~ Certain "boutique" foods can affects cats. The FDA reported five cats died from cardiomyopathy linked to grain-free food.
I have seen some the USA vets say the number one suspect is indeed what they replace the grains with but not about taurine.Haven't "they" (I don't know where I saw it) found that it's something about what they replace the grains with (peas, potatoes) that cause improper absorption or something to that effect of taurine
~ Yes that is the mystery ...The suspicion isn't the lack of grains but what they replace the grains with...
~ Yes it appears this is mostly concerning dogs. We are in the learning curve about all these unusual ingredients. Now Friskies has 'Garden Greens' variety wet cat foodThis study doesn't mention if any of these animals had existing health circumstances. My now 14 year old herpes cat has been grain free for 12 years with no side effects.
I don't know about other brands but Acana and Orijen are on the investigation too, both are from the same Canadian company Champion Foods. Their foods are mostly animal products. Like Acana Wild Prairie for cats is 75% meat https://acana.com/our-foods/cat-foods/regionals-cats/wild-prairie/ . The first non-animal product which is whole green peas come AFTER 49% animal products.This summary is the one I've found to be the most concisely stated:
"But unlike cereal grains, peas, lentils and legumes are all high in protein.
This means that grain-free pet foods can skimp on expensive animal proteins and use larger amounts of cheap plant proteins in their place.
It says 75% meat in the link. It used to be 70% but they changed the formula last year. The Crude Protein went from Min. 35% to 37% in the new formula. While I'm not sure at all, I think peas, lentils, etc are also used as starch in pet food, to hold things together. This is the ingredients list:I agree that the non-botique brands and prescription diets should be included but I don't think Acana is that much better. I know they used to do 75% animal product but the ones for sale near me and even following the link you provided are 70% now. Which could logically point to they increased their cheap plant proteins to save money on meat too. With five different pea and lentils on the package it seems a logical conclusion. While they have 35% protein the amount of peas and lentils probably indicates that they are a good portion of the protein... I'd assume that at least 3-5% of the protein content comes from the peas and lentils just as a rough guess. Which makes the usable protein to cats 30-32%, plus the high fat and high carbs.
This is the problem: the article is horribly, painfully shoddy and sloppy. It's referencing only limited FDA data, from mid-2019, so there's absolutely nothing new here. Other than the story from the woman whose dog, sadly, died. There's also only one vet source; there's nobody from the FDA. It's a really poor excuse for news and journalism.There really needs to be more investigation and research.
Just meat and vitamins wouldn't be complete. You also need organs, bones, or a source of calcium, and essential minerals.Feed a homemade nutritionally adequate diet of just meat and vitamins, and you're set.