The website looks fabulous! Very informative and oh so funny.

Great work Candy!

Hey, thanks for the comments! Here are some answers to some of the questions brought up, as well as questions of my own:

<<* Newman's Own Organics -- cats don't seem to like it as much because it doesn't have enough chicken>>

Hmmm. I think I may call Newman's Own and ask them for approximate amounts of animal proteins they use in their food (I'm especially interested in the canned food, of course). Their Turkey Formula canned food has to contain between 25-94% turkey according to labelling regulations, but that's quite the spread there.

<<* Solid Gold -- this is a terrible food according to Susan & Margie>>

Did they tell you why specifically? I'd be very interested to know since I occasionally feed their Blended Tuna to my cats.

<<* Wellness -- very popular, wonder why the warning against rice?>>

Wellness canned food is marketed as being grain-free. Well, as of late last year, one particular plant of theirs started adding rice to all their flavors without changing their label. Rice is extremely high in carbohydrates, and is also a food allergen for many cats; not only that, making such a significant ingredient change usually means the nutrient analysis will change, which means the label's guaranteed analysis was now worthless. You can read more about it in this thread: portland.tribe.net/thread/5...b1e804400

A similar warning about Wellness was posted on the very top of a webpage that records % calories from protein, fat and carbs from canned food, run by a woman with a diabetic cat (and therefore who has a definite interest in keeping track of carbohydrate values for cat food): www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmp...nfood.html

<<* Avoderm -- older style food, not recommended >>

What do they mean by "older style"?

<<* Sensible Choice -- lesser quality than Royal Canin, but made/owned by the same company>>

I like this brand because it's a very uncomplicated food with very simple ingredients. Admittedly the canned food is a touch low in protein (though still high-protein compared to dry), and it's a subsidiary of Royal Canin, but on the other hand it's a bit more widely available than many of the brands I recommended.

<<* California Naturals -- possibly a PetSmart store brand?>>

Nope, it's made by Natura Pet Products, who also make Innova and Healthwise.

<<* Advanced Pet Diets -- never heard of it >>

Made by the same people who make Avoderm and Pinnacle, i.e. Breeder's Choice.

<<* Active Life -- sold only at smaller retailers, related to Breeder's Choice >>

As far as I know, this is not true unless there was a recent buy-out. Breeder's Choice makes Pinnacle, Avodern and Advanced Pet Diets; Active Life makes Active Life and Boulder Creek Farms. The website contains links to all of these manufacturers' websites.

<<Royal Canin is a "top of the line" holistic cat food diet.>>

Royal Canin makes only dry food, which in my protein-obsessed mind is a definitely strike against it :) though it probably isn't to most other people. The majority shareholder is Mars, Inc., which also owns Pedigree, Whiskas and similar crap brands--strike two. The food contains significant amounts of corn and corn gluten meal--strike three. They also promote nonsense like "breed-specific" nutrition, making formulas for Persians, Siamese, Main Coons, etc.--strike four. Some of their prescription diets contain BHA and BHT as preservatives--strike five.

I find the regional differences in cat food popularity interesting, because three of the brands of cat food that Margie and Susan couldn't identify are sold in "natural foods" grocery stores in Portland (Whole Foods, Wild Oats and the like): PetGuard, Precise and Natural Life. These are also widely available in every holistic pet store I've ever been in, and are also available through petfooddirect.com. My favorite pet food store, Portland Pet Supply, say they can barely keep any PetGuard in stock because it's so popular.

If you're curious about any of those foods, I provided links to all the pet food manufacturers I recommended on the webpage.

I'll definitely check out Premium Edge. For somebody who makes her own cat food, I'm somewhat obsessed with trying out new commercial foods on my cats, heh. All in the name of variety.

Oooh, actually, Newman's Own canned food compares quite favorably when it comes to % calories from carbs. The Turkey flavor contains only 4%, the Chicken & Salmon contains 5% and the Chicken & Brown Rice 7%. For a quick comparison, Felidae contains 6% calories from carbs and Wellness Chicken contains 4%. Information from www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmp...nfood.html

Premium Edge looks OK. They make only dry food, it seems, so I'm not going to test it out on my cats any time soon. Ingredients-wise, the stuff that's not so great include corn gluten meal (cheap, inferior source of protein), egg product (why not just use eggs?), powdered cellulose (I've seen one vet fondly refer to this as "powdered sawdust" since cellulose is the primary insoluble, unfermentable fiber found in wood and grass) and natural chicken flavor (a good food with lots of meat generally doesn't need flavorings to help make it appealing to a carnivore). BUT keep in mind that almost all high-end dry cat foods contain these ingredients too; they're ubiquitous and very hard to avoid. So overall, for a dry food it's not too shabby. I noticed they have a high-protein, low-carb formulation, which would be better for a cat than any of the other formulations.

Bumpity.