by Carmen
(Newcastle)
Kibble
Look at the ingredients on dry food for your cat...most of the time the top ingredient is cereal, so if cereal is first stay away!.
Think..cats are carnivores they don't want greens just meat so why is there cereal in dry food?
Cereal stops the cats body from producing insulin causing diabetes, this has been found with many cats on dry food.
Also some dry food is sprayed with a special spray so the cat can't resist so that's why you may find your cat is hooked on dry food.
The vets won't tell you this as it's promotion for the company and really the vets! My cat, Precious, she's ate nothing but dry food since she was about 6 months she's been ill before (we are now getting her on to wet food), whereas my other cat Princess has had wet food and there's been nothing wrong with her. So for your cat's health and their own good get them on to wet food!!
Carmen
Hi Carmen.... thanks for visiting and reminding us of the hazards of just feeding dry cat food and it unnaturalness.
A well known veterinarain, Dr Elizabeth Hodgkins uses a good part of her book, Your Cat, to explain why dry cat food can cause health problems the most outstanding being urinary tract infections and kidney disease and indeed diabetes as I recall. I built a page on that called Cat Food Recipe.
My cat developed a urinary tract infection when on dry cat food. She has been fine since feeding on wet commercial cat food, some fish (with water added) and a bit of dry food for nightime grazing. One issue with dry food is the question whether cats substitute the lack of water by drinking more water and I don't think they always do. This promotes the formation of crystals in the urinary tract that in turn promotes bacterial infections. As you say, dry cat food is cereal based mixed with meat or dairy products.
Drs Gifffin and Carlson (Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook) say that a "theoretical" disadvantage of dry cat food is that it may predispose a cat to FUS - feline urological syndrome (Feline kidney disease
and FLUTD). This disease affects 1% of adult cats they say (I think it is more these days as dry cat food is used more (their book was first published in 1995, things have changed).
The cause may be due, they say, of its low water and high magnesium content. Magnesium content should be less than 0.1% on a dry weight basis (
for cats who have had a bout of FUS). Special low magnesium cat food is available for these cats.
But it is generally considered by those in the know that the best cat food is homemade provided it is made properly. This is basically whole raw chicken and supplements ground up.
