Hello, I found this forum while searching to find out what was growing in my cat's food. They ate from it one day, but wouldn't go near it the next. When I took a closer look a couple of days later, I found this growing there. The can has been in the house and I'm wondering where this came from.
I don't know these organisms too well, but looks like a slime mold. Whatever, it grew from spores floating in the air of your house and it looks like it was releasing uncountable amounts of them into your house from those bead tipped stalks. No matter how you clean there will always be such spores. They are nearly everywhere. Of course, like perishable human food any leftover cat food will spoil and could be harmful to your pets. Only give them what they will consume within an hour or see how they do with dry food, which is not so perishable.
It is a species of Phycomyces, a fungus in the group called the Mucorales. There is more about it under the post at: Identification: - 4 inch long hair like fungus It is unclear how it got into the cat food. The cat may have picked up the spores outside (although it sounds like an indoor cat) and then they ended up in the food?
Thank you both for the information. The cats are both indoor/outdoor cats and I've been giving canned cat food (but mostly dry food) for years and have never seen this. Gross!!! :-)
