- Joined
- Mar 8, 2014
- Messages
- 117
- Purraise
- 16
I spent a whole day trying to find a decent cat food to feed my cat - forget about recalls for samonella and other scares. That is bad enough. I am talking about the actual ingredients these manufacturers are using.
I had fed Fancy Feast to my cat every day for 10 years. Finally I started looking into each ingredient and what I found is that every single can contains synthetic vitamin k3 - commonly known as menadion sodium bisulfate & some other names. It is banned for pets & people in Europe and for people in the US. It basically causes red blood cells to break up and burst and prevents blood coagulating. Unlike other forms of vitamin K, it is not excreted and it accumulates in the tissues.
What started me on this crusade was that I fed my cat fancy feast for 10 years, then she cut her paw & it was all over. I brought her to the vet to stitch it - she needed only one stitch - but the bleeding wouldn't stop - she needed a blood transfusion which she got but then she still couldn't hold down food. 3 weeks (and $4000) of trying to save her life - she was put down.
So I started researching anemia in felines and saw that there is case after case of these cats becoming anemic & dying without any physical cause of the anemia being found. My cat had an ultrasound, an echocardiogram - her kidneys, liver, thyroid, heart were healthy. She was spayed as a kitten & had no coagulating problem then.
Many varieties of the Fancy feast also contains the controversial carcinogen carrageenan. But as I researched other pet food brands, I saw many brands also contain carrageenan and MSB was in most dry foods & treats as wells.
About a year or so before my cat cut her paw, I had started giving Merrick Brand dry cat food instead of her regular dry food too. I thought I found a good brand since Merrick said they don't source any ingredients from China but unfortunately, their healthy looking ingredients were deceptive. They contained cranberries - which is contained in many other brands too even though it has been criticized for use in cat food because they contain benzoid acid - the same ingredient in asprin. Then I started researching Rosemary extract and found that it is known to cause seizures and which the European Food Safety Authority has refused to approved because the manufacturers were unable to prove its safety after repeated requests to do so. I found Yucca extract - the ASPCA says the Yucca plant is toxic to cats.
After spending literally a day on the internet searching dozens of cat foods - I only found 2 that did not contain any of the ingredients I listed & they were Organix - and only the regular variety - NOT the organic grain free (which contained carreegnan) or the the pate (which contained cranberries, yucca & alfalfa (which has some issues if you research it). The other brand was TIKI which is really expensive. The HALO brand came close but only the SPOTS STEW variety because the others contained Carreegnan and cranberries. Unfortunately even the SPOTS STEW contained garlic powder (and we all well know how controversial garlic is for cats), plus a lot of vegetable which I'm not sure how good they are for a cat.
Dry food was almost impossible and frustrating. They almost all contained either the synthetic vitamin K3, Carrageenan, cranberries or Rosemary/Yucca extract and often a combination of them all. I only found one brand that had none of those ingredients and that was Petsmart's own Authority Brand kibble. And of that the only one I would recommend would be the Real Turkey for Sensitive Stomachs because the others all contained corn & corn products - high on the ingredient list - is said to be not readily digestible for cats.
It was overwhelming doing this research but that is what I narrowed healthy choices down too - commercial products without questionable or toxic ingredients -and that is a damn shame isn't it? And I know the cost of the Organix and Tiki will be prohibitive for many people - especially those with multiple pets to feed.
It won't be until we start SCREAMING for some regulation in the pet food industry that we will force these manufacturers to come up with safer food products at reasonable prices.
IF anyone finds any other food products that don't contain these ingredients - I would love to hear about it.
I had fed Fancy Feast to my cat every day for 10 years. Finally I started looking into each ingredient and what I found is that every single can contains synthetic vitamin k3 - commonly known as menadion sodium bisulfate & some other names. It is banned for pets & people in Europe and for people in the US. It basically causes red blood cells to break up and burst and prevents blood coagulating. Unlike other forms of vitamin K, it is not excreted and it accumulates in the tissues.
What started me on this crusade was that I fed my cat fancy feast for 10 years, then she cut her paw & it was all over. I brought her to the vet to stitch it - she needed only one stitch - but the bleeding wouldn't stop - she needed a blood transfusion which she got but then she still couldn't hold down food. 3 weeks (and $4000) of trying to save her life - she was put down.
So I started researching anemia in felines and saw that there is case after case of these cats becoming anemic & dying without any physical cause of the anemia being found. My cat had an ultrasound, an echocardiogram - her kidneys, liver, thyroid, heart were healthy. She was spayed as a kitten & had no coagulating problem then.
Many varieties of the Fancy feast also contains the controversial carcinogen carrageenan. But as I researched other pet food brands, I saw many brands also contain carrageenan and MSB was in most dry foods & treats as wells.
About a year or so before my cat cut her paw, I had started giving Merrick Brand dry cat food instead of her regular dry food too. I thought I found a good brand since Merrick said they don't source any ingredients from China but unfortunately, their healthy looking ingredients were deceptive. They contained cranberries - which is contained in many other brands too even though it has been criticized for use in cat food because they contain benzoid acid - the same ingredient in asprin. Then I started researching Rosemary extract and found that it is known to cause seizures and which the European Food Safety Authority has refused to approved because the manufacturers were unable to prove its safety after repeated requests to do so. I found Yucca extract - the ASPCA says the Yucca plant is toxic to cats.
After spending literally a day on the internet searching dozens of cat foods - I only found 2 that did not contain any of the ingredients I listed & they were Organix - and only the regular variety - NOT the organic grain free (which contained carreegnan) or the the pate (which contained cranberries, yucca & alfalfa (which has some issues if you research it). The other brand was TIKI which is really expensive. The HALO brand came close but only the SPOTS STEW variety because the others contained Carreegnan and cranberries. Unfortunately even the SPOTS STEW contained garlic powder (and we all well know how controversial garlic is for cats), plus a lot of vegetable which I'm not sure how good they are for a cat.
Dry food was almost impossible and frustrating. They almost all contained either the synthetic vitamin K3, Carrageenan, cranberries or Rosemary/Yucca extract and often a combination of them all. I only found one brand that had none of those ingredients and that was Petsmart's own Authority Brand kibble. And of that the only one I would recommend would be the Real Turkey for Sensitive Stomachs because the others all contained corn & corn products - high on the ingredient list - is said to be not readily digestible for cats.
It was overwhelming doing this research but that is what I narrowed healthy choices down too - commercial products without questionable or toxic ingredients -and that is a damn shame isn't it? And I know the cost of the Organix and Tiki will be prohibitive for many people - especially those with multiple pets to feed.
It won't be until we start SCREAMING for some regulation in the pet food industry that we will force these manufacturers to come up with safer food products at reasonable prices.
IF anyone finds any other food products that don't contain these ingredients - I would love to hear about it.
