N E W S L E T T E R

BRITISH CAT FOOD BRANDS - A HISTORY

Copyright Sarah Hartwell, 2012 The pet food market in the UK has become an oligopoly - a few companies each producing several brands that give the impression of a more competitive market. It's difficult for other companies, even the big pet food companies from continental Europe, to break into the market unless they can find a niche. Two names dominate the market: Mars (as Pedigree Petfoods) and Nestle (as Purina). Even one of Europes biggest brands, Affinity, features these major players in its history. Over the decades, these two companies seem to have swallowed up most of Britains pet food companies, retaining some brands and dropping others to streamline their range of products. This was compiled mainly for my own interest and isnt an authoritative history of British cat foods. I ve tried to untangle the intertwined histories of familiar brands in the UK and detail how theyve changed hands, often several times, over the years. Anti-monopoly/anti-trust laws meant that companies sometimes had to sell off some brands before they could buy out a rival. Some brands I could only find in adverts and seem to have sunk without trace, unable to gain a toehold in the market. Readers outside of the UK will see some familiar names here, but only where the companies are linked to brands in the UK or where manufacturers in different countries coincidentally used the same name, trademarking it nationally rather than internationally. The bright yellow Go Cat packaging suggests that it is equivalent to the US MeowMix and Friskies brands (indeed, in the early 1990s it was called Friskies Go Cat). The MeowMix name once existed separately, alongside GoCat, as a brand in the UK. In the UK, Omega is the Purina budget brand analogous to Purina Cat Chow or Purina Cat Mix in the US.

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Spillers, Nestle & Purina Kattomeat was the sister brand to Kennomeat; canned cat and dog foods launched by Robert Wilson &Sons in the 1950s. In 1964, Spillers Ltd took over the brand names. In 1972, Spillers bought out Hovis's "Stamina Foods" which made the "Paws" brand of cat food. In 1979, Spillers became part of Dalgety plc. In 1992, Kattomeat was renamed and relaunched as Arthurs. Kattomeat's Arthur, a white cat that ate by dipping his paw into the tin of food, became so well known that the food was rebranded as Arthur's before it vanished altogether. There were rumours (possibly by those supporting competitor brands) that Arthur's teeth had been removed to make him eat by dipping a paw, but paw-dipping is a natural cat behaviour and Arthur had simply been encouraged to use his paw to get a treat straight from the can. Quaker petfoods started off in 1966 with Chunky dog food, then acquired Felix Cat Foods in 1970. In 1995, Dalgety plc acquired the Felix brand from Quaker and the Arthurs brand was dropped. Then in 1997, Nestle acquired the brand from Dalgety. Spillers also owned the vanished Choosy brand cat food; Choosy was relaunched in 1993, but has since vanished. Spillers also produced the now-vanished Purrfect (renamed Purrfect Selection in 1992) brand in the UK; this top-of-the-range product competed with Sheba.

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During the 1990s, the Swiss company Nestle expanded to rival Mars in the pet food market. In 1997, Dalgety sold the Felix brand to Nestle in 1997. In 2002 Nestle took over Ralston-Purina and its pet foods were branded as Purina; however anti-trust laws (equivalent of the UK's Monopolies and Mergers Commission) meant it first had to sell off its MeowMix brand. MeowMix (the food "cats ask for by name") was bought from Nestle in 2001 by Richard C Thompson in partnership with JW Childs Associates; they relaunched it in the USA. The advertising was a version of a karaoke video with a ball bouncing over the words "meow meow meow" (later on, the cats' meows were given English language subtitles). In 2006, Meow Mix in the USA was sold to Del Monte. In the 1980s and 1990s, Beta Petfoods (later BP Nutrition (UK) Ltd) produced Beta Purr Complete dry food and Beta Purr Chunks in Gravy. According to the trademark datase, the Beta Purr trademark was filed in 1981, first advertised in 1983 and expired in 2002. It was part of Dalgety Holland and was later acquired by Nestle. In the 1980s, Quaker introduced a moist biscuit called Delikat (30% moisture compared to conventional dry cat food's 9%). In the UK, Purina discontinued the brand during the 1990s (if my memory serves) though it continued until 2007 in North America until it was linked to the tainted cat food scandal. In the UK, Febo Professional MeowMix and Febo Professional Cat Stars were marketed by Professional Pet Services. Looking at the trademarks database, it appears Febo Professional Meowmix Beef Chicken Liver was trademarked in 1987 and registered 1990. The trademark was assigned to Nestle in 2002 and expired in 2008. It was the threat of de-listing by supermarkets that forced Spillers to relaunch Felix. In the late 1980s, Felix was a minor player with a steady share in a mature market. It had never been advertised and had only a few flavours. However supermarkets threatened to delist it to give more shelf space to their own label varieties. It needed a distinct identity and was relaunched in May 1989 with its first ever advertising campaign. Instead of portraying cats as cute and fluffy, it used the idea of a mischievous cat and instead of filming real cats, it used a cartoon cat. In 1991, Spillers ensured the ads appeared week after week during the same time slots persuading the public that the brand was bigger than it actually was! By mid 1996, it had almost doubled its brand awareness and its customers had tripled and more importantly were remaining loyal. In the last 15 years we have seen raw feeding becoming more common with pet owners. The raw food movement is not new. There are plenty of people out there who have been raw feeding their cats and dogs successfully for decades. There are a growing number of small companies, frequently small natural or organic farmers working on a local level, that are filling the demand by pet owners for a healthier and more natural way to feed their animals. Faced with the myriad of choices available, it's no wonder that people don't know what the best way to feed their pets is. Given that almost every veterinary office is filled with "prescription" foods promoted by a few large companies, asking your veterinarian for advice on proper nutrition may not get you an unbiased opinion. It's up to each person to educate themselves on their choices, and make up their own minds as to what to feed their pets.

Taking control of what goes into your pet is an empowering experience.

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RAW FOOD SAFE HANDLING PROCEDURE.

There are basic rules to follow when handling raw food. This does not only apply to your cat raw food but also when you prepare and handle raw meat for you own consumption. At PurrForm all our meats are minced fresh and are sourced from reputable suppliers. To preserve our meat we vacuum pack our pouches and blast freeze them. This process ensures that the meat is always fresh and smell free when defrosted.

Keep your equipment, bowls and surfaces squeaky clean. Avoid cross contamination of utensils, surfaces, foods and hands. Discard food that has been sitting out for too long. Always thaw frozen meat in the fridge, never at room temperature. For serving raw food, use metal or glass plates or bowls. Plastic can develop scratches that can harbor bacteria. Most importantly of all, wash your hands!

KIDNEY AND URINARY TRACT DISEASE

Written by Elisa Katz, DVM CVA

Kidney disease The type of diet you feed your cat can directly affect your cat's kidneys. Dehydration in cats causes the kidneys to concentrate urine to try to maintain the body's water balance. Concentrating urine predisposes a cat to renal injury. The chronic, mild dehydration that cats experience when fed dry foods exclusively can cause increased stress on the kidneys, leading ultimately to decreased kidney function. Also, the low magnesium content in diets designed to decrease urinary stone and crystal formation may adversely affect the kidneys over time. You may have been told to feed your kidney-compromised cat a diet that has a reduced protein content. Should you do it? Recent research demonstrates that diets high in protein have no detrimental effect on the kidneys, and animals with mildly decreased kidney function do not benefit from reduced protein diets. There is evidence that restricting protein may actually slow down the filtering action of the kidneys. It is important that cats receive good quality protein in appropriate amounts without excessive levels of phosphorous to help maintain kidney function. Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) Water intake affects more than just a cat's kidneys, and kidney function plays a role in other urinary problems. The normal instinctual diet of the feline consists of prey animals that are high in protein, have moderate amounts of fat, and little if any carbohydrate. The typical prey animal for a housecat, usually a rat or mouse, consists of approximately 50 to 60% protein, 15 to 30% fat on a dry matter basis and 70 to 80% water. This indicates that 70 to 80% of the cat's natural instinctive diet should consist of water. A quick search of any pet food website regarding the moisture content of most dry cat foods will tell you that they are generally only 8 to 10% moisture. Cats fed a dry diet exclusively are at a significant water deficit compared to cats eating a natural diet. They are only consuming about 12 to 15% of their ideal daily water intake in their food. You may think that the cat can make it up by drinking more water, but cats innately have a low thirst drive, as they evolved to eat prey consisting of so much moisture.

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Feline urine tends to be more concentrated than urine of other mammalian species. This is one reason that the urine of intact male cats has such a strong odour. The fact that cats produce such highly concentrated urine, especially when fed low moisture foods such as kibble, makes them more susceptible to urinary crystals and stones and to urinary bladder irritation, a contributing factor to Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease or FLUTD. Basic chemistry tells us that the more concentrated a solution is, and in this case the solution is urine, the more likely any solutes are to precipitate out and form crystals and stones. The more concentrated the urine is, the more likely it is that it may irritate the delicate lining of the urinary bladder. An important component of the recommended treatment of FLUTD cats is the feeding of canned food or raw foods exclusively, which are about 70% moisture. This increases the cat's water intake, dilutes the urine and decreases the probability of crystals. Raw diets, which contain adequate moisture as well as appropriate amounts of protein and fat, can also help cats get back to a more natural urinary balance of pH and urine concentration.

PURRFORM UPDATE COMPLETE RAW CAT FOOD

Back in October we launched our first breeder product which consists of a 450 g tub complete raw food. Due to the demand we are now working on a second flavour which some breeders have taken part in a feeding trial. If all goes well we will be launching the new flavour in mid- January 2014. All Breeders can register on our Website to find out more about our product offer.

Finally, in response to our customers demands, all our pouches will be a COMPLETE RAW DIET by the end of January 2014

From the team at PurrForm we would like to thank you for your custom over the past year & wish you all a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

In our February 14 Newsletter

Cat scratching: Tips & Tricks for saving your furniture Just What is Raw Feeding, Anyway? www.purrform.co.uk

DISCLAIMER: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your own veterinarian or doctor. Your pet's medical protocol should be given by your holistic veterinarian