Purina VS Iams

Purina VS Iams

  • Iams

    Votes: 8 66.7%
  • Purina

    Votes: 4 33.3%

  • Total voters
    12

DireWolf0384

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Messages
783
I see both Purina and Iams Cat food in stores around here and being a new cat owner and short on cash I cannot afford to pay tons of money for cat food. Which is the better of the two? They are both affordable for me. I am disabled but forced to work and they only pay me $7.45/hr and I get less than 15 hours a week. Is there any specific foods Iams or Purina makes I should use?
 

jbm150

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
1,650
I used to work in a cat clinic and I remember the vet saying Iams makes a good product. The basic Purina Cat Chow was likened to a person eating dorito's. When I was younger, before we knew any better, we fed our cats Cat Chow. They developed diabetes. After that, we switched our cats to the expensive Science Diet and never had problems again. And we had lots of cats; 8 at one time :}
 

jebbewocky

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
909
I use IAMS, but I'm thinking of getting something better.
I 've also heard Purina have cleaned up their act, but haven't checked myself.
 

fantasticp

Arachnocompulsive
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
512
I put Iams, but I have never lived with a cat that would actually eat it (out of 6 cats). Don't forget to look online. Sometimes you can find awesome deals with free shipping or way cheaper than a retail store even with the shippping, so you might be able to afford more than you think. I fed my cat science diet mostly, but she got cheaper stuff like Purina when she was a kitten to 5 years or so, and ate Bill and Jac for a while when she was living with a cat that couldn't eat rice. She lived to be 19. I think excellent medical care had more to do with her overall health than which catfood she ate.
 

jebbewocky

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
909
I put Iams, but I have never lived with a cat that would actually eat it (out of 6 cats). Don't forget to look online. Sometimes you can find awesome deals with free shipping or way cheaper than a retail store even with the shippping, so you might be able to afford more than you think. I fed my cat science diet mostly, but she got cheaper stuff like Purina when she was a kitten to 5 years or so, and ate Bill and Jac for a while when she was living with a cat that couldn't eat rice. She lived to be 19. I think excellent medical care had more to do with her overall health than which catfood she ate.
My cat eats IAMS, and my fiance's cat also eat IAMS. We only buy the chicken/original flavor though (I used to switch every so often to give him variety, but it turns out cats don't like variety like people do. :8o)
 

OldHag

ArachnoHag
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 8, 2003
Messages
1,711
My cats hate Iams. They will eat it before starving, but they dont enjoy it. They LOVE Purina One. I also have a bowl of iVet that one of my cats just gobbles up and the others snack on. The one that gobbles it up has a VERY sensitive tummy. This food doesnt hurt her poor tummy. :)
 

Shell

ArachnoVixen AKA Dream Crusher AKA Heartbreaker
Staff member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
1,659
Iams used to be a great food, not saying it's bad now but it's nowhere near as good as it used to be. My old boss (I was a vet tech) no longer recommends Iams as 1. it's not as nutritious as it used to be and 2. cats don't seem to like it anymore.

Purina on the other hand has improved the quality of it's cat food, and they seem to quite like it.

As long as your cat doesn't have any special health issues and is not a senior or growing kitten then you would be find with just the " regular" type of cat food (ie. not seniors, or indoor cats, or kitten food etc.) I have 2 cats one is strictly indoors, one sneaks out, both are long haired. One is almost a senior, the other is only 4. I feed them both just the regular brand of purina one now (I used to feed the super expensive vet stuff, but really unless due to a health issue it's not neccessary.) I don't find hairball formula does anything (in my experience anyway.) Both of my girls will bring up a hairball occasionally whether on it or not. Both are a healthy weight, with beautiful coats as well.
 

ametan

Arachnoknight
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
186
I use Nutro Max. Not expensive and it hasn't caused health issues for my cats like other foods have done.
 

Crysta

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Messages
1,475
we have a main coon and he only eats Eukanuba hairball formula, and will actually starve himself before eating anything else. He won't eat fish, meats ect either, not even milk. Only water and his food. I guess he thinks, why give in to less quality? lol Only side problem with this catfood is I find it stinks, but apparently a breeder once told me stinkier food the better, for the cat to like it? lol maybe.
 

Lucara

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
656
I hate both brands. I use Blue Buffalo or By Nature Organics.
 

Toirtis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
316
Both brands are equally lousy....if you have to go really cheap, Nutro is OK. Personally, I suggest a raw diet, but if you must go kibble...Orijen, Innova Evo, Blue Buffalo, Now!, Timberwolf Organics.
 

jebbewocky

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
909
Iams used to be a great food, not saying it's bad now but it's nowhere near as good as it used to be. My old boss (I was a vet tech) no longer recommends Iams as 1. it's not as nutritious as it used to be and 2. cats don't seem to like it anymore.

Purina on the other hand has improved the quality of it's cat food, and they seem to quite like it.

As long as your cat doesn't have any special health issues and is not a senior or growing kitten then you would be find with just the " regular" type of cat food (ie. not seniors, or indoor cats, or kitten food etc.) I have 2 cats one is strictly indoors, one sneaks out, both are long haired. One is almost a senior, the other is only 4. I feed them both just the regular brand of purina one now (I used to feed the super expensive vet stuff, but really unless due to a health issue it's not neccessary.) I don't find hairball formula does anything (in my experience anyway.) Both of my girls will bring up a hairball occasionally whether on it or not. Both are a healthy weight, with beautiful coats as well.
Bummer to hear Iams isn't as good as it used to be.
Given that our cats already eat Iams, and will be having the added stress of a move coming on--I think I'm sticking with Iams.
 

Shell

ArachnoVixen AKA Dream Crusher AKA Heartbreaker
Staff member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
1,659
Bummer to hear Iams isn't as good as it used to be.
Given that our cats already eat Iams, and will be having the added stress of a move coming on--I think I'm sticking with Iams.
It's not a horrible food, it's just that it went more "commercial." When it first came out (in Canada anyway) it was one of the veterinary sold foods. They changed the formula to be able to make it cheaper and sell commercially. We had one of the reps from Iams in once and she spent about an hour explaining the changes behind Iams.

Plus, if a food works for them, and they are healthy and happy and eating it, there is no reason to change it.
 
Last edited:

jenniferinny

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
174
I don't usually post much here anymore, but I thought I would weigh in on the topic..

If you want to read a great article on cat nutrition put together by a vet who specializes in cats, then this is the website for you: http://catinfo.org/

There is a LOT of information there that should help you make an informed decision about cat food.

We have 4 cats and I have worked and volunteered in animal shelters and rescues for about the last 14 years. I'm currently taking a much needed mental hiatus from it, but, I've spent a lot of time around cats and especially around cats that have been surrendered.

A primary reason for surrender is a health condition the owner cannot afford to treat. Most of those cats were living on dry food. Leading causes of death in indoor cats are primarily urinary blockage and kidney failure. The reason for that is the prevalence of a dry food diet.

Cats are obligate carnivores, as such, they wouldn't so much as sniff at the corn that is the primary ingredient in most cat foods. If you look at the ingredient panel on most cat foods, they are sorted in order by weight with the ingredient of the most weight being listed first.
Now, there is some trickery involved on labels now that you need to be aware of. A "Meal" product is a dried product. For instance, chicken meal is separated and dehydrated chicken. Chicken "Byproduct" meal is dehydrated chicken parts that could not be sold for human consumption. Normally feet, beaks, heads, intestines and so forth.
On the Iams label, the first ingredient is chicken and the second ingredient is "corn meal". To lead you to believe that chicken is the primary ingredient, it is weighed before being dehydrated down for dry food and the corn is weighed after most moisture is already stripped out. Whenever you see "chicken" as the first ingredient followed by a grain meal like "corn meal" you can be confident that corn is the primary ingredient, not chicken. Most meats are around 70% moisture and most dry foods are around 10% moisture once processed. What that means is that once that chicken is dehydrated, there won't even be a fifth of the chicken that there is corn.
Since cats should never eat corn, I'm sure you can extrapolate the quality of the food..

Obviously, times are tough financially for a lot of people and some have had to cut back on what they feed their pets.
In all reality though, you wouldn't be paying that much more for a quality canned diet then you would pay for Iams or Purina dry foods.
For instance, around here you can buy the large can of Innova for about $1.12 which is plenty for a cat for a day, even too much for a cat over 8 lbs.
The 8 lb bag of Iams will cost you about $12 and will probably only last about 10 days because cats have to eat a lot more as it is not very nutritionally dense.

It does take some shopping around to find the quality foods at a good price. Generally, if it's sold in a Walmart, then it's probably not a quality food with very few exceptions.
 

Toirtis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
316
They changed the formula to be able to make it cheaper and sell commercially. We had one of the reps from Iams in once and she spent about an hour explaining the changes behind Iams.
'They' didn't....sadly, Iams sold out to Proctor & Gamble, and P&G dropped the quality of the ingredients by a good 50% to cut costs and widen the profit margin...one of the main reasons was so that they could mass-market it via Wal-Mart. I owned a pet shop when the change occurred...90% of my Iams customers had dogs or cats that had massive digestive disruptions when they bought their first bag of the new formula...I dropped the entire line about a week later.
 

Toirtis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
316
A primary reason for surrender is a health condition the owner cannot afford to treat. Most of those cats were living on dry food. Leading causes of death in indoor cats are primarily urinary blockage and kidney failure. The reason for that is the prevalence of a dry food diet.
Its true...if you must feed dry, make it a top-quality dry and make sure 50%+ of what you feed is 'wet' food.


Since cats should never eat corn, I'm sure you can extrapolate the quality of the food..
Its true...in fact, cats should never be eating any grain, ever....grains are nothing but cheap fillers in cat food.

In all reality though, you wouldn't be paying that much more for a quality canned diet then you would pay for Iams or Purina dry foods.
Also true....RAW diets are also relatively inexpensive, based on consumption.

It does take some shopping around to find the quality foods at a good price. Generally, if it's sold in a Walmart, then it's probably not a quality food with very few exceptions.
WalMart there must be quite different from WalMart here....nothing they sell here is fit for anything. One of my favourite quotes about WalMart is the "There's a little bit of Ol Roy in every bag of Ol Roy" (referring to the 'animal protein' listed in the ingredients...an ingedient that can legally, and usually does, be derived from rendered euthanised pet corpses and roadkill).
 
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