What's so bad about byproducts in food?

I'm just curious, cuz I'm honestly clueless...

People act as if meat by-products in cat food is like the plague itself. But why are by-products bad? I mean...don't HUMANS in certain cultures eat chicken feet and stuff? Haven't they been doing that for like...centuries? And don't many odd human foods have byproducts? I eat anything the hell I want...hot dogs, pork rinds, processed lunch meats, slim jims, spam...whatever, I'll eat it. According to my physician, i'm in perfect health. (And i don't even work out too often.)

So what's the deal? Why the absolute horror at feeding cats food with by-products?

I don't even know if my kitty has eaten by-products. She's eaten Purina One and Bench & Field Holistic for most of her life. Not sure if they contain by-product or not.

These days, she eats renal foods from Purina, Eukanuba, IVD, Waltham, Hill's, IVD, and Hi-Tor. Not sure if they have by-products either...

So seriously...should I take her off of anything with by-products? Why?

Yes, I would discontinue feeding any food that has by-products in it. Here's why:

"By-products can include moldy, rancid or spoiled processed meats as well as tissue too severely riddled with cancer to be eaten by people. Diseased tissue, pus, hair, assorted slaughterhouse rejects, and carcasses in varying states of decomposition are sterilized with chemicals, heat, and pressure procedures." - Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Dr. Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD

Many by-products come from "4-D" animals - dead, dying, diseased or disabled which the government allows in pet foods.

Though cats outdoors may consume a small amount of what could be considered by-products from their prey - feathers, eyes, etc., they are coming from a freshly killed animal, not diseased, rancid meat.

Cats need high quality protein predominately from muscle meat, as well as a lesser amount from organs (which is why you'll often see liver as an ingredient in cat food).
By-products like feet, feathers, eyes and tumors are also considered protein sources by some pet food manufacturers. Where would you rather *your* cat's protein come from?

It's easy to know if by-products are in your cat's food. Look at the label (though you might need a magnifying glass for some!)- most manufacturers who use them will list them in the first 3 ingredients.

Well...what renal foods can I feed my CRF kitty? I just looked at the labels for her renal diets from Purina, IVD, Eukanuba, and Hill's...they all have by-product. (Kitty ate all the Waltham's and Hi-Tor...but I'm guessing they probably have by-product as well.)

Anyone know a renal food without by-product? Phosphorus below 0.40% and Protein below 30% would be ideal. (Like Waltham's, which is what my CRF kitty gets the most of.)

Thanks!

Originally Posted by celerystalksme

Well...what renal foods can I feed my CRF kitty? I just looked at the labels for her renal diets from Purina, IVD, Eukanuba, and Hill's...they all have by-product. (Kitty ate all the Waltham's and Hi-Tor...but I'm guessing they probably have by-product as well.)

Anyone know a renal food without by-product? Phosphorus below 0.40% and Protein below 30% would be ideal. (Like Waltham's, which is what my CRF kitty gets the most of.)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Innova Cat Lite has Protein below 30%, but Phosphorus is 0.75%. Here is the link to the product ingredients, etc. You can use the compairison tool on the naturapet.com site to check for other brands.

Look at the Sticky:Health and Nutrition Articles (2nd from the top thread on this forum). Click on cat food analysis. It will list many brands of cat foods and the percentages of protein, phosphorus, etc.

I have a CRF kitty too. Pat & Alix told me about a CRF board which is helpful.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support

IMO you can't classify all by-products into the same category. A a $10 bag of cat food uses the same terminology as a $50 bag of food. Labels can be very misleading. Consider the source when gathering info. I know I'm going to be flamed for my opinion here and I generally try to stay away from nutrition discussions but IMO Hills perscription diets work and I feed them. I trust Hills and I have seen their diets improve quality of life. I feel comfortable that their by-products do not contain pus and tumors.

Originally Posted by Dr. Doolittle

IMO you can't classify all by-products into the same category. A a $10 bag of cat food uses the same terminology as a $50 bag of food. Labels can be very misleading. Consider the source when gathering info. I know I'm going to be flamed for my opinion here and I generally try to stay away from nutrition discussions but IMO Hills perscription diets work and I feed them. I trust Hills and I have seen their diets improve quality of life. I feel comfortable that their by-products do not contain pus and tumors.

Click to expand...

This article (although it's about dog foods so the % info wouldn't apply to cats), has good explanations of ingredients and what they mean, along with some info about ethoxyquin I found interesting - apparently foods containing fish can have ethoxyquin in them & not have to list it on the label, because the ethoxyquin is added to the fish before it gets to the pet food manufacturer. Just something else to worry about

It also has some good info about byproducts & what they actually are.

This is the AAFCO's definition of by-products - Chicken By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.

I wouldn't want this as the only meat protein, if at all. By-products can be hard to digest compared to chicken meal, lamb meal, etc. Also, I've read that the food can vary batch to batch depending on what's available. A few of the premium foods even have by-products in them. Why pay the same or more for a premium food with by-products in it when you can get one that doesn't?

Some people might argue that in the wild, cats eat by-products. Well, cats in the wild don't live as long either and their prey also consists of muscle meat and not by-products as a 1st ingredient.

I would, and my reasons are...in any product we choose to eat such as tripe, sweetbreads, livers, hocks, pigs feet etc., we know that they have been processed properly and are from healthy animals.

A fresh mouse (other than concerns for any parsites it may be carrying) is fresh..and makes good sense to me that this would be healthy, but inferior quality by-products, not necessarily handled in the best fashion, are not what I want my cats to eat. I've tried to find what I used to be able to find...aafco's definition of by-products, couldn't find it today. But I feel this link is worth reading through, and that it is not malarkey.

What's really in pet food

Soooooooooooooo....if you are homecooking for your cat or doing barf, and using organic, clean sources of products such as tongue, tripe, organ meats etc., that is far different than the by-products in many cat foods.

my 2 cents,

Originally Posted by celerystalksme

Well...what renal foods can I feed my CRF kitty? I just looked at the labels for her renal diets from Purina, IVD, Eukanuba, and Hill's...they all have by-product. (Kitty ate all the Waltham's and Hi-Tor...but I'm guessing they probably have by-product as well.)

Anyone know a renal food without by-product? Phosphorus below 0.40% and Protein below 30% would be ideal. (Like Waltham's, which is what my CRF kitty gets the most of.)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Just use the katkarma list and look at the list of premium foods...then check their ingredients list (petfooddirect.com lists ingredients for every canned food they carry).