How to read your cat's food ingredient label
When determining the quality of a pet food, there are two main factors involved:
• ingredients - which is what is in the food. The amount of each ingredient is important but this information is usually not available on the label.
• composition – which is the percentage of calories that come from protein, fat, and carbohydrate sources.
Unless you are dealing with an allergy to a specific ingredient, the composition of a diet is generally more important than the ingredients as long as you pay attention to where the protein is coming from (i.e.- animals versus plants). The composition of a feline diet is important because cats are designed to eat a high protein (~50% of calories, or more), moderate fat (~40% of calories or less), and very low carbohydrate (1-2% of calories) diet.
When looking at the ingredient list on a label, it is very important to keep in mind that the label tells us nothing about the amount of each ingredient. This is where the issue of composition helps us out. For instance, if you see species-inappropriate, ingredients such as rice, potatoes, peas, broccoli, blueberries, etc., on the label, you know that the amount of these inappropriate items must not be very high if the carbohydrate level is low. On the other hand, if we are dealing with a known allergy to any ingredient, we do not want that ingredient to be present in any amount so that is where the ingredient label does provide value.
Important point: Do not fall for labels that state “95% meat.” Why? Because “meat” can simply be high-fat meat trimmings. The word “meat” includes fat as well as protein so “meat” does not necessarily mean “high protein.” Keep in mind that lean meats go to the human market and the high-fat meat trimmings are routed to the pet food market.
Grains and potatoes should be absent from a cat’s diet but, unfortunately, they are cheap so they are included in many commercial cat foods. Grains/potatoes are cheaper than meat.
Soy contains phytoestrogens and soy also negatively influences the thyroid gland. Given how common hyperthyroidism is in the cat, soy should not be present in cat food. Unfortunately, soy is still a common ingredient used by many pet food manufacturers.
By-products is a controversial subject but it makes much more sense to feed animal-based by-products to a cat than it does to feed grains or potatoes. By-products are not necessarily low quality protein sources. In fact, they can be extremely nutritious. However, there is more variability when quality is being considered when compared to muscle meat.
Look out for muscle meat listed as the first ingredient. A muscle meat will be listed as “chicken,” or “turkey,” etc., not “chicken by-products” or “chicken by-product meal,” or “chicken broth” or “liver”.
“Chicken meal” is technically a muscle meat but the term “meal” denotes that it has been rendered (cooked for a long time at very high temperatures) and is lower in quality than meat that has not been as heavily processed. A “meal” product is more commonly found in dry foods. By-products can include feet, intestines, feathers, egg shells, etc., which are less nutritious (less biologically valuable/digestible) than meat.
Avoid foods listing “liver” as a first ingredient. Don’t get us wrong, liver is a very nutritious organ meat – and should be present in small amounts – but it should never be the first ingredient as it is very high in vitamin A and possibly D and you wouldn’t want to feed your cat too much of those.
Preservatives are important ingredients that we need to pay attention to. BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are extremely questionable in terms of safety. Also, please take note of ingredient word “maize” as a substitute for the word “corn”. Maize IS corn and some might disguise the corn in their diets by calling it “maize”.
“Prescription diet” is another label that is certainly not indicative of a high quality diet or one that is necessary. These diets represent an area of the commercial cat food industry that is very misleading. Many of these prescription diets contain corn, wheat, and soy which are not necessary in your cat’s diet. These diets are often very high in carbohydrates and, of course, all of the dry versions are water-depleted. Many of them also contain by-products as the main – and often only – source of protein. While by-products can be very nutritious, they are cheaper than muscle meat so one would think that as much as these diets cost, the companies could include some muscle meat, in addition to by-products, for a more consistent source of high quality protein.
Lastly, we certainly do not recommend any products manufactured by companies that exhibit a lack of total transparency with respect to basic nutrient information.