| Unless you have become increasingly concerned | | | | isolation |
| about the health of your cat, in particular the quality | | | | 7. to ensure the cat 'food' has a long shelf life (which |
| of her food, you could be forgiven for wondering | | | | is in everyone's interest except your cat's), |
| what on earth wellness cat food is. | | | | preservatives MUST be added (the manufacturer |
| Year by year we see more and more distressing | | | | may not have added them, but they will have been |
| media reports that pets are dying in their droves | | | | added somewhere along the line) and these are |
| from one commercial pet food or another. One brand | | | | typically preservatives that would never be allowed in |
| may be using melamine as a filler in their cat food. | | | | human food, due to their high toxicity |
| Another brand may be having trouble keeping their | | | | Horrifying as the above may be, you don't need to |
| commercial premises free from salmonella. | | | | go searching to find a brand of wellness cat food |
| There are as many problems with all commercial pet | | | | that doesn't have any of the above. I'm sure some |
| food as there are brand names. | | | | are emerging from the murk, but even these you |
| Lets have a look at some of them: | | | | may find difficult to be 100% sure they are |
| | | | consistent. We all have bad days, when we can't get |
| 1. a filler is something all brands use to bulk out the | | | | the ingredients we want. What happens then? Are |
| meat (by-products) to increase their profit | | | | their ethics compromised in order not to let their |
| 2. all brands use cheap meat (by-products), as the | | | | customers down? What happens if the business is |
| expensive cuts go for human consumption | | | | sold? Will the new owner or manager have the same |
| 3. the quality of the meat (by-products) varies with | | | | high standards? |
| different brands, but many contain hair, hooves, | | | | To have consistently high value wellness cat food, it's |
| beaks, entrails (and contents), laboratory animals | | | | best to start from scratch yourself. |
| (who may be highly toxic from new drug tests), | | | | I hear you cry "I don't know how", "how do I ensure |
| euthanised pets (including toxic flea collars, tags, etc), | | | | it's balanced?", "it sounds too complicated", "I don't |
| zoo animals and horses (still containing the lethal | | | | have the time", "it sounds expensive", my cat won't |
| chemical), road kill, dead or diseased farm animals | | | | eat anything except one brand". |
| 4. cheap meat (by-products) have a very high fat | | | | Wellness cat food means going back to nature. It |
| content, as there is little human market for fat | | | | means working out what wild cats eat (who are |
| 5. the food is cooked for a prolonged time period at | | | | naturally healthy and disease free). It means taking a |
| high temperatures - cooking kills off enzymes and | | | | bit of time to work through your perceptions about |
| vitamins and can chemically alter food | | | | what you think the best wellness cat food is. Don't |
| 6. to try to address this imbalance of nutrients, | | | | forget you've been programmed (another word could |
| synthetic nutrients are added later, which are difficult | | | | be brainwashed) by those who benefit by spreading |
| to digest and have limited use as they are all in | | | | this mis-information. |