Anyone saw this pet food test result?

Just got an email from Truth About Pet Food about their pet food test results. 

http://truthaboutpetfood.com/the-pet-food-test-results/

I wonder what you guys think about it.

I think it couldn't be any truer.

I am dealing with my cat with pancreatitis/IBD/inflammation in her lymph nodes, just overall inflammation.

I think it's not coincidence that SO many cats have IBD nowadays, half of pet's deaths are cancer, I mean what IS that about?

Cancer this, cancer that, kidney disease is another.

IBD, why is it SOOO common anymore?!

What kind of crap are we feeding our pets? Dry food doesn't spoil, canned food lasts years, so just how many preservatives, additives, and garbage are we giving them?

What meat they are using, how was that meat treated? Pumped full of artificial this and that, chickens, why is it that chicken of all things is so high on the list of most common allergens? Antibiotics? This is why I personally feel that people are becoming resistant to antibiotics, because we are getting some every time we eat meat.

It saddens me. Angers me too!

I thought it's interesting that, it shows Hill's Prescription Diet is worse than Fancy Feast. Who'd want to feed our cats toxins when they are sick?

Also Meow Mix is really bad. 

If its so awful, why do so many thousands of animals thrive on it? If my little guy didn't have his Hills he'd have been dead long ago.

Chromium Blues said:

 
If its so awful, why do so many thousands of animals thrive on it? If my little guy didn't have his Hills he'd have been dead long ago.

Click to expand...

Did you look at the study results? It's about contamination not ingredients. Meow Mix Dry, Beneful for dogs and Hills C/D canned for dogs have higher toxins from mold. I think it's about unsanitary manufacturing process rather than ingredients. Yes, Prescription Diet works for certain conditions, but it's separate issue. For example, whole grains are better for our health, but if they are contaminated with mold or something you'd be worried, wouldn't you? 

By the way, my cats didn't thrive on z/d. One of them started losing hair, and the other one had an emergency visit. Both lacked energy. It was awful. 

Mine didn't do well on the z/d either, but like a lot of animals, it took a ton of trial and error to find something that he could stomach. He was nearly a year old before we found something he could eat and thrive on. My friend's terrier did very well on the z/d. I don't think anything works well for every single cat or dog, it would be fantastic if it did though.

Scared of contamination? Well, I guess I've been lucky and have had a bit of an inside look into food manufacturing. It doesn't matter what practises you put in place, things happen. Most things get stopped before they start, some don't. Do I like that? No, but that's reality. I just bought eggs, for example, that should have been good until the end of the month, but they were definitely not good. I've bought those eggs before, and I'll buy them again.

I don't know how to end this without coming off as rude, and that's not my intention, so please bear with me and know I don't want to insult anyone by saying that websites and television programmes who use scare tactics really drive me nuts.

Are there any other organizations that have tested other pet food? None of the food I feed mine was on their products tested list. I find it interesting that higher price means nothing that's just awful!!

I don't think I'm scared. I simply would like to know what's in the food I'm feeding to my cats and figure out what's the best for my cats. And accountability from pet food companies and vets. 

Until tougher standards are in place for pet food manufacturers in Canada and the United States we just have to trust our own judgement and that of our veterinarians. When it comes to feeding my animals, I stick to foods that have been around for a long time and have a good track record. When it comes to my veterinarian, if I didn't trust her, I wouldn't go there, plain and simple.

Look up rendering plants on YouTube. You'll be surprised what goes into pet foods.
I grew up on a farm. Diseased and sickened dead animals were hauled away free with a phone call.
Ever been to rendering plant? I have. See what gets delivered. Horses, cows, road kill, dogs, cats, pigs.....
The final products sent away from the rendering plant is a powder...like flour and vats of fat. Guess who buys it?

All that makes me want to stop purchasing commercial food and make my own.

Slykat12 said:

All that makes me want to stop purchasing commercial food and make my own.

Click to expand...

That's what many, many of us have done, as evidenced by the Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food Forum

What's sad is I'm not the least bit surprised by the test results. This is what did it for me: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239691/nutritionally-complete-assurances-for-our-pet-food

LDG said:

That's what many, many of us have done, as evidenced by the Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food Forum

What's sad is I'm not the least bit surprised by the test results. This is what did it for me: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239691/nutritionally-complete-assurances-for-our-pet-food

Click to expand...

I really would like to be making my cats food too.

I'm just not sure at all how to do this, I want to cook it, and Krissy is allergic to chicken so that's out, plus with her IBD/pancreatitis, she is only allowed a single protein source for a while.

Gosh if no chicken, then what?

How do I begin to make her food?

I truly believe it's the food that is causing ibd, pancreatitis, kidney failure/disease, and cancer like it's the norm.

It should never be considered the norm, or common.

It shouldn't be so much more common with cats than it is in people, so what would cause this? The food, what else, right?

catwoman707 said:

I really would like to be making my cats food too.
I'm just not sure at all how to do this, I want to cook it, and Krissy is allergic to chicken so that's out, plus with her IBD/pancreatitis, she is only allowed a single protein source for a while.

Gosh if no chicken, then what?
How do I begin to make her food?

I truly believe it's the food that is causing ibd, pancreatitis, kidney failure/disease, and cancer like it's the norm.
It should never be considered the norm, or common.
It shouldn't be so much more common with cats than it is in people, so what would cause this? The food, what else, right?

Click to expand...

Do you have a slow cooker? In this thread http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263751/cooked-recipes-thread mschauer has a link to these recipes: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByPP2-Qsfkh4Tjk0NkJ4ZnU3bDg

Make turkey or pork or beef....

Or if you want to make it really easy, cook any meat, and add U-stew: http://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_u-stew

Or buy Alnutrin with eggshell, and use it with any meat and liver. If you want to make pound batches, use 14.5 ounces of any meat, add 1.5 ounces of beef liver (as she's allergic to chicken), cook for a few hours on low in a slow cooker with some water. When cool, put it through a food processor, and add 6.7 grams of Alnutrin, and a 1,000mg capsule of fish oil. Freeze in meal-sized portions. http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html

If you don't have a slow cooker, just bake/roast, or poach the meat. Just keep all the pan drippings or water it was cooked in to run through the food processor with the meat, that water or those drippings has valuable nutrients.

But details are in the Raw & Home Cooked forum. That thread is a good place to start.

And for anyone considering home cooking, be aware of the TCS thoughts on it: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282314/recommending-a-homemade-diet-hold-your-horses

catwoman707 said:

 
I truly believe it's the food that is causing ibd, pancreatitis, kidney failure/disease, and cancer like it's the norm.

It should never be considered the norm, or common.

It shouldn't be so much more common with cats than it is in people, so what would cause this? The food, what else, right?

Click to expand...

I had a cat in 70's and she was an indoor/outdoor cat. We gave her a lot of table scraps and who knows what she was eating outside. I saw her carrying a half dead bird once, so definitely she was hunting. We also fed her Friskies dry food, but it was before Friskies was bought by Nestle. She was healthy and tough cat, lived for 18 years. Back then a vet told me that not many cats got cancers. So, I agree with you. There's something really wrong about now that so many cats get cancers, IBD, etc. I don't think it's normal. It definitely wasn't in the past. 

ankitty said:

 
I had a cat in 70's and she was an indoor/outdoor cat. We gave her a lot of table scraps and who knows what she was eating outside. I saw her carrying a half dead bird once, so definitely she was hunting. We also fed her Friskies dry food, but it was before Friskies was bought by Nestle. She was healthy and tough cat, lived for 18 years. Back then a vet told me that not many cats got cancers. So, I agree with you. There's something really wrong about now that so many cats get cancers, IBD, etc. I don't think it's normal. It definitely wasn't in the past. 

Click to expand...

Exactly what I mean, so the obviously increase and commonality of these specific diseases can only be one thing making the change happen, food........

Wonder what and how long it will all take to expose the truth.

I suppose this is as good a place as any to announce the first few ingredients in the new Purina Prescription diets I saw my vet is now selling.

Dry formula-

Soy protein isolate, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, soy flakes, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), corn starch, and ALOT of preservatives and artificial everything.

Sells for $45.00 a bag.

Sickening. Are vets just not knowing or what?! People believe their doctors and vets KNOW what they are recommending and trust them.

That's the saddest part.

LDG said:

Do you have a slow cooker? In this thread http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263751/cooked-recipes-thread mschauer has a link to these recipes: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByPP2-Qsfkh4Tjk0NkJ4ZnU3bDg

Make turkey or pork or beef....

Or if you want to make it really easy, cook any meat, and add U-stew: http://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_u-stew

Or buy Alnutrin with eggshell, and use it with any meat and liver. If you want to make pound batches, use 14.5 ounces of any meat, add 1.5 ounces of beef liver (as she's allergic to chicken), cook for a few hours on low in a slow cooker with some water. When cool, put it through a food processor, and add 6.7 grams of Alnutrin, and a 1,000mg capsule of fish oil. Freeze in meal-sized portions. http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html

If you don't have a slow cooker, just bake/roast, or poach the meat. Just keep all the pan drippings or water it was cooked in to run through the food processor with the meat, that water or those drippings has valuable nutrients.

But details are in the Raw & Home Cooked forum. That thread is a good place to start.

And for anyone considering home cooking, be aware of the TCS thoughts on it: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282314/recommending-a-homemade-diet-hold-your-horses

Click to expand...

Thank you Laurie!!

What do you think about my using turkey, should I worry about rotating meats occasionally for nutritional value or will the U-stew make the turkey complete using this long term?

Specific cuts of turkey? No skin I think?

Will I still need to add liver?

I have seriously been wanting to do this but when I tried to see answers about her being allergic to chicken I got lost with it all. You know me, I got old, I get overwhelmed! I just laughed out loud, why I couldn't tell ya, it's SO not funny! 

Edit, okay I went to the U-stew site, perfect, I'm diving in That's it? Meat and U-stew huh? Yay! I can do this!

No bones needed, omegas, liver, egg shells, nothing?

So unsure about whether I can rotate her meats or just stick with the one for a few months. Hate to get her all messed up again, not that she is all better either.

I also imagine common sense regarding transitioning too. Slow.

Thanks again!

I just ordered the trial size of U-stew. Yay! Oh how I would love to be done with all the commercial foods.

Slowly.........

Chromium Blues said:

 
If its so awful, why do so many thousands of animals thrive on it? If my little guy didn't have his Hills he'd have been dead long ago.

Click to expand...

I think the saying is they survive, but don't thrive on it. I grew up in an Asian family who didn't believe in spending money on vet bills or good food for the pets. While I lived under my parents roof dependent on their income, all of my cats did survive on Meow Mix. 

I came across some news about a teen girl eating nothing but ramen noodles as her main diet for over a decade. She was a teen girl but when they tested her... her body was so out of shape. She looked normal, or rather, "healthy" meaning she wasn't obese. But she survived. From an aesthetic point, one can say she thrived.

I'm sure my kids can survive on candy too. And so cats and dogs can survive on food that may not be healthy or species-appropriate. BUT like I said, I had so many cats growing up on Meow Mix... so if it works, it works!

The main reason for me switching to commercial raw was because I read all the stuff they put in the pet foods. Contamination-wise AND ingredient-wise, it's full of things I don't think most would want for their pets. Sure, my cats are still surviving on it. Surviving... while one is practically losing all his fur, the other had a UTI all due to this kibble diet. And this was after me researching for "grain-free, high quality kibble". It made sense to me to switch, but financially it sucks. I'm hoping they thrive a lot better on commercial raw.

I remember when my cat hoarder great aunt showed me a canned dog food (again in 70's). It was basically chicken heads and feet in jelly. I mean, literally chicken heads. Talk about by-products. But at least she knew exactly what went into her dog's food.   

Chromium Blues said:

 
Until tougher standards are in place for pet food manufacturers in Canada and the United States we just have to trust our own judgement and that of our veterinarians.

Click to expand...

Yes, tougher standards. That is part of the, if not the main, purpose of this study. It is not meant to "scare" consumers or convince them to feed something other than commercial pet food, although some pet owners opt to come to that conclusion on their own.

I'm not sure how many of you follow Susan Thixton's blog. She is the owner of TruthAboutPetFood.com and partner of the Association for Truth in Pet Food (www.associationfortruthinpetfood.com). She holds advisory positions on two AAFCO committees – the Pet Food Committee and the Ingredient Definitions Committee. She attends their meetings (regardless of whether or not they want her there) and contacts the FDA and regulatory authorities on a weekly basis (at least!) to question inconsistencies and concerns in regards to commercial pet food. Just reading about her "encounters" raises my blood pressure! I don't know how she does it. In my opinion, her website isn't just any old website. And it's not just her. It's her followers and the veterinarians, scientists and partnering organizations that work together to make pet food safe.

This study was spearheaded as part of their advocacy efforts in revealing the truth in pet food and to use the information as leverage when contacting our Representatives in D.C. and resident states as a push for the FDA and AAFCO to get their acts together. Susan has dedicated much of her life and given much of her time and resources to fight for us and to get these pet food manufacturers and regulatory organizations to change their ways. By supporting these efforts and the results of the study, and sharing them with others, you are helping to get these tougher standards in place - to see quality, human-grade ingredients used in our pets' food, to trust that what is on the label is what is really in the food, and to ensure it is safe, complete and balanced.