Healthy Diets for Cats

There is so much information around about what foods cats should be eating., and there is so much variety!

Cats are an obligate carnivore. What this means is that they have to eat meat to meet their nutrient requirements.

They just can’t get all of their nutrient requirements out of plant matter. The only way a vegan or vegetarian diet will meet these needs is with significant supplementation.

Cats have a high protein requirement, and need minimal, to no carbohydrate.

A well balanced, and complete homemade raw diet is the best diet to be feeding your cat, but this is not always suitable, or achievable for some cat owners. An unbalanced and incomplete homemade diet can be just as problematic as processed commercial foods.

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have to eat meat to fulfil their nutrient requirements

Taurine is an essential amino acid for cats.

One of the most commonly lacking nutrients in a homemade diet for cats is Taurine. Most animals can synthesise Taurine from other amino acids, but cats cannot do this. Taurine is a water soluble Amino Acid, and it is free within the muscle tissue, unlike other amino acids which are bound within the protein structure. This means when fluid leaks out of meat, the taurine leaks out with it. So if you are thawing out some meat, and you pour out the juice that comes out, you are pouring the taurine out with it. The same goes for the absorbent pads in the meat trays. They are soaking up all of the meat juice, and of course the taurine too.

Other Diets available for cats are commercial dry foods, and canned wet foods. Dry kibble foods are very high in carbohydrates. To manufacture a dry kibble, there needs to be a minimum amount of carbohydrate, or starch to be able to create these biscuits. Cats do not have any requirement for carbohydrate, and when feeding these foods, they can be getting over half of their daily calorie requirements from carbohydrates.

This can make them fat, and hungry.

So hungry.

You all know how persistent a cat can be demanding food, when you know you have only fed them an hour ago.

That’s because their blood sugar levels have dropped, and they are ready for their next hit of carbohydrate foods to raise it up again. High blood sugar can cause high levels of insulin, which is highly inflammatory, and can lead to a whole host of health complaints that just shouldn’t be seen in the cat, like diabetes, insulin resistance, and obesity.

Owners often think changing to a grain free kibble is the answer, but unfortunately, they are still high in carbohydrates, it’s just from a non-grain source like potato, tapioca and sweet potato. These will still cause issues with blood sugar levels and inflammation.

Canned food can be a better option to dry kibble for cats

Dry foods can be dehydrating

In addition to the problems with high carbohydrate levels in the diets, there is the issue with the dehydrating nature of these dry foods. Cats are naturally desert animals. They catch and eat prey, which is 70% moisture. In the wild a cat will drink very little water. They get it from the prey they eat.

A cat eating dry food will drink more water than usual to help to rehydrate this dry kibble, however they don’t often drink enough, and can be in this constant state of mild dehydration.

This can lead to a really common health problem in cats - urinary tract infections, and kidney stones.

Canned food is a better alternative to commercial kibble diets. They have the high moisture level, and are also lower in carbohydrate than kibble.

The diets we feed our cats has to fit into our lifestyles, and availability. Knowing the pros and cons of the different diet types available can help us make the best decision we can.

If you have any questions about your cats diet, please let me know if the comments below.