet for wild cats. Nonetheless, this is a high protein source with essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Fish by-products – Fish by-products can contain fish intestines, organs, bone, fins, skin, heads, and anything else that is not fish meat. These are the parts of the fish that most humans do not eat and as such, most of the fish parts used to make this ingredient can be considered fish waste that would otherwise be disposed of. While this ingredient may provide a decent amount of protein, calcium, and other nutrients, it is not considered to be a very high quality product as none of the fish meat is actually included.
Vegetable protein extract – The only reason we can think of to add vegetable protein extract into a cat food blend is to boost the protein levels of the food. However, since cats are obligate carnivores, they do not digest vegetable or other plant based proteins nearly as efficiently as meat based proteins. In fact, cats hardly receive any benefit at all from plan proteins. For this reason, we believe the ingredient is simply added as a cost effective way to boost the protein percentage of the food without actually boosting the usable protein percentage. Meat based proteins are much more desired.
Other ingredients in the kitten meal packs
Sugar – Cats do not require added sugars in their diet. When sugar is added to cat food, it will greatly enhance the overall taste of the food. This can even cause some “addiction” issues making it very difficult to switch from a sugar laced food to a non-sugar laced food. Sugar can have the same negative health effects on cats as we see in humans including weight gain and diabetes, which is very common in adult cats. There is no positive nutritional benefit to adding sugar into any cat food.
Vitamins and Minerals – Obviously, vitamins and minerals are extremely important to cats and just about any other animal. Many cat food blends are able to blend enough ingredients properly to naturally include enough vitamins and minerals, but in the vast majority of cases, cat food blends contain extracts, additives, or supplements to provide cats with all of the vitamins and minerals they need. A vitamin or mineral deficiency can have serious health concequences.
Artificial additives (E499) – We aren’t a huge fan of artificial additives, mainly because many artificial additives are controversial with possible health risks. Since this is labeled as E499, that means it is a thickening agent or stabilizer for the food. Most likely, this ingredient is only used as a way to give the food its texture. You can ready about the different types of artificial thickening additives here. Since we don’t know exactly what this ingredient is, we are not all that comfortable with it.
Can this formula cause allergies?
The Kitten As Good As It Looks formula does not seem to contain any allergy causing ingredients. This makes it a non-allergy causing formula. It is, therefore, ideal for all kittens.
Ingredients to avoid feeding your cat on
Corn, soy and wheat – All three of these ingredients are known allergens for many cats. In addition, many cats have problems digesting these grain based ingredients. Since cats are obligate carnivores, their digestive systems are designed to digest meat and not grains. All of these ingredients will help to boost the protein percentage in cat food, but not all protein is created equally. Cats do not digest plant based proteins in the same way as meat proteins and in fact, gain little to no nutritional value from these grains. Several “grocery store brand” cat foods include these products to keep the price down as it is a cheap filler to help make your cat feel full as well as a cheap way to add protein to the food.
Gluten – This ingredient is associated with causing allergies in cats. It is also known to raise sugar levels in cats. Over time, this can lead to diabetes. Gluten refers to the proteins found in wheat endosperm which is a type of tissue produced in seeds that’s ground to make flour. Many pet food manufactures will use this ingredient to help boost the protein percentage of the food.
BHT and BHA preservatives – Both BHA & BHT are preservatives that have been banned in human foods in many countries due to cancer risks. However, they remain approved for use in pet foods. A growing number of pet owners are becoming aware of the potential dangers these ingredients bring and are shunning all foods containing BHA and BHT. A quick internet search on these preservatives will show that the backlash is gaining steam with many cat food companies abandoning these ingredients. BHA and BHT are extremely controversial ingredients in all forms of pet food.
Fortunately, none of these ingredients are in the Kitten As Good As It Looks formula.
Conclusion
Based on the ingredients in this formula, it can be termed as ideal for growing kittens. It also contains no allergens which is a good thing especially for growing kittens. Therefore, this formula can be termed as good for cats between zero and 12 months.
