Is Fancy Feast cat food good for cats?

Answer 1

This will depend upon your criteria and standards, but in general I would say Fancy Feast is probably not the worst canned cat food.

Nutritionally, Fancy Feast canned food meets the AAFCO standards for feline nutrition. Most other national brands (Iams, Eukanuba, Purina, etc) will also meet this standard. There are some off-label brands that don't meet AAFCO - you can look for the AAFCO statement on the can - that would be much worse for your cat.

If you are looking at primary food ingredients, Fancy Feast isn't bad - most of their primary ingredients are meat-based, with minimal fillers.

If you are looking at size, Fancy Feast cans tend to be smaller than other canned cat foods, likely to keep the cost comparable per can. This means it is more expensive when you are feeding 100% canned food.

Answer 2

The Whiskas company use very low quality, cheap ingredients in their food. The dry food is packed with grains and cereals that offer no nutritional value whatsoever to a cat or kitten, and the wet food has a very low meat quality and content.

Typically Whiskas' foods only state 4% meat, as this is the minimum required to put on a pet food can/pouch/bag. This gives them freedom to add much cheaper and low quality meats without having to legally state them in the ingredients list, and these "extra" meats can be from a completely different animal (or animals). It is not difficult to assume that the actual meat content and quality varies wildly from batch to batch because of this.

"Meat and Animal Derivatives" is often found in brands found in supermarkets and is usually the only meat-based protein source. This is a generic term for animal proteins - it can sourced from any animal. "Derivatives" are the leftover, undesirable bits of an animal such as feet, fur, intestines, heads etc. which results in poor quality food and extremely low nutritional value.

The dry food pieces (like most dry foods) are sprayed with fat and other flavourings so they are more appetising to the cat. Cats will eat whatever they believe to be tasty, and are naturally drawn to strong smells and flavours that cheaper foods will include - solely to entice the cat to eat.

Compare this to other higher-quality cat foods such as Blue Buffalo, Felidae, Weruva, California Natural, Instinct, Prairie, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack, Wellness, EVO, Bozita (the canned stuff is 90+% meat and can be bought from zooplus.co.uk), HiLife (60% meat), Feline Fayre, to name a few.

Answer 3

Most cats love Fancy Feast, but most cats do very well on dry food. I use Fancy Feast as a once-a-week treat.