Don't Feed Dry Food to Cats!
Don’t Feed Dry Food to Cats!
Cats are true carnivores. In general, cats require more protein in their diet than most other mammals. Most animals get glucose from carbohydrates to use for energy. Cats do not require any carbohydrates. They get the glucose they need for energy from the breakdown of proteins and fats in their diet.
Dry cat foods are the worst thing to feed your cat. They contain on average 60% carbohydrates. I just stated that cats don’t require carbohydrates, so why are we feeding them a high carbohydrate food? And what happens to all those excess carbohydrates in their bodies? High carbohydrate diets are the main cause of diabetes and obesity in cats, and this is completely preventable. I also believe that high carbohydrate diets, especially dry food diets, contribute to most of the chronic diseases in cats, such as kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, bladder disease (cystitis), and inflammatory bowel disease and many others.
So, what do I feed my cat?
The best diet for your cat would be a meat-based homemade diet, either prepared raw or cooked.
For some very good information on making your own cat food check out the following links.
www.catinfo.org and www.catnutrition.org
Some good choices for pre-mixes to make it at home are Honest Kitchen, and for freezed-dried Stella and Chewy’s.
The next best thing to feed your cat would be a good quality canned cat food such as Instinct or Wellness.
www.catinfo.org has some really good information comparing commercial canned cat foods.
I plan to cover diet more in future articles. I don’t think there is any one perfect diet, so it is best to rotate through the different flavors and companies.
To supplement homemade cat diets, I recommend Feline Minerals which contains calcium and taurine.
For further reading check out this book and this book
For more info on Dr. Deneen Fasano, see her website at AnimalHealingSolutions
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