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Cats Need Wet Food
By Beth Taylor and Steve Brown
The natural diet of cats is meat.
Cats are meat eaters, designed to thrive on a wide variety of
small prey animals, eaten fresh and whole. Their natural diet is
high in water and protein, with a moderate amount of fat, and a
very low percentage of carbohydrate.
Dry cat food is high in grain.
A diet of dry food is high in carbohydrate, between 35 and 50
percent. "Diet" and "Lite" foods have even more.
Dry food contains almost no water. Dry cat food is convenient to
feed, and relatively inexpensive, but it's the opposite of the
natural diet of cats. Cats have no dietary need for any
carbohydrate.
Cats need to get water from their food.
Cats are descended from feline desert dwellers. They couldn't
stroll over to the watering hole for a drink, and cat tongues
are not very well designed for drinking water.
Cats are adapted to obtain most of their water from their prey,
which contains more than 75 percent water. Cats who eat dry food
consume only half the water they need, compared to those that
eat wet food, and live in a state of chronic dehydration.
The common health problems of cats are related to diet.
There is increasing evidence, published in peer-reviewed
veterinary journals, that many of the health problems seen in
cats are the result of diets inappropriate for a feline. Dry,
grain-based foods fed to a meat eater, over time, result in both
chronic and life-threatening diseases, like these:
Obesity: Since cats are designed for a high-protein,
moderate-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, it is not surprising that
obesity is often seen in cats. Diet cat foods have even more
carbohydrate than regular ones, and less fat, so they depart
even further from the natural diet of cats, making it harder for
them to lose weight.
Diabetes: The high level of carbohydrate in dry cat food
contributes directly to the development of diabetes in cats.
Blood sugar levels rise when cats eat dry food. When this is an
ongoing event, insulin-producing cells "downregulate," which
leads to diabetes.
Kidney disease: Kidney disease is the most common cause of death
for cats. The kidneys require an abundant supply of water to do
their job. Without water to process the byproducts of the
digestion process, the kidneys are overloaded, become damaged
over time and unable to do their job.
Bladder Problems: Cystitis, bladder irritation and
bladder/kidney stone formation are also strongly connected to
dehydration. If the body is well hydrated, these problems are
minimized.
Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome and Disease: These problems are
often characterized by vomiting and diarrhea and are very common
in cats. Cats who eat a species-appropriate diet rarely suffer
from these issues.
Dental disease: Dry food has a high sugar (carbohydrate)
content, which has been shown to cause dental decay.
For cats to derive any supposed abrasive benefit from dry foods
to be seen, they would have to actually chew their dry food.
Since dry food shatters in their mouths and they then swallow
the pieces, there's no abrasive action from chewing something
hard.
Cats who eat dry food often have very severe dental problems.
Many factors contribute to dental health, but it is clear that a
high-carbohydrate diet is not beneficial!
The Solution: An Appropriate Diet for the Species
It's simple: Cats need to eat a diet that is high in protein and
water, with a moderate amount of fat, and almost no carbohydrate.
Most of the health problems we've discussed here are either
radically improved or eliminated by eating a diet that meets the
needs of a carnivore -- one which closely resembles the
nutritional balance provided by a mouse. For example, many
veterinarians now treat diabetes in cats with a meat-based
canned diet.
We'd like to go a step further, and prevent these diseases.
Feed your cat a meat-based diet!
We suggest you buy canned food that is designed to be complete,
or complete frozen diets that have very little vegetable
content. No grain sources should be listed in the ingredient
panel. There are grain-free canned cat foods that have some
vegetables in them, but vegetables should not be a major
component (read our article on how to compute these
percentages).
"All meat" diets are just that, and they will not meet your
cat's nutritional needs alone.
Make the switch successful!
It sounds simple to just switch your cat's food. After all, meat
tastes better than dry food, but your cat may disagree. Dry
foods are designed to be tasty, and many cats are addicted to
them. Often, cats are not open to the idea of variety,
especially if they have only been fed one food (as we have been
advised by pet food companies for decades). Creativity and
patience may be needed to switch your cat.
Cats will starve themselves, and they are not good candidates
for the tough love approach. Some very serious conditions can
occur if cats do not eat for an extended period, especially if
they are overweight. A slow switch will prevent problems.
Here are some ideas to help you along:- Establish regular
feeding times and put food away in between meals. For many
reasons, it's best for their bodies not to have
food available
all the time. If you have dogs, you know what to do with
leftovers! Feed multiple cats separately. - Consider dry food
to be a snack only, not left out all the time. Leave out just a
few pieces as a treat. Consider this the equivalent of "kitty
junk food."
- Offer bits of other kinds of fresh food that you
are eating. They may be refused, but one day, they won't. Your
goal is to get your cat to consider things as food other than
dry, crunchy items.
- Cat whiskers are very sensitive. If food
is served in a bowl that interferes with whiskers, it could be
enough to keep the cat from considering the food. A flat dish
works well.
- Cats generally prefer their food between room
temperature and body temperature. The dry food cats are used to
eating is designed to be very smelly. Warming the food releases
the flavors and fragrances. Cats choose food by smell, and wet
food is a lot less fragrant than a commercial food they have
been eating. This is often the reason that the second half of a
can of food is refused: The first time it was room
temperature!
- Trickery has been known to work with cats. Put
the food on your plate, or hide it in a location cats know to be
forbidden. When in doubt, creativity helps!
Additions and Considerations
Add sardines for good fats, or use fish oil. A meal of sardines
once a week or one small sardine a day adds omega-3 fatty acids
in their best form-- whole food. Because cats can't use plant
sources of omega-3s at all, animal sources are necessary. If
sardines aren't appealing to you, use a fresh, high-quality
omega-3 fish oil supplemented with vitamin E.
Digestive enzymes and a glandular supplement are good additions
to replace the parts of prey animals we normally don't feed
cats: The stomach contents and smaller glands.
We think that the optimum diet for cats is a raw meat-based
diet. However, if you feed your cat a canned diet that
approximates the balance of his or her natural diet, their diet
will be fully hydrated, and you will be much closer to providing
your cat with optimum nutrition.
If you choose to feed a meat-based canned diet, find a way to
simulate components lost in cooking or processing.
One way to add live food is with "cat grass," very popular with
cats. It's often available in the produce section at the grocery
store, or you can grow your own from a kit. This addition often
takes the burden off the house plants! Dry "green stuff" is
another choice ("Barley Cat" is one product). It takes a very
small quantity of a dry product to do the job. Too much can make
urine PH too alkaline, and cause some of the problems you're
trying to avoid! Tiny pinches of dry green stuff go a long way.
For cats, good diet can make the difference between "Old Age" at
12 and 23. Cats who eat dry food are often old and feel quite
ill at 9 or 10. Healthy cats can live a very long time, and
that's what we hope for your feline carnivore!
Contact Steve or Beth for more information at
bat31@earthlink.net.
Dr. Mercola's Comment:There is indeed a
special relationship that exists between pets and their owners
that goes far beyond the sharing of a home together. Our
happy-go-lucky, four-legged friends also provide us with
constant unconditional love, devotion, friendship and something
else that might not be at the forefront of most people's minds
-- health benefits.
If you have a dog, I highly recommend you read their excellent
book, See Spot Live Longer. Using philosophies similar to my own
regarding the importance of nutrition, See Spot Live Longer
presents solid evidence that a good diet is just as important
for dogs as it is for us. When fed a proper raw diet appropriate
for their body, hundreds of people, including veterinarians,
have witnessed vast health improvements in their dogs.
Authors Steve Brown and Beth Taylor, both pet health and
nutrition experts, provide an all-inclusive argument for feeding
your dog a naturally balanced raw meat, bone and vegetable-based
diet that provides much higher quality nutrition than any dry or
canned dog or cat food. By convincingly covering all the bases,
readers will:- Review case studies of dogs and cats with
chronic illness that improved after fed a healthy diet of fresh
food.
- Dispel the myths that are sabotaging your dog's
health.
- Learn how the ancestral dog's diet compares to the
modern diet dogs eat today.
- Realize the canine anatomical
digest process to better understand why and when our animals are
at risk from different types of food and potential
toxins.
- Find out why dry and canned dog foods may be harming
your dog.
- Find out what real fresh foods will protect your
dog from cancer and other disease.
- Discover the importance of
exercise and how keeping your dog fit will add years to its
life.
- Learn practical, cost-effective solutions to feeding
your dog better for a longer and healthier life.
About the author:
This article is reprinted from Mercola.com, the world's #1 most
visited and trusted natural/alternative health website. For a
limited time only, you can take the FREE "Metabolic Type Test"
to help you learn the right foods for your particular body type
so you can achieve optimal fitness & health. Just go to
http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm right now to take this
quick test!
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