Contaminated cat food is nothing new. Regular recalls of commercial cat food are made, unbeknownst to the general public. The product is just quietly removed from the shelves.

When you consider how commercial cat food is made, it’s rather surprising that more is not contaminated.

In most cases, waste food is used which has already passed its use-by date. In addition, good hygiene practices are almost entirely absent in the processing.

This may be shocking to some, unbelievable to others, who put their trust in a brand name. The thing to remember is that humanity at large don’t think animals matter. That you can throw anything at them and they will be fine.

Of course, animals can’t complain either or sue.

So all the manufacturers have to do is to brainwash the public. And they do a very good job of that, with their pretty packets and reassuring words. Good psychologists know only too well how people tick. It’s always used in marketing to a greater or lesser degree. 

Cats are fussy eaters for a very good reason. Their natural diet is very fresh and they avoid anything that isn’t.

However, food chemistry is a growing industry, where chemicals are used to mimic, preserve, alter or create food. It’s been going on for a while, but is reaching new heights today. Just look at the synthetic human food now available.

Cats can be a good bit smarter than humans. They will eat the first part of a freshly opened can, but refuse the rest. That’s because the food changes after exposure to the air. The chemical reaction fades, exposing the problem food to the cat.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the food is contaminated enough to cause an acute reaction. But is will lead to a chronic issue.

Cats are not quite so smart with the dry kibble as the chemicals used on this are designed to last indefinitely even when exposed to the air. 

The first sign can be refusal of the food, if your cat is smart and a really fussy eater. Trying to convince them to eat it can be counter productive and should be avoided. They know something you don’t.

Appreciate their fussiness is trying to tell you something. Something important that they don’t have the verbal capacity to convey.

Just try to put yourself in their shoes. Your guardian is feeding you junk food and all you want is fresh fruit and salads. You wouldn’t starve yourself, but you would complain.

The next sign of contaminated cat food, if they have eaten it, is vomiting and/or diarrhoea.

Cats are great vomiters when they have ingested something their body finds offensive or destructive. They may stimulate this by eating a few blades of grass.

When they can catch this early enough, before much digestion has occurred, that may be enough to rid themselves of the problem. The healthier cats can normally do this all by themselves as long as it doesn’t continue.

This means we have to be vigilant and good observers as well as being able to see a problem in the making.

In less healthy cats or cats who did manage to digest some of the contaminated food, while vomiting may still occur, diarrhoea also sets it. The body wants to purge itself as quickly as possible.

Prescribing anti-nausea and appetite stimulants is not respectful and is likely to make a bad problem worse, as the cause has not been addressed. Neither does it consider the wisdom of the body.

If the food was just stale, rotten or contaminated with a pathogen such as salmonella, that may be the extent of the symptoms. Depending on the health of your cats’s immune system, the reaction may be over in 12 to 24 hours or last many months, never fully getting over the issue.

The cats in the former example wouldn’t need any extra help, those in the latter would.

Contaminated cat food can take on a more sinister aspect as it did in 2004 and 2007 when it was found that melamine was an ingredient in many commercial cat foods.

Melamine is added to commercial cat food as a cheap protein alternative. Melamine is a poison. The list of signs and symptoms include:

• anorexia (refusing food)
• vomiting
• lethargy
• polyuria (too much urine as the body tries to eliminate the poison)
• azotemia (nitrogen waste not being eliminated through urine)
• uremia (elevated urea in the blood)
• hyperphosphatemia (elevated levels of phosphorus in the blood)
• bladder crystals
• damage to renal tubules
• kidney failure
• inflammation
• fibrosis (damage to the lungs). 

It seems uremias was the main cause of death to many thousands of cats in those years. 

This is so simple. You make your own. And you make it from human grade meat.

While there may be the odd recall of contaminated meat for human consumption, it’s very rare, and it’s isolated to the single local farmer, slaughter house or packer.

As long as you purchase meat, not a processed meat product, you’ll never have to worry about cheap protein alternatives such as melamine.

Learn how to make your own cat food which is balanced, nourishing, economical and leads to a vibrantly healthy cat who needs no vet.