This evening I had a kitty come to my pet hospital, straining and crying to urinate; passing bloody urine; and urinating in inappropriate areas other than her litter box. A urinalysis revealed her urine was filled with struvite crystals and blood. This is a condition known as FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease). Why some cats develop this and others don't is unknown, but this is not an article on that condition, but on what people feed their cats. Veterinary Science learned way back in 1982 that "ash" played no part in contributing to the formation of struvite crystals/stones in cats, but that magnesium was the limiting mineral in their formation. In 1987, we learned that the pH of the urine, greater than 7, also contributed to struvite crystals and stones. And yet 34/39 years later, too many cats are still suffering the effects from eating the "wrong" food!! Once it was clear what was in cat food that was contributing to struvite formation, good ethical cat food manufacturers like Hills and Iams, began to manufacture cat foods that limited the magnesium in them, and produced a urine pH of 6.2 - 6.6 (which is natural in cats that hunt for their food in the wild). They did this by providing high quality ingredients in fixed formulas. Other manufacturer's began to manufacture so called "urinary diets" for cats, as are still sold in many grocery stores. They took the cheaper way out, by adding acidifiers to the foods. By doing so they created another problem for cats, who now formed oxalate crystals and stones in their urinary tract. I mention this, because all I have recommended for my feline patients for decades, are foods made by Iams or Science Diet, and I recently have added Royal Canin to that list. While there may be other foods available that do not lead to crystal/stone formation in the urinary tracts of cats, you can be assured that each and every cat food made by these three companies are: manufactured only in plants they own (so they can have strict quality control), are fixed formula (so the ingredients or percentage of ingredients in their foods are based on scientific research, and not the fluctuating cost of those ingredients) , and do not lead to crystal/stone formation, except in extremely rare circumstances No gimmicks or cute or deceptive names, but quality cat foods. In the 37 years I have been practicing Veterinary Medicine, I have yet to see even one cat fed Science Diet that formed crystals in it's urine, and only 5 fed Iams. While relatively new to the scene, I have yet to see a cat fed Royal Canin develop them either. Why take a chance on your cat's urinary tract health? Why not feed your cat a high quality food that is readily available and that I recommend, based upon 37 years of experience and my caring deeply for my patients. And if you really want to be safe, feed them canned cat food. They will consume more water that way, dilute their urine more, have a smaller chance of crystal formation, and help prevent kidney disease/failure as well. Thanks for "listening, Dr. Keem Oh yes......about Kit 'N Kaboodle!!
Kit ‘N Kaboodle
Purina doesn’t have a good reputation as being a quality pet food provider among many of us in the know. While they do make a few higher quality pet foods, they unfortunately manufacture many low quality ones as well. No cute names or logos can save this "Kit 'N Kaboodle" from what it really is: a terrible thing to feed your cat. First off, the first 3 ingredients are worthless filler. The first THREE!! Isn’t filler supposed to just be….well….FILLER? You can’t put filler in the top ingredient spots! It doesn’t even fit the definition! When they do get into meat products (which in high quality pet foods is the very first ingredient), it’s the infamous “meat and bone meal”, which none of us with weak stomachs would actually want to see made or admit is in our cat’s food. It is nothing more than animal bones with scraps of meat left on them after processing the meat for human consumption.I will give them credit for having “oceanfish meal”, which is a decent ingredient, but it’s too low on the ingredient list to be significant. It’s followed up with a by-product, which ruins any goodwill that I can have towards this food. It also has 4 artificial colors (do you really think your cat cares about color??), and the yummy “animal digest” (a soup of blood, skin, and organs, and from what animal?). All in all, I think you get the idea......this is indeed a terrible food to feed any cat. Shame on Purina for manufacturing and advertising it. By the way, here are the ingredients as listed on their website:
Ingredients:
Ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, meat and bone meal, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), oceanfish meal, turkey by-product meal, phosphoric acid, salt, brewers dried yeast, animal digest, potassium chloride, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, choline chloride, calcium carbonate,taurine, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, added color (Red 40, Blue 2, Yellow 5, Yellow 6), glyceryl monostearate, L-Alanine, manganese sulfate, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), niacin, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, citric acid, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.