http://organicpetmall.blogspot.com/2009/07/truths-and-myths-about-feeding-your-cat.html
Truths and Myths About Feeding Your Cat
While I was learning about feline nutrition I was astounded at what I thought I knew that was not true. Here are a few of the things I have learned on the way that I thought I would pass on.
Dry Food helps your cat prevent dental disease
False. Dental disease has no correlation to food choices. Studies have shown there is no difference between cats fed canned cat food or dry.
Most cats that get Feline Urologic Disease eat dry cat food
True. FUS can be prevented by feeding your cat a quality pet food with high protein as this type of food tends to raise your cat’s acidic urine. Acidic urine prevents the growth of germs that cause Feline Urologic Disease.
Feeding your cat a high quality food is expensive
False. The lower the quality of food you feed your cat the more you have to feed of it. Most obesity in cats comes from feeding your cat a low quality food. In order for your cat to get the nutrients they need in these foods they need to eat more. The more they eat the more calories they ingest the more weight they gain.
A Grazing Cat is a Happy Cat
False. In nature a cat makes a kill and eats it. They do not have a refrigerator or ability to can. They kill and eat. Automatic feeders cause your cat’s metabolism to slow and cause obesity (my own cat Slakk in his kitty crack days used to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl). As noted above, there are health implications such as Feline Urologic Disease as well.
Cats can get addicted to food
True. There are a couple of the low quality canned foods that I have fed in the past and it was tough to get the cats off of them. Artificial flavors, tuna, salt and sugar are the main culprits.
Dry Food helps your cat prevent dental disease
False. Dental disease has no correlation to food choices. Studies have shown there is no difference between cats fed canned cat food or dry.
Most cats that get Feline Urologic Disease eat dry cat food
True. FUS can be prevented by feeding your cat a quality pet food with high protein as this type of food tends to raise your cat’s acidic urine. Acidic urine prevents the growth of germs that cause Feline Urologic Disease.
Feeding your cat a high quality food is expensive
False. The lower the quality of food you feed your cat the more you have to feed of it. Most obesity in cats comes from feeding your cat a low quality food. In order for your cat to get the nutrients they need in these foods they need to eat more. The more they eat the more calories they ingest the more weight they gain.
A Grazing Cat is a Happy Cat
False. In nature a cat makes a kill and eats it. They do not have a refrigerator or ability to can. They kill and eat. Automatic feeders cause your cat’s metabolism to slow and cause obesity (my own cat Slakk in his kitty crack days used to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl). As noted above, there are health implications such as Feline Urologic Disease as well.
Cats can get addicted to food
True. There are a couple of the low quality canned foods that I have fed in the past and it was tough to get the cats off of them. Artificial flavors, tuna, salt and sugar are the main culprits.
Hey Frank - thank you for posting the article - I am definitely an avid anti dry food advocate after dealing with my cat Slakk. I love your blog. Jodie
ReplyDeleteThis blog is incredibly helpful. My family is switching our cat to a homemade diet because he has been terribly sick over the last 6 months (he is only two yrs old). He had two life threatening urinary blockages because of crystals and dehydration. He had to be hospitalized for several days twice. The third time it happened, he needed surgery to prevent further blockages. He is a large male feral rescue. Looking back now, I really believe that processed dry food was a big culprit, if not the sole cause, of all his health problems. At one point he became severely obese (over 25 lbs) and considered pre-diabetic. After reading your post here, i'm thinking that he got this way and kept wanting to overeat because he was trying to get enough nutrients from the processed food. Because of the weight gain, he was switched to a special dry food formula that caused him to lose lots of weight - but then started causing crystals. Thats when the blockages started.
ReplyDeleteWe have great veterinarians, I know they definitely saved our cat's life. However, I really believe that if we keep feeding him processed food, all their effort and ours will be for nothing. Since his operation 2 months ago, our cat has been on Hills Science Diet C/D. He hates it and keeps losing weight - he is so hungry all of the time that he jumps into our plates trying to take our food, which he never did before (he is very well behaved normally).
I hope that a homemade diet will be the answer for us. God bless you for creating this website.