Friskies cat food

Friskies cat food has long been one of the most popular ready-made cat food options in our country. This is primarily due to its price and wide availability – you can buy this brand's food at any supermarket or store. But whether this food is healthy and worth buying for your pet will become clear after a detailed examination of the ingredients and a breakdown of all the components of these foods.

Manufacturer

This brand is owned by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, which acquired the manufacturer of Carnation (the former maker of Friskies) back in 1985. The first pet food under this brand was released in 1956 in the United States, and since then, the name has become a fixture in the lives of pet owners worldwide. Over the years, numerous recipes and packaging have changed, but the brand's symbol—a gorgeous ginger cat—still adorns every package.

Assortment

Like other manufacturers, Friskies offers both wet and dry food. Canned wet menus for kittens come in one flavor—chicken in gravy. Five flavors are available for adult cats:

• Beef;
• Beef with lamb meat;
• Chicken;
• Rabbit meat;
• Turkey with liver.

Each of these foods features delicious chunks in a flavorful gravy and is available in 100-gram pouches designed for a single feeding. For kittens, the portion can be divided into several meals.

As for dry kibble, the selection is somewhat wider. For kittens up to 12 months old, there's a special menu featuring chicken, milk, and healthy vegetables. For adults, the flavor list is as follows:

• Meat with the addition of healthy vegetables;
• Chicken with vegetables;
• Chicken with liver;
• Rabbit meat with vegetables.

All of these Friskies brand diets are available in 0.4, 0.8, and 2 kg packages. In addition to the main line, there's also a specialized food for neutered cats and apartment pets—chicken with garden greens. Thanks to its special formula and the inclusion of garden greens, this diet helps reduce the risk of hairballs. It's available in 0.3 and 1.5 kg packages.

This is the entire Friskies brand product range available in retail chains across our country. Advertising claims these are healthy and complete foods, suitable for the daily nutrition of any pet. But whether this is true, and whether the reviews of Friskies cat food are accurate, can only be determined by conducting a detailed analysis of the ingredients.

Compound

The best "test subject" is dry Friskies for adults with chicken and vegetables. This is the most common and universal diet, suitable for all breeds.

So, in the composition indicated on the package, the ingredients are arranged in the following order:

• Cereal crops;
• Meat and processed products (including chicken);
• Processed vegetable products;
• Plant proteins;
• Oil and fat.

Additional ingredients included yeast, preservatives, minerals, vitamins, colorings, vegetables, and antioxidants. That's essentially the entire list. The guaranteed ingredient content is as follows:

• Proteins: 30.0%
• Fat: 10.0%
• Ash content: 7.5%
• Fiber content: 2.5%
• Omega 6: 1.5%
• Calcium: 1.0%
• Phosphorus: 1.0%
• Taurine: 0.09%

Looking at the nutritional content, it's safe to say these are average values ​​for dry cat food. However, when looking at the ingredients, many questions arise.

Squirrels

Judging by the menu's name, the protein source should be chicken. However, the ingredients don't include chicken per se—only meat and processed meat products, including chicken. This likely refers to cheap, low-quality by-products and deboning scraps. Furthermore, the ingredients list the amount of plant protein, but its origin is not specified. Cats need meat—this is an axiom confirmed by nature itself, and no plant protein can replace it.

Fats

Fats and oils are the main source of lipids. This isn't just a vague term, but a completely unclear ingredient: which fats, which oils, and in what quantities are added to the food remains a mystery to the consumer.

Carbohydrates

Although the ingredients don't list carbohydrate content, they do list grains, which are essentially the same as carbohydrates. And there's a lot of them—about 50% of the total weight. Grains are listed first on the nutrient list, meaning they're higher in the food than the meat cats crave. This composition is designed to reduce the cost of the final product and doesn't provide any particular benefit to your pet.

Additional components

• Vegetable byproducts are likely the very "vegetables" promised in the food's name. Most likely, the ingredients used are of poor quality vegetable waste, making the benefits of these ingredients questionable.
• Yeast is a beneficial nutrient designed to normalize digestion and ease intestinal function. It is also a source of B vitamins, which are beneficial for your pet's skin and coat.
• Minerals and vitamins are essential microelements that are added as a ready-made premix.
• Vegetables are a vague concept. There's no clear understanding of which vegetables and in what quantities are included.
• Antioxidants are undoubtedly beneficial substances that prevent cellular aging. However, since this ingredient is listed last, its content is likely negligible and cannot have a significant effect on the body.
• Preservatives and colorings are clearly harmful ingredients that should not be included in pet food: they are harmful and provide absolutely no benefit other than making the product more appealing to consumers. This is a major drawback for this food, negating all its advantages.

To summarize the composition, it can be said that Friskies diets belong to the economy segment of food and cannot be used for daily feeding of a pet.

Price

After researching the online pet food market, we can find the following average prices for Friskies cat food:

Regardless of flavor, the price for a 300-gram pack starts at 70 rubles, and for a 2-kg pack, at 315 rubles. As for pouches, all of them, regardless of flavor, cost 20 rubles per 100 grams. This makes this an affordable food that breeders of any income can afford.

Reviews

Svetlana, Mushka's owner:

"My pet is a foundling – we found her outside in winter and brought her into a warm home. At first, she ate milk, but later, after reading reviews of Friskies cat food, I decided to try switching her to dry food. I bought a pack of kitten food to try, but it turned out to be completely unsuitable. She became lethargic and unplayful, and her stool became loose. The vet told us to stop experimenting and return Mukha to her usual diet. That's how we experienced dry food."

Alexey Sergeevich, breeder of the Neva Masquerade cat:

"My pet was a birthday present—my relatives knew I wanted a cat, so they gave me such a surprise. At first, knowing nothing about cat nutrition, I read reviews on a local forum and decided to buy Friskies dry cat food. My beauty ate it with gusto and seemed to be looking great. But after a routine visit to the vet, the doctor advised me to change her diet, claiming it wasn't healthy. I changed her diet, and sure enough, soon she was unrecognizable: her fur was shiny, she'd gained a little weight, and she was active and lively. Now I'm very wary of cheap food!"

Ulyana Grigoryevna, owner of a mongrel cat:

"My noblewoman always ate whatever she could find—before I brought her home, she mostly ate whatever she could find on the street. But after she became domesticated, I started buying her Friskies food—she really likes it, eats her portions completely and asks for more. My children told me these crackers aren't very healthy, but I don't see any problems—she eats them with pleasure and feels great."

Veterinarian Reviews

Alexey Kudin, veterinary clinic doctor:

"Over the course of my 15 years of work, I've been asked many times what I, as a veterinarian, think about Friskies cat food. Let's put it this way: reviews from different sources vary, but I stand by my long-held opinion: cheap food can't be healthy. It's fine to use it as a temporary diet, when, so to speak, there's nothing else to feed your pet. But it's definitely not suitable as a permanent diet. I would recommend switching to a more expensive and nutritious pet food at the first opportunity."

Alina Alekseevna Kulenko, practicing physician:

"I had a client insist that there was no better cat food than Friskies by Purina. I presented him with numerous arguments, including reviews from fellow veterinarians, about why it's not a good idea to feed his pet this food on a regular basis. He reluctantly agreed and switched his pet to a more expensive diet. A month later, he came back with gratitude – his pet had improved significantly, and, what's more, the cat had become playful and active. This clearly illustrates once again that cheap food is never high-quality or complete – it can't serve as the basis for a pet's diet."

Read also:

• Whiskas cat food
• Perfect Fit cat food
• Purina One cat food