The real problem with grain-free cat food

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[ailidh-Bcn]

the study of the FDA is inconclusive

and it started after an article became viral, claiming that grain free food caused heart problems.

the problem is that that article was written by a person that is funded from known pet food brands like hill's, purina, and Royal canin


so you have a study that was made to find out if this "biased" person was right, that started in 2018 but found no link to grain free food and heart disease and if you look at the FDA page on this topic, there's no update since 2019, when it says :the agency believes that the potential association between diet and DCM in dogs is a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors.

so in 4 years they haven't found a link between grain free food and heart disease other that pets in the study usually are always fed the same food, which causes the risk of missing nutrients.

and the dog food analized didn't contain acceptable levels of taurine in most cases, since it was not thought to be an important nutrient at the time for dogs, this can be the cause since most of the pets in the study with heart problems are dogs.

so I wouldn't worry too much with this, give your pet a good food high in protein from meat sources and taurine that doesn't have grain or peas, lentils, rice or potatoes as the main protein source and change it from time to time so he/she isn't missing nutrients, like we wouldn't dare to eat the same thing everyday.

[PrivateEyeYiYi]

The term itself is confusing. Some “grain free“ cat food contain rice and/or corn, both of which are grains.

[dh]

Grains increase carbohydrates in pet food. But grain free is not a guarantee of a low carb food because starchy vegetables are often added which also increase carb content. And dry food is generally very high in carbohydrates, often 30% or more on a dry matter basis.

[Katiethewizard]

Serious question: Since wild cats usually consume the entire animal, including stomach and intestines, wouldn't their natural diet consist of grains that the prey animal would have been consuming as well? Would that make a small percent of grains or plant matter an essential part of their diet?

[loretta_]

I only switched to a grain free food for my cat this week, thinking it would be better - now I'm confused! If you'd be able to make a video about what's best to look for regarding nutrition - that would be great - or if there's already one I haven't noticed, just point the way!☺️

[pamhouweling]

The peas and beans in dogs. And the peas in cats. I noticed a stool difference. I switched to ones without peas and everything went great. Everyone lost weight. And my old girls bloodwork done 4 months later looked like a 5 to 10 year younger cats.

[sqprr]

My elder cat likes frozen, wet raw food, but it's a pain to feed. My younger will only eat dry food. I've settled on Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein (55%+, 90%+ animal sources) but am also trying out Young Again zero (50%± protein, all animal sources). Also found a good small fish based Omega 3 oil that they both go nuts over.

[whiteknightcat]

Interestingly enough I was advised to avoid feeding my ferrets high-protein food where a significant source of the protein was pea protein. I was able to get appropriate food for them but pea protein is very prevalent in the pet food industry.

[gwood]

Happens with dogs too my dog died because of this he was only 6 years old and that all I ever fed him was grain free food. And not to mention he was a Doberman which the breed is already susceptible to this disease so it made it even worse and he died in 2018. I found out about this a few months after we had to put him down. What a shame it hurts me to this day I wish I would have known and even if I did I was far too later

[InGrindWeCrust]

THANK YOU for getting this correct. The other myth that people come up with is that the food is too high in protein. And exactly: it's not the absence of grains, it's what the grains are substituted with that may be a problem (legumes *and* tubers in *large* proportion in the food).

[zenithmaiden]

If you want to find food that is both free from grains AND legumes (peas and beans) I really recommend looking up low-carb food as a search term from my own struggles into eliminating these ingredients in my pets' diet. Searching for grain free or pea/legume free just gives you food that's jam packed with one or the other.

Pet foods that cut grain, peas, AND potato (not sweet potato) are out there. They're usually limited ingredient diets or foods that target digestibility or diabetic/kidney diets. Despite usually being more expensive they're not packed with fillers so you get more for your money. These foods end up being more nutritionally dense and do not have to be fed in the quantity most parents are accustomed to feeding.

[alicea]

can you tell us how to decide which food is good or not? what ingredients to avoid etc?

[limmel]

Hi. Would you be willing to review Whole Foods's Whole Paws brand? Thank you so much!

[gloriatetting]

One of the scientific studies on cat food was being done because cats were dying. But there was no reference point for the chemicals in the food. The study is using kittens as test subjects to see how long they live and what diseases they get. All the kittens are being sacrificed.

[glcol]

Well, my cat vomits when she eats things with grain, so I sure hope they start adding supplements to fix this...

[daytrippera]

I personally give my two cats Royal Canin dry food for Indoor elder cats and Homemade Delights which is wet food that is grain free brand. A little bit of both.
Keep in mind here in Argentina there's not that many options regarding food for pets. Actually here Royal Canin is kinda of a Luxury brand.

[michaelroot]

I try to feed my animal food where the top 5 ingredients are not a pea product

[kenzoellis]

You can’t believe what you hear from anyone on the Internet grains are bad for humans The same gose for cat cats are 100% carnivores that also need fiber not man-made chemicals cat food

[kcpo]

Cats are carnivore. Supplement with taurine

[brittca]

Correlation doesn’t equal causation… hopefully the FDA also believes this regarding the grain free claims.