Fancy Feast Cat Food Review

David D'Angelo 20529 5

2

Fancy Feast from Purina (Nestle) is very popular in Australia, but is it popular because it’s healthy for your cat, or because it’s readily available and cheap.

This would be my view, but also because the packaging and meaningless marketing words, fancy graphics, and gorgeous looking cats make Fancy Feast look so amazingly appealing!

The TV ads really suck you in as well.

But… they’re just ads… and say zilch about what Fancy Feast is made from, which for the dry biscuits is a great deal of grain for your cat carnivore who shouldn’t be fed such rubbish.

Let’s take a look at both the dry food and range of wet foods (of which the pate looks to be the best option by far).

Fancy Feast dry food review

We’ll take a look at Fancy Feast Tuna, Prawn, Mackeral & Crab Flavour which according to the Fancy Feast website is “a highly palatable gourmet dry cat food made for adult cats that has been cooked and basted to a delicately crunchy finish”.

If it’s that good for your cat, why don’t they advertise the main ingredient on the packaging, which is Grains and Grain Products (Wheat, Corn and Rice)?

This uncovers the truth about Fancy Feast dry food immediately, because this definitely isn’t “carnivore”, and fed to your cat over the long term would very likely be bad news on two counts – (1) moisture-less dry food is far from optimal for your cat, and (2) especially when it’s made of inappropriate ingredients for your carnivore.

The second (and only other main ingredient) is Meat and meat products (Chicken and Beef).

Take a look at the ingredients of other recipes as well – you’ll see the main ingredients are exactly the same, so it doesn’t matter which recipe you pick.

Although the meat ingredient doesn’t scream quality – it’s likely the cheapest mish mash of chicken and beef leftovers possible – this is at least more appropriate for your cat. But sadly, we know the grains are the most significant ingredient.

I don’t know about you, but this makes me think of stray cats scavenging whatever they can out of desperation in a dark New York alleyway (I think I’ve been watching too many kids cartoon movies recently).

Cats will eat whatever they can if they have to.

When we consider Fancy Feast is well and truly a budget cat food, we can’t expect any of the ingredients to be quality, can we?

Despite Tuna, Prawn, Mackeral, and Crab appealing to our vision of “gourmet” in the recipe name, these inclusions are way down in the ingredients – and are absolutely miniscule.

How funny is that?

(or not funny)

As a dry cat food it has to be said Fancy Feast is one of the worst, and if this is all you can afford you should do your cat a favour and offer them healthy carnivore-appropriate table scraps, meat, offal, eggs, or raw meaty bones in the hope of boosting nutrition.

Thankfully the Fancy Feast wet foods are a little more appropriate, although knowing which ones – mostly the pate – you’ll have to consider the ingredients of each.

Fancy Feast wet food review

The Fancy Feast wet foods vary greatly in terms of ingredients.

Some are made of cereals, like the kibble, or contain sugars, artificial flavourings, and other ingredients which highlight the range as a budget cat food.

The pate range looks to be the best – even half decent – which you can tell from the ingredients:

Fancy Feast Savory Centers Salmon and a Gourmet Gravy Paté (top ingredients) – Poultry broth, poultry, liver, meat by-products, salmon, artificial and natural flavors, pork plasma, steamed bone meal.

We can pick holes (i.e. meat by-products, artificial flavours etc), but those ingredients read much better than these:

Fancy Feast Royale Tuna with Shrimp (all ingredients) – Tuna, Shrimp, Gelling Agents and Vitamin E

Imagine how a cat could suffer if the owner fed that to their cat as a main diet over the long term.

Fancy Feast Petite Delights with Grilled Turkey chunks in gravy (top ingredients) – Meat, Cereal Protein, Amino Acids.

Not great, right?

That’s not a complete and balanced cat food, and I would say a can of tuna or chicken would be the better option for your cat – but only as a treat or supplement, not a balanced meal.

Offering your cat the Fancy Feast pates as part of the diet probably isn’t a bad thing, especially if their main diet is dry cat food, just keep in mind as a budget-conscious brand can’t be considered on par with more expensive wet cat food brands.

Where to buy?

Fancy Feast is a popular brand in Australia and is therefore available at many retailers – you’ll find the range of Fancy Feast dry and wet foods in Coles, Woolworths, and other popular supermarkets.

Ingredients (Fancy Feast dry food)

Sample ingredients of Fancy Feast Tuna, Prawn, Mackerel and Crab Dry Cat Food:

Grains and Grain Products (Wheat, Corn and Rice); Meat and meat products (Chicken and Beef); Essential Minerals, Vitamins, Amino Acids and Flavours (including Tuna, Prawn, Mackerel, and Crab); Legume Protein; Dehydrated tuna; Caramel and Annatto Extract.

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