Dry Food Suggestions

[Vega's Dad]

Actually now that I've studied the ingredients more, I think Nature's Variety Ultimate protein looks like a plant-based food. It has "chicken" as the one and only meat protein. Fresh chicken is about 80% water, and once it goes though the cooking process the actual amount of protein it offers is significantly less. All the ingredients listed after it are all plant proteins. Ground flaxseed is a plant based source of fiber that contains about 19% protein, tomato pomace is a food filler,
Another ingredient is whey protein concentrate. Whey is a by-product of the cheese industry. This particular type of whey is high in protein (80%) and moderate in the milk sugar, lactose (10%).

Concentrates of this nature can notably boost the total protein reported on the label — a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this cat food.
The fact that is contains no meat concentrates and lists all of those plant based high protein fillers makes me question if it is a meat based food.

The Earthborn on the other hand only lists meat concentrates and lists 5 of them. Chicken meal, turkey meal, herring meal, salmon meal, and whitefish meal. Chicken meal contains 300% more protein than fresh chicken. And it lists all those other high protein meat concentrates as opposed to fresh meat.

Peas contain about 25% protein. Potato are a source of carbs but do not offer much protein or nutritional value other than calories. And it also lists ground flaxseed a source of fiber and 19% protein.

Even when you consider the protein boosting effect of the peas, the fact that it lists so many meat concentrates leads me to believe that it is a meat-based food.

If you want to go with Natures Variety, I would look at some of the kibble and raw boost options.

Chicken is the only meat protein is probably because chicken IS the only meat protein it did mention 95% of protein from real chicken, which reflects the dry weight IMO.
I may need to double check but "meal" means rendered if my memory serves.

 

[MeganLLB]

But that 95% is measured by weight. That chicken is 80% water and after it cooks there really isn't much protein. That's why they can claim that it is 95% protein from chicken because fresh chicken weighs more than the other ingredients, and so it also is listed first. But after it goes through the cooking process, it contains very little.
"Meal" means that it doesn't contain any water. It's just the meat, just the protein, no water. So you know if it says meal that is where the bulk of your protein is, because there is no water added, it is purely the protein.


So that 95% protein from chicken is misleading, due to the weight that the water adds.

 

[MeganLLB]

Looking For A High Protein Dog Food? These 5 Label Rules Will Help - Dogs Naturally Magazine

This website explains how it works, and uses Natures Variety as an example. It probably does have a lot of chicken in it, but not as much as you may think it does.

 

[orange&white]

Cooking chicken actually concentrates the protein, so it would have more protein dry weigh than when it's fresh and wet. They also note that they tumble their kibble with crushed freeze-dried raw chicken.

They would not be able to make the claim that 95% of the protein comes from chicken if it weren't so.

Nice little marketing twist...2nd ingredient is tapioca. Tapioca is the "glue" that holds the kibble together and has 0% protein...it's 100% carbohydrate calories.

 

[maryah]

According to this chart -- Dry Food Comparison Chart | Zero Carb and Grain Free Cat Food -- Nature's Variety ranks very high among the high-protein, low-carb dry cat foods. They show 47% protein, which is close to the highest, Young Again, at 52%. There are so many different ways of calculating percentages, it can become very confusing.

 

[Vega's Dad]

Looking For A High Protein Dog Food? These 5 Label Rules Will Help - Dogs Naturally Magazine

This website explains how it works, and uses Natures Variety as an example. It probably does have a lot of chicken in it, but not as much as you may think it does.

Thanks for sharing, although I do have different opinion on how to intemperate 95%.
Here is the link of aafco 95% rule:
Reading Labels
Based on the rule, if the product was called Nature's Variety Chicken cat food, it should have 95% of chicken, the named ingredient, by weight. It is not. The statement is "95% of protein from real chicken". It has 47% of crude protein, so, it has 44.65% of chicken protein.

As for meal, here is the link of aafco's definition. All meals are rendered:
The Association of American Feed Control Officials > Consumers > What is in Pet Food

 

[Lalka]

meal is ground up meat that has been carefully dried to a moisture level of 10%. The protein content is 65% and the fat level is 12%. Regular meat contains about 70% water with 18% protein and 5% fat.

 

[orange&white]

Meat meals are rendered. Not sure the definition of rendering is as important as what "substance" is being rendered. Expensive foods should be rendering fresh, high-quality muscle meats (though that is not a requirement); cheap foods are rendering skin, heads, feet, feathers (and possibly road kill from all sorts of critters, unless the animal is specified - like "chicken meal" or "beef meal"). Not sure it matters how "carefully" they dehydrate it. Generally, only the worst quality meats and inedible body parts not fit for human consumption get sent to be rendered.

Essentially, kibble is rendered product. I'm more comfortable if the pet food manufacturer buys fresh meat so they can inspect it before rendering kibble out of it. They have more control over the ingredients. Otherwise, they just receive barrels of dry powder and have to trust that "chicken meal" is what the meal processor promised.

 

[Vega's Dad]

meal is ground up meat that has been carefully dried to a moisture level of 10%. The protein content is 65% and the fat level is 12%. Regular meat contains about 70% water with 18% protein and 5% fat.

Hi Lalka, would you provide your references, as my info source says differently?
According to AAFCO, there are 5 types of meals, meat meal, meat and bone meal, animal by-product meal, poultry by-product meal and poultry meal. All are defined as rendered. Also note that the word meat here doesn't mean muscle meat but mammal tissue, to differ from poultry.
Ref: The Association of American Feed Control Officials > Consumers > What is in Pet Food

About Rendering, it's the process of using heat to separate fat from protein. Personally, I would avoid food with rendered products, meals.
According to National Renders Association,
"Rendering is the process of taking animal products that people choose not to eat or can’t eat (such as the bones, fat, blood, grocery scraps, used restaurant grease, some internal organs, etc.) and recycling them into high-quality fat and protein products"
"Animal products not used as food for people are ground so they are uniform in size and then heated to a time and temperature combination necessary to thoroughly cook the material. Fat separates from the protein naturally due to the heat, is centrifuged, and ready for use. Protein is ground again to make a consistent protein meal."
Ref: FAQs | About | National Renderers Association
According to Canadian Food Inspection Agency
"Edible rendering is the heat treatment of edible animal tissues to extract fats and oils"
Ref: Edible Rendering - Chapter 4 - Meat Processing Controls and Procedures - Food - Canadian Food Inspection Agency

 

[Vega's Dad]

cheap foods are rendering skin, heads, feet, feathers (and possibly road kill from all sorts of critters, unless the animal is specified - like "chicken meal" or "beef meal").

Feathers and hairs are not included, according to AAFCO (The Association of American Feed Control Officials > Consumers > What is in Pet Food), and roadkill and euthanized pets are not going to rendered products, according to NRA (FAQs | About | National Renderers Association) IF the regulations are enforced...

 

[orange&white]

Yes, between NRA, AAFCO, FDA and state legislators, the foxes are watching the henhouse as far as enforcement. As long as the meat is essentially "sterilized" to kill anything that would kill a cat, then I'm not sure any of the people in control are thoroughly inspecting rendering plants.

 

[MeganLLB]

But when you get meals in a kibble you are getting more protein. Using fresh chicken is a cheap way for pet suppliers to list and mark their products as having chicken (or beef or whatever) in it when in reality there is very little. Ingredients are measured by weight, and since chicken alone is mostly water, it is heavy and it therefore listed first on an ingredient list. However once it is cooked, the actual amount of protein is very little. Meals don't get weighed like that because it is already dry, so if a meal is listed first, you know that that is actually most of the protein because it already has very little water, and wasn't bumped up to the top because of the water.

Pet food suppliers actually pump MORE water into their chicken to weigh it down so they can claim there is more chicken than whats rreally there. They do that in grocery stores too. They pump it full of water or chicken broth and the chicken breasts look huge, but that's not all meat, its just liquid. So you are really getting less of what they claim.

 

[MeganLLB]

Meat Meal — The Mysterious Meat Concentrate Most People Know Little (or Nothing) About

Dog Food Advisor is currently making a Cat Food Advisor website, and here they explain rendering and how whole chicken actually has very little protein compared to chicken meal. You can get quality meal. If it has a named protein and it is a reputable company there is no reason to think that it is a low quality meat. And the biggest thing is you get more protein from the actual meat. 4 times at much in meals.

And even when they purchase whole chicken, or whole beef, from a meat supplier, it is still the inedible kind of meat. Pet suppliers never buy edible meat for pet food. Edible meat is what is used for human consumption. They purchase what is marked "inedible" regardless of whether it is rendered or not. So I'd rather look for anything that says "meal" because then you know that you are getting a lot of protein. I never buy anything that just has chicken because they just pump it full of water, and you don't hardly get any protein from it.

 

[orange&white]

Nature’s Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein appears to be a high quality food (except the starchy tapioca). They can take a ton of fresh chicken and still have it contribute 95% of the protein in the food, even if the dried chicken ends up weighing less than the combined total weight of the tapioca and ground flaxseed. No other ingredient in the list appears to be of any significant quantity than those first three ingredients.


We know that tapioca has zero protein and flax seed is minimal protein, with a lot of fat and fiber. The only apparent source of high protein is the chicken. So, speaking specifically of Nature’s Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein, it would appear that using fresh chicken instead of chicken meal can still result in one of the top five “meat protein” products out there. Looks like a good food, and I would buy it before buying something with chicken meal (if I fed any kibble).

 

[MeganLLB]

The only apparent source of high protein is the chicken. So, speaking specifically of Nature’s Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein, it would appear that using fresh chicken instead of chicken meal can still result in one of the top five “meat protein” products out there. Looks like a good food, and I would buy it before buying something with chicken meal (if I fed any kibble).

Whey protein concentrate is extremely high in protein. like 80% protein. So that's the other source of high protein.

But even still, why do our pets have to eat such high quality meat any way? What would you have people do with the waste of livestock and euthanized pets and roadkill? You can't just throw it into a landfill. Why not recycle it and make animal food out of it? That's the kind of stuff animals eat in the wild. Animals come and eat the dead carcasses of dear on the side of the road. If a mountain lion or a wolf were to hunt, they go after the weakest or sickest one because that's the easiest prey, they don't aim for the healthiest one. And after the process of rendering, they cook it for so long at such a high temperature that it would kill anything harmful.

Pet food didn't come around until the 60's and before that dogs ate table scraps and cats hunted on their own and ate what was left over from our food. -Basically they ate our garbage. Animals aren't people. There's nothing wrong with an animal eating our left over meats. There is absolutely no need for them to eat organic whole chicken breast, just so we can feel better about ourselves and pay 4x's as much for a bag of food.

 

[orange&white]

I agree with you there. My cats eat fresh meat/bones/organs for less than 50 cents a day. Chopping into bite sized pieces is the only processing. There is no need to feed a highly-processed diet which is only "complete" because they essentially put a multi-vitamin in every bag or can so that the ingredients they killed with high heat processing won't kill the pet. At the end of the day, you're mostly paying for vitamins with most pet feed products.

The expensive brands do appear to have some redeeming nutritional value in the actual "food" ingredients by using high quality meat proteins that cats should be able to digest. Even the quality brands have to add too many supplements for my taste. I can't afford the brands that I would feed in an emergency. I don't like kibble for pets or similar highly processed foods for humans. Food technology has allowed us a great deal of convenience, at the additional expense of our health.

 

[Vega's Dad]

What would you have people do with the waste of livestock and euthanized pets and roadkill? You can't just throw it into a landfill. Why not recycle it and make animal food out of it?

Raw feeders are probably the best to understand biologically proper cat food and they feed mostly muscle meat, followed by organ and meat. That's the ratio I'd like to see in commercial cat food.
Waste of livestock, aka by-products, is ok to feed as long as the first ingredient is muscle meat.
Euthanized pets and roadkill are not in pet food, if regulations are enforced. If they were, I would definitely not ask my pest to volunteer to recycle it for the uncertainty of the quality. I'd break the circle of life and do eco-un-friendly things for my pets' good.
Rendered products may not be a big issue in dry food as it is highly processed anyway. It only matter of being rendered once or twice. I use Orijen dry food as treats thus avoid rendered meals simply because, once is still better than twice

 

[himawari]

Vega's Dad Orijen has rendered products? All their protein or just the one you are feeding? Sorry I'm new but I feed the Cat & Kitten..and that's bad?

 

[Vega's Dad]

Vega's Dad Orijen has rendered products? All their protein or just the one you are feeding? Sorry I'm new but I feed the Cat & Kitten..and that's bad?

No, no rendered products (aka meals) according to their ingredients. I'm in Canada and Orijen is my favorite dry. I have a bag of cat and kitten.