I can't tell you much about this issue, so I just wanted to remind you
that no matter how good the food is, it's still only good if the cat
actually eats it.  ;)

My cats won't eat most of the really high quality food (Science Diet,
Innova, Wellness), but they really like Royal Canin. They also like
Nutro, but I've heard the quality of Nutro has gone down in recent
years.
As for wet, they won't touch anything except the McDonald's of cat foods
- Fancy Feast. *sigh*

The prevailing opinion seems to be that wet food is much better for them
than dry, so if you can get them to eat a high-quality wet, go for it.
If not, they should still get wet food of any kind at least once a day
(in addition to the dry) just to make sure they are getting enough
moisture in their diet.

I used to feed Nutro but they went to lowest cost formulation and Amber
refused to eat it.  I tried Innova (which is good) but they seem to
prefer Wellness.

                 ---MIKE---

There's a ton of stuff if you do a google search on this group, but for dry
food I like Science Diet and Innova, and for wet food Wellness.

writes:

You found a fanatic here.  I think Royal Canin is wonderful!  My vet didn't
recommend it, I found out about it online and I buy it at a non-chain pet food
store.  I also give my cats Wellness wet food, but they love the Royal Canin so
much it's almost frightening.

Their coats are softer now that they're eating this diet, and they seem more
robust.  I switched them (from Iams dry and Fancy Feast) after Priss was
diagnosed with CRF over two years ago.  Since it was early stage CRF, we
decided to treat it with nutrition alone.  I got some info from my vet, then
went online and found the KatKarma pages.
(http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dryfood.htm)

On a blood test six weeks after the new foods were introduced, Priss's BUN was
normal and her creatine had dropped to just over borderline.  Another six weeks
later, and Priss had perfectly normal blood work.  Ever since then, her BUN and
creatine have been normal, along with her urine density (or whatever it is
they're looking for there).  My vet has been practicing for 25 years, and she
has never before seen a CRF cat's numbers go back into the normal range and
stay there.

Would this happen with other cats?  I have no idea.  Would other foods have
done the same thing for Priss?  Maybe.  Could this have happened on its own
without the change in diet?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  Am I ever going to
stop feeding my cats Royal Canin and Wellness?  Hell, no -- not unless the
formula changes radically.

Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with Royal Canin.  And if you can,
someone here will surely tell you.

Daria
Timing is everything

Amy,
  A few things. First of all "human grade" means absolutely nothing.
It is not defined in law and any manufacturer can make that claim for
anything they wish. Legally you could create a pet food with horse
manure, some old leather work boots, some used crankcase engine oil
and label it "human grade". The correct legal term is human edible -
which no pet food qualifies for. The moment a meat meal departs from
the human food production chain it is no longer considered human
edible. "Human grade" is a marketing term, nothing else.
  By products may or may not be of good quality. They may be more
digestible than straight meat meals, they may be less digestible. They
may be more expensive and less expensive, it all depends upon the
grade of the meat meal purchased. There are a large number of meat
meal grades. Many of the "by-product" meals are actually more
digestible than straight meat meals, and contain far less mineral
(ash) content. As a result the end product can end up without having
excess levels of calcium (ground up bone tissue) than you would
typically find in a plain meat meal. For example it is possible to buy
"low ash" chicken/poultry by-product meal which is more digestible
than plain chicken meal and contains far less ground up bone tissue in
the meal. As a result the end product has a calcium level of <1%
whereas the chicken meal product may contain as much as 2% calcium.
Maximum Key Nutritional Levels for calcium in adult cats in 1% dry
matter basis.
  There is no "ash" in a pet food. What this refers to is the overall
mineral level of the food. The critical component in this is magnesium
for young cats to prevent and reduce the chance of struvite stone
formation. "Ash" is an analytical value which results from burning the
food until everything but the minerals have been burned off - all the
proteins, fats, fiber etc are gone and the only thing left is
minerals. It is very possible to have a cat food with low "ash"
content and yet still have very high magnesium content.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the input!

-Amy