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With all the questionable animal parts that can end up in pet food, why is wheat gluten the prime suspect in the recent contamination, which has caused at least 10 pets to die of kidney failure since February? As Slate explains, your kitty’s chow probably contains more grains than meat.
Sure, the recipe may include a dash of “chicken meal” (made up of the cuts that Americans tend to shun, like heads, bones, blood, and organs), a pinch of flesh from sick or dying livestock. But many brands are also heavy on the carbohydrates and thickeners—despite what the listed ingredients suggest:
[P]et-food companies manipulate the order of the list such that meat (and meat byproducts) appear first, even when other ingredients are used in larger quantities. For instance, a can of cat food may list wheat flour and ground wheat as two ingredients; that way it seems like there’s more meat than grain in the recipe.
According to the labeling rules, pet food can have a name like Beef Entrée or Turkey and Giblets Dinner and contain as little as 25 percent of the given meat. If you see a brand with one of those squishy words in there (platter, nuggets, and formula are a few more options), it’s a good bet there’s a lot of grain in there.
Slate ends the article by noting that most vets think pet food in general is perfectly nutritious, though domestic animals are packing on the pounds from eating too much of the “wholesome” fare. But as any farmer will tell you, grains are the surest way to fatten your livestock—and of course the same goes for domestic animals. So how wholesome can this filler-filled pet food really be?
Update: I forgot to mention that the title of this post has nothing to do with the actual Kibbles ’n Bits brand, which doesn’t use Menu Foods as a supplier and isn’t part of the current recall. Just a little harmless wordplay.
I'm perfectly happy demonizing the entire pet food world for this! I'm not sure why people who recognize that eating highly processed foods is bad for human health are actually able to convince themselves that highly processed foods are okay for cats and dogs... animals that are obligate carnivores meant to eat muscle, blood, bones, and guts!
I've made the commitment to feed my cat nothing but...+READ
I'm perfectly happy demonizing the entire pet food world for this! I'm not sure why people who recognize that eating highly processed foods is bad for human health are actually able to convince themselves that highly processed foods are okay for cats and dogs... animals that are obligate carnivores meant to eat muscle, blood, bones, and guts!
I've made the commitment to feed my cat nothing but real food — raw meat, raw organs, some raw vegetables, and a few supplements for calcium and enzymes — and believe it or not it's EASY, and I feel incredibly good about it. All it requires is doing some homework on what carnivores would eat in the wild, and a few extra minutes in the week. I don't have to worry one whit about how many diseased animal carcasses and grain fillers go into that canned junk.
Plus, you wouldn't believe how soft my kitty's coat is... aww.-COLLAPSE
Most commercial pet foods are really quite healthy and one of the primary reasons (along with vaccination, good veterinary care, advanced diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures and the ability/desire of people to pay for the above) that animals today are living so long. Yes cats and dogs are generally obese, but this has as much do with their (read: their owner's) exercise (or lack thereof)...+READ
Most commercial pet foods are really quite healthy and one of the primary reasons (along with vaccination, good veterinary care, advanced diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures and the ability/desire of people to pay for the above) that animals today are living so long. Yes cats and dogs are generally obese, but this has as much do with their (read: their owner's) exercise (or lack thereof) practices and overfeeding of these foods (again, sound familiar) than with the ingredients. Exhaustive research into the dietary needs of animals have been done; there are multiple ways to supply those needs. The wheat gluten is a source of protein, not carbohydrates. The situation is a dreadful one. My best friend's cat is in the hospital from it right now, but let's not demonize the entire pet food world for this.-COLLAPSE
We adopted 2 kittens in February, and after just one week, one kitten, Buster, suffered kidney failure. The 10 reported deaths represent only the animals that Menu Foods tested it's food on after receiving reports of problems. The sickness and mortality must be much more widespread than only the Menu Foods animals. Buster loved (and still does) the "pouch food". He spent 10 days in the hospital,...+READ
We adopted 2 kittens in February, and after just one week, one kitten, Buster, suffered kidney failure. The 10 reported deaths represent only the animals that Menu Foods tested it's food on after receiving reports of problems. The sickness and mortality must be much more widespread than only the Menu Foods animals. Buster loved (and still does) the "pouch food". He spent 10 days in the hospital, and is much smaller than his brother, and might never regain his health. His vets have never been able to pinpoint whether his illness was a virus or exposure to a toxin. But after this story broke last weekend, I am convinced it was the food that made him so ill. Unfortunately (until Saturday) I continued to feed him Iams and Nutro brands after we brought him home from the vet. I thought I was feeding him the better food. Now he's eating Friskies.-COLLAPSE
This has to be true. I was surprised that my cat liked oatmeal a lot. She ate my breakfast while I was distracted. It was plain oatmeal with no milk in it. I am guessing all the fillers in her cat chow have her conditiontioned to eating grains.