Got Cats? Purina Cat Chow Special Marked 16lb Bags $6.99 or less AC/AGC at PETSMART

PETsMART has a great deal on the:

Purina Cat Chow Complete or Indoor Formula 16lb bags.

On sale for $11.99 or $12.99 with club card depending on flavor, look for the specially marked bags have a $5 Pets Mart Gift Card inside the bag!

Plus if you have Manufacturer coupons, will be even less.

Appears to be all store locations have this stocked now.

Check and understand the ingredients, especially "animal digest" in regular Cat Chow.

This is just horrific stuff. It's crappy (literally!). Read and understand the ingredients.

Ingredient: Animal Digest. Means manure. Someone has collected the manure (intentionally or not) from another animal and put it in the pet food you are feeding your pet.

"A cooked-down broth made from specified, or worse, unspecified parts of specified or unspecified animals (depending on the type of digest used). If the source is unspecified (e.g. "Animal" or "Poultry", the animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_digest

Obviously, this "broth" can contain anything, including animal waste.

What's in cat food?

You'll find these listed on these bags, too: Poultry by-product meal and fish meal are very disturbing sources of meat for your cat (you'll find this in Science Diet Adult, Iams and other so-called "premium" brands, too). By-products are what is left of the chicken after the real meat is removed, and they typically include items like claws, beaks and even feathers.

Purina Cat Chow or Kitten Chow, any 3 lb.+ $1 (12-31-09) Vlassis Insert from 10/4/09

Since pet food is not regulated (it's a self-regulated industry, so that means zero regulation)... here are the others on the "Indoor" formula that may or may not be present.

corn meal (the main ingredient): completely undigestable with zero nutrition.

poultry by-product meal: may include but are not limited to: spines, feathers, feet, heads, dead animals and those declared unfit for human consumption due to disease and illness are also placed in the mix, pentobarbital, rancid restaurant grease, toxic chemicals and additives. By-products are often floor sweepings from a rendering plant. "Animal by-product" is rendered product from animal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices." Pet food labels contain the words "meal" or "byproduct" on the ingredient label. Inedible byproducts such as bone, fat, heads, hair, feet and condemned offal are used in commercial pet food. These materials are sent to a rendering plant for processing into pet food products.

gluten: Allergies and inability to digest. Wheat gluten was named as the reason for the recent Pet Food Recall.

grains (lots of grains in this!): undigestable and often harmful filler. Use of corn, wheat, or soy which cause skin irritation, hair loss, fever, ear infections, kidney failure, liver failure. dental disease, obesity, chronic digestive problems, bloat, heart disease, IBD, Cushings Syndrome, and hyperthyroidism.

When you have a cat die of kidney failure due to bad food, as I did (as I didn't know any better) you'll know why I object so strongly.

kind of hard to stock up if you have to open the bag to get the $5 card isn't it?????????

Garbage

scubasteve said: yes because we need the government to overlook EVERYTHING in order to make us safe. Can the government please hold my hand when I cross the street too?

I don't recall seeing anyone suggest government oversight or intervention was necessary here. I think the point was that consumers need to be aware of what they are feeding their pets.

I agree 100% with what jonnashville is saying - it's important for consumers and pet owners to understand the dietary needs of the animals under their care and do the appropriate research if they want the pets to be as healthy and happy as possible. If this means spending some time reading the label on what you buy and potentially spending a little extra time/money, so be it.

If you have a holistic pet food store in your city/town, stop in and ask some questions. It doesn't cost you anything except time to do some research, and your pets would thank you if they could.

Personally, I would never feed Purina to any of my pets. I do not look down on anyone who does but I do encourage friends/coworkers/random people on the street to take 15 minutes to read up on some of the big-brand alternatives.

peste386 said: I do appreciate your viewpoint, I just think that perhaps your source may have an agenda.

Thank you for stating this point. Sometimes people who are advocates for holistic/natural food forget two important points.

1) Holistic/natural/organic pet food is not artisan - it is made in huge batches like Purina/Hill's/Etc; these guys are out to make a buck too. Cardinal rule of being in business is to make money.
2) These food companies are regulated by the same "non-entity" as the Purina/Hill's/Etc... The organization is called AAFCO - not any different than most professional organizations which are also self-regulated. Who regulates dentists, lawyers, or accountants?

I don't mind people spending more money for this food, it may truly be a better food, but for most pets it's just not necessary. I feed my cats Purina, and spend the extra money on myself. Mmmmm, Bacon.

jonnashville said: Check and understand the ingredients, especially "animal digest" in regular Cat Chow.

This is just horrific stuff. It's crappy (literally!). Read and understand the ingredients.

Ingredient: Animal Digest. Means manure. Someone has collected the manure from another animal and put it in the pet food you are feeding your pet.

What's in cat food?

You'll find these listed on these bags, too: Poultry by-product meal and fish meal are very disturbing sources of meat for your cat (you'll find this in Science Diet Adult, Iams and other so-called "premium" brands, too). By-products are what is left of the chicken after the real meat is removed, and they typically includes items like claws, beaks and even feathers.

he is right. this is crap. just because one feeds their pets something for 12 years and they have not died from it, it doesn't mean it's ok. if you care about your pet's health, you wouldn't feed it to them.

billrubin said: This is on sale for $9.99 on Black Friday weekend (which would make it $4.99 or less AC/AGC). I think there is a $1 coupon in 10/4 RP.

BTW how easy is it to get to the gift card/coupon in the bag?

that depends Bill, sometimes it's right towards the top in a plastic thing. sometimes you have to dig.

What I do is pour it out into a large resealable tupperware container and find it that way.

thanks for the Black Friday info, will pick up some then too.

ALSO! my PETsMART accepts the $5/25 Petco coupon now in another hot deal thread. another way to make this deal hot if your PETsMART will take it. YMMV of course.