From the SF Chronicle. This is all fine for dogs, but not for cats--read more at the bottom.
"Horizon Pet Nutrition is proud to introduce a breakthrough in the grain free diet revolution that has been underway for several years, with Pulsar, making a debut in N. America, at specialty pet food stores this month, offering consumers real affordability for superior grain free pet food nutrition.
Grain free nutrition was a new advent to commercially produced pet foods about 7 years ago. When introduced, it embraced the core idea that grains were not historically a prominent component of dogs and cats ancestral diets. By replacing traditional grains with other carbohydrate alternatives such as potato and tapioca, it was believed to have created a new balanced, highly digestible, protein enriched diet. Since then, consumers have truly embraced the concept.
With Horizon Pet Nutrition's launch of Legacy in 2006, they were the first to introduce peas and pea starch as an alternative to potato and tapioca to improve digestibility and reduce the glycemic index in a grain free diet for dogs. Since then, many of Horizon's competitors have followed with the inclusion of peas as a key carbohydrate alternative.
The cornerstone of Horizon Pet Nutrition's new line, Pulsar, introduces the incorporation of peas and lentils as the key carbohydrate and fiber source. The pulses, peas and lentils, provide an unmatched dietary source of low glycemic index carbohydrates, excellent antioxidant qualities and easily absorbed dietary fiber.
"Our philosophy (at Horizon Pet Nutrition) is to seek new combinations of exceptional ingredients to optimize pet nutrition and push the boundaries of dietary evolution," states Jeff English, Co-Founder of Horizon Pet Nutrition. "This is an evolution we expect the pet food industry will follow, as it provides a high-quality, low GI grain-free diet, at an unparalleled price in the market."
The really compelling aspect of Pulsar® is the price for consumers. Horizon Pet Nutrition is offering a high quality, innovative, grain free food at an unprecedented price point in specialty pet retail. The company has worked efficiently to peel away every ancillary cost in getting this food to market without ever compromising quality. Furthermore, Horizon has natural cost advantages given the manufacturing location in Saskatchewan. Since Horizon Pet Nutrition manufactures directly with state of the art equipment and source ingredients locally, they can ultimately produce the highest quality foods at the best possible prices. It's a distinct advantage that will be passed on to consumers.
All animal lovers can now learn more about this new line at Pulsar Pet Food.
About Horizon Pet Nutrition
All Horizon Pet Nutrition food retains and preserves the key elements found in fresh, raw ingredients through lower temperature cooking. Horizon Pet Nutrition products are high in antioxidants, rich in animal protein, low in fat and balanced with superior fiber sources, which equates to a low glycemic attributes. A low glycemic diet has true health benefits for animal companions. For more information on low glycemic index, please visit common sense health.
The Horizon Pet Nutrition team researches, develops, tests and manufactures all of its own products in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Saskatchewan - the heart of one of the highest quality Canadian agriculture districts."
To their credit, this food line (for now) is only for dogs, which is good--cats cannot process beta-carotene, and you'd be paying for food that only becomes cat-box filler and a major source of food allergies to boot. I've had this experience with two diabetic cats in the past, and am going through it now with two other cats.
Since I cannot find a decent, grain-free, as well as junk food-free dry cat food, I'm making my own wet food with ingredients I know they can process and use. Things like lentils, peas, tapioca, blueberries, cranberries, sweet potatoes, avocados, beet pulp, and the like are just as unusable to cats as by-products and meals are. They're meant to be a form of fiber, but how much money are you paying for that bag of useless fiber material, and how much actual nutrition are your animals getting for YOUR money?
It works for both animals and humans: the better nutrition you put in, the less you spend at the doctor or vet to correct it, and the less time/energy/litter you spend cleaning up after it.
The only good, quality dry foods available to animals, in my opinion, is prescription formulas, and they require a prescription, are costly, but do the job. The rest are merely bags of compressed floor sweepings--now with bits of pig food thrown in.
Sawdust is good fiber--would you feed it to your cat? If you're buying it from a grocery store, chances are you already are feeding sawdust.
"What about their teeth?" you ask--there are products available to put in the drinking water that will help to keep teeth clean after a visit to the dentist, as well as special treats, but hard, dry food every day for every meal isn't required, and all it does is produce dry food junkies. Yes, there IS such a thing--it's like human fast food and processed food junkies.
As far as these grain-free foods for cats go, not a one of them is worth the cost of the bag they put it in--it may be grain-free, but it isn't free from by-products, inappropriate starches of vegetable origin, inappropriate meals and flour, as well as glutens. It appears that they created one formula of food (for dogs), and are marketing it to practically all animals (possibly without benefit of animal nutritional research, and instead are relying on human nutritional research).
Dogs, like pigs, can eat just about anything. Cats are MUCH different.
If you want more poop in the catbox and less cat running around, go ahead and feed this crap--otherwise, make your own using Paleo principles minus the vegetation. You'll have less catbox mess, and healthier cat to thank you.
So what fiber source do cats get along with? Psyllium.
What do I feed my cats? Here's the original recipe (makes enough food for a week for 1 cat):
2 1/2 lbs. chicken meat (or mix of chicken and turkey--ground is easiest)
3 oz. chicken livers
4 oz. chicken hearts (can substitute 1 1000-mg. taurine capsule, opened)
2 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
2000-mg. equivalent of fish oil (caps, poked and squeezed, or spooned--cod liver oil works too)
1000 mg. equivalent of calcium carbonate (poked/squeezed softgels, crushed Tums, or 2T. NOW brand powdered)
2 T. psyllium
2 T. nutritional yeast
2 T. salt substitute (NuSalt is the least objectionable to my cats)
1 One-A-Day Max pill, peeled of coating and crushed (easier to do with a horiz. potato peeler)
2 cups filtered water or homemade broth w/o spices
Cook all meats in a deep pot--do not drain (I also break and cook the eggs in this pot). Pour all meat w/juice into a food processor, adding remaining ingredients except vitamin, and mixing until you no longer see large chunks of meat or egg white. Add water slowly, then blend into mix, until it's thin and uniform, then add peeled and crushed vitamin. Pour mix into medium bowl and refrigerate until solid. Mixture can then be broken up with a fork and served.
Since I feed my two plus about 6-7 strays, I make this recipe daily. I've used all varieties of meat/organs, and all work equally well. If your cat shows signs of allergies (unresolved scratching, biting, pulling out hair, red skin patches), switch to all lamb meats (organs can be gotten from Indian/Middle Eastern markets).
Besides the dry food horrors, this is why I continue to make my own cat food, even though the diabetic cats who inspired it are now dead--think Mad Cow Disease meets Soylent Green.
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