Pitfalls of Value Brand Cat Foods

This is a sponsored post by Scott Clawson on behalf of Nutrecare Animal Health, a leading online supplier of prescription diets and non-prescription products in the U.K.

With the sales of premium pet foods on the rise, and with an increasing trend to cherish our pets and spoil them almost as much as our own children, there’s little room left on the market for bad brands. However, they do still exist, and are what you most likely call the ‘value brands’, stealing away some of the well-deserved profits that companies like James Wellbeloved receive for their high-quality pet food.

It’s no secret that domesticated cats are related to the big cats of the wild, such as lions and tigers. They share the same DNA, and therefore the same basic diets. So why then do these bad brand foods insist on using ingredients that cats were simply not designed to eat? These ‘value brands’ fill their products with carbohydrates, and hardly any protein. This doesn’t make sense at all. Carbohydrates are found in foods such as bread and rice, which the cat certainly does not eat, whereas proteins are found in foods like meat and fish, which the cat definitely eats.

What happens to these carbohydrates, however, is scarier than a simple change in diet. When the carbohydrates are broken down by the body, they are converted into sugars. An increase in these sugars can have a similar effect to what occurs in humans, in that the cat becomes obese and struggles to take part in its day-to-day activities. This can eventually lead to severe joint pain and even arthritis, which is completely crippling when your primary instinct is to hunt and jump off of high ledges.

Furthermore, the now-obese cat can then have an overworked pancreas, due to the massive increase in sugars. This can lead to a problem that even we humans struggle to cope with: diabetes. The best way to prevent diabetes is with plenty of exercise, something which an obese cat will definitely have problems with.

There is a way of breaking the cycle, though. Simply not feeding your cat these ‘value foods’ will ensure that your cat has the best possible outcome. Try switching to premium brands such as Iams or Arden Grange; they cost slightly more, but on the other hand, your cat will certainly enjoy the difference, and the extra lives added on to it’s nine.

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