Ingredient Breakdown — Tricalcium Phosphate
It’s me, Coco. This week I have to tell you about something called tri-calcium phos-phate. Ugh, that’s a mouthful. It’s SUPER not interesting to me, but apparently it’s important, because otherwise I wouldn’t have to talk to you about it. *eyeroll* Whatever. Here we go…
Ingredient Breakdown — Tricalcium phosphate
What is it?
It’s a powder, and it’s made of calcium and phosphorus. Shocking, I know. If you wanna get super technical and you for some reason enjoy chemistry, you can read about how the phosphorus binds to the calcium because of the type of acid it is, and apparently not all acids are super scary and cause owies, and yeah… I’m a cat. I care about food, sunbeams, and food, and sometimes getting pettings. Chemistry is not my thing.
Why is it in pet food?
Okay, so I’m telling you this, but you have to *promise* not to tell anyone, or a horrible fate will befall you. *deep breath*
Sooo… I had a bunch of teeth removed, and I’ve got like four teeth left. Eating certain ingredients is *really* hard for me, and bone is one of those ingredients. It’s just not pretty when I try, and it’s super frustrating. (And if you tell anyone I told you that, so help me I will visit you in your sleep, and you are *not* gonna like what happens next.)
Some pet foods don’t have any bone in them. Only there’s stuff in bone that’s important for me, like, well, calcium. (And because my humans are jerks, they won’t give me cow’s milk even though it has calcium. Something about death farts…) Phosphorus is important, too, because it helps me pee and poop (gross!).
So cool, we need bone. Bone meal is a substitute that some companies use, but my humans don’t love it. I guess it’s kinda chunky, and well, yeah, we already talked about the whole teeth issue. And then it’s hard to tell where it comes from, and humans are real big on knowing where things come from. (I know where I came from — PetSmart.)
That means it’s tricalcium phosphate all the way.
What are its other uses?
Humans:
Humans use tricalcium phosphate for all sorts of things — toothpaste, baby powder (is that a powder made of babies? Humans are weird.), bones (obvy), and some other stuff I don’t care about.
And for humans who are vegan (WHY????), they can have it because it’s vegan (BUT WHY???).
Pets:
Didn’t I already explain why pets need it? Seriously, go back and reread the second section. Sheesh. *yawn*
Where is it sourced?
Lots of places. My humans get it from a company in Illinois, which is apparently where they used to live (but don’t ask them about it, because then they won’t shut up about the food from there).
Any issues with its use?
You gotta make sure you’re paying attention to how much tricalcium phosphate is in a cat food, because too much actually gives us kidney problems. And as a human who has to clean up after a superior species, you’re not going to like what kidney problems do to your house. Nor are you going to like the vet bills that accompany kidney problems.
Okay, so wow. I didn’t get to make any Dolly Parton jokes with this ingredient. Hopefully the next one I have to write about has more rhyming options.
*yawn*
Off to nap.
