Is Dry Cat Food Healthy? Part Two
July 21, 2010 by Holly
Filed under Cat Food, Cat Health
Ok, I was thinking about dry cat food again the other day and whether it was a good idea to soak it and feed it to my 6 week old Highland Lynx kittens. How is it made? What kind of ingredients is my cat eating? Does it provide enough nutrition? It does not take long to find the processing that an average dry kibble goes through in this country. The following excerpts came from Wikipedia:
"Pellets of dry dog/cat food, called kibble in the US, are produced
by one of two methods, extrusion and baking. During the extrusion
process, cut dough or a mixture of raw materials is fed into an
expander, while pressurized steam or hot water is added. When
removed from the high pressure that results, the pellets
puff up like popcorn. The resultant kibble is allowed to
dry, then sprayed with vitamins, fats and oils, or any
other ingredients that are not heat-tolerant.
If extruded kibble is exposed to air for too long or not
properly stored, the fats and oils added after cooking
can become rancid, and vitamins and minerals in the food
may be destroyed by heat during storage or shipping"
Alright, I am already not a happy camper. Whatever life was in this nasty mass of refined carbohydrates (all wrong for an animal that needs mostly protein) is cooked out and synthetic nutrients are added back in to replace the real ones that were lost in the processing. Then you add a few toxic artificial colors and flavors and chemical preservatives and the stuff will last for months and months. And I have not yet even gotten into the standard ingredient list of dry cat food.
As you can see must question CONVENTIONAL wisdom about what is healthy for our cats and dogs if we want them to live a long healthy life.
