Dry pet food is a
dehydrated and processed mix of grains, meats, and added vitamins and minerals.
Dry foods are typically 30‐60% carbohydrate in
composition. What isn’t well known among cat owners is that a requirement for
carbohydrates has never been proven in cats (in contrast to dogs and people). Cats
are carnivores, and in the wild eat nothing but meaty little rodents, bugs,
birds and lizards. Our domesticated cats, on the other hand, are fed mixtures
of meat and grain that produce a balanced diet over the long term. Many believe
that those grains, aside from providing ‘artificial’ balance, may be
contributing to problems in the long run.
1.characteristic behavior of cats with dry foods :
Cats descend from
desert animals that depended on their food to provide needed water.
Their kidneys are
adapted to this desert environment to conserve water and concentrate the wastes
into the urine. When cats don’t get enough water from food or additional water
intake, some feel that cats spend much of their lives chronically dehydrated,
which is not good for those kidneys or the rest of the body.
One common problem that
seems to respond to more water in the food is the frustrating FUS, now called
FLUTD (lower urinary tract disease) or interstitial cystitis (IC). Most doctors
recommend feeding only canned food to these cats to increase water going into
the body and out through the bladder. Could this be a signal that cats don’t do
well on dry food?
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Also, many people tend
to leave dry food out all the time, leaving their cats to ‘free feed’. As convenient
as it may be, this is a potentially harmful practice for the cat! Most cats
given food all the time eat more than they should, and this practice is behind
a growing epidemic of obese cats. And no, it doesn’t usually work to give them
weight loss food free choice!
In addition, free
feeding these high‐carbohydrate meals has been
suggested to contribute to the rising incidence of insulin resistance and
diabetes in cats (Rand, 1998). Since this is a chronic, potentially dangerous
problem that sometimes requires insulin injections for the rest of the cat’s
life, this is a major concern.
Finally, many people
have difficulty medicating their cats, and are forced to mix it in food. It’s much
easier to mix medicine in canned food than in dry food. Cats who are addicted
to dry food and won’t eat any canned food (a common problem) are a special
challenge to medicate!
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2.I was always told to leave food out all the time. Doesn’t this decrease urine pH and prevent lower urinary tract disease?
It is true that eating
small meals often lowers urinary pH. And cats are born to hunt
constantly, catching
little protein meals throughout the day. Remember, though, that dry food is not
a meat protein like a lizard or mouse, and since it contains large amounts of
carbohydrates (and
often less fat) than real prey, we are essentially turning our cats into
grazers.
Worse, hunting cats are
expending mental and physical activity between kills, and must work hard for
those meals. The only exercise our dry food ‘grazers’ are often getting is a
jump off the couch!
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