What is different about the indoor cat food formula and should cats that are indoors or mostly indoors be eating it? Thanks!
i saw a brand natural balance that had an indoor formula..i started feeding my cats innova but it’s so expensive so i wanted to mix innova + natural balance..
thanks RuneAm, lol those companies are good at lowering the cost to make it and making that look like its something good! i thought some special vitamins were added or something.
To give the best answer, I’d have to compare actual brands. But to summarize, very little is different. The indoor formulas may have slightly lower calories but that’s about it.
It’s in no way an official label – it’s really pretty much meaningless.
I have found that the better cat foods don’t use these labels at all, so to answer your question I’d say no – don’t feed anything that claims to target a specific breed or age of cat.
I’m going to compare Iams products (not a brand I would ever recommend).
Indoor formula contains:
Ingredients
Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Powdered Cellulose, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken, Dried Egg Product, Natural Chicken Flavor, Chicken Fat (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Sodium Bisulfate, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Fish Oil (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Brewers Dried Yeast, Choline Chloride, Salt, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Inositol, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Minerals (Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), L-Carnitine, Rosemary Extract
Original (chicken) contains:
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Sodium Bisulfate, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Brewers Dried Yeast, Choline Chloride, Vitamins [Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid], Calcium Carbonate, Minerals [Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate], Salt, Rosemary Extract.
Original has more protein – lowering the protein is NOT a good thing. It claims 433 calories per cup.
Indoor claims 303 calories per cup. It’s lower in protein and fat (not a good thing). They’ve removed the meat! They’ve saved on calories by removing anything remotely healthy.
If a gun were held to my head and I was told to feed Iams, I’d choose the original formula. It’s still horrendously bad food, but at least there’s some healthy stuff in it.
So to sum up – don’t feed indoor formulas. If your cat needs to lose weight or you need to keep an eye on that, there are much better things you can do.
EDIT: NB is a decent brand of food. You’ll do fine with that, I think.