Why so many fruits and veggies?

lemondrop

lemondrop

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I've been looking at various high-end kibbles and I'm very confused. These kibbles are grain-free, byproduct-free, etc, so they should be better as kibbles go, but they all have a massive list of fruits and veggies in the ingredients! Cranberries, blueberries, tomatoes, apples, carrots, and spinach are the most common ones I'm seeing.

I was hoping someone could tell me why ingredients like this are included instead of just plain vitamins and minerals?
 
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lemondrop said:
 
I've been looking at various high-end kibbles and I'm very confused. These kibbles are grain-free, byproduct-free, etc, so they should be better as kibbles go, but they all have a massive list of fruits and veggies in the ingredients! Cranberries, blueberries, tomatoes, apples, carrots, and spinach are the most common ones I'm seeing.

I was hoping someone could tell me why ingredients like this are included instead of just plain vitamins and minerals?
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Personally, I feel that pet fod companies put those usless stuff partly as as fillers and partly as marketing to appeal to a Human's perspective of what a healthy wholesome diet is
 
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lemondrop

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Really?? There's no explanation besides marketing? That's frustrating. I'm struggling to find a good food in between Friskies pate and the expensive 95% meat brands, but they all seem to be loaded with unnecessary stuff like this.
 
picklespepper

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Wouldn't cats be getting some grains/veggies in the wild when eating the stomach contents of their prey?  I don't think some veggies as filler or binding agents is horrible.  Seems better to me than synthetic binders and fillers.  But yeah, if I am spending the big money on the premium brands I don't want it to be loaded with two many veggies.  I will buy foods with, say, potatoes or peas in them but I don't want to see 2 or 3 different potatoes and/or peas listed.  I'm a bit more forgiving towards kibble simply because that seems to be the reality of dried food.  
 
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PicklesPepper said:
 
Wouldn't cats be getting some grains/veggies in the wild when eating the stomach contents of their prey?  I don't think some veggies as filler or binding agents is horrible.  Seems better to me than synthetic binders and fillers.
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Prey that a cat would eat whole would contain some fruit and plant matter in their digestive tracts.

For those who want to avoid unnecessary ingredients like fruit and veggies in the diet, the only options are raw (from a recipie or frankenprey or similar) and home cooked. You can control the ingredients that goes into the diet.

For most pet owners, buying commerical pet food is the only option or they don't want to get into the hassel of making food. Avoiding all fruits and veggies is impossible so you just do the best you can and feed the highest qualtiy diet you an cafford. Fruits and veggies usually only make up a very small part of the ingredients so they're not going to cause any harm to a pet.

My two cents
 
lisahe

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Just for the record, it's not at all impossible to avoid fruit and vegetables in a canned diet: there are plenty of brands that don't have them. Examples are Tiki, Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen, Hound & Gatos, Wild Calling, Nutro Natural Choice... our cats eat many of those foods and do well on them. They vary in price. If you want to avoid produce, gums, and carrageenan, too, that narrows things much more (Tiki anyone?!) but the OP seemed most concerned with produce.

We do feed one brand -- Primal's freeze-dried raw foods -- that contains fruits and vegetables, but they are in fairly small quantities, don't result in high carb levels, and seem to be there for naturally derived nutrients, meaning there are very few synthetic supplements in the foods. Feeding cats involves a lot of tradeoffs and that's one I'm willing to make.

(Edit: I took Merrick off the list because I forgot their LID food has alfalfa meal!)
 
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lemondrop said:
..., but they all have a massive list of fruits and veggies in the ingredients! Cranberries, blueberries, tomatoes, apples, carrots, and spinach are the most common ones I'm seeing.

I was hoping someone could tell me why ingredients like this are included instead of just plain vitamins and minerals?
Click to expand...
I know, right! Drives me crazy. I think it is pretty much to appeal to humans. Next think you know they'll have "Rabbit and Frosted Flakes" or "Chicken and Cole Slaw" dry foods. (euw)
 
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lemondrop

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LisaHE said:
Just for the record, it's not at all impossible to avoid fruit and vegetables in a canned diet: there are plenty of brands that don't have them. Examples are Tiki, Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen, Hound & Gatos, Wild Calling, Nutro Natural Choice... our cats eat many of those foods and do well on them. They vary in price. If you want to avoid produce, gums, and carrageenan, too, that narrows things much more (Tiki anyone?!) but the OP seemed most concerned with produce.

We do feed one brand -- Primal's freeze-dried raw foods -- that contains fruits and vegetables, but they are in fairly small quantities, don't result in high carb levels, and seem to be there for naturally derived nutrients, meaning there are very few synthetic supplements in the foods. Feeding cats involves a lot of tradeoffs and that's one I'm willing to make.

(Edit: I took Merrick off the list because I forgot their LID food has alfalfa meal!)
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Thank you so much for the recommendations! That's more brands than I had found. They're all still a lot more than I can afford to feed exclusively, but I could start rotating them in with the Friskies sometimes.
 
lisahe

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lemondrop said:
Thank you so much for the recommendations! That's more brands than I had found. They're all still a lot more than I can afford to feed exclusively, but I could start rotating them in with the Friskies sometimes.
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I'm glad that's helpful! I'm sure there are many more... we also avoid carrageenan so if you're okay with feeding that, you may find more. BTW, I'd recommend the Weruva Cats in the Kitchen cans over pouches, for having more meat (and less spurious gravy) for the money.

Good luck!
 
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