Am I losing my marbles, or have the ingredients really changed?

I just recently noticed "animal digest" listed on the ingredients list of Purina Cat Chow, as well as Pro Plan. Is this new, or have I just not been paying attention to the labels all these years?

I don't feed either of these foods as a matter of routine but I always gave bags of Cat Chow to low-income cat guardians and used it to feed ferals when necessary. I always thought of it the best of the "bargain" foods - not great but at least without any really scary ingredients.

And now this. Frankly, I'm a little ticked off!

As for adding "animal digest" to Pro Plan, I'm honestly almost speechless. I'm not sure whether I am more shocked that Purina would add an ingredient like that to such a pricey food, or that people actually are willing to pay that kind of money for the stuff!

Can anyone shed any light on this? I'm feeling like a bit of a doofus right now...

I feed my kittens Purina One Growth and Development. I wonder if it is in that too, if so, I might have to consider other food.

well you have to be smarter than me, i have no clue what animal digest is

it doesn't sound too appetizing , though!

Originally Posted by TaraJason

I feed my kittens Purina One Growth and Development. I wonder if it is in that too, if so, I might have to consider other food.

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I checked at petfooddirect.com and Purina One (at least the adult chicken and rice formula) still seems to be free of animal digest.

Originally Posted by semiferal

I checked at petfooddirect.com and Purina One (at least the adult chicken and rice formula) still seems to be free of animal digest.

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Thank you. I'll go home and check the bag tonight. I don't want my babies eating that stuff.

Originally Posted by catnapt

well you have to be smarter than me, i have no clue what animal digest is

it doesn't sound too appetizing , though!

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"Animal Digest - A powder or liquid made by taking clean, under-composed animal tissue and breaking it down using chemical and or emblematic hydrolysis. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto (i.e., chicken digest). Animal Digest is a cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. Any kind of animal can be included: goats, pigs, horses, rats, etc. The animals can be obtained from any source so there is no control over quality or contamination."

This can basically be the sludge scraped off the slaughterhouse floor at the end of the day, boiled down.

I can't comment on when they changed, but it's been my observation, folks will pay a great deal for food with ingredients I'd not pay a penny for!

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I can't comment on when they changed, but it's been my observation, folks will pay a great deal for food with ingredients I'd not pay a penny for!

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Can't disagree with that...I mean, is there any other explanation for Science Diet?

Authority kitten food (the PetSmart brand) also has animal digest in its top ten ingredients. I was contemplating buying it, but didn't like the sounds of that ingredient.

Originally Posted by TaraJason

I feed my kittens Purina One Growth and Development. I wonder if it is in that too, if so, I might have to consider other food.

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The Purina One Growth and Development does have animal digest in it, from their website:

Ingredients

Chicken, chicken by-product meal, soy flour, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), fish meal (source of DHA), whole grain corn, non-fat yogurt, poultry by-product meal, animal digest, wheat gluten, phosphoric acid, salt, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, choline chloride, taurine, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, DL-Methionine, niacin, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

On a side note, it's really difficult choosing a good food! Thanks to all for the great tips and advice on ingredients.

I rutinely check ingrediants like every three months since evan the really good companies change formulas and often dont say they did...

cat chow has had digest for at least two years.. Pro Plan I would say six months was the first time I saw that ...

for those wondering why I went to raw for two of my girls ... it was getting to hard to find food that they tolerated that didnt change..

I bought Friskies (Purina's cheap and chearful supermarket brand) and Iams the other day.... the ingredients are nearly exactly the same in both. Just that Iams cost twice as much. So I will be sticking to Friskies instead. (It's called Go-Cat in the UK).

Sometimes I wonder if a lot of it, is just a name. Can't comment on wet food yet, as we are limited in choice here for kittens

I'm definately checking the label on the foods I feed my cat when I get home, that just sounds to awful to me.

Beth

Someone bought me a bag of the Fancy Feast Gourmet Gold Dry for the cats for Christmas - I am debating on whether I should even feed it to the ferals!

I have noticed a lot of companies changed their ingredients over the last year

Originally Posted by sharky

I rutinely check ingrediants like every three months since evan the really good companies change formulas and often dont say they did...

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That is soooo frustrating

(Hijack)
I thought I'd found the perfect formula with Royal Canin until they discontinued their Senior formula and replaced it with Mature, and changed it to add soya oil - Felixia can't tolerate anything with soy. I only thought to look at the ingredients again after she started vomiting.

Nutro Senior Complete Care (not the indoor formula, which has soy) is now the only dry food I can find for her. But the pieces are too big for her, so I have to crush them up. We give the cats canned & dry, because she won't eat much at a time & I want her to be able to free feed.

I don't get it: Soy is a common allergen, so why is it in so many cat foods?

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

That is soooo frustrating

(Hijack)
I thought I'd found the perfect formula with Royal Canin until they discontinued their Senior formula and replaced it with Mature, and changed it to add soya oil - Felixia can't tolerate anything with soy. I only thought to look at the ingredients again after she started vomiting.

Nutro Senior Complete Care (not the indoor formula, which has soy) is now the only dry food I can find for her. But the pieces are too big for her, so I have to crush them up. We give the cats canned & dry, because she won't eat much at a time & I want her to be able to free feed.

I don't get it: Soy is a common allergen, so why is it in so many cat foods?

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it is cheap.. I was told the isolate soy protein would help with bones... Zoey too cant do soy

Originally Posted by madpiano

I bought Friskies (Purina's cheap and chearful supermarket brand) and Iams the other day.... the ingredients are nearly exactly the same in both. Just that Iams cost twice as much. So I will be sticking to Friskies instead. (It's called Go-Cat in the UK).

Sometimes I wonder if a lot of it, is just a name. Can't comment on wet food yet, as we are limited in choice here for kittens

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When I first got Whiskey he wouldn't eat the Iams food (which I thought was best for him), then I switched to Whiskas and was told by my vet that as a male cat it would end giving him Feline Cystitis, so I switched to Friskies, which I now see has animal digest.

What's a girl to do?

Originally Posted by stellacakes

Authority kitten food (the PetSmart brand) also has animal digest in its top ten ingredients. I was contemplating buying it, but didn't like the sounds of that ingredient.

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I just bought my first three cans of Authority "Cat" food from Petsmart yesterday so your post caused me some alarm. I went downstairs and carefully read(twice) the ingredients in both their Beef and Turkey/giblets can's labels. There was no mention of "animal digest" on either label ......

Dan

Originally Posted by maliit_anino

When I first got Whiskey he wouldn't eat the Iams food (which I thought was best for him), then I switched to Whiskas and was told by my vet that as a male cat it would end giving him Feline Cystitis, so I switched to Friskies, which I now see has animal digest.

What's a girl to do?

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here are a few brands to look at none have digest or by products

Nutro ( most like natural choice)
Chn soup
Royal canin
Innova
California natural( I like this unfortunately kitty has shape issue)
Eagle Pack

Originally Posted by maliit_anino

When I first got Whiskey he wouldn't eat the Iams food (which I thought was best for him), then I switched to Whiskas and was told by my vet that as a male cat it would end giving him Feline Cystitis, so I switched to Friskies, which I now see has animal digest.

What's a girl to do?

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Buy cat food at a pet supply store instead of the grocery store. There are no good foods at the grocery store but a pet specialty store will have much better choices available.