Is Royal Canin Cat Food in India of Poorer Quality?

By Ayesha Husna (in India)

Recently, there was an article that Royal Canin had changed hands with ownership and that they have changed formulations of their products too. And this comes as a horrid surprise, and true to that. There have been many reports and complaints (you can check the RC Complaint Board for proof of this) that Dogs and Cats have had convulsions, seizures, renal infections recently after purchasing the new stocks of RC. RC agrees that they have changed formulations, and included Chicken By Product meals instead of Chicken meals and it is all ‘the same’. But, in reality, this means ‘beaks’, ‘tails’, and even chicken feces may be added to the food. Would you feed your cat this?

The only reason, I followed my gut to do a thorough research on this is because my cat has stopped eating well and is getting thin by the day and he loved RC so dearly and suddenly is showing an odd repulsion. It is true, that cats sense the difference before anyone does. My mother also suspected an odd smell that was never there in stocks purchased of RC since the past two years. I am in vain as my cat turns his head away from Whiskas, IAMS, and other cat food brands.

Although, my cat is in good health. You might know that cats are incredibly resilient animals and can hide their pain or changing bodies very well, so it is hard for us pet parents to know if something is in fact wrong.

It’s easy for us to lay back and just say that ‘we’ll make do with what’s there/best in India’ or ‘my cat seems to be doing fine’. But, long term health is key.

I wrote a request to Wellness Core (the best and the most appreciated cat food brand in the world) to introduce their brand in India. But, you know these things don’t happen without persistence and reasoning.

Urge you to create more awareness on changing scenarios with what cat food brands today are stuffing our cats to reduce their costs.

Urge you to start a movement where the Best makes it’s way to India. We Indians Love Cats as much as Dogs too. If there is ample choice for Dogs, why not for Cats?

Ayesha Husna

http://cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org/2008/10/cat-lovers-in-india.html

Note from Michael (Admin). As I understand it the following cat foods are available in India:

• Royal Canin (dry and wet)
• Whiskas (wet and dry)
• Iams (dry)
• Top Cat (dry)
• Bellotta (wet)
• Me-O (dry and wet)
• Drools (no good)

Thanks, Ayesha, for this post. The language used to describe pet food ingredients is vague and it hard to understand what it means unless you look it up.

Royal Canin have changed ingredients from “chicken meal” to “chicken by-product meal” and I believe this applies across all countries. But does it? Can someone help? Is India getting the thin end of the wedge, the rubbish that is unacceptable in the West?

Chicken by-product meal can contain intestines and/or chicken feces while chicken meal does not include chicken intestines and/or chicken feces.

Is it possible that RC dry is being supplied in India which contains processed feces that makes it potentially a health problem as described by Ayesha Husna? I don’t know.