Hi Matthew,
Gaubster is the group's resident troll.  Rather than you waste your time
reading his previous rants, I thought I'd just give you a head's up.  Follow
your vet's advice and ignore Gaubster.  He has some crazy obsession with
pushing Science Diet food and any other brand is akin to poison according to
him.  I'm sure he'll come along now and try to refute what I've said, but most
people in the group know it's true.  Listen to your vet and also continue doing
your research, and your kitties will be fine :)

Lauren
________
See my cats:  http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecatjournal.com/articles/claws.htm

Matthew,
The designation of "meal" simply means the meat product has been
dried. Thus "chicken" is what is called "wet" meat whereas chicken meal
is dried chicken. Wet meat chicken is used to make it appear as if the
food contains more of some meat in the ingredient panel. All "wet"
meats are about 60-70% water, all of which is lost in the manufacturing
process of any dry food. Since the regulations require a manufacturer
to list the ingredients based upon weight of the ingredient BEFORE
processing, using a wet meat allows a manufacturer to move a meat
ingredient closer to the first ingredient listing on the ingredient
label.
Wet meat (ie. chicken, turkey, beef), dried meat (ie. chicken meal,
turkey meal, beef meal) or any other kind of meat ingredient can vary
so widely that looking the label gives the consumer absolutely no clue
as to the quality of the meat being used. Dired or wet meats can be of
equal quality or either could be substantially better than the other,
it all depends upon the quality of ingredients chosen by the
manufacturer.

I'm not angry, Mathew, I just constantly see people misinformed about pet foods
labels.  It is very confusing to cut through all of the marketing hype and
misinformation.  The important thing to consider when looking at pet foods is
the fact that an ingredient label will tell you absolutely NOTHING about the
quality of ingredients or the overall nutrient content of the food.  "Meal"
simply means that the water weight has been taken out of the ingredient.  It
doesn't speak to the quality of meat used.  There is a difference between
"chicken meal", and "chicken by-product meal".  By-products aren't neccessarily
(despite what you've heard) bad.  Some are and some aren't.  The term
"by-product" is a broad general term used to simplify the length of the
ingredient label.  Not to mention the fact that the label doesn't tell you the
quality of meat meal or by-product.  Some by-products are desirable, others are
not.  What do you think a cat eats in the wild when they kill a mouse or a
bird?  They are eating what are classified as by-products!  

Pet food companies have figured out that if they can appeal to the emotions of
the consumer and market their food based on the ingredient label, then they can
sell a lot of pet food.  You should be more concerned with the nutrient levels
in the food and whether or not those levels are appropriate for the
lifestage/lifestyle of your cat.  For instance, check the AAFCO label.  If it
states that the food is "formulated", then it has never been test fed to cats.
If the AAFCO label states that it is "for all life stages", then that means it
has (higher) levels of nutrients that are more appropriate for the puppy or
kitten.  Adult and especially senior animals don't need the higher levels of
protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, salt, etc.  Too much calcium can lead to
bone or skin problems.  Too much phosphorus can contribute to undetected renal
failure.  Too much salt can contribute to a whole host of problems.  Same thing
with fat levels.  The bottom line is that you can't glean all of this just by
looking at an ingredient label.  Your veternarian may have a copy of Small
Animal Clinical Nutrition.  This is all explained in there.  My experience is
that information on the internet is just people's (almost always, uninformed
OPINIONS).  People hear things and then pass it along...leading to a bunch of
myths and old wives' tales.

I think your vet is absolutely right.

Not necessarily.  She's probably meeting almost her entire daily water
requirement from her food.  Cats fed dry food drink more water (~6x more),
than cats fed canned food, but their total water intake and water turnover
is *less* than cats fed dry food.

Its nice to see so many vets finally coming around to canned food. You
wouldn't believe all the wars I got into for pushing canned food 5 or 6
years ago! LOL!

Phil

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Water Requirements

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry Food vs Canned Food.  Which is
really better?