# Sheba Canned Food?



## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

So, I was at Target and I saw some Sheba food, and the ingredients looked okay so I picked a few cans up. Here are the ingredients for the chicken and beef pate in natural juices:

Beef, Meat Broth, Meat By-Products, Poultry By-Products, Beef Liver, Chicken, Minerals (Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Copper Sulfate), Natural Flavor, Guar Gum, Added Color, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Fish Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Vitamin E Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex [Source of Vitamin K Activity]), DL-Methionine, Salt, Taurine.

Here are the ingredients for the chicken entree in gravy:

Chicken Broth, Chicken, Meat By-Products, Chicken Liver, Natural Flavor, Starch, Added Color, Fish Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Minerals (Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Copper Sulfate),Tetra Potassium Pyrophosphate, Salt, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Vitamin E Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex [Source of Vitamin K Activity]), Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Xanthan Gum, Taurine, DL-Methionine.

The only ingredients I didn't really like are Starch and Added Color. Other than that it seems like a decent food. I'd be feeding it in rotation with commercial raw and other canned foods. Am I wrong that this is a good food? I searched for information about Sheba on this site, but only found info about the tubs. These are the little 3oz cans. Is it okay to feed my cats this?


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## Mar (Jun 22, 2013)

by products are really bad for cats! it's the stuff that humans cannot eat and they stuff it in cat food. i would NOT reccomend this food. i feed my cat blue buffalo wet food that has no by products, even if it is high in cholesterol. i think wellness would be a better wet food brand.

and meat isn't even the first ingredient! the broth is!


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

I can't afford to buy high end food all the time, and wellness has had so many recalls on both their wet and dry food, it causes concern for me. I've been reading that by-products in wet food is not as big of a deal as it is in dry food, and that they're FAR better than the many grains and vegetables in other foods.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

I use Wellness and have not seen any recent recalls on their canned food anyway. 

I know by products are not the best choice, but I know some people who can't afford the expensive stuff and I don't think it's bad to feed the cheaper stuff if you can't afford the better stuff. Many people are happy with fancy feast, the pate style or classic style ones and same with friskies. My sister's cat lived 18 years on friskies canned. And her 10 year old cat eats fancy feast with no issues. I have a feral that eats fancy feast too, she loves it. For some reason, and I don't know why, I like friskies and fancy feast better than meow mix and sheba. I don't know why.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

In addition, cats traditionally eat meat "by products" that humans wouldn't. I feed them commercial raw which include heart, lung, bone, beat, etc. Those are all things that we wouldn't eat, but cats do in the wild.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

NullEntropy said:


> In addition, cats traditionally eat meat "by products" that humans wouldn't. I feed them commercial raw which include heart, lung, bone, beat, etc. Those are all things that we wouldn't eat, but cats do in the wild.


You are right. And if you read Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health, dr. Lisa Pierson even says that maybe by products are not a bad thing, for this reason. It's not the by products so much that concern me, it's more of the coloring and stuff that goes into those foods like Sheba to make it look palatable and like people food that I dn't like.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

howsefrau32 said:


> I use Wellness and have not seen any recent recalls on their canned food anyway.
> 
> I know by products are not the best choice, but I know some people who can't afford the expensive stuff and I don't think it's bad to feed the cheaper stuff if you can't afford the better stuff. Many people are happy with fancy feast, the pate style or classic style ones and same with friskies. My sister's cat lived 18 years on friskies canned. And her 10 year old cat eats fancy feast with no issues. I have a feral that eats fancy feast too, she loves it. For some reason, and I don't know why, I like friskies and fancy feast better than meow mix and sheba. I don't know why.


If you read the ingredients in Friskies, you'd never buy it again. Corn Gluten, Wheat Gluten, other grains. *shudder* at the very least, Sheba doesn't have any grains in it at all. I've considered the FF pate, as that is often recommended as a less-expensive grocery brand. I do feed high-end brands like Tiki Cat, Evo, Merrick, and Nature's Variety Instinct. I also feed Stella & Chewy's dehydrated raw, Nature's Variety frozen raw, Bravo Raw, and RadCat raw. So this would not at all be their sole diet. It would just be in the wet rotation.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

howsefrau32 said:


> You are right. And if you read Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health, dr. Lisa Pierson even says that maybe by products are not a bad thing, for this reason. It's not the by products so much that concern me, it's more of the coloring and stuff that goes into those foods like Sheba to make it look palatable and like people food that I dn't like.


Yeah, I'm not thrilled about the added coloring. :???: However, it wouldn't (by any means) be a sole diet. It's not THAT bad, is it?


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

I don't like that it says 'meat by products' and 'poultry by products'. What kind of 'meat' and what kind of 'poultry'. That leaves it open for them to use any crap (read roadkill and euthanized pets) that they can stuff into a can.


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## Mar (Jun 22, 2013)

mowmow said:


> i don't like that it says 'meat by products' and 'poultry by products'. What kind of 'meat' and what kind of 'poultry'. That leaves it open for them to use any crap (read roadkill and euthanized pets) that they can stuff into a can.


euthanized pets?! That's where the poor dead shelter animals go to? Cat food?! Ddddd:


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## Zilla (Oct 29, 2012)

Anyone trying to stay on a budget needs to take a look at Evangers Chicken Licken 13 oz cans. They come out to only ten cents an ounce..... That's cheaper than friskies!!! They are by product free AND grain free.... 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

Mar said:


> euthanized pets?! That's where the poor dead shelter animals go to? Cat food?! Ddddd:


Not to minimize how disgusting it is, but the process isn't that direct.

YUCKY THINGS AHEAD WARNING:
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.
.
.
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When animals are euthanized,the ones that aren't cremated are usually taken to a "rendering plant", along with road kill animals (sometimes), dirty grease from restaurants, livestock or bits of livestock that aren't fit for human consumption, etc. At this plant, all this stuff is "rendered" - ie cooked and broken down into a variety of fats, meals, and byproducts for use in lots of industries. Some tallows and fats get used in soap or candles, crayons and lubricants, and, yes, some gets turned into bone meal or meat byproduct for use in pet foods or livestock feed.

The link between euthanized pets and pet food comes from an older FDA study, where the chemical pentobarbital (sp?) was found in trace amounts in pet food (dog food, iirc). This drug is _only_ used in the euthanization of pets and horses. 

You can connect the dots from there.


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## howsefrau32 (Mar 6, 2013)

I thought that the pet foods that used the stuff that is made from euthanized pets had to list it as having animal digest in it? And that the animal digest was in the lowest of low foods out there, and many cheap cat treats to make them enticing. I'm about to be sick now thinking about it, that it's actually in all of those cheap foods even if it does not say animal digest on the ingredients. Ugh. That is troubling to me. My feral cat will only eat fancy feast, and no other food


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

Just to correct some facts here, Pentobarbital is occasionally used to execute human inmates as well. In the US, Sodium Thiopental is much more common, but barbituates are sometimes used. In addition, Pentobarbital isn't ONLY a euthanasia drug. It's part of a family called barbituates which are commonly used to treat anxiety and depression. Yes, while it is used to euthanize animals, one could also draw the line that human remains are in pet food. I still think it's better to feed small (in relation to muscle, bone, and other meats they get) portions of meat by-products than corn, wheat, and soy. I plan on contacting Sheba to get some real answers about their particular by-products.


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

^ Well, except that we have laws against rendering human remains for ANY commercial product. Those laws don't exist for animals, and animal shelters are a listed source of the animal waste that goes to the plants. FWIW, I've never heard of pentobarbitol being used to treat anxiety or depression in pets, either, but I'm no expert on that point. BUT, whether the drug's used to euthanize or as a treatment, you still have the underlying question of "how did it get in the pot in the first place", right?

So, while trace amounts of the drug in pet food can _plausibly_ (routinely) be the result of rendered companion animals and horses, the same can't be said for human remains.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

Jacq said:


> ^ Well, except that we have laws against rendering human remains for ANY commercial product. Those laws don't exist for animals, and animal shelters are a listed source of the animal waste that goes to the plants. FWIW, I've never heard of pentobarbitol being used to treat anxiety or depression in pets, either, but I'm no expert on that point. BUT, whether the drug's used to euthanize or as a treatment, you still have the underlying question of "how did it get in the pot in the first place", right?
> 
> So, while trace amounts of the drug in pet food can _plausibly_ (routinely) be the result of rendered companion animals and horses, the same can't be said for human remains.


We also have laws against the government spying on the citizens without a warrant.  Just saying. However, yes. There is a concern with dead pets being introduced into the food supply. However, afaik there hasn't been a known issue of prion disease in pets caused by pet food. That, imo, would be the most alarming possibility.


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

I honestly don't believe there's an actual danger of mad cat disease from it or anything. But there's the "ick factor" to consider.

As my partner gleefully pointed out, the mafia could be throwing a body or two in there every year.


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## Mar (Jun 22, 2013)

it's just so sad that the fate of unadopted animals is to feed more unadopted animals...


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

While it's possible that euthanized dogs and cats end up in a rendering pot, the thing to recognize is that the products of the rendering pot that end up in pet food are "meat & bone *meal*", "meat by product *meal*", "poultry by-product* meal*", "animal digest" and "animal fat". The Sheba products listed do not contain any of these ingredients, specifically "meals".

But....the question is whether the meat ingredients Sheba uses are USDA approved. If they are not, then they are using human food rejects aka 4D aniamls (dead, dying diseased and disabled). That means a chicken that was DOA at the slaughter house goes into Sheba, the cow that when slaughtered was found to have a big cancerous tumor in it's belly goes into Sheba etc. My main source for which foods use USDA ingredients and which use "pet quality" aka USDA rejects was the Petsumer Report but I haven't renewed my subscription. I seem to remember that they are using pet quality, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

AdoptAnAngel said:


> NullEntropy, how much did you pay for the Sheba?


I believe they were $.50 per can, and the cans are 3oz. I do try and buy the 12oz cans of Evo, but my store was sold out.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

Another thing is, since wet food doesn't contained rendered animal parts, there's really no concern about dead pets being in wet food.


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

NullEntropy said:


> Another thing is, since wet food doesn't contained rendered animal parts, there's really no concern about dead pets being in wet food.


Who told you that? They were lying. 

*Meat and Bone Meal*—a dry rendered product from mammal tissues made from slaughterhouse waste and other dead animals not suitable for human consumption. It often contains 50% protein, 35% ash, 8-12% fat, and 4-7% moisture. It includes bone, but does not include blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

*Meat Meal*—a rendered product from mammal tissues unfit for human consumption. It does not include blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. 

*Bone Meal*—a rendered product unfit for human consumption (steamed) dried & ground product sterilized by cooking un-decomposed bones with steam under pressure. Grease, gelatin and meat fiber may or may not be removed. 
*
Animal Fat*—the greasy debris left over after rendering, deemed inedible for humans. It is obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative." ​ 
*Tallow*—animal fats with a titer above 40 degrees Celsius. Tallow is classified by regulators as inedible to humans. Where the fat comes from is not specified so it could be any of or a combination of the sources taken in and processed by the rendering plant including the dead, destroyed, dying, disabled and diseased.
​ *Animal digest*—a rendered product material of cooked-down broth made from unspecified body parts from unspecified animals unfit for human consumption. It is the results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and un-decomposed animal tissue. Materials treated with heat, enzymes and/or acids to form concentrated natural flavors. 

*Digest*—a rendered product material of cooked-down broth made from unspecified body parts from unspecified animals unfit for human consumption. It is the results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and un-decomposed animal tissue. Materials treated with heat, enzymes and/or acids to form concentrated natural flavors. ​ Digest is a flavoring, not a meat. For example only a small amount of a "chicken digest" is needed to produce a "chicken flavored cat food," even though no actual chicken is added to the food. Digest is unfit for human consumption.
​ *Poultry by-product meal*—a dry rendered product of slaughtered poultry consisting of things deemed not fit for human consumption (no muscle meat included), which can include heads, beaks, necks, intestines, undeveloped eggs, viscera, free from fecal content and foreign matter (except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices), but does not include feathers (except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices).​

From here: Rendered products in dog food - What's your dog really eating?


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## Jacq (May 17, 2012)

Sorry, I shouldn't have been rude at the beginning of my last post. I tried to change it to "Where did you find this information? I'd be interested to see something official to that effect." But I missed the window.

Sorry.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

Sorry, I meant to say since THIS wet food doesn't contained rendered products then it's not an issue.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

In general don't have a problem with by-products, but the two examples you listed do have them: Meat Broth, Meat By-Products, Poultry By-Products. The Chicken one has less than the beef.

My main concern with these tins is that you'd need to buy so many of them (this bothers me in an environmental way ), and _usually_ the smaller the tin the more you're paying for the amount, although that isn't the case here. 30 cents is super cheap even for the cheap foods... that's 10 cents an oz. Just so you know, I can buy a Friskies tin of similar quality for 1.05 or less when on sale, that's 13 oz; 8 cents an oz. In the USA I bet they can be found even cheaper.


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## NullEntropy (Jun 6, 2013)

WOW $1.05 for Friskies?! For that, I can get much better foods. I'm just trying to minimize my costs, and this has better ingredients than other supermarket brands I've seen.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

I don't really understand your logic here... that's 1.05 for 13 oz. The Sheba you'd be buying is only 3 oz. As I mentioned, the Friskies works out to 8 cents per oz, less than the Sheba... and in Canada cat food is more expensive in general, so as I said you may find it even cheaper where you live.


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## Mar (Jun 22, 2013)

i have to agree with carmel. 1.05 is reasonable for 13 ounces, while .65 is too expensive for just 3 ounces. 13/3 is about 4 ounces, which means you pay 2.60 for 13 ounces if you were to buy the .65 cent option. that's more expensive.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

NullEntropy said:


> Sorry, I meant to say since THIS wet food doesn't contained rendered products then it's not an issue.


True, but they can still be human food rejects.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Hmm, I'm not sure why I was thinking the Sheba was 30 cents for 3 oz, you clearly said 50 cents. Not a good deal at all, 17 cents an oz.


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