Cassava Roots in Dry Cat Food... Good or Bad?

GeoDjay

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Hello everyone!

For the past month, I've been feeding my cats dry food that has cassava roots (presumably as a binder) in it, and I'm starting not to feel particularly okay with it since according to some sources it can lead to the production of small amounts of cyanide which the cat will chronically suffer from. I haven't found actual scientific papers that tested this ingredient's safety with varying amounts in pet food though. Sources state that small amounts and good preparation of cassava roots should be safe, but I believe the only way to be sure of this is to contact the brand itself and blindly trust its answer. I'm wondering if I should switch my cats to a different food to avoid any risk altogether. Has anyone experienced any issues with their cats that are/were on a cassava root containing diet?
 

Babypaws

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I don’t know about the cassava in their food but if you don’t feel comfortabl I’d switch. Guess I’m gonna have to check my cats food now....:(
 
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GeoDjay

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I came to the realization that choosing the right cat food for one's cat can be really tricky and involves a life long process. I guess the most important thing is that the cat feels well and is always in healthy shape.
 

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I came to the realization that choosing the right cat food for one's cat can be really tricky and involves a life long process. I guess the most important thing is that the cat feels well and is always in healthy shape.

:yeah:

If a raw or home cooked diet are not options, then you just have to choose the best quality food your cat will eat and you can afford. This means choosing foods that have lesser "problematic" ingredients. Some people choose to feed foods that don't contain pea starches. Others set no gums as their criteria.

There's a chart you can use to find foods that might meet a certain criteria: Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients
 
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GeoDjay

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I don’t know about the cassava in their food but if you don’t feel comfortabl I’d switch. Guess I’m gonna have to check my cats food now....:(
I agree that being uncomfortable warrants considering to switch. I think there will always be certain ingredients that you'll be iffy about in processed food. It is up to us to decide how much "iffiness" we are willing to tolerate. Did your cat food turn out to be okay?
 

Caspers Human

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Cassava can contain cyanide if it is not fully cooked but that isn’t a problem in commercially made product.

The real problem with cassava is that it is virtually all starch and contains little nutrition. Even in counties where cassava is eaten as a staple, it is only a subsistence food.

I wouldn’t say that it is “bad” for your cat but it isn‘t particularly good.

If you don’t like the ingredients in your cat’s food, go ahead and try another brand with better ingredients.
 
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GeoDjay

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Thanks for the reply.
Cassava can contain cyanide if it is not fully cooked but that isn’t a problem in commercially made product.
Well this lessens my worrying.
The real problem with cassava is that it is virtually all starch and contains little nutrition.
It's really hard to find affordable cat food that doesn't contain these types of ingredients. The farther they are the in the ingredient list, the better.
 

Caspers Human

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Just for now, find a good, national brand of food and switch to that. Then, after you have had a chance to do some homework, you can switch to a better choice.

You're obviously not comfortable with the brand you've got, now. Probably best, just for peace of mind, to switch away from it. Then, when the pressure is off and you have had a chance to make a decision at your own pace, you can go for your "final answer."

For more than fifty years, ever since I was a kid, all of the dogs and cats I have ever had were fed Purina Cat Chow or Dog Chow. My father bred dozens of dogs for hunting. The mother dogs, the puppies and all the other dogs were fed Purina. I have had five or six cats, depending on whether you count roommate's cats, and they have all been fed Purina.

Never, not once, has any of those dogs or cats had any trouble that was related to the food they ate.

Casper eats Purina Cat Chow. He's perfectly well. (With a caveat which we can discuss later but it's not directly related to the food he eats.)

Certainly, there are better foods out there. Purina is a middle-of-the-road brand. It's like Hershey's chocolate or Maxwell House coffee. They are not gourmet foods but neither were they meant to be. They are decent products, made to be sold at reasonable prices that make them accessible to anybody who wants to buy them.

I have no problem suggesting Purina Cat Chow as a "stand-by" food when you can't find or can't other things or can't afford something more expensive. You can switch your cats away from that cassava root food and get them used to eating Cat Chow. (or whatever else you choose.) Then, when you decide on another food, you can go to that.

I also read that you are concerned about your budget and the availability of premium brands. You should, certainly, buy the best food you can afford or obtain. If you can switch to a "stand-by" food that your cats will eat, you've got a backup plan in case you don't have the money to buy something else or if the store runs out.

This way, I think you can get all your bases covered. :D
 
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GeoDjay

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Thank you for the suggestion; I will consider Purina Cat Chow. I really agree with the stand by option, and I already started thinking about few options. It will be cat food hunting time in the meantime!
 

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Just a side story:

Casper was a rescued cat after being abandoned outdoors. The rescue group that brought him in lured him with Meow Mix cat food.
We all know that Meow Mix is basically junk food but, if it lures a cat in so it can be rescued, I guess that's okay.

The problem is that abandoned cats often develop food insecurity issues and, when they find a certain kind of food that is safe to eat, they tend to stick to it and become very picky.

When we adopted Casper, the rescue people gave us a bag of Meow Mix to take home so he would have something familiar to eat. As it turned out, he wouldn't eat anything else... Food insecurity. :dunno:

It took us a long time to find a food that Casper would eat. We told our vet about Casper's story and she's the one who told us about abandoned cats developing food insecurity. We asked her what foods to try and she suggested Cat Chow. Since that is the brand that I always knew, I said, "Okay! Cat Chow, it is!" We did the old "mixing food together" trick, weaned him off Meow mix.

Now, Casper is a "Cat Chow Cat!" Chow! Chow Chow! ;) ;) ;)

 
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GeoDjay

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Thanks for sharing this lovely story. It's great that you found a cat food that's proving to be good for Casper and you feel comfortable with!
 

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I am not sure what a 'national brand', is but I don't agree with if it is a big well known company that makes it better, If that is the meaning.

For male cats in particular I would avoid dry food or use only on a limited basis.

There are lots of threads on budget friendly wet foods and some are made by bigger companies and some smaller. Purina tends to drop wheat gluten in their wet foods but at least it is more moisture rich than dry food.
I would look into home made raw, using a nutritional completer, it can be very budget friendly.
If not a mix of wet foods would be my suggestion.
 
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GeoDjay

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I am not sure what a 'national brand', is but I don't agree with if it is a big well known company that makes it better, If that is the meaning.

For male cats in particular I would avoid dry food or use only on a limited basis.

There are lots of threads on budget friendly wet foods and some are made by bigger companies and some smaller. Purina tends to drop wheat gluten in their wet foods but at least it is more moisture rich than dry food.
I would look into home made raw, using a nutritional completer, it can be very budget friendly.
If not a mix of wet foods would be my suggestion.
I'm considering switching to wet food in the future, but as for now my options are to feed dry.
 

Babypaws

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I agree that being uncomfortable warrants considering to switch. I think there will always be certain ingredients that you'll be iffy about in processed food. It is up to us to decide how much "iffiness" we are willing to tolerate. Did your cat food turn out to be okay?
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find a better wet cat food plus a good dry food for weight control....haven’t found anything decent yet...I decided not to buy good that says “chicken meal” or any other meat “meal” after finding out exactly what it is. Try Blue Buffalo dry weight control but cats didn’t like it. Friskies wet has been disappointing lately, they add more gravy now and less meat....hard to find their “filets”. Shredded food isn’t really sepa so I have to cut it up plus there’s more gravy than meat....
 
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GeoDjay

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I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find a better wet cat food plus a good dry food for weight control....haven’t found anything decent yet...I decided not to buy good that says “chicken meal” or any other meat “meal” after finding out exactly what it is. Try Blue Buffalo dry weight control but cats didn’t like it. Friskies wet has been disappointing lately, they add more gravy now and less meat....hard to find their “filets”. Shredded food isn’t really sepa so I have to cut it up plus there’s more gravy than meat....
If your cat is healthy, I think you have the luxury to take some time to find a good cat food. It's really hard to find "THE ONE" and even if I did, my cat would get bored of it in a matter of months or a year. I decided to pick few good brands and alternate so that my cat will remain on acceptable food without getting bored (this will also probably lessen my cats' exposure to questionable ingredients). I still plan to feed wet but availability and cost play a major role for the time being.
 
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