Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Mendione Free Food?

[patti511]

My 4 cats have been eating Instinct rabbit, and Tiki chicken. It’s been brought to my attention that Tiki started adding mendione to their food. Is there a high quality, toxic-ingredient free canned food out there?? I’m starting to lose hope.

 

[Neo_23]

Nature’s Variety, Ziwipeak, Feline Natural, Rawz, Hound and Gatos. All are free of these ingredients you listed.

 

[Furballsmom]

Blackwood, redbarn, addiction, earthborn, now fresh, lotus just juicy, fromm gold are some more

 

[LTS3]

See these threads for suggestions on gum-free foods:

Canned food without Carrageenan or Guar Gum?
Grain- & carrageenan-free foods
What are your favorite carrageenan/grain-free wet foods to feed to your cats?

You'll have to check to see if the foods have mendione in them.

 

[patti511]

Earth born has guar gum :-(

Blackwood, redbarn, addiction, earthborn, now fresh, lotus just juicy, fromm gold are some more

 

[Neo_23]

Addiction has carrageenan doesn't it?

 

[Furballsmom]

Some of Addiction does, looks like my resource for safe foods is out of date, dang it.

 

[Neo_23]

Some of Addiction does, looks like my resource for safe foods is out of date, dang it.

Still good options for the OP to consider.

Honestly I don't think guar gum is that horrible if it's fed in rotation with other foods. I wouldn't feed a canned food with guar gum as a main meal all the time, but once in a while as part of a rotation is fine and it's a source of soluble fiber that might help some cats prone to constipation.

 

[Neo_23]

By the way, I might add just one more thing to your list of things to avoid in canned foods ... BPA. I don't think it gets mentioned enough to be honest. I know there's already a million things we need to look out for in canned foods, but BPA has been linked to many diseases and its impact is typically much worse in pet foods than human foods because pet food manufacturers typically cook canned food inside of the can. When the can heats up the BPA is more likely to leak into the food and research has found that dogs eating canned food with BPA for only a week had high levels of it in their blood.

I stopped feeding a brand that I really liked and was a big advocate of, Rawz, for their use of BPA.

 

[Furballsmom]

This is a really good point, that BPA is bad, thanks!

 

[duckpond]

There are so many different things to be aware of, it can be a bit overwhelming. i have read several things lately about coconut oil and olive oil. Basically how a cats liver cannot process them, and they end up causing liver damage. This knocks out several other foods, at least for me

 

[nelliecat00]

My 4 cats have been eating Instinct rabbit, and Tiki chicken. It’s been brought to my attention that Tiki started adding mendione to their food. Is there a high quality, toxic-ingredient free canned food out there?? I’m starting to lose hope.

TY patti511 for posting that about the ingredient mendione I was unaware of that one and just got 2 new kitties 8 months old don't want to lose another one our 17 year old just died of intestinal cancer and was unaware she had it didn't show up until now and must of had it for the past 6 months.

 

[nelliecat00]

There are so many different things to be aware of, it can be a bit overwhelming. i have read several things lately about coconut oil and olive oil. Basically how a cats liver cannot process them, and they end up causing liver damage. This knocks out several other foods, at least for me

Sold Gold brand would be one of them coconut oil is one of the ingredients that they use their sales person however when it came into Petco was the guy who educated me on the carrageenan which I didn't know nothing about but did have an argument one time with a friend of mine who manages a natural pet food store and he told me I had my cat's on junk food prior to that you know the commercial Foods nine lives and such so my friend was right I was wrong I'm learning through experience and research

 

[patti511]

Let me correct the spelling.... it’s menadione, not mendione. It’s synthetic vitamin k. I’ll getting a 5th kitty today and I’m on the search for an affordable food without all the crap. It’s so difficult, I’ve been up all night researching :-(

 

[lisahe]

Honestly I don't think guar gum is that horrible if it's fed in rotation with other foods. I wouldn't feed a canned food with guar gum as a main meal all the time, but once in a while as part of a rotation is fine and it's a source of soluble fiber that might help some cats prone to constipation.

I agree on guar gum and, really, on the other gums, too. Then again, we only feed one canned meal a day so our cats aren't getting that much. I still avoid carrageenan (other than a very occasional can of Nutro Natural Choice duck, which the cats love) though I do feed a can of Fancy Feast Classic (which has menadione, though I stay away from FF with sodium nitrite, who needs that!?) every week or two because the cats love that, too. I just try to spread out the ingredients I'd rather do without but always stick with high protein and low carbs.

And BPA, yes, that's probably worse than a lot of the ingredients we try so hard to avoid! Thank you for mentioning Rawz, Neo_23. I still feed it (though the cats haven't been thrilled about it lately) and didn't know their cans have BPA. It's been a while since I've done a BPA check, I'll have to get on it!

One other food for your list, patti511 , might be Koha's duck stew. Our cats love it and it's cheaper than a lot of Koha's other foods ($1.69 or $1.79 at my local stores) plus it doesn't have chickpeas. The Koha food is a lot like Bravo's fricassees, which our cats also loved but which I stopped feeding because they have agar-agar, which I just don't trust.

 

[patti511]

Omg. RAWZ have BPA cans?? Is there ANYTHING % PERFECT??
I’m getting so frustrated!!!!!

 

[Tobermory]

I stopped feeding a brand that I really liked and was a big advocate of, Rawz, for their use of BPA.

Neo_23 where did you learn about Rawz and BPA? I make the cats’ food now, but I was feeding Rawz before I switched and still keep some on hand in case I need it

 

[Furballsmom]

Hello - Since my earlier posts above I caught up with the weird fact that some varieties of some brands will have different additives than others of the same brand, such as the Addiction that was mentioned, so as mentioned reading the ingredient lists is important.
Here are a couple websites, the first one's last update is Nov 2017, but it's still a decent starting point...
Pet Food Guide
CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

 

[nelliecat00]

Omg. RAWZ have BPA cans?? Is there ANYTHING % PERFECT??
I’m getting so frustrated!!!!!

You and me both patti511 someone at a local pet store up the island from me yesterday tried to sell me RAWZ I pulled out my phone and showed her everything we all been talking about on here she works their and hadn't had a clue but pointed out the RAWZ which I passed on I settled for halo in another store and trust me I went through every brand they had in the store I narrowed it down to Canidae and Halo Health Extension's good too but Guar Gums in it however Health Extension cleared him up my one cat's IBS and or food allergies he had all his life he's 10 I started hm on Merrick limited ingredient until he got tired of it and switched him over to Health Extension and Canidae Limited Ingredient.It took awhile but I got it right finally.

 

[Timmer]

My personal opinion is that guar gum is better than carageenan and I don't think it would be too bad once in awhile. If the ingredient is way down the list, even better.