Recently, a major pet food company announced a complete reformulation of one of its core product lines. The new formulas are to contain more natural ingredients, no by-products and no artificial colors or flavors. After looking at the list of ingredients, the new formulas don’t look much better to me than the old ones did, and still contain fillers such as wheat gluten, corn meal and powdered cellulose. While they may not contain by-products anymore, the non-specific proteins listed, such as “ocean fish” or “poultry” or “meat,” don’t provide enough information as to what the source of the protein is.
The intent of this article is not to point fingers at any one cat food manufacturer. Selling cat food is a business, and you can’t blame manufacturers for trying to position their products in the best possible light. This is why it’s up to each cat guardian to look past the marketing hype and educate themselves about what is really in their cat’s food. And that means understanding how to read the label.
One of the most misleading words on cat food labels (or any food label, for that matter) is probably the world “natural.”Continue Reading
About the author
Ingrid King is an award-winning author, former veterinary hospital manager, and veterinary journalist who is passionate about cats.
