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The Cat Food Aisle.

Take a deep breath.

Unless you are a purist, have a very finicky cat, have a cat that needs a special diet or have a lot of time on your hands you probably feed your cat store bought cat food.

And so you trust the manufacturer is making a product that will meet all kittys nutritional needs, is delightful for Fluffy (or Slasher)  to eat, fills them up and makes your life easier (little to no preparation / easy clean up).

And you head to the store.

And there you are faced with an array of choices.

Gone are the days of old with a selection limited to a few brands, only a handful of flavors and not much else. Today the selection can be dizzying. The average supermarket is limited with how much it can carry due to floor space, but superstores like Petco carry them all.

Now the choices include grain free, holistic, organic, raw, dry, canned, pouched, special diets, kitten, senior cat and much more.

Which do you choose?

A visit to Petco, which generally are the size of a small aircraft hanger, reveals just how vast the array of cat food is.

What???

What is clear is that gourmet / premium food has either taken over the market, or is at least putting up a serious effort. What is a shopper to do? Established brands such as Purina, Friskies (a Purina product) and Fancy Feast (another Purina product) used to share shelf space with Iams,  Science Diet, and Eukubana (which appears to only make dog food now). Now they jostle with Halo, Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Wellness and others for the shoppers attention and Fluffy’s bowl. The price difference between them is considerable and that may be the guiding factor for the average shopper. However, it also may not be. What is the difference between all of these besides the price? Do the ingredients vary so much? Does Fluffy really love it? Maybe an unscientific study will help to understand the mysteries of the cat food business.