What's in your cats' food? How about potentially harmful bacteria and the toxic mold-related substance, mycotoxin?
That's what the labs found when they tested samples from six popular brands of cat and dog food for the Association for Truth in Pet Food's crowd-funded Pet Food Test.
The group chose foods randomly from the most popular brands. "We wanted to test more, but we didn't have the funds," pet food activist Susan Thixton said.
But the results from even the small group of food tested will most likely shock and dismay most cat caretakers.
Samples of Royal Canin Veterinary Diet LP canned cat food, Wellness Complete Health Chicken, Chicken Meal & Rice dry food, Meow Mix Tender Centers Salmon and Turkey flavors dry food, and Fancy Feast Grilled Chicken wet food all contained mycotoxins, although Fancy Feast contained less than the others. All contained harmful bacteria.
The study provides just a snapshot of pet food ingredients and doesn't necessarily indict an entire brand. "If one brand was tested, it does not mean that another variety within that brand or even another batch of the same brand will have the same issues," Thixton said. "Every batch can be different. The only thing we know for certain is on the foods we tested."
Still, the report is enough to give cat caretakers pause and confirm what some of us have suspected all along.
You can read the entire report on the Thixton's Truth About Pet Food website. There's a sample letter, too, to send to your state and federal lawmakers asking them to investigate the condition of the food your cats eat.