About Catological

What does a baby elephant, roadkill, diseased livestock, and euthanized pets have in common?

They’ve all found their way into commercial cat food.

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

Not only is this absolutely disgusting, but it’s an example of the deceptive, immoral, and cheap practices all too common in the commercial cat food industry.

In 2018, we embarked on our Cat Food Database project.

The point was to gather data from 2000+ cat foods and rate them on things like:

  • Is meat the first ingredient?
  • Do they use unnamed meat ingredients?
  • Is the protein level above average compared to the rest of the market?
  • Does it contain a lot of low-quality or controversial ingredients?

When we started, we just wanted to give cat parents a non-biased set of data that they could use to make the best choice for their cat.

A truly useful tool, since most cat food reviews we found online were just copies of the manufacturer’s marketing material.

Not very helpful.

But as we got deeper and deeper into the foods, the manufacturers, and the ingredients, it got hard to stomach what we were learning.

Recently, after rating a particular food very poorly, we stumbled upon industry data showing the top 10 pet food companies by revenue.

Not only was this particular food we’d just rated from a brand in the top 3, but each of the top 6 companies were making BILLIONS of dollars selling (mostly) garbage food.

This little piece of data was the nail in the coffin for us.

Doing so much research convinced us a long time ago that the best food for a cat was as close to an “ancestral” or “wild” diet as possible. That meant mostly proteins (including organ meat), no carbs, and no fillers or dangerous preservatives.

It’s what they eat in the wild. It’s what they evolved on. It’s what they still choose to eat when given the choice.

Each time we had to rate a food poorly, it was disappointing.

But until we saw the HUGE amounts of money some of the worst offenders were making, it was just kind of upsetting, since we knew there were actually some great options out there – even if they were few and far between.

Now, seeing just how much they’re making off of these biologically inappropriate cat foods…

It’s beyond upsetting.

It means SO MANY poor cats are being fed foods that are not good for them.

We’re here to help you make sure you never get tricked by their marketing mumbo jumbo again.

Your cat is part of your family. We get that.

It’s what we believe, too.

And last time I checked, we don’t feed members of our family foods that could be hurting them.

You treat them with the same respect you treat yourself.

  • Eating mostly natural foods.
  • Being environmentally conscious with the products they use.
  • Giving them the best while still choosing something convenient enough that you can stick to it and fit it into your busy life.

And people like us don’t just stand by when their fellow cat parents are continually buying foods that are making their cats sick and shortening their lifespans.

We want to help educate cat parents on:

  1. Why feeding the right food is so important in the first place
  2. The truth about the ingredients in commercial pet foods
  3. How to choose the best, natural, biologically appropriate products for their cat

So to us, it’s kind of a 3 step process, as outlined above.

We want to help people know why they should care.

Then we want to help them see the consequences of not caring by outlining the low quality ingredients that are prevalent in most foods.

Finally, we want to help source the trusted, expert information you need to make the best decision for you and your cat.

It all started with cat food, but that’s just the start.

We all know that there’s a lot more than food that goes into raising a healthy, happy kitty.

The best environmentally friendly cat litter that won’t break the bank.

The safest products to use when transporting your cat.

The information you need on potential illnesses, remedies, common questions, training, and how-to’s…all backed by reputable sources and studies.

We’re people who care about doing the right thing for our cat, even if it means taking extra time to find the truth in a world dominated by marketing tricks and low-quality options.

We want to help reach enough cat parents that in 10 years, that list of Top Pet Food Companies by Revenue is made up of conscious, caring companies who create fresh, natural, and biologically appropriate food for our furry family members.

What Now?

We’re almost LIVE with our two huge projects.

Our HUGE Cat Food Database, and our Cat Food Ingredient Wiki.

We’ll let you know when we go live with them, but you can experience some of our findings by checking out our Best Cat Food Page.

Where Have We Been Featured?

Catological has been featured in:

HGTV

Reader’s Digest

SPCA Singapore

Vet Professionals

Meowingtons

Petsafe

And hundreds of other publications.

What We Are Not

We are not a veterinary service and none of the information on this site should replace or be used in lieu of a licensed veterinarian.

While we make every attempt to provide you with the best information possible, each cat and situation are unique. The best way to take care of your cat is to have regular veterinary checkups and adhere to the advice of licensed professionals.

Who Are We?

Emily Parker – Content Manager

Emily’s got two black cats – Gus and Louis. Gus only has one eye, but that’s part of the reason she adopted him!

She’s been with Catological since the beginning, bringing life to the ideas and information that she and Curt have found along the way to help cat parents love their kitties better.

Emily spent too long not really paying attention to what was in the food she fed her cats.

As soon as she learned what was really in most commercial cat food, she switched things up immediately!

The shock of just how bad many of these foods are kicked her butt into gear and now she’s super motivated to help more people discover the truth and find a biologically appropriate food for their kitty!

 

Dr. Alison Pickering BVSc MVSc (Dist) – Veterinary Contributor

alison pickering

Dr Alison is a Kiwi veterinarian with over 20 years experience working with companion animals.
She has a special interest in working with cats, and is an advocate of the Cat Friendly Clinic initiative; making vet visits less stressful and providing excellence in the care of our feline patients.

She has taught at the Massey University Vet School (NZ), and has also volunteered for several Pacific Island Animal charities, providing veterinary care and supplies to animals in need.

We’re very grateful for the expertise and clear writing style that Dr. Alison brings to Catological.com to convey important health information in easy-to-understand articles.

Website

Dr. Michelle Burch – Veterinary Contributor And Advisor

Michelle is a veterinarian with over 10 years experience working both in animal hospitals and in clinics as a general practitioner. She is passionate about maintaining good cat health through preventative care and proper diet. Michelle currently has two cats of her own that she has bottle-fed and raised since they were kittens.

She recently started her own telemedicine practice on MomentMD.com and supports her clients, providing education and recommendations to meet each pet’s specific needs.

We are extremely thankful for the expertise, care, and thought Dr. Burch puts into making Catological a better resource for our readers.

Chantelle Fowler – Content Writer

Chantelle is a life-long cat owner and currently has four beautiful felines who live with her, her husband, and their 12-year-old daughter.

Dena, Belle, Odin, and Finnley are all unique in both appearance and behavior. They do share one thing in common, though — their love for their human. 

Chantelle has always had a unique connection with animals, much to the annoyance of her family members. She doesn’t know if it’s her comfy lap, the extra special pets she gives, or just the aura she carries with her, but cats always seem to choose her over other humans in the house (and she wouldn’t have it any other way)