Things You'll Need
- One (1) small bag of Eukanuba dry cat food
- One (1) small bag of Iams dry cat food
- One (1) hungry cat
Instructions
Purchasing Cat Food
Eukanuba and Iams are available in most grocery and pet stores.
Purchase a small bag of each, choosing a variety that is suitable for the age and health of your cat. I chose Iams Healthy Naturals with Atlantic Salmon and Eukanuba Adult Lamb and Rice Formula for my examples.
Take home to your waiting cat.
Comparing Foods
Locate the ingredient and nutritional information panels on the side of each bag. Nutrient levels can vary widely among the different brands of cat food. It is crucial to feed your cat the brand that will offer her the most nutrition.
Review each panel for the amount of preservatives, colorings and other ingredients (such as animal digest) that have no nutritional value. The fewer, the better. The ingredient listed first is the primary ingredient. Ideally, this should be an animal protein and not a by-product. The product label should also give you the percentages of protein, fat, fiber, moisture, ash, carbohydrates and calcium that the food contains. This information is intended to assure the public that the product meets minimum feeding standards.
Iams Healthy Naturals with Atlantic Salmon lists chicken as its No. 1 ingredient, followed by chicken by-product meal, corn meal, chicken meal and salmon. Subsequent ingredients include vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and amino acids. The promotional material on Iams' website boasts of providing 100 percent complete and balanced nutrition through natural proteins, grains, vegetables and fruits.
Eukanuba Adult Lamb and Rice Formula, recommended for adult cat maintenance, also lists chicken as its No. 1 ingredient, followed by chicken by-product meal, corn meal, corn grits, lamb and brewers rice. Other ingredients include natural fish oil with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, and no added fillers, colors or artificial preservatives.
If you are satisfied with either food's ingredient listing, the next item to check is "guaranteed analysis." This term refers to the percentage of a certain nutrient contained in the food. Look for a high crude protein minimum and low crude ash maximum, particularly for male cats. The Eukanuba example above contains 34 percent crude protein minimum and 0.1 percent crude ash. The Iams example contains 33 percent crude protein and the same percentage of crude ash as the Eukanuba example.
The above Iams and Eukanuba examples seem close in nutritional value, but the most important, and the deciding, comparison remains: Take that hungry cat, place one small bowl of each food in front of her and let her show you which one she prefers!