so i've been analyzing dry cat foods based on the aafco product labeling requirements,
the ingredient definitions and list, guaranteed analysis, approximate carb amount.
put everything into a spreadsheet.
and so far i've analyzed 60 dry cat foods. just going through what's available on amazon.
next i'm going to go through what's on chewy.
but i wanted to make a video of the worst so you can see how bad these foods really are.
the first one we're gonna look at is meow mix tender centers.
the delicious flavors of chicken and tuna.
so that word flavor right there means that there's no minimum requirement of chicken and tuna.
and it's definitely less than three percent. if it was at least three percent chicken and tuna
it would say "with chicken and tuna" instead of "flavor".
and i love how they have on the bag like this barbecue right here.
like first of all cats don't cook their food. cats wouldn't eat barbecue.
barbecue sauce is not appropriate for cats.
so it's like they're completely failing here. by like you know how cat food brands usually put like
nice pictures of juicy meat on the cover?
it's like they didn't even bother.
they're just like "let's just put cooked cooked meat on there because that's what it is anyway.
and some crap that isn't appropriate for cats".
so let's take a look at the ingredients.
we have whole ground corn. corn is not appropriate for cats.
that's the very first ingredient.
the next one chicken by-product meal. according to aafco's definitions
byproduct meal is considered a rendered ingredient.
and that means that it's 4d meats are allowed.
so this chicken could be diseased, dead, dying, disabled.
it's allowed as long as it's rendered.
next we have corn gluten meal.
so we have whole ground corn as the first ingredient
corn gluten meal is the sec as the third ingredient.
this is what's called ingredient splitting because corn is is the same ingredient.
they're both corn ingredients.
but they break that up because otherwise if they put both
corn ingredients together they would probably be more than this chicken by-product meal.
so they split up these ingredients so that the chicken by-product meal
the meat-based protein goes up to the second ingredient instead of the third.
soybean meal. again soy is not appropriate for cats. and it's the fourth ingredient.
animal fat. what kind of animal? what what animal?
you can't you can't tell me what animal it came from?
is it pork? is it chicken? is it beef? is it is it lamb?
animal fat.
literally that's that's all it says.
so this is very dangerous right here.
any type of mystery meat could potentially be from dead animals from animal shelters.
and there's a report for congress on animal rendering that states that.
and then next we have whole wheat.
wheat is not appropriate for cats.
animal digest. mmm doesn't that sound good? animal digest.
that's another mystery meat right there.
animal digest what animal? what animal?
tuna meal again meal is a rendered ingredient.
so that could be dead, diseased, dying, and disabled.
it's allowed aafco says 4d meats are allowed as long as they are rendered.
then we have ethoxyquin. this is a chemical preservative that's used.
if we go to the fda's website on pet food labeling
it says that "in the 1990s cvm began receiving reports from dog owners attributing the presence
of ethoxyquin in the dog food with a myriad of adverse effects.
such as allergic reactions, skin problems,
major major organ failure, behavior problems, and cancer.
the cvm asks the pet food industry to voluntarily lower the maximum level
use of ethoxyquin in dog foods."
so it's like considered generally recognized as safe even though there are investigations
of organ failure as well as an increase of liver related enzymes in the blood,
hemoglobin related pigment in the liver.
and it's one of the first 10 ingredients.
next we have corn syrup. again another corn ingredient.
corn syrup that's pure sugar not appropriate for cats.
and we have some additives, preservatives, salt.
whenever you see salt it's a good indication that they're using it to cover up rancid meat.
it's a preservative.
then we have some some more supplements here.
and then further down the list we have caramel color.
why? why why do cats need caramel color?
literally they put this in the food just to appease your eyes.
cats don't care what color their food is.
then we have more of these additives. carrageenan that's a thickening agent.
yellow five, red 40, blue two.. those are known carcinogens.
and then we have oh natural white meat chicken flavor.
aafco says natural just says it comes from a plant or comes from an animal.
so technically rendered meat the one that could be dead, diseased, dying, or disabled
that's technically natural because it comes from an animal.
bha that's another preservative that is a known carcinogen.
literally all of these ingredients are our checkoffs of what to avoid.
then we go to the guaranteed analysis numbers we use these to get the approximate carb amount.
i'll go back to my spreadsheet. the approximate carb amount on dry matter basis is 44%.
i mean that makes sense considering that the first and third ingredient is corn.
then you have soy and whole wheat.
i mean there's barely any chicken. there's not even any whole chicken in this product.
chicken by product meal. by products are just like the leftovers from human food processing.
so there's no actual whole chicken in this product.
and we know that because product name says flavors of chicken and tuna.
so this gets a rating of 2 out of 20
which is which would be 10% if you're taking a test you know out of 100.
the next one we'll look at is nine lives.
and the product name here with the flavors of chicken beef and salmon.
so here i don't i really don't understand why they do this.
because with and flavor are two separate product name rules.
so here they're just straight up trying to confuse us.
so with the flavors of chicken beef and salmon.
regardless it's definitely less than 25%. if it was at least 25%
it would have word like dinner, recipe, entree, platter, nuggets, feast, etc.
balanced nourishment in each tasty bite.
strong muscles, healthy heart and vision, healthy skin and coat.
yeah all right let's look at the ingredients.
whole ground corn, chicken by product meal, soybean meal, corn gluten meal.
very very similar to these ingredients.
beef fat instead of animal fat. alright so this one
they're actually telling us where it came from.
preserved with vitamin e.
whole wheat, meat and bone meal.
what kind of meat? what what what animal? what kind of bone is it?
is it chicken bone? is it is it beef meat? is it lamb meat?
see again this is you gotta avoid these things because
they can't even tell you where the meat is coming from.
that's a really bad sign.
that just tells me that they're throwing
everything together and just just saying i just call it meat and bone meal.
that's that's literally what it is.
here again we have animal digest. what animal?
salmon meal.
meal is a rendered meat so that could be 4d meats.
again we see salt makes sense that's a preservative for rancid meat.
then we go further down the list and we see red 40 again,
yellow five, yellow six, bha, blue one, blue two.
all of these colors
and bha these preservatives these chemical preservatives are known carcinogens.
and they have it again this one has basically everything you need to avoid.
we use the guaranteed analysis numbers. i'll go back to my spreadsheet 48% on a dry matter basis.
48% carbs that's almost half.
approximately half this product is carbohydrates clearly.
whole ground corn, soybean meal, corn gluten meal.
so this one gets a 3 out of 20 rating. 15%.
and guess what both of these brands meow mix and nine lives..
the website looks very similar right?
it's because they're both owned by jm smucker. you know the company that makes junk food for humans.
all right next one purina pro plan dry cat food chicken and rice formula.
so this one is the first 25% minimum rule that we've seen so far.
chicken and rice formula that means combined
chicken and rice the minimum is 25% and the maximum is 94.9%.
and rice has to be at least three percent.
now i know a lot of people are gonna be like this is a vet recommended brand how could it be bad?
let's look at the ingredients.
chicken all right so there's a whole source of chicken.
but the thing.
is the usda says that muscle meat is approximately eighty percent moisture.
this is a dry food. look moisture twelve percent.
the ingredient chicken is first because it's the most the heaviest ingredient on the list.
but that's when it's added to the pot.
eighty percent of that chicken is gone by the time the product hits the bag.
because there's no moisture. it's cooked and pressurized three times.
poultry they can't tell me if it's chicken or turkey?
they just say poultry.
and again by product meal rendered could be dead, diseased, dying, or disabled.
wheat flour, egg product dried. what? egg product? what does that even mean?
is it an egg or isn't it?
so we have one two three four five the first five ingredients
three out of five of them are gluten and and carbohydrate sources.
and then one out of the two meat ingredients is a complete mystery. poultry byproduct meal.
okay beef fat all right that's that's specific.
soy protein concentrate. soy is not appropriate for cats.
natural flavors. what does that even mean? remember natural that doesn't
mean good quality that just means it comes from an animal or a plant.
so what is it? what kind of natural flavor?
fish meal. you can't tell me what kind of fish?
this is a vet recommended brand and you can't tell me what kind of fish you're using?
is it tuna? is it smelt? is it halibut? is it you know what i mean?
then we have salt again preservative for rancid meat.
caramel color.
it's like all of these things is so pointless.
then we use the guaranteed analysis numbers to get approximate carb amount this one has
35%. 30% of this product is carbohydrates approximately.
so this one gets a three and a half out of 20 rating if you're
taking a test that would be 17 and a half percent.
the next one is friskies.
let's see we have flavors of chicken, salmon, and gravy.
so we have less than three percent of those ingredients.
let's look at the ingredients.
ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal. again we have
two ingredients that are the same exact thing.
but they split them up.
chicken by products meal so no actual meat is in this product. just by product meal.
so it's the ground down dehydrated version of leftovers from the human food industry.
it could be dead, diseased, dying, or disabled. since it's rendered.
anytime you see meal that's a rendered ingredient.
soybean meal, beef tallow preserved with vitamin e, wheat flour, meat and bone meal.
what kind of meat? what kind of bone? where is where are these ingredients coming from?
animal liver flavor. what animal? like literally is it cat? is it dog?
if a rendering report for congress says that rendered ingredients can
include dead animals from animal shelters you gotta question this!
animal liver. what kind of animal?
fish meal. again that's rendered and you can't even tell me what kind of fish.
later down the list it says salmon meal. okay so they knew that they used salmon meal.
but for this other one they don't know? they have no idea?
why would they be specific about one and not the other?
ask!
like natural and artificial flavors. what kind? what what are they?
salt then we have red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, again known carcinogens.
this one has approximately 45% carbs on a dry matter basis.
oh my gosh 45% that's half.
and that's approximate it could even be more.
and i mean it makes sense. ground yellow corn,
corn gluten meal there's the first two ingredients.
soybean meal fifth, wheat flour.
like these are all inappropriate ingredients for cats.
so this one also has a 4 out of 20 rating or 20% rating.
and and again we have the same manufacturer making these foods nestle.
did you know that a soda company and candy candy bar and junk food company makes cat food?
you gotta ask yourself, are the human foods that these companies make healthy? no.
why would their cat food be healthy?
friends i'm gonna continue analyzing some of these dry cat foods because
as you can see the majority of them get a failing grade.
and i understand some cats need a little bit better quality kibble before they can go to wet.
so i you know i want to be as helpful as possible.
and even though i don't recommend dry food i want to find some that actually have a passing grade.
so far i've found two.
so i'm going to continue analyzing and make more videos.
let me know in the comments below if you want to see me roasting these cat food brands.
and you know i promise once i find more dry foods
that get a passing grade i'll make a video about that too.
thanks for watching!