"I've always bought my cat food at the supermarket.

However my friend
who has a dog says she never does that because the

food isn't good
enough quality. Is that the same for cats? Should I

buy food at only pet
stores?"

Hi Cutie,
I have had cats for over 35yrs. My late cat Buttons died at the ripe old age of 25 and all he ate was cat food purchased at the local grocery and sometimes as a treat table food. Some people feel that only "Pet Store" food is approriate for their animals, but that is their choice. Pet Stores usually carry the same name brands as grocery stores but specialize in the higher priced brands like Iams. I see nothing wrong with feeding you cat food purchased at the grocery. My dog also gets her food from the grocery. THe ony time I purchased food for her from the vet was when we were trying to get her to loose weight and had to buy a special low-cal food that my grocery didn't carry.

I do not recommend purchasing any low brand pet foods (generally found at supermarkets) as they are made with lower quality ingredients, and are usually less digestable. What's cheaper now may result in expensive health problems for your pet later on in life. Sure, that isn't true for every cat, but it is definitely a possibility. You wouldn't buy the less quailty foods for yourself, would you? Ingredients are listed on the back of the bag, and if meats or eggs are listed first, it's generally a better brand to buy.

I read an article rating dogs foods and suprisingly Iams was not recommended for dogs, even tho it's a designer brand. For dogs you make sure you have whole foods listed first, meat, whole grains, not fillers.

You look at the bags, all ingredients are listed. The nutritional keys are listed in the "Guaranteed Analysis" also present on every bag.

If you read them, you will find that super-premiums don't seem to be that much better than even store brands, let alone normal commercial varities such as say Purina.

As to: "You wouldn't buy the less quailty foods for yourself, would you?"

Sure I would, along with tens/hundreds of millions of other people. Buy them and feed them to the kids too. You think many don't all come from the same processing plants? Same production line, different bag at the end.

Just like dogs and humans, a healthier diet tends to help a cat be healthier. The extent to which diet affects health varies from animal to animal. We all have heard about people living into their hundreds who smoke like a chimney, drink heavily and seem to live on junk food. But in the regions where people tend to live into their hundreds, the diet tends to be very healthy.

Several of the grocery store brands have the same or better ingredients than the pet store brands. I was really impressed with the quality of Purina One and Mike likes it. Someone told me that they've seen a local store brand cat food that is also higher quality. Just like with myself, given the choice between 2 similarly priced and tasty products, I try to choose the healthier one.

Julie