Many people that shop at our store wonder what the best food is that they could possibly feed their feline companions. The general belief held among cat owners is that dry food is the best possible food to feed cats. This could not be farther from the truth. This blog is going to go into the details about why someone would not want to feed dry food to their cats, and what is the best alternative diet for our feline friends.
The Dry Food Crises:
Everyone can pretty much agree that cats are obligate carnivores. This means that they must have meat in order to survive. The main problem with dry food is that it is lacking in the meat department. In order to make a dry food round and hard, pet food companies must use some sort of binder. The poorer quality foods (i.e. Science Diet, Iams, Friskies, Fancy Feast, Eukanuba, etc) use grains as a binder to hold the food together. The higher quality dry foods (i.e. Orijen, Evo, Acana) use potato. Bottom line, cats cannot digest carbohydrates. Dry foods contain an abnormal amount of carbohydrates, either through grains or potatoes that cause added strain on your cat’s intestinal system. In addition, many foods receive a lot of their crude protein from these grains, which only intensify the problem. Cats cannot digest anywhere between 25-75% of the ingredients in all dry foods. That is definitely not easy on their digestive system!
In addition to containing carbohydrates, dry food is also lacking one very important nutrient…water. When a cat in the wild would kill an animal, that animal contained 75% water. Cats who kill animals have no need to obtain water from any other source other than their food. Therefore, they are lacking in a strong thirst drive. Cats that are on dry food will generally drink more water, but not nearly enough to make up for the 75% water loss that they are not receiving from their food. As a result, cats on dry food live in a state of constant dehydration.
With the combined dehydration and carbohydrate content, it is really no surprise that there are so many cats who are developing renal failure, urinary crystals, bladder stones, and kidney disease.
The Solution:
Raw and wet (canned) pet food. The ideal diet for cats is a field mouse. A field mouse consists of meat, bones, and organ meat. The idea behind raw cat food is trying to match the field mouse diet. While they do not literally use field mice, raw cat foods come in a variety of natural meats: chicken, turkey, quail, pheasant, duck, and goose. All of which contain meat, bones, and organ meat. Additionally, since to food is not cooked, it still maintains all of the natural nutrients that are cooked out when you feed dry and wet cat foods. Raw pet foods contain all the moisture found in the raw meat and are grain free. Furthermore, since there is no need to bind anything together within the food, raw food is naturally very low in carbohydrates. Most cat raw food contains roughly 5% fruits and vegetables, which mimics what a cat would find in the stomach of an animal. Top brands of raw food are Stella & Chewy’s, Primal, Bravo, and Oma’s Pride.
If your cat doesn’t want to take to raw food (there are a few tricks to getting a finicky cat to eat raw food, please e-mail us at petcountryweb@yahoo.com with any questions) an alternative is wet pet food. Like dry food, wet pet food also varies greatly in quality. The key things to look for in wet food are grain free and low carbohydrates (avoiding meat by-products is also very important!). Although not as nutritious as raw food, wet food is still a much better option than dry food. The best wet food currently on the market is ZiwiPeak, but Merrick also makes a decent wet food.
If anyone reading this has any questions, please e-mail us at: petcountryweb@yahoo.com or visit our website to get even more information on different foods available for your pet at www.petcountryweb.com