The choice of cat food is constantly growing, which increases the agony of choice. How good are the new varieties compared to the old familiar ones? In a test, I compared a classic manufacturer with a newcomer.
The classic manufacturer is Royal Canin, the French supplier of dog and cat food. The company was founded back in 1967 and is now part of the MARS group. The challenger, PLATINUM, has dominated the market for healthy dog food since 2004 with its own preparation process. It is difficult to create something comparably successful for cats because they are a different species. For many years, the ladies and gentlemen at PLATINUM have been working on a cat food “from the perspective of cats”. PLATINUM started with a dry food that was named MeatCrisp.
Royal Canin British Shorthair Adult
It seems that Royal Canin has a cat food for every breed. It is undisputed that domestic cats are strict carnivores. Nature is apparently much more straightforward than Royal Canin when it comes to feeding cats. Looking more closely at the compositions of breed-specific cat foods from Royal Canin, I am struck by the fact that they hardly differ from each other! Three examples:
Maine Coon Adult: poultry protein (dried), rice, corn, animal fat, corn gluten feed, vegetable protein isolate…
Persian Adult: poultry protein (dried), animal fat, rice, vegetable protein isolate…
British Shorthair Adult: poultry protein (dried), rice, vegetable protein isolate, animal fat, corn, corn gluten feed…
Since cats are strict carnivores, it doesn’t really matter to them if the ingredient ranking after protein is “rice, corn, animal fat”, “animal fat, rice, vegetable protein isolate” or “rice, vegetable protein isolate, animal fat”. The deciding factor is the meat content, or rather the protein content – Royal Canin is known for not using meat. I wanted to know for sure, and so I looked at the ingredient list of about 20 cat foods from Royal Canin. As expected, I didn’t discover any meat. But food without meat for strict carnivores – how is that possible? I looked at the reviews of the British Shorthair Adult dry food at various suppliers, and I must conclude: No one seems to care that they are feeding their cats poultry protein meal as a meat substitute. Or maybe these cat owners don’t know that poultry protein is not meat?
Poultry protein is not meat!
Poultry protein is derived from poultry meal. Poultry meal is produced only after multiple rounds of heating under high pressure from waste products of the meat industry. Multiple rounds of heating are required by law to kill disease-causing germs. Compared to fresh poultry meat, poultry meal has fewer nutrients, a higher ash content and lower protein digestibility.
Beware: Meat meal in cat food is often hidden behind terms like “ground dried meat” or “dried meat.”
If meat-replacing poultry protein meal is the main ingredient in all Royal Canin varieties (the exact amount is not stated), and it doesn’t make much difference to strict carnivores what other ingredients are used besides meat, then all Royal Canin varieties are the same from the perspective of a cat. Thus, I could have used any other variety of Royal Canin for this test.
The composition of Royal Canin British Shorthair
Poultry protein (dried), rice, vegetable protein isolate, animal fat, corn, corn gluten feed, lignocellulose, animal protein (hydrolyzed), chicory fiber, fish oil, soybean oil, minerals, yeasts and their parts, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast hydrolysate (source of mannan-oligosaccharides), borage oil, hydrolysate from crustaceans (source of glucosamine), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysate from cartilage (source of chondroitin)
I gather from the composition that dried poultry protein is the main ingredient, because it comes first. However, without a quantity specification, this statement is worthless. The reported protein content of 34 percent is equally unhelpful, because what it is composed of it is not disclosed. There is both vegetable protein (vegetable protein isolate) and animal protein (poultry protein) in this feed, with animal protein having a higher value for a carnivore. The other ingredients have little or no value to a carnivore.
What do buyers of Royal Canin British Shorthair say?
“Our male cat won’t take any other food…”
“The cats love it …”
“…My princes eat only British Shorthair.”
If cats are naturally strict carnivores, then they will also be attracted to meat and moved to eat it. That is the natural course of events. If a food without meat is so readily eaten, then it makes me wonder what the food contains to make cats think it is meat?
PLATINUM MeatCrisp from the Freshmeatdryer
MeatCrisp is the name of the new cat food from PLATINUM. Unlike Royal Canin cat food, MeatCrisp is prepared in a Freshmeatdryer. This is new, but is it also better? For a carnivore, it is certainly better, because real meat is used. Curious, I read up on the device. By developing the Freshmeatdryer, Platinum has managed to preserve the natural micronutrients and amino acids of fresh meat in MeatCrisp cat food. Why is this important for the cat?
Cats, whether outdoor or indoor, have an innate hunting instinct that varies in intensity among animals. Most cats love to hunt, and feral cats even spend much of the day doing so. When eating the prey of the hunt, cats often feel a sense of happiness. PLATINUM has found that this feeling of happiness is triggered by certain micronutrients and amino acids in the meat. The Freshmeatdryer preserves these natural micronutrients and amino acids of the meat, making MeatCrisp a cat food specifically suited to a cat’s physical and mental health. Cat owners who feed MeatCrisp over a long period of time report that their cats are more balanced. More balanced means more satisfied and therefore happier.
The composition of PLATINUM MeatCrisp (Adult Chicken)
Fresh chicken meat 83%, Flor de Maiz (selected corn flour), fresh salmon, mix of potatoes*, peas* and rice, brewer’s yeast*, vegetable fibers*, egg*, salt, salmon oil, chicory root* (FOS) (* dried)
Of course, it is striking that the meat content is 83 percent and that no poultry meal or poultry protein is included. It is certainly arguable about the lack of quantity information of the other ingredients. But do I need to know the quantity information of ingredients that make up only 17 percent of the total? As mentioned above, ingredients other than meat can hardly be of any significance to a strict carnivore.
What do the buyers of PLATINUM MeatCrisp say?
“From day one, the food was super accepted, and sometimes even wet food was left in favor of the dry food.”
“My cat loves it and no longer wants to eat other dry foods.”
“All three cats loved the food and eat it to this day.”
PLATINUM MeatCrisp customer reviews are very similar to Royal Canin British Shorthair customer reviews. However, I find the cats’ preference for MeatCrisp more understandable than their enthusiasm for Royal Canin British Shorthair. As I said, cats are strictly carnivores and Royal Canin British Shorthair contains no meat!
Evaluation of dry cat food test 2022: Royal Canin British Shorthair vs. PLATINUM MeatCrisp
| Royal Canin British Shorthair
MSRP |
PLATINUM MeatCrisp
MSRP |
||
| 400 g | 6.10£ (15,25£ per kg) | 400 g | 5,90£ (14,75£ per kg) |
| 2 kg | 19.99£ (10.00£ per kg) | 1.5 kg | 17,90£ (11,93£ per kg) |
| 4 kg | 31,99£ (8.00£ per kg) | 3 kg | 29,90£ (9,97£ per kg) |
In my comparison of the recommended prices, Royal Canin British Shorthair seems to me to be disproportionately priced by the manufacturer. Apparently, no one wants to buy the food at this price either, because all vendors give high discounts on the MSRP. In contrast, the MSRP of MeatCrip seems very good to me, even quite inexpensive considering the quality.
Features Royal Canin British Shorthair (Adult) PLATINUM MeatCrisp (Adult Chicken)
| Features | Royal Canin British Shorthair (Adult) | PLATINUM MeatCrisp (Adult Chicken) |
| Real meat | no | yes |
| Meat meal or protein meal | yes | no |
| Transparency of declaration | not at all | essentially |
| Attractants | most likely | no |
| Gluten-free | probably | yes |
| Vegetable proteins as an essential ingredient | yes | no |
| Wheat | no | no |
I don’t understand how a food for a strict carnivore could not contain meat. To be clear, this is not about too little meat: Royal Canin British Shorthair contains no meat at all and therefore fails in my view. In my opinion, cats are somehow induced to eat this product that is devoid of meat, and this is not in the true nature of the cats. The situation is different with PLATINUM MeatCrisp, which is made from more than 83 percent fresh meat and does not contain attractants due to the Freshmeatdryer. PLATINUM MeatCrisp meets and satisfies what cats expect from their food, and therefore, it emerges as the winner in this test.
Royal Canin British Shorthair Adult is available, for example, at www.pet-supermarket.co.uk
PLATINUM MeatCrisp is available at www.platinum.co.uk
