Sucky Cat Food: Gravy? Savory? Grilled?!?
A short time ago in a marketing scrum very very close to a product manager's ear, a question was asked:
How do we sell marginally more cat food? What are we doing wrong?
The answer:
People don't want to buy cat food. They want to buy people food.
The obvious solution!
Make cat food that looks like people food so people will buy more cat food.
Okay. Great. So what if the cats consuming this food simply shouldn't be.
Lets check on some sources for what constitutes legitimate cat food. Key things to look for will an ideal ratio of protein, fat, ash, water and carbs, and the presence of taurine.
Sources:
If we are to believe any of this source -- or the 50 solid docs it links to or that you will find by researching each of the topics on your own -- we pretty much need to throw away 90% of the products on the shelves in the cat food isle. Bring this up with your vet with specific questions. Does my cat need Taurine? Does my cat need water with her food? Does my cat need about this-and-such ratio of protein to water to carbs with her food? And also ask about connective tissues and other fillers.
If the answer is yes... take a look at the really really expensive and really really cheap foods.
I dove into this on several occasions over the years and always circle back to the same place; supported by vet quiet head nods. Some were vocal in their agreement about my analysis of cheap wet stuff without any buzz words attached. Others were quite silent as they realized they lost the potential revenue of selling the expensive stuff to me at the front counter. You can guess which Veterinarians I've stuck with over the years.
Cat Food which says...<< >> ... should be removed
Here is the list I use when scanning a shelf if our normal food is on vapors and the UPS truck is a few days away:
- Savory: just say no ; gravy
- Flaked: usually has gravy or really low protein and fat counts
- Grilled: if you look closely, it usually has gravy
- Gravy: it's gravy
- Beef: if it's not chicken, turkey or fish; there's no point
- Vegetables/greens/rice : convince yourself why you want to feed this to your cat. go for it.
That's good start. After that the breakdown of protein sources and nutrition actually becomes relevant.
Take away
I know... You've been feeding your cat X brand with extra BOOMBOOM sauce and lots of gravy bits. They love it and it's all they will eat... Yeah. I've been there too. But think on this:
Cats have the digestive fortitude of a wet paper bag. Some are more pre-soaked than others. They are also really good at hiding discomfort and difficult to read when they are under the weather. If you are lucky enough (I know... ) to have a cat on the more pre-soaked wet paper bag side; then the stuff all around the house and on your clean sheets when things go wrong will let you know that you need to make a diet change.
If your cat isn't letting you know that the stuff you're putting in their bowl doesn't really do what they need it's up to you to figure it out. Your vet can help. www.catinfo.org can help, but it's up to you to make the effort.
That effort is difficult when the shelves are full of stuff that can be categorized as crap. Thus I nominate all the crap with funny things in the name which sound good to humans for destruction.
Now, I'm going to go find a laser pointer and make some fur fly. They're already mad at me for delaying their cheap Fancy Feast Chicken Feast Classic breakfast (with a little extra water drizzled over the top!)