- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #41
No problem!OH! Great link btw, thank you very much.
Ohhhh, okay. Got a little lost there.
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The truth about carrageenan
- Thread starter kittylover23
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- Feb 16, 2012
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LOL, that's okay. I just don't want to panic people or yourself for that matter and have everyone think that's what automatically happens. I DOES happen, don't get me wrong. But there are many factors to it and most certainly it does not happen all the time.
What cosmetic reasons? Why would people think it looks good for cats? Every time I see the term guar gum I think it is something cats do not need and should not be eating because it comes from a plant.
It may be harmless, but I doubt anybody with a good sense of smell wants stinky poop because of a completely useless ingredient.
Why do you say you would rather have guar gum than carrageenan? Many pet foods have both ingredients - it is not either/or.
I can't speak for Jen, but I'd rather have guar gum than carrageenan because guar gum doesn't cause cancer! Lesser of two evils kind of thing (by a HUGE margin!!!)
But not all pet foods have both. As you say - "many" may have both. You're missing a word in the last part of the sentence: "it is not ALWAYS either/or."
The point is that sometimes there may be an otherwise decent cat food that has guar gum but does not have carrageenan.
Violetxx added a number of foods to the list without carrageenan. I don't know if they have guar gum or not, but a number of them have grains and/or veggies. If you're looking for a grain-free, (mostly) veggie-free food without carrageenan, since there are SO few, some people may be willing to take one with guar gum over carrageenan, since guar gum is not going to cause cancer or stomach ulcers.
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #45
Guar gum hasn't been linked to cancer, like carrageenan has. By cosmetic reasons, I meant that it is used to make the food thicker, which would make it look more appealing (well, as appealing as cat food can look) to humans. It isn't necessary, by any means. Guar gum is not needed in cat food, neither is carrageenan.
Looking through our cat food cabinet, I found a couple of more brands without it: Almo nature, Applaws, Grau grain-free, Animonda Carny and all the Catz Fine Food that don't have fish, i.e., most of the flavors.
Guar gum I know is in ice cream to keep it together. Harmful? Probably. But so are many other things that we allow. Pork for example. Not suppose to eat meat from animals with hooves like that and they don't sweat. So all the toxins the animal eats is in its fat.
Anyway, on to kitties, watch how much? maybe? Like the raw food people say, if you don't make it yourself you are at the mercy of the power people in charge of their food...
Anyway, on to kitties, watch how much? maybe? Like the raw food people say, if you don't make it yourself you are at the mercy of the power people in charge of their food...
Pork? Harmful? All red meat is harmful in excess, pork no more so than beef or lamb. Sweating gets rid of toxins? You jest, surely? Cattle, sheep & goats don't sweat. The only requirement about hooves on animals we eat I know of is that of orthodox Jews who also won't eat shellfish, and Muslims won't eat pork either. But these are purely religious objections. Spain and Germany are nations that eat a great deal of portk (so do some bits of the US) with no obvious signs of it harming them.
My kitties lurve them some pork chops, so it bettter not be harmful. And pigs do sweat, just not enough to thermoregulate, which is why they wallow in mud. The only reason to avoid eating pork because of the "split hooves/not a chewer of the cud" thing is if you're Jewish or Muslim. Pork isn't harmful, although too much bacon probably is :tongue2:.
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Religion aside, you are correct about "too much bacon" for humans. But the subject of how much is too much for cats, who in nature don't eat pork, beef, lamb, venison, chicken, turkey, or anything that swims, deserves it own thread.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #51
Should we avoid guar gum altogether? I, for one, am boycotting carrageenan. And I'm writing up an email to Weruva on the subject of carrageenan as we speak.
Why are you emailing Weruva? They use potato starch to thicken the gravy.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #53
Since I've read that it's not for sure that all pet food companies use undegraded carrageenan, I want to ask Weruva if they use degraded or undegraded. And why wouldn't they use something a little less harmful than carrageenan as a thickener? Plus, I've been meaning to send them an email telling them how their foods are some of the best on the market - I totally love their company and the fact that they created a pet food they would feed to their own pets. That really makes it, for me.
Show me where you see carrageenan on this list. I got it from Weruva's website.
Can't find it? That is one reason I will try to switch Patricia to Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken.
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I searched "cat foods without carrageenan" and found another thread on the topic: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #56
Not all Weruva products have carrageenan in them. Some varieties do such as Outback Grill - http://www.weruva.com/cat-cuisine-outback-grill.php.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #57
The Weruva Cats in the Kitchen pouches, and their poultry and beef canned foods are the best, IMO. They don't contain carrageenan.
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Cats should not eat a lot of seafood anyway, so I did not look at that one before.
The only definition I can come up with of what is natural for cat to eat is anything they can catch. I'm quite sure they could catch chickens, especially young or small ones, and they can catch quite a variety of small songbirds. One of my cats very nearly caught a large seagull so I guess those belong on the list of 'natural' foods as well.
I am sure they could, but never heard or read they actually did before Egyptians domesticated them. Remember that happened because they needed mouse killers, not turkey, chicken, sheep, pig, cattle, and deer killers. So to say the animals we feed our cats was their natural diet so many years ago is not accurate.
