Has anyone else noticed this with cats dry food?
By sedel1027
@sedel1027 (17846)
Cupertino, California
September 15, 2008 10:07am CST
When we first bought our cats they were on Nutro Naturals, which we really liked and so did our cats. When the pet recall hit last year, we started looking at other brand of dry and wet food.
I ran across by Nature cat food by the organic food in Petsmart. It has no soy, wheat or corn, doesn't have any artificial flavors, preservatives or colors, no ash or fillers, and best of all no meat-by-products. Same ingredients a their organic blend, just not USDA organic.
They have been eating this food for close to a year.
The other day I ran into Petsmart and there was a sale on Nutro Naturals, so I decided to check out the back to see if they had taken out a lot of the carbs. Not in the ingredients, but on the "Guaranteed Analysis" table Ash was listed. I know that Ash wasn't listed on there when we had our cats on the food, if it had they would have never eaten it to begin with.
So I decided to check out the by Nature brand. The same thing!
I checked out a few other brands that I know didn't have ash in them and they did as well.
So now I am all worried because I spent a few hours researching pet foods to find one that was high protein, included veggies & fruits, and was extremely low carb.
My question are
a) have you noticed a change in your pet food ingredients?
b) do you think that is ash isn't in the ingredient list that it could be in the food?
c) Should manufactures be allowed to change ingredients on food - animal or human - without alerting consumers?
d) why is ash added especially in brands that say "no fillers"?
2 responses
@nevaul (84)
• United States
18 Sep 08
Ash is essentially included in practically all dry cat foods due to the cooking process of the cat food itself more or less resulting is an ash residue rather, not so much that they're just adding ash into the ingredients. Though higher grades of meat used as ingredients will produce less ash content in the cat food. In the long, cats do require a certain amount of ash in their diets so it won't be eliminated completely.
In most instances, companies will change ingredients based off of studies and research done before distribution. It would be nice for them to note a change of ingredients, but in most instances, it would require a direct order from the FDA to do so. In the long run though, the changes they make to their brands won't really harm your pets.
While there was a recall due to Ash content at one time, the ash content in cat foods hasn't been directly linked medically/scientifically to Urinary Tract Disease in cats, and one way to prevent such is to always have a ready supply of fresh water for you cat to drink and flush out it's system with.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
18 Sep 08
If cats need it, why do a lot of brand have zero ash in them? It is only the non-organic that includes Ash.
@snowy22315 (182381)
• United States
15 Sep 08
I think most of the products you can buy at the grocery store is probably not that great. I think that the ash content in pet foods is important if you have pets that are prone to uninary issues. They have alot of natural type foods, maybe you could check with petsmart and see what varieties they recommend. There are so many of them.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
15 Sep 08
I listen to my vet before I listen to the petsmart folks. Don't get me wrong, for somethings they are great, others not so much. The by Nature food is one step down from organic.
