Last Updated on January 18, 2023 by ellen
Have you been wondering about cultured pet food? I heard this term recently and was curious about what it meant. Should I feed my pet cultured food? Here’s what I found out.
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Cultured Pet Food
Cultured pet food refers to food that is lab grown. It provides your pet with all of the vitamins and nutrition that they need in a 100% plant-friendly food.
Cultured meat refers to meat that is created in a lab rather than coming from an animal. Lab-grown meat is sustainable and can provide your pet with everything they need in pet food.
Why cultured pet food?
If our pets were living in the wild, they wouldn’t be eating cows and pigs which often make up traditional pet foods. And, our pets would be eating high quality, fresh meat which is often not what goes into pet food.
What’s in cultured pet food?
Lab-grown meat has the same protein that a dog or cat in the wild would be eating. There are no harmful steroids or any dangerous ingredients. Plus, it is better for the environment and reduces our reliance on factory farms.
And, for those that live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, it allows your pet to eat a diet that you can feel comfortable with.
Cell-based meat refers to meat that’s grown in a lab without raising or slaughtering any animals. The meat has the same nutritional value. The tissue is grown using serum from another animal.
Because Animals has perfected the technology to create cultured pet food without harming any animals in any way. They do not use the controversial Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) to do so.
Ingredients in cultured pet food
Many types of cultured pet foods contain beneficial strains of probiotics and nutritional yeast. These ingredients are good for your pet’s coat and their digestive system. The pet food also contains the lab-grown meat.
How do you grow cultured pet food?
Basically, you feed the cells proteins and nutrition from vitamins and minerals. The cells grow and divide until they become cultured meat.
As an example, Because Animals rescued three lab mice before they could be used in an experiment. A veterinarian took a tiny sample of skin from their ear while they were anesthetized. This sample was used as the basis for cultured pet food.
The mice now live in a fancy hutch and are cared for and loved by a new family. They will be healthy and happy for their entire natural life.
Is cultured meat safe?
It seems like every few months there is a story in the news about pet food contamination from ecoli or listeria. When you grow meat in a lab, there are no food safety concerns like this to deal with.
Clean meat is a safer alternative to some of the questionable practices seen in the pet food industry.
Where can I find this pet food?
Because this is a new technology, finding cultured pet food isn’t as easy as going to your local grocery store. Hopefully, it will be soon.
Right now, Because Animals has created a cat treat made from lab-grown mouse meat. This meat hasn’t harmed any animals at all. And, it contains exactly what your cat would be eating in the wild.
The treat isn’t available quite yet. But, they hope to have it available in early 2021.
In the meantime, Wild Earth and Wysong have a vegan high protein formula dry pet food that is made with plant-based ingredients that fulfills all your pet’s needs.
Related reading
Finally, if you enjoyed this article, you might like these.
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- Easy refrigerated meals for pets
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- Homemade carpet deodorizer
- How do snails eat?
Ellen runs a small pet sitting business in southern Vermont. She has experience with a variety of small animals, dogs and cats. She has also cared for ducks, chickens and rabbits. Combined, she has over 20 years of experience in pet care and pet sitting.