Just because your kitty isn’t showing signs of distress doesn’t mean the food you’re feeding her isn’t doing serious harm to your feline family member. This was something I didn’t know when I adopted my cat, and now I feel terrible about what I was feeding her and how bad it was for her health. Feeding my cat the wrong food caused her to steadily put on weight, and before long I knew she was in serious trouble. So I did research. Lots and lots of research.
The overwhelming majority of the food you buy for your cat from a run-of-the-mill grocery store is so loaded with empty carbs and grains, and that’s bad. Yes, these grains and carbs may come from seemingly harmless sources (corn, wheat, etc.), but did you know that cats were never meant to eat those things? Cat species all over the world are obligate carnivores. This is just a fancy way of saying that they eat meat out of necessity, not just because it tastes yummy. Humans are not obligate carnivores. Our digestive systems are perfectly capable of breaking down grains and other carbohydrates. Are they healthy for us? That’s another article waiting to be written. But we do know they aren’t healthy for cats. Cats are not capable of sustaining off of carbs and fiber alone; they need protein, and they need fat.
Since the 1950s, humans in the western world have been chided on the dangers of eating high fat diets, like the Atkins diet. This narrative has been in flux for the past 20 years or so, but for the most part the idea that fat is bad is stuck in our mindsets. How many of you still order low fat lattes at Starbucks? Precisely.
Cats are definitely the opposite, they need a lot of protein and a lot of fat in their diets. The Atkins Diet is close to perfect for feline species. So why are cat food manufacturers so dependent on grains and other carbohydrates? Well, they’re cheap to produce and they are easy to process and store, making them ideal ingredients for both cans and dry food to be kept on shelves for months without spoiling.
This is bad for cats because it often leads to weight problems and can be a cause feline diabetes. YIKES! So, what can you do? Here are some great guidelines for finding the right cat food.
Grain-free Is The Way To Be
The simplest and best move you can make is to switch to a 100% grain-free cat food. You can find moist, fresh and dry foods that are completely grain-free and all at various price points. This will be a giant step in the right direction.
Open Up A Can (Instead Of A Bag)
Canned cat food, or moist cat food if you prefer, is generally lower in carbs than dry cat food, even among the same brands. There are concerns about dental hygiene when it comes to wet food, but the benefits to the rest of your cat’s health take priority here. Teeth can be cleaned, but it’s impossible to get grains out of your cat’s system.
Look at the nutritional information
Every bag, can or tube or pet food has a nutritional breakdown somewhere on it. This breakdown will tell you how many kilocalories are in a serving, as well as give you a macronutrient analysis. The three main macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. This analysis will tell you what percentage of the food comes from which macronutrient. For canned food, you want to look for one that’s around 10-15% protein and 5-9% fat. You’ll also see ash listed, but each food has roughly the same ratio of ash, which is comprised of other nutrients. Canned food is primarily water, and that makes up anywhere from 70-80% of the food.
The best dry foods have at least 50% protein in the nutritional analysis, and if you see a protein count that high then you don’t need to worry about much else, as that’s a sign of a great cat food.
Look at the ingredients
Pet food ingredient lists work the same way they do for human food, listing ingredients found in the greatest quantity first. Naturally, this means you want to pick a food that lists as many meat ingredients at the top of the list as possible. Chicken, turkey, liver and salmon are some of the best ingredients you’ll routinely find. Just watch out for the word byproduct attached to the end of these otherwise wholesome ingredients. Animal byproducts are not healthy for any pet. So, turkey and turkey meal are good ingredients, but turkey byproduct isn’t.
Rabbit is another protein that is great for your cat, and some manufacturers of pet food are starting to use it more and more. This is a premium ingredient, so foods containing rabbit are generally more expensive and more difficult to find. The same is true of duck, pheasant and wild boar.
Ask your vet
When all else fails, just ask your vet what (s)he recommends. If (s)he recommends a food high in carbs and loaded with grains, it’s probably time to replace your vet and cat food at the same time.
Recommended Products
I’ve tried several different brands of food until I found the right stuff for my cat.
For canned food, Wellness CORE Natural Grain Free Wet Canned Cat Food
If cost is of no concern, Orijen Grain-Free Dry Cat Food
Preston Hemmerich is the Content Manager for 301 Digital Media, overseeing MensTrait.com, OutwardOn.com, DailyBeautyHack.com and more. He enjoys writing about food, politics, travel and sad attempts at humor. Follow him on Twitter — @pkhemmerich
