by Michael
(London, UK)
Not Fancy Feast - but it is gourmet - Photo by Squid! (Flickr)
Fancy feast gourmet cat food is good enough for us to eat or at least it sounds that way: "Grilled Beef Feast in gravy. Made with slow-cooked beef feast lavishly basted in gravy......". I sounds like the kind of thing I would knock up at Christmas - for myself!
And that is the point. Our cats are silent. Our cats have no thoughts about the niceties of grilled or steamed foods packed in deliciously cute little lined cans with easy pull lids. If it smells good and tastes good they will eat it if they are hungry. It is down to us to make sure that it is good.
And we shouldn't really decide on the basis that it sounds tasty to us. Do you sometimes have the urge to lick your fingers when you have pealed back the lid of a can of gourmet cat food and served it up to your cat?
The marketing of modern gourmet cat food is not cat-led. It is designed to be attractive to us. As a member of the family many good cat caretakers want to do their best for their cats. They also like to give their cats a nice feast when they themselves are participating in a special meal on a special occasion. That is nice but the marketing departments of cat food manufacturers know this and they know that we tend to anthropomorphosize our cats so human and cat food merges.
I just think that we should be aware of this and stick to what is good for our cat and think like a cat (I am not saying Fancy Feast gourmet cat food is not good; just that the term "gourmet" etc. does not mean that it is necessarily better). Gourmet cat food is expensive, particularly in the UK and it is no better than less expensive food. Gourmet cat food is often packaged in small paté-like-cans. This increases the packaging requirements to the detriment of the environment. A small thing some people might argue but a point that we should all be more aware of today in a world were we should think about reducing our carbon footprint.
The packaging of cat food is quite extensive if we think about it - tons of cardboard and tins etc.
It is argued that one reason for the rise in gourmet cat food sales is the breakdown of the family, working longer hours has resulted in a greater attachment to our cats. Cats are wonderfully reliable and predicable companions. People want to do their best for their companions and rightly so.
We should just remind ourselves that gourmet cat food is not necessarily the best. In any case, my cats don't like it! They prefer good quality, yes, but they care not for a fine rabbit terrine steamed slowly in a Moroccan oven....! Umm where's my toast, I could do with some of that.