Nutrition News

Cats and Diet

Diane E. Shepherd, DVM

KEY POINT #1: Cats have much higher protein and fat requirements than humans or dogs.

KEY POINT #2: Don’t let your cats become overweight. Obesity is as serious a health risk for felines as for humans.

In recent years there has been a wealth of research into the role of feline diet in health and disease. At the most basic level has been the recognition that as strict carnivores, cats have high protein and fat requirements, and have not evolved to handle large amounts of carbohydrates. One scientific study analyzed the nutrient content of mice and rats, the standard feline fare for thousands of years, and determined that they were 50% protein, 40% fat and the remainder carbohydrate (which was the rodents’ last meal).

What does this mean for average housecats?
They are better off with the “Catkins” Diet of high protein foods, preferable given in several small meals. The worst feeding strategy is to constantly fill a bowl of high carbohydrate (and highly palatable) dry food. The dry food junkies are the cats that get obese.

So what is the ideal diet, other than freshly caught prey that the cat has to burn energy to catch?
Every cat should have some canned food every day, especially here in Hawaii where the dry food has a long, hard journey from its manufacture on the mainland. Canned food has more water, more protein and less carbohydrate, is heat stable, and holds its vitamin content better than dry food. That said, dry food has the definite advantage of convenience and easy storage. When my seven cats are all demanding breakfast, they get dry food. They may get a snack in the afternoon and then meal of canned at night.

Never get generic supermarket or big box store foods. Of the over-the-counter brands Purina, Friskies and Iams are my suggestions. Pet stores and many veterinary clinics carry Hill’s Science Diet and Eukanuba.

Recognize that spaying/neutering and maturity contribute to weight gain so watch that growing kittens don’t become overweight adults. It is not easy to get them to lose weight, it is far better to prevent obesity from the start.