Pet Food Brands Investigated for Heart Disease

[rosewater20]

I just read a story in the New York Times about 16 pet food brands investigated for heart disease in dogs. The common factor was a diet heavy in peas, lentils, chickpeas and potatoes — carbohydrates typically intended to replace grains.

I am concerned about the lack of information on the possible impact on cats. We feed our cat Nutro brand food, and I am wondering if we should take her off of it (although she loves it and I am worried about her refusing to eat a new brand).

Is anyone else concerned about this? What brands do you feed your cats?

Here are the brands listed In the Story:
Acana
Zignature
Taste of the Wild
4Health
Earthborn Holistic
Blue Buffalo
Nature’s Domain
Fromm
Merrick
California Natural
Natural Balance
Orijen
Nature’s Variety
NutriSource
Nutro
Rachael Ray Nutrish

All of those are dry foods?

I stopped feeding dry around 2005/6 after reading about the effects of soya on cats, followed by a law case which is no longer available to read concerning melamine in a well known and popular dry food, plus having a cat with a digestive problem which was exacerbated by dry food, and having him 'washed out'.

I reduced dry to treats only and have read ingredient lists on many, many foods, once soya was no longer the go-to cheap ingredient it became maize and potatoes, something caused blood in his urine so I then avoided those.

I am not a fan of any dry food for cats, it is a convenience food and although nutrients, vitamins etc. are added, it still ignores the fact that cats are carnivores and wouldn't go around in the wild digging up potatoes and harvesting corn.

I have had adopted cats that were previously fed on a dry diet, and the recent ones, 3 with heart disease, 2 of which were fatal, and 2 with digestive disorders, IBD is often caused by food intolerances (grains, carageenan in gravy etc.) which then leads to intestinal thickening and can lead to lymphoma.

What we feed them does affect their health, even the high meat content dry food is not great due to the cheap fillers. Water bulks it out when they drink and fills them up, not in a good way.

Grain free wet, raw (BARF) and DOC are what I would ideally feed a cat.

And one other thing, vets will tell you that dry is good, they are taught this without questioning. They say it is good for teeth and gums, how can it be when it shatters and isn't chewed, it either breaks into bits and is swallowed, or is just swallowed. A chunk of raw meat is better for teeth and gums (and health).

They also get commission from the company for selling those big heaps of grain that sit in the waiting area in bags with fancy names.

My cat prefers dry food to wet. Every now and then he refuses to eat his pouches and we have to give him dry for a few days - I'd rather that than him not eating.

I tried feeding him raw once. It was vile and I was thankful he didn't like it as there was no way I was carrying on with it!

It is more a case of what is in the food though. Some cats do well on dry or mixed and they eat what they are used to (or what they can manipulate you to give them).

I only use dry as an encouragement to eat, after previous experiences.

Even the branded wet is full of 'stuff' and sometimes budget is an issue but frozen raw or something like Natures Menu is better. Grain free is becoming more easy to find now.

Mine will only eat James Wellbeloved. The senior dry food isn't grain free but he's never had any issues and he's happy so I'll leave him be. He does have their grain free wet food though.

I really didn't like having raw food down for him and I was glad when he turned up his nose! He used to eat Natures Menu pouches but he went off those as well - a good thing really as his litter tray smells much better now!

It’s grain free food that has seen the problems. Or at least ‘boutique, exotic or grain free diets’. It’s still very rare, mechanism is unknown but I believe is to thought to be due to bioavailability of taurine due to the legumes in the diet.
Raw has its own issues. Eg TB in cats all fed a particular commercial raw diet batch, plus risks of other bacteria/parasites.

VETS GET NO COMMISSION FROM ANY PET FOOD COMPANIES.
Vet practices like pet shops make a small amount of profit from pet food sales.