Pet Food Ingredients

[moggymania]

...and some other links for those that are worried about the reliability of the pet food article I linked to earlier:

Google search results full of articles from all over on the topic

Cat Food Uncovered -- in-depth research project performed by a university student

About.com Cats Forum article

Amazon.com page for book "Food Pets Die For" along

Comments

[moggymania]

I know the feeling... I lost several cats to things they never should have died from, especially at their ages, and I still wonder whether they'd have lived a full life if I had known better back then. Since I nursed one through renal failure and then had a horrible experience when she had to be put down, I *really* obsess over whether I could have saved her had I known more.

Part of the issue with vegetables/fruits is actually similar to in humans -- some things are more digestible than others. Like with corn: it doesn't get digested much, and just passes through as stool. White rice doesn't have much nutrition in it at all (you want whole-grain brown rice), wheat often invokes allergies... Cats *do* have to have a small amount of fruits/vegetables in order to do well, because their bodies are naturally designed to digest whole (aside from bones) mice and birds, so they get a blend of around 1/3 meat, 1/3 grain, 1/3 vegetable.

I'm not sure why some are advertising apples and so forth, aside from that it might be a way of signaling that they aren't using corn or other indigestible foods as that third. (In the case of cranberries, this is important as they can help maintain urinary tract health.)

Litter is something I need to get off my butt and write an info entry about... I've known about this issue for quite a while, since I have a cousin that is a vet tech and warned me, but the manufacturer of my favorite (Swheat Scoop) now has a good page of links and letters explaining the problem:
http://www.swheatscoop.com/safety.html