This truly baffles me.
Here is a comparison of Royal Canin's "Mother & Babycat" dry cat food versus Applaws Kitten biscuits (also for kittens and pregnant or nursing mother cats)
See here and here
Ingredients emphasis added by me.
I know which I would choose for my cats! (That is if I didn't feed raw of course).
Bringing attention to the Royal Canin ingredients, I want to point out that the first ingredient isn't even poultry meat, it's "poultry protein". Also note how ingredients are vague such as "animal fats" (what animals?) "animal proteins" (which animals?), "fish oils" (what fish?), "vegetable fibres" (what veg?); compared with specified ingredients in Applaws - "poultry oil", "chicken mince", "salmon oil" and "dried potato" etc.
Do people buying Royal Canin even read the ingredients? Or just the marketing spin on the front?
How can people read the ingredients and think that is a good or healthy start to give a kitten - an obligate carnivore?!
Why buy something that is so glaringly obviously inferior, when for the same price you can get something so much better?
The adult versions are just the same.
Applaws adult chicken: (£4.53 to £6.45/kilo)
Dry Chicken Meat (min. 59%), Dry Potato (min 4%), Chicken Mince (min. 9%), Poultry Oil (min. 9%, source of Omega 6), Poultry Gravy (min. 3%), Beet Pulp (min. 3%), Dry Whole Eggs (min. 3%), Brewers Dried Yeast, Salmon Oil (source of Omega 3), Minerals, Cellulose Plant Fibre (min. 0.4%), Sodium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Seaweed/Kelp, Cranberry, DL-Methionine, Potassium Chloride, Yucca Extract, Citrus Extract, Rosemary Extract.
Royal Canin "Adult Fit": (£4.29 to £6.45 a kilo)
Poultry protein (dried), (hydrolysed) rice, corn, corn gluten feed, dried pork*, animal fats, vegetable fibres, animal protein, wheat, wheat bran, beet pulp, yeasts, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, egg powder, yeast hydrolyzate (source of mannan-oligosaccharides), marigold extract (source of lutein).
And that's annother thing... why are there so many different types?!! (not by flavour of course, but based on type and even breed of cat... as though a Maine Coon cat needs a different diet than a British Shorthair cat).
Even assuming one breed of cat did need a different diet to another breed, or a 'moggie' etc, when you compare the ingredients it's really a wonder why they even bother to package it differently.
"British Shorthair":
Poultry protein (dried), vegetable protein isolate, rice, maize, animal fats, maize gluten, vegetable fibers, animal protein (hydrolysed), chicory fiber, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, yeast hydrolyzate (source of mannan-oligo-saccharides), borage oil, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).
"Ragdoll":
Dehydrated poultry protein, maize, vegetable protein isolate*, animal fats, wheat, maize gluten, rice, hydrolysed animal proteins, vegetable fibres, wheat flour, chicory pulp, minerals, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium husks and seeds, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), borage oil, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein),hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin)
"Maine Coon":
Dehydrated poultry meat, rice, maize, animal fats, maize gluten, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed animal proteins, vegetable protein isolate L.I.P., beet pulp, minerals, L-lysine, soya oil, fish oil, psyllium husks and seeds, sodium phosphate, DL-methionine, egg powder, fructo-oligo-saccharides, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), taurine, borage oil, green tea and grape extracts (source of polyphenols), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein), L-carnitine, hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin).
"Persian":
Poultry protein (dried), animal fat, rice, vegetable protein isolate *, maize, vegetable fibers, maize flour, animal protein (hydrolysed), corn gluten feed, minerals, chicory fiber, fish oil, psyllium (psyllium and covers), soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, yeast hydrolyzate (source of mannan -oligosaccharides), borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein).
Very little difference in them.
Royal Canin's "Indoor Cat" (different to "Indoor Long Hair") claims to be a "full-diet cat food for cats that live indoors only, with appropriate calorie content, minimising hair balls and reducing faeces odour".
Which is interesting because the reason cat poo smells bad is because of grains and vegetables (which they can't digest), and processed food (like cooked meat). For that reason, a cat fed cooked or tinned meat will smell more than one fed raw, but if they are fed a high specified-meat content food (or cooked meat or fish and nothing else), the odour will be minimal.
So... what are these ingredients given to minimise hairballs and poo odour?
Ingredients:
Corn, poultry meal, rice, vegetable, wheat, animal fat, animal protein (hydrolyzed), lingo cellulose, Minerals, beet pulp, soya oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast, fish oil.
Errrrr??? OK then.
What about appropriate calorie content?
Well of course they don't list calorie content like we do with 'human food', so we'll have to take their word for it. It's lower in fat than "Outdoor Cat" (13% versus 20% according to Zooplus), but all that means is less fat, not the amount of calories per serving.
At this point I should say that I'm not sure how much you can trust nutritional info numbers, or their sales patter, because, for example, on "Indoor Long Hair" the blurb claims
* "Increased fibre content (11%),"
Yet in the nutritional info table it lists fibre conent as being just 4.1%. Which is much closer to their "Indoor" varirty which claims to contain 4% fibre. So who knows.
Royal Canin "intense hairball" claims to "[reduce] hairballs with exclusive anti-hairball complex, psyllium and micro-fibres to stimulate intestinal function, proven effectiveness"
Yet all Royal Canin biscuits appear to contain psyllium.And what exactly is their "anti-hairball complex"?
The ingredients in "Intense Hairball" are:
Poultry meat, rice, maize flour, vegetable fibres, maize gluten, animal fats, vegetable protein, animal protein, minerals, beet pulp, psyllium (psyllium and shells) (hydrolyzed) (2%), yeast, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, egg powder.
Right. So egg powder then?? That's the only ingredient that isn't in just about every other RC biscuit.
OK so maybe you only buy "Royal Canin Vetinary Diet" and are thinking "but my cat needs a special diet!"
Well....
"Urinary S/O" (claims "A complete dietetic food for cats with lower urinary tract disease. This food has low magnesium levels and can help dissolve struvite stones and reduce recurrence." )
Ingredients:
Rice, wheat gluten, poultry meal, corn flour, animal fats, animal protein (hydrolysed), minerals, ligno-cellulose, beet pulp, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein).
Rice and wheat are the first two ingredients, corn flour is the fourth. Cats with urinary and kidney problems need a high moisture diet, one which is high in meat and contains NO GRAINS.
The magnesium level of this food is 0.05%... the magnesium level in their other varieties (like "Sensible" and "Indoor cat" etc) is 0.07%.
Hardly worth paying the extra?! (Urinary s/o costs £5.54 to £7.69/kilo A 9kg bag will cost £49.90 where as )
OK, so what about "Gastro-Intestinal" which claims to be "A complete dietetic food formulated to reduce intestinal disorders. Easy to digest, high energy food with increased electrolytes and essential nutrients. For adult cats and kittens."
Ingredients:
Dehydrated poultry meat, rice, animal fats, corn gluten, lingo cellulose, wheat gluten, animal protein (hydrolysed), minerals, powdered egg, beet pulp, fish oil, yeast, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium (husks and seeds), yeast hydrolysate (source of mannan-oligosaccharides), marigold meal,
Sorry but how is that different to their other varieties? Other than the exclusion of maize (but they still include corn gluten & wheat gluten, so...).
"Hypo-allergenic" claims "Especially formulated to reduce ingredient and nutrient intolerances. With selected sources of protein and carbohydrate."
So one would probably assume this would contain specified meat and single ingredients (more like Applaws' ingredients)
Well you'd be wrong.
Ingredients:
Rice, hydrolysed soya, animal fats, ligno-cellulose, minerals, hydrolysed poultry liver, soya oil, beet pulp, fish oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein). (here)
All they've done is reduce the meat content, use "animal fats" (could be any animals, including allergenic meats), "fish oils" (could be any fish, including problematic ones), and the only meat in this is "poultry liver"!!
It's actually disgusting that a cat who has digestive issues in particular, is fed this awful, awful "food".
But then it's easier to feed this rubbish than actually put in a little time and effort into feeding a healthy diet of fresh meat they can tolerate.
Oh and this non-food will cost you £6.99 to £7.31 a kilo. Yeah.
Your cat could dine on beef and prawns for that price. (Or, you know, fresh supermarket chicken & fresh sardines or salmon, if your cat is allergic to beef etc.)
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