the worst cat food brands have less than 25% meat.
that's right food intended for obligate carnivores has less than 25% meat.
and the meat that is included can include 4d meats which is dead disease dying and disabled.
even if it says premium on the bag.
the rest of the ingredients are carbs, fillers,
artificial ingredients, and other crap that cats don't need.
and many of the worst cat food brands are owned by
billion dollar companies that produce junk food for humans.
hey friends it's jess and jericho here to show you what to avoid on the cat food label.
grab your cat food label cheat sheet in the pinned comment.
now the worst cat food brands have the words "with" and "flavor" in the product name.
according to aafco product's name rules any product that has the word with
in the name has somewhere between three percent and 24.9% of that named ingredient.
so for example with beef in gravy would have between three and
24.9 percent beef because of the word with.
aafco product name rules say that the word flavor has somewhere between zero
and two point nine percent of the named ingredient because of the word flavor.
so for example if the cat food says chicken flavor it has less than three percent chicken.
if it had at least three percent chicken the name would say with chicken instead of chicken flavor.
and if these products had at least 25%
of the named ingredient it would have a word like dinner, entree, recipe, or formula, etc.
instead of saying "with chicken" or "chicken flavor".
so you'll want to avoid cat food names that have the word with and flavor in the name.
because these cat foods are going to have the absolute minimum of those named ingredients.
next we'll talk about the worst
cat food ingredients and what to avoid in the ingredients list.
aafco's definition for byproducts says that
it's essentially the leftovers from the human food industry.
including parts that are not considered human edible.
so examples include some of the secreting organs, some of the bones, the fat, the blood.
but i can go to my grocery store and buy things like pig feet, beef kidney, lamb tongue.
so how do we know that byproducts in cat food are actually clean sources of these ingredients?
additionally aafco says that 4d meats dead disease dying and disabled
are allowed in cat food as long as they're rendered.
rendering is a process in which these ingredients are subjected to
very very high amounts of heat and pressure.
and according to a crs report for congress on animal rendering it states that rendered
ingredients can come from dead animals from barns, marketing lots, and even animal shelters.
and some of these sources include waste from restaurants, groceries, and stores.
and typically waste is leftovers that they can't feed to humans, meaning expired.
so again how do we know that
meat byproducts are actually clean sources of these secreting organs and bones?
especially considering that good quality cat food brands
list the exact sources of these ingredients.
for example instead of saying "poultry byproducts" they'll list ingredients like
turkey bone, turkey liver, turkey kidney.
so why would some cat food brands specify the ingredients?
when other cat food brands just use the general blanket terms?
other ingredients to avoid in cat food include grains, corns, starchy vegetables like peas,
potatoes, rice, soy, sugar, salt, binding agents, chemical preservatives, and synthetic colors.
there's a huge list of ingredients to avoid put together by a couple of pet
food formulators and health consumer advocates.
it's on dr kruger's website.
and the simple reason to avoid these ingredients is that they're not suitable for cats.
now here's where people get mad.
they'll say something like are you kidding me i've been feeding this brand
to my cat for 10 years and they're happy and healthy.
but holistic vets say that it is the long-term consumption of bad
quality foods that make cats sick.
cats don't get overweight overnight.
we don't get overweight overnight.
diseases don't develop overnight.
it's the long-term consumption of these bad quality foods that cause problems.
for example with kidney disease most of the symptoms and clinical signs
don't show up until the kidneys are about 70 percent damaged.
unfortunately aafco does not require carbohydrates on the guaranteed analysis
so you'll have to do this calculation on your own.
my cat food label cheat sheet includes a very easy way to calculate this.
and you'll have to convert the numbers to a dry matter basis. that basically
means to remove the moisture.
you always have to convert to a dry matter basis
because cat foods have very different moisture content.
so you have to look at the analysis on a dry matter basis, that means remove the moisture.
this is important because even the national research council
says that carbohydrates are not essential to the cat's diet.
and most of the worst cat food brands have somewhere between 25
to 50% carbohydrates on a dry matter basis.
the cat's natural diet is only about two percent carbs. this
would include the stomach contents of the prey, since they eat herbivores.
so 25% carbs is a 1,150 percent increase from the cat's natural diet.
holistic veterinarians say that high amounts of carbohydrates lead to obesity.
and obesity puts your cat at a much higher risk for very serious health-related issues.
like certain cancers, diabetes, respiratory issues, arthritis, and even shortened lives.
the worst cat food brands are often owned by billion dollar companies.
they own more than 10 different cat food brands. and they also produce human foods.
mostly junk.
for example blue buffalo is owned by general mills. a cereal manufacturing company.
now why would a cereal manufacturing company want to own cat food?
if you take a look at the ingredients list of the worst cat food brands you'll
see that a lot of cereals and grains and corns are included in their ingredients.
so basically these cat food brands are a recycling bin for everything that they can't feed to humans.
also many of these cat food brands say that they're the best.
but why would the manufacturing company have to own 10 different cat food brands if
the one of them is actually the best?
but my cat food says premium that means it must be the best!
actually aafco doesn't have an official definition for the word premium.
and on their website they state that premium does not mean that it's better quality
or that it's held to any different standards than any other pet food.
so technically any cat food brand can say premium
on the label without having better quality ingredients.
and even the fda says that pet food manufacturers
use fancy claims and marketing gimmicks to sell their products.
let me know in the comments how your cat's food stacks up.
thanks for watching!