Cityscape Bliss // UK lifestyle blog based in Birmingham: Feline Foodology: Chicken with rice by Harringtons

Another week, another hungry belly post. Kitten belly that is. Pippin's to be exact. And it's not hungry really - it's stuffed to near explosion, that's why she's napping on my lap as I type (I wish, she's napping in the laundry basket really, the little punk). If you're not familiar with Feline Foodology then what are you waiting for - surely you want to be feeding your cat the best - not the worst that's out there (which you might easily be doing - I used to!).

🐥 Harringtons Chicken with Rice Adult Dry Food

I found Harringtons dry food in Asda for a reasonable £1.50 for 425g. The packaging gave a me lot of hope for its natural composition - no added wheat, dairy, soya, beed, artificial colours, flavours & preservatives. Natural wholesome nutrition. You would think that surely such a plethora of positive statements means that this will be the food you want your cat to be eating. Now, taste-wise this was a success. Much more popular than the usual Go Cat that Cookie & Pippin used to eat. The ingredients however left me a little baffled - what is exactly this chicken meat meal & what is the percentage of maize content (maize = carbs). I asked the internet for the answer but didn't get very far. So I took to Jenny for advice (thank you!). This is my understanding;

Chicken meat meal is essentially mixed bits of chicken (free from feathers, feet etc) which have been ground up and heated at high pressure to make a fine dry powder. This kind of intense processing and high heat destroys most nutrients present in the meat rendering it denatured. So this means the meat is probably not a great quality to start with and by the time it's added into the food it's not much better than a meat flavoured dust.

Now onto maize - in the UK the ingredients listed need to be in a content order - this means there's definitely less than 50% of maize however more than 10% of it. And since the chicken meat meal & rice add up to just 50% of the whole content you can guess that it will be quite a large chunk - perhaps around 34-39%. That's a fair amount of carbohydrates!

I'm quite disappointed that at first glance you believe that this dry food is really good. At second glance you find out it's just alright. It could be waaaaay worse however it could be much better. Cats don't naturally eat highly processed foods and you don't ever find your cat chewing on a corn cob either, do you?

Ingredients: Chicken meat meal (40%), maize, rice (10%), poultry fat, digest, fish oil, beet pulp, minerals, yeast 0.1%, cranberry extract 0.05%, yucca extract 0.02%
Analytical components: Protein 30%, fat content 12%, crude fibre 2.5%, crude ash 7.5%, Omega 6 1.7%, Omega 3, 0.3%, Calcium 1.4%, Phosphorous 1%
Price: £1.50 for 425g

You can buy Harringtons dry food via Monster Pet Supplies here.

To learn more about proper cat food you can grab a copy of Jenny's book Cats off the Carbs here - it's a great little guide if you're looking to start feeding your cat a proper food! And just to reiterate (and give you an example of what kind of information you can find in the book) - a good cat food is

High in animal protein

Moderate in fat

Low in carbohydrates

What are you feeding your cats at the moment?

Have you ever tried reading the labels & deciphering what they mean?

💭 Totally not sponsored - Jenny was kind enough to share her book Cats off the Carbs with me (thank you!) however all the picky feline habits, beany toesies and stinky toots after eating too much chicken meat meal kibble are our very own.

💭 I don't claim to be an expert in cat food - all my knowledge is gathered from Jenny's book, the internets and my own personal experience, however I'm genuinely hoping this series will help others understand the importance of proper cat food.