Resources to check on where meat in food really comes from?

Hi everybody, I'm new here (first post), and I wanted to say this quite an interesting forum! I think I'll stick around.

I do have a question, though, regarding feeding my cat. I've had numerous cats through the years, and have always fed them regular canned and dry food (like Purina Cat Chow, for example). After recently reading what goes into that kind of food, though, I've been looking for good, healthy alternatives to feed my cat. I've found numerous brands that sell food with only free-range meats and no rendered product and whatnot, but I haven't found a way to check on whether or not their claims about treating their animals right before puttin' 'em in food were accurate or not. Can anyone guide me to a website, or book, or any resource that would let me check up on these kinds of things?

Thanks in advance!

I have found just alot of research will land you good foods .... I would say from my research that most companys that dont use by products or chemical presvatives or things like digest are making decent food...

as for rendering , it is called cooking ... so unless your going to try raw ( two of mine get ) your going to get rendered food ... I am not adverse to free range but you need to infom yourself on what issues that can also have ( Ie high leval s of some bacteria

I would recomend a search on the forum under nutrition , youll get alot of info ...

I feed my dry food junkie Natural Choice by Nutro

My old girl gets canned and raw

The pup get s raw and I am trying kibble again///

Well, one of my big concerns with rendered food isn't so much the cooking, but the meats they may or may not use in the process. I've read a lot of material that talks about how many rendering plants will use what is described as "slaughterhouse waste" as well as other questionable meat sources such as euthanized animals. I've even read that some will accept roadkill as a meat source. I've found various organic and healthier looking cat foods on the market, it's just that since there seems to be little if any monitoring of these places, I was wondering if there was a resource where I could look up info on how they acquire their meats.

I don't think there is a way to find out. There are a lot of websites on the internet that tell you that meat by-products consist of slaughterhouse waste and toxic stuff. But you might also notice that although the websites are telling you stuff, they're not actually proving it. You will never know unless you actually go to the pet food processing plant yourself and witness it and I don't know if that's possible.

I personally don't believe a lot of this stuff. Big name pet food manufacturers have invested millions of dollars into nutritional research and can lose millions if they ever make your pets sick. I have seen cats live into their late teens and sometimes early 20s eating these foods that have some by-products in them. I believe that by-products are simply the parts of the animals that we choose not to eat, like the intestines, heart, kidneys, lungs, ground bone, brain tongue, anything that would be considered ick to humans. By-product puts a lot of people off because of the fact that it is a mystery ingredient. I don't believe they are using diseased meat because if that were the case, we would be eating it too and we would see pets dying at an early age instead of growing old. Cats do eat the entire carcass of their prey in the wild. The decision to avoid by-products is what I believe to be a personal one. If you're not comfortable with mystery ingredients, then don't buy pet foods containing by-products. But I don't believe this stuff is toxic or poisonous like some of the info on the internet claims it to be. I personally don't go by whether or not a food contains by-products. I go by how long cats and dogs have been eating a certain food, how well they've done on it, and how healthy they've been overall. If someone can prove to me that a hundred dogs and cats have gotten sick and/ or died eating Iams or Purina, that would convince me not to feed it, but I have not seen or heard of any such news. Rather I've seen the opposite. Although I don't think Friskies and Fancy Feast are top brands, my aunt's cats lived to be about 16 and a half on that stuff. The pet food industry is very competitive and I think people are going to be influenced one way or another.

Originally Posted by livingfortoday

Well, one of my big concerns with rendered food isn't so much the cooking, but the meats they may or may not use in the process. I've read a lot of material that talks about how many rendering plants will use what is described as "slaughterhouse waste" as well as other questionable meat sources such as euthanized animals. I've even read that some will accept roadkill as a meat source. I've found various organic and healthier looking cat foods on the market, it's just that since there seems to be little if any monitoring of these places, I was wondering if there was a resource where I could look up info on how they acquire their meats.

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Most High end food companies will if you call or email tell you what plant or plants they use.... just ask and youll likely get the info /.///

Nutro ,Solid Gold and Innova have willing given me some of the answer s to these questions....

If by products were just organs I would serve them but the can and do contain beaks heads feet vicera( fancy for blood with skin) and other things that most cats leave in eating a carcass

Originally Posted by sharky

If by products were just organs I would serve them but the can and do contain beaks heads feet vicera( fancy for blood with skin) and other things that most cats leave in eating a carcass

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If the by-products used in cat food were healthy/decent quality, they'd be sold to humans...we eat most byproducts for heavens sakes..intestines for casings, sweetbreads, liver, kidneys, stomach lining (tripe), tongue.

Don't mind me, it's been one making me grumpy day.

Originally Posted by moggiegirl

I personally don't believe a lot of this stuff. Big name pet food manufacturers have invested millions of dollars into nutritional research and can lose millions if they ever make your pets sick.

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What about all the pets who beacme sick or died because of the aflatoxins in Diamond pet food ? They came from first rate grains that were used ? Manufacturers are still in it for the money. They will try to cut corners if they can. And you will not always hear about food that does make pets sick, most of the time the pet gets sick, owner takes it to the vet, if the vet can pinpoint the problem the manufacturer gets contacted, they pay for treatment and maybe compensation, end of story. These things get held under wraps. There has been a recall of veterinary food recently where only the vets who sold it were contacted, I heard about it on a breeders cat health list, 6 weeks later I met someone online whose cat got sick from the exact same food, she had been feeding it all this time because the public was not informed by the manufacturer. These are just two examples I as a consumer on the other side of the ocean have heard about in the last months, so how much more is going on ?

I have seen cats live into their late teens and sometimes early 20s eating these foods that have some by-products in them.

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I have too. I have seen others who died young or got sick. Most of the time it wasn't from the meat but from the grains though.

I believe that by-products are simply the parts of the animals that we choose not to eat, like the intestines, heart, kidneys, lungs, ground bone, brain tongue, anything that would be considered ick to humans. By-product puts a lot of people off because of the fact that it is a mystery ingredient. I don't believe they are using diseased meat because if that were the case, we would be eating it too and we would see pets dying at an early age instead of growing old. Cats do eat the entire carcass of their prey in the wild.

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Yes, indeed cats eat the whole carcass of their prey in the wild. This also includes the breasts and other choice morsels, which will not be present in pet foods in the same quantities as in the wild. By products fine, but the percentage matters too. Oh, and what's up with the part I made bold ??

I do want to point out you have to be careful who tacks "free range" on the bag because free range can mean 100 chickens in 5' x 5' pen.

I don't think Diamond Pet foods has been around long enough to earn a long standing reputation. And they did lose a lot of business. I'm talking about pet foods that have been around for a long time that have been trusted for a long time. But I'm not going to get too deep into it. I just have a different opinion, that's all. Although Iams is not popular on cat forums in general they are monitored by the American Institute of Baking and carefully regulate their foods for mycotoxins and Hill's does the same thing. I'm not a very big fan of Hill's at all. I'm just saying there are companies that go the extra mile to make sure their foods are safe.