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Cats evolved from a desert-dwelling animal where small prey was abundant; vegetation and water were sparse.
As a result, a cat’s digestive system became very efficient at converting fat and protein into energy, but has difficulty processing carbohydrates.
In addition, cats are designed to obtain most of their water through their prey which typically consists of 75% water.
A Good Diet For a Good Health:
There is a strong and logical connection between the food cats eat and their long-term health, two common reasons for chronic health problems are diets too high in carbohydrates and too low in moisture.
Minimize Carbohydrates:
Dry foods may contain as much as 50% carbohydrates, and cats can’t efficiently process carbohydrates, they are stored as fat, this leads to obesity which can cause many health complications.
Need Moisture From Food:
WATER is vital to your cat’s health.
Dry foods only contain 10 percent water whereas canned foods contain approximately 78 percent water, a cat whose diet consists of mostly dry food will drink more water than a cat eating canned food, but in the end, when water from all sources is added together (what’s in their diet plus what they drink), the cat on dry food consumes approximately half the amount of water compared with a cat eating canned foods.
Since cats do not have a strong thirst drive compared to other mammals, it is critical that they get plenty of moisture from their food.
This is crucial when one considers the effects of chronic dehydration and how common kidney and bladder problems are in today’s cat.
What To Look For In Cat Food?
Wet/Canned Food:
The key in choosing a good type of food is to read the ingredients, avoid meat by-products, the more meat ingredients in the first few positions, the better the food.
Here’s a good example of an ingredient list from a high quality canned food: Turkey, chicken, liver, chicken, chicken broth…
Here’s one from a low quality product: Meat by-products, ocean fish, water, poultry by-products, fish broth…
Canned/wet food is often considered better for cats because it is closer to what they would eat in the wild than dry food.
Wet food has higher levels of protein and moisture, and lower levels of carbohydrates.
Where wet food keeps your cat hydrated, dry food dehydrates your cat.
Many vets now recommend always feeding wet food.
Dry Food:
The key to choosing a good quality food is to look for high quality protein ingredients as the first few ingredients listed on the label.
If the first ingredient is meat, turkey or chicken the label should say so.
Avoid foods with by-products listed in the first few ingredients, like “by-product” (un-rendered parts of an animal left over after slaughter) can include heads, feet, intestines, feathers, and egg shells.
Avoid foods that list grain—like corn, corn gluten meal, or rice—as any of the first few ingredients, the main ingredient in a cat’s diet should not be grain. Here’s an example of the ingredient list taken from the label of a high quality dry food: Turkey, chicken, chicken meal, herring meal… Versus a low quality food product: Ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, meat and bone meal…
