Does it really matter?
Those of you who’ve read this blog for a while know that earlier this (well, now last) year, my cat passed away due to acute renal failure. She’d been in kidney failure for years, but took a very quick and sudden turn for the worse. This was right as all of the pet food scandals were happening, and she had been eating one of the brands that was recalled. Of course, I’ll never know if it was the food or not – my vet registered her as a “possible” with the FDA – but I’ll always wonder.
When I got the new kitties a few months ago, as you can imagine, I was obsessive about what I fed them. California’s a great place for obsessive cat owners. I bought the way high end organic stuff from the specialty stores, I mail ordered a few types, and I tried the more generic organic versions petco has.
And my cats won’t eat a one.
Not that I can blame them. I don’t know what it is about “organic” that translates to “crap” in the land of kitty wet-food, but for some reason, all of the wet food I tried was the same. One solid chunk of what kind of looks like meat-mousse. They also smell totally foul, every single organic food I tried stunk up my apartment. Now, if I can’t stand to even smell the stuff, how can I expect my cats to eat it?
Compare the organic crap with the regular cat food. High-end, but major label, I’m still not buying cat food at the grocery store. The food smells and looks like actual meat, and the cats can’t get enough of it.
Organic cat food also can go bad. I had mold growing out of my garbage can when I went out of town and the pet sitter threw the leftovers in there for a week. Regular cat food does not. From that, I gotta assume that there are chemicals keeping the regular cat food good in the can, and the mousse crap is the only way they can keep meat good without chemicals. I’m happier with chemicals than moldy mousse, though.
Pet food companies know that suckers like me believe that money is love – we don’t think we should ever buy cheap things for our pets. More expensive is therefore better, and I could easily spend a small fortune on organic pet food. I think this is just another way to sucker more money out of me. I normally fall for the tricks, I fully admit that, but this time I’m putting my food down. My checkbook will thank me too.
If someone has an organic cat food brand that 1) is actually recognizable as meat, 2) does not smell worse than a litter box, and 3) does not grow mold after a few days, then I’m all ears. Until then, I’m sticking with Purina.
