Why is the main ingredient in cat food corn?

Question

It seems that it would be healthier if they contained more meat products.

Answer 1

Because it's low-quality food. Your cat deserves better!

Cats are obligate carnivores and they can't even properly digest grains like corn; they lack the required enzymes. All they can do is turn it into body fat, then live off the fat as if they were starving. The introduction of cheap cat foods with high proportions of grain products has made it possible for cats to eat so poorly that they can be overweight and suffer from malnutrition at the same time!

Read this to learn everything you need about how to feed your cat a healthy, species-specific diet:

http://www.catinfo.org

Answer 2

Cats do not like the taste of corn and cat food contains more meat than dog food (or it should anyways!). Cats are carnivores and dogs are omnivores.

Yes, corn is a filler and if the cat food you use lists corn as the first ingredient, change cat foods. More filler means using the litter box more, so you're not saving any money! Choose a food with meat as the first ingredient.

Answer 3

If the main (in the first five ingredients) ingredient is corn, that cat food is crap. Corn is a filler in pet food, and not really necessary. They do need the corn gluten though, that's the only part that has nutrients. So if your cat's food has corn or ground corn, or corn meal, it doesn't really need it. A better cat food will have real animal meat as the main ingredients, such as beef or beef meal. Some of the better cat foods are Innova and Nutro, nutro being the less expensive and more widely available.

Answer 4

Probably b/c cats like the taste of corn in thier food. If it has alot of meat, it becomes a dog food.

Answer 5

only the poor quality pet foods have corn as a first ingredient or for that matter contain corn at all. the premium quality foods that our pets should be eating has meat,not meal, not corn, MEAT as a first ingredient. the good foods do not contain those nasty by products either. Some of the best brands include: California Natural, Solid Gold, Innova, Merrick and Wellness. Check them out and do your cat's health a favor and switch to a good one.
An example:
California Natural
Chicken and Rice Canned
California Natural cat food is manufactured by Natura Pet Products, based in California, also the manufacturer of Innova. The manufacturer claims to use only human grade ingredients, but there is no AAFCO standard yet for that definition.
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken Broth, Herring, Egg, Ground Brown Rice, Sunflower Oil, Flaxseed, Guar Gum, Vitamins and Minerals.
California Natural


Chicken and Rice Dry Cat Food
California Natural cat food is manufactured by Natura Pet Products, based in California, also the manufacturer of Innova. The manufacturer claims to use only human grade ingredients, but there is no AAFCO standard yet for that definition.
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Chicken Fat, Sunflower Oil, Flaxseed, Vitamins and Minerals.

Also a word about the AAFCO so called testing:
AAFCO's "Required testing" of pet foods

The ad reads: "Our pet foods are made following AAFCO guidelines and must pass stringent testing." This sounds good, until we take a close look at the AAFCO test guidelines. "The Testing Protocols For Providing An Unqualified Representation of Nutritional Adequacy For A Dog Or Cat Food" are spelled out in the book, Official Publication, 1994, Association of American Feed Control Officials Incorporated.

For adult maintenance dog food to pass the AAFCO test:

8 dogs older than 1 yr. must start the test.
At start all dogs must be normal weight & health.
A blood test is to be taken from each dog at the start and finish of the test.
For 6 months, the dogs used must only eat the food being tested.
The dogs finishing the test must not lose more than 15% of their body weight.
During the test, none of the dogs used are to die or be removed becasue of nutritional causes.
6 of the 8 dogs starting must finish the test.
That's all there is to it.


The AAFCO protocols for adult maintenance dog food listed in the book, Official Publication, 1994, Association of American Feed Control Officials Incorporated, do not require different breeds to be tested, nor do they exclude any of the larger breeds which are still puppies (nutritionally) when they are 1 to 2 years old. Their protocols require blood tests which screen only four different blood values: RBC number, hemoglobin, packed cell volume and serum albumin. The average veterinary "basic blood profile" screens over twenty-five blood values.

There are many pet food ads making the claim that a food has passed "stringent testing as required by AAFCO." But AAFCO's "stringent" test protocols wouldn't even meet the criteria to have their results published in most accredited scientific journals. Compare the above number of animals used to the numbers used in some of the tests cited in the U. S. Government's National Research Council book, Nutrient Requirements of Dogs. There are tests cited in the NRC's book which used 500 to 600 test animals which were tested for years before their results were published.

The AAFCO book lists the same type of "stringent" testing protocols for maintenance cat foods, puppy foods, kitten foods, and the gestation/lactation pet foods.

Buyer beware . . . you may be buying a pet food advertised as being a nutritionally adequate diet for all dogs because it passed "stringent" AAFCO testing ... when only six to eight dogs ate that food for 6 months and survived with no more than an "acceptable" 15% loss of body weight.
This article was written by The Animal Advocate

Answer 6

All of the ingredients on the can are listed in order of their quantity. So the first ingredient would be the main one

Answer 7

it's used as a filler yes,look for meat or fish listed first or at least 2nd to feed your cat,that goes for dog food as well.

Answer 8

Probably because it is cheap filler. I don't get it either.

Answer 9

Poop