Beef Cat Food Problems for Cats
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I am sure only about a few things in life, but this I know: The sun will rise tomorrow; the Pope is Catholic; and during almost every single encounter I have with clients with cats, I will talk about feline nutrition and foods.
The question of how and what to feed cats has been a passion of mine for the last 20-plus years. Over that time, like most veterinarians, I have seen a marked increase in obese cats. As a cat specialist with an interest in intestinal diseases, I also see more than my fair share of chronically vomiting cats. You might say that much of my career has been dedicated to saving deep-piled carpeting from a relentless onslaught of digested cat food and human bare feet from stepping on cold, slime-encased hairballs first thing in the morning.
What do chronic vomiting and hairballs have to do with food?
From my perspective, quite a bit.
The story of cat nutrition actually starts about 100,000 years ago, give or take 30,000, in the form of the Middle Eastern wildcat. Traipsing the deserts of what is now Israel and Saudi Arabia and points in-between, this ancestor of our domestic cats met protein requirements by eating small, furry things that could run fast (but not fast enough); feathered creatures; and lizards. Note that beef and fish were nowhere to be found. With water in short supply and oases few and far between, the wildcat counted on quenching his thirst with the moisture found in his prey's muscles and innards. With no amber waves of grain in sight, the wildcat got by eating the carbohydrates - grains and a few grasses, perhaps - that were contained in the stomachs or crops of his victims. If somehow you were able to put the prey species in a blender, puree them (not a pleasant thought, I know) and measure the carbohydrate content of those critters, it would be somewhere between two and 12 percent. Cats developed as low carb, but not no carb, eaters.
The exception to the above were those cats who accompanied the Romans, Phoenicians, and other sea-faring folks on their pillaging journeys to distant shores, and who probably DID eat fish. Otherwise, cats throughout millennia ate a diet of moist rodents, rabbits, birds, and the occasional lizard. It really wasn't until World War II that dry cat foods became the norm in the States, due to the rationing of metal for non-essential items, which included canned pet foods.
With metal rationing, the die had been cast, so to speak for cat foods. In the post-war world, as Mom, Dad, Sis and Junior sat down to enjoy their uber-modern TV dinners, Fluffy or Tiger munched away on a cereal of mostly corn, soy and wheat gluten, with a bit of animal fat and maybe some chicken meal added in for good measure. It seems like a cruel culinary trick foisted on an apex predator.
Old habits die hard. So when I inquire about what clients are feeding their kitties, it's the rare human who isn't giving a dry diet. When I ask about canned foods, I'm usually met with horrified looks and am informed that such foods are "too rich" for cats or the canned food will cause dental disease; both of which are false. Some clients are honest and admit that it's easier to fill up a bowl a few times a week than pop open a can twice a day.
My responses to this information vary, depending on the client and the situation, but rest assured I am typically kind and persistent. I usually begin by giving a brief history of those primordial desert cats and their "natural" diet, making the point that cats most likely do best when they are eating lower on the carbohydrate chain. I don't think feeding cats the dietary equivalent of puffed corn cereal day in and day out was what Mother Nature ever intended. We all know that it's not nice to fool our good Mother.
I then segue into my thoughts on what canned protein, always in the form a diet formulated and balanced for cats, to feed. My recommendations are based on a study, conducted in the 1990s in New Zealand, that involved client-owned cats who presented with vomiting, diarrhea, and/or itching. The cats were anesthetized, had endoscopes (tubes that enter the mouth and allow observation of the inside lining of the intestinal tract) placed, and purified proteins and carbohydrates were dropped onto the stomach linings. The researchers watched for redness, which they used as a marker for inflammation. That work showed that the foods that caused the most inflammation - but not in every cat - were beef, lamb, seafood, corn and soy.
Why that? Beef is a big bruiser of a protein and the immune system typically doesn't like big proteins. Lamb looks a whole lot like beef to the immune system, so it doesn't much care for lamb either. When fish sits (try to say that five times, fast) prior to processing, it can build up high levels of histamine, and histamine, in turn, typically goes hand in hand with inflammation. So maybe, beef, lamb, and seafood aren't the best choices for most cats. Just sayin'.
What then to feed? My preference is to feed cats a poultry (chicken, duck or turkey) canned food that is low in carbohydrates. I like my feline patients and my own clowder to eat diets with less than seven percent carbohydrates, and there's a nifty listing of canned foods at CatInfo with the percentages of fat, protein and carbs available. If you can find a U.S.-sourced rabbit-based diet, that might be a good option too.
But a word to the wise: Cats must eat well every day. Every day. Being cats, they can and will starve themselves when they're faced with a food they don't like. If you decide to switch to another type of food and your cat decides she isn't going to go along with your grand experiment, you've got to wave the white flag, give Puss what she wants and try again at a later date. Just don't give up.
What do I think are the benefits of feeding a canned, low-carb poultry or rabbit-based diet to cats? My short list is:
- Cats with itchy ears often have underlying food allergies, many times to fish (in my clinical experience). I've stopped counting how many cats aren't scratching their ears anymore after a diet switcheroo. It's a small change that often works wonders.
- Hairballs often are a thing of the past with what might be called a more species-appropriate diet. If your 16-year-old kitty has had been vomiting hairballs twice a week for the past 14 years, no dietary change is going to get to the root of the problem. Be smart and get your kitty to a veterinarian for appropriate diagnostics and treatment. Along these lines, forget petroleum jelly and other hairball "remedies." Hairballs aren't due to a grease deficiency; they are due to underlying intestinal inflammation. Hairballs are not normal in cats. Trust me on that one.
- Less tubbiness. Cats seem to lose weight and maintain a heathy one when you feed a lower carbohydrate canned diet. However, just like their human counterparts, obesity in cats typically has a simple cause: Too many calories in and not enough energy expended. Obese cats are at risk for diabetes, as well as increased joint issues. So if you think you'll enjoy the cost of insulin, needles and twice daily insulin injections, no need to work with your veterinarian and implement a weight loss program for Kitty. But, if like most folks, you would prefer to prevent obesity and potentially dodge the bullet of diabetes for your cat, feeding a more appropriate diet is a good thing to do.
- Better urinary tract health. Years ago, when I started to talk the canned food mantra in my own feline practice, I noticed a dramatic decrease in urethral obstructions in male cat patients. I'm not the only veterinarian to have recognized this. Feeding canned food and adding a little bit of low-sodium chicken broth or water to the food might be all the difference it takes to keep kitty urinating normally and out of the emergency room.
Like most everything in medicine, not every recommendation works for every patient. Some cats can't be switched from a dry food diet to a canned one, and still others would rather starve than give up their salmon-tuna pate. Like I tell each of my clients, I can only recommend what I believe is the best course of action; you know your cat better than I ever will.
But if I had to tweak one thing in your cat's habits that might make a big difference in quality and quantity of life, I'd choose food first. No doubt about it.
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Teri Ann Oursler, DVM
December 30, 2021
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Teri Ann Oursler, DVM; Christy Corp-Minamiji, DVM
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Christy Corp-Minamiji, DVM
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Teri Ann Oursler, DVM
August 12, 2015
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March 26, 2015
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September 11, 2014
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September 8, 2014
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September 8, 2014
Michele Gaspar, DVM, DABVP (feline), MA
September 6, 2014
catsrule
September 4, 2014
Lisa Pierson, DVM
September 4, 2014
Catlady
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Kathy Morris-Stilwell
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Ron Gaskin, DVM
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Letrisa Miller, MS, DVM
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Source: https://www.vin.com/vetzinsight/default.aspx?pid=756&catId=-1&id=6421099
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