Sulfates In Dry Cat Food

[izakt]

I have feed my boy Purina's Cat Chow Naturals almost his whole life and he really loves the stuff. I recently wanted to try to switch to their, now, "Grain Free" version of the product. I went ahead and just bought it without much looking into it.

I was looking over the ingredients list and it has listed just "Sulfate" as its own ingredient. Not Copper Sulfate, etc, etc, its just says "Sulfate."

Should I be worried about this? What is "Sulfate" in cat food? Is it a general term used in order to hide something else?

I am not all up-and-up with the nutrition game, but sulfate in my tiny cat's body cannot be good... Just curious what it is?

Also, do you have an opinion about Grain Free diets? My boy is a long hair Maine Coon and he has a gorgeous coat. I hear it should be good for his coat and skin. Not 100% on the real benefits about it though, if there is much. I did a little searching online about it but it sounds very back-and-forth with opinions.

Thanks!

 

[cheesycats]

I would be more concerned with low carb high protein than grain free. Cat chow is not that. Neither is their grain free.
My four cats (including two Maine coon mixes) all had thicker softer coats, shed less, and poop less on a diet of dry, wet, and raw that were all low carb, high protein, high fat, grain free foods.
The cat chow grain free in unfortunately just as high carb as the corn filled non grain free. Male cats also should have some wet food included in their diet as a diet of dry alone with eventually lead to urinary problems.
Sulfate is usually behind a mineral. Like you said “copper sulfate” I’m not sure why it says just sulfate as I don’t think that’s a thing. I could be wrong but I couldn’t find anything that was just “sulfate” even in human vitamins. It’s always paired with calcium, zinc, etc. I would email purina and ask if you wish to continue feeding it. If they can’t tell you a reason I would switch brands. I’ve had a hard time getting purina to be up front and honest about certain things so I choose to not use any of their products, among other reasons.

 

[cheesycats]

Just gonna chime in again, I looked at the ingredient list of cat chow grain free on chewy and it doesn’t list just “sulfate” there is “Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate” I did not see just sulfate anywhere.