# Goji berries



## molldee (May 19, 2013)

What does everyone think about goji berries in cat treats? There's this new brand called Head to Tails that came out with a line of new cat treats, like Calming, Hairball, Vitamin, Skin & Coat, and Hip & Joint. The common ingredient in their line is goji berries. Good? Bad? Thoughts?


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## Kytkattin (Oct 18, 2013)

Uhhhh..... Personally, not a fan at my first time hearing about them. Cats are obligate carnivores and berries, despite their often red juices, are not sometthing that cats can digest. That being said, it would be something I should research further before jumping to conclusions because obviously cats enjoy and benefit from cat grass, so maybe these berries have a similar effect? So I guess it is time to learn more about these goji berries and the supposed benefits they might have for my cat.


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## Kytkattin (Oct 18, 2013)

*Things that I have learned that I don't like so far:*

They often come from China and because of this they are often confiscated because of high levels of pesticides on them. Sometimes they aren't confiscated but later testing still shows pesticides. 

Any benefits they might claim to poses have not been proven through scientific testing. There are no peer-reviewed studies that show they do anything beneficial. These claims of wildly unsupported benefits actually made the FDA tell a couple of companies to knock it off and some companies are being sued.

They are still a fruit. Any benefits show in humans or even dogs will probably not show up in cats. This, of course, is just my speculation. But based on the fact that cats simply cannot digest this type of food means that it wouldn't be worth feeding them to my cat. Even if the fact that they have been processed and are in a treat makes them more digestible, I see nothing that leads me to believe there is more benefit feeding goji berries than a more cat appropriate treat since the above paragraph shows that there is no study that proves them to be particularly beneficial in even humans.



I chose to look at the ingredients of the Skin and Coat formula, as that is the only one I would consider feeding as my cat has no need for the others at this time. The ingredients are, as posted on their website:

_Oat flour, brewers dried yeast, oat meal, glycerin, natural duck flavor, safflower oil, arabic gum, soy lecithin, water, fish oil concentrate, maltodextrin, sodium alginate, calcium sulfate, coconut oil, goji berry powder, citrus pectin, vitamin E supplement, sorbic acid (a preservative), propionic acid (a preservative), mixed tocopherols
(a preservative)._

Right out of the gate I don't like them. Most of the ingredients are not digestible, and to make matters worse, the first ingredient on the list is oats! So personally, I wouldn't feed these. 
That being said, digestibility aside, I don't see anything particularly harmful. Obviously, based on the above problems with goji berries sometimes having pesticides, that might be something to look into as far as where they source them. Though in this particular formula, they are pretty far down the list so they probably are at low levels. It would be a good idea to look at where they source all of their ingredients really.


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## cat face (Apr 4, 2013)

"Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they MUST eat meat. The digestive system of a cat is not designed to _effectively_ digest vegetation, so they cannot get *all* of the nutrient they require from fruits and vegetables. Cats cannot be vegetarians!" *

But this doesn't mean that cats can't get some of the nutrient value from fruits and vegetables. A good example is cranberries, most natural high end cat foods put cranberries in their food to prevent UTIs. 

You'll have to research Goji berries and find out what it is that would be beneficial to the cat's system.

* taken from Fruits, Veggies, and Nuts That Cats CAN Eat! - PetFoodia.com


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## Kytkattin (Oct 18, 2013)

I know they can get some nutrients from non-meat foods, hence why I mentioned the cat grass. However, the concerns about the goji berries potentially having pesticides and the lack of any research supporting any claimed benefits they might have leads me to want to avoid them, or at least I see no reason to seek them out.

Plus, as someone who feeds raw, most of the items in the ingredients list, like oats, are just going to cause larger, stinkier poos for my cat. I'm going to avoid that at all costs, as part of the reason I feed the way I do is for the severely reduced litter box mess and smell. Plus, there is also the concern that since they are not highly digestible (even if they are digestible, they are not going to be as much as the raw meat is), they could get stuck in the digestive tract longer, mix with raw meat, and cause the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut. Obviously the above isn't a reason for kibble/wet feeders to avoid them. Though those that choose to feed grain free foods kind of nullify that point if they choose these treats.


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