Here is a very helpful post that my sister made on another message board about pet foods

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What cats DON'T need in their diet!

By-Products

Cats need meat! When you go to the grocery store next time, read some of the ingredients labels on their cat foods. Most of the foods have by-products in them. By-products are bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans.

Wheat, Soy, Corn and Peanut Hulls!

Cereal and grain products replace a considerable proportion of the meat in cat food. Corn is a much cheaper energy source than meat. The availability of nutrients in these products is dependent upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of carbohydrate in cat food determines the amount of nutrient value the animal actually gets. Cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Almost all of the nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used for filler or fiber, and have no significant nutritional value.

Animal and Poultry fat

Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick up this used grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies and other end users.

Additives and Preservatives

Many chemicals are added to commercial cat foods to improve the taste, stability, characteristics, or appearance of the food. Additives provide no nutritional value. Additives include emulsifiers to prevent water and fat from separating, antioxidants to prevent fat from turning rancid, and artificial colors and flavors to make the product more attractive to consumers and more palatable to their companion animals. Synthetic preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For these antioxidants, there is little information documenting their toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic use in pet foods that may be eaten every day for the life of the animal.

Additives in Processed Cat Foods

Anticaking agents
Lubricants
Antimicrobial agents
Nonnutritive sweeteners
Antioxidants
Nutritive sweeteners
Coloring agents
Oxidizing and reducing agents
Curing agents
pH control agents
Drying agents
Processing aids
Emulsifiers
Sequestrants
Firming agents
Solvents, vehicles
Flavor enhancers
Stabilizers, thickeners
Flavoring agents
Surface active agents
Flour treating agents
Surface finishing agents
Formulation aids
Synergists
Humectants
Texturizers
Leavening agents

Animal protein

It can include diseased meat, road kill, contaminated material from slaughterhouses, fecal matter, rendered cats and dogs and poultry feathers. The major source of animal protein comes from dead-stock removal operations that supply so-called "4-D" animals-dead, diseased, dying or disabled-to "receiving plants" for hide, fat and meat removal. The meat (after being doused with charcoal and marked "unfit for human consumption") may then be sold for pet food.

Rendering plants process decomposing animal carcasses, large road kill and euthanized dogs and cats into a dry protein product that is sold to the pet food industry. One small plant in Quebec, Ontario, renders 10 tons (22,000 pounds) of dogs and cats per week. The Quebec Ministry of Agriculture states that "the fur is not removed from dogs and cats" and that "dead animals are cooked together with viscera, bones and fat at 115° C (235° F) for 20 minutes".

There are so much more things in cat foods that should'nt be there! I feed my cats the world's best cat food. Solid Gold has none of the above things in it. It is all natural and my cats love it!

Here are the benifits my cats get from Solid Gold

- Less shedding

- Fewer hairballs

- Feces don't stink

- More energy

- Shinier coat

- Cleaner teeth

- Grown muscle mass

- They eat less

- And most of all, they the taste!

I believe that if you truly your cats, which I know all of you do, they deserve a healthier diet. It costs less in the long run. If I were to buy a 15 pound bag of Friskies, it would last me 2 weeks. I buy a 15 pound bag of Solid Gold and it lasts me a month. Your roughly spending the same amount of money when you switch to a premium cat food.