Got a cat - or a Dog?

[MikePollard]

We have four cats and we feed them wet cat food exclusively except for supplementing with ham or fish. They have water to drink but we have NEVER seen them drink it. Why would that be?

Well, it's because all felines have a very poor drinking reflex and get most of their water from their prey, or in our case from the tinned food which is 80% water (I know!)

Cats and dogs are different in the way they handle carbohydrate. Cats are obligate carnivore in that they HAVE to eat meat. Dogs lean towards omnivore lite and can handle carbs better. We have all seen adverts for dog biscuits, but you will never see ads for 'cat biscuits'. But if you are feeding your pet cheap cat dry cat food that's exactly what you are feeding it. Throw an arrowroot on the floor and it will be ignored, but soak it in meat juices and...! The ONLY reason dry cat food came about is that meat is expensive, wheat, rice etc is not.

So, if your cat, and let's face it, dog, has a staple diet consisting mainly of carbohydrate it is on the road for obesity, diabetes and ultimately kidney failure and death. Having been there in the past I cannot emphasise what a horrible death, preceded by utter misery for you both it is and a pointer to us as a species who are, as a world wide society, on the same path.

[Hidden]

We've been wondering about this. We don't have cats but we do have lots and lots of wild/farm cats roaming round, and they mainly catch their own prey, so they'll be OK. But we do have 3 dogs, a retired farm collie, a jack russell and a young labrador (7 months old and 38kg but not fat, we wanted a small one!!!)

Anyhow, the dogs are all on real meat (home cooked), 1 egg a day (home grown) and dry kibble based on duck. The kibble has all the usual ingredient, wheat, grains etc.

The company that produces the kibble (Skinners) also make a grain-free one, again expensive, but not bothered about that, they don't eat that much.

Do you think the grain-free kibble would be worth going for? Let's face it, dogs wouldn't naturally get any grain at all, or only tiny amounts, so it worries me.

[MikePollard in reply to Hidden]

Dump the cheap kibble and go grain free. Cheap insurance and cheaper by a long way if vets become involved in the future.

[Hidden in reply to MikePollard]

Will do, cheers.

[Chi17]

Our dog eats raw, he loves nothing more than a turkey heart chopped up and an antler to chew on. We usually give him a complete raw food. We were forced to try raw as he began vomiting after biscuits as a puppy and he’s doing very well on it. His coat is glossy and he has loads of energy. Sometimes he is ready and waiting for his meal, sometimes it goes uneaten but his weight is steady so I try not to worry.

[Pixielula in reply to Chi17]

I feed my dogs on raw food, they are both old but super healthy and fit, they have no treats either.... I have been called “mean” before but if keeping them fit and slim and heathy is being mean then that’s what I am

[Hidden]

Unfortunately, cats have a tendency not to eat all their food in one go, unlike dogs who gobble it down. A lot of people don't like leaving meat/wet food down because of flies in the summer. Personally, I couldn't just give ours dry biscuits, but I do make sure he has a bit of something to crunch on, since our last cat never ate biscuit and wasn't much of a hunter so wasn't crunching bone which resulted in dental trouble in her old age. The current one, however, is a masterly hunter, who eats his catch leaving entrails on the patio!

[spongecat]

We do the same for our two. 90% is wet food and they will get a very small sprinkle of a few dry called Sense6 which is a bit more generous in its meat content (35%) as opposed to GoCat which is 10% . When I was a veterinary nurse in the 70's dried cat food was an emerging market product for "customer convenience" and we saw no end of poor little souls with blocked urethras due to the ingredients in dried food and not enough water intake as well as an explosion in obesity.Please don't get me started on so-called vegan cat food either! 😠

The snag is that, as previously mentioned, cats don't really appear to have big thirst unless they have a condition such as diabetes, nephritis and other conditions. It is only then that you realise that the cat is drinking a lot.

They get what they need from wet food, puddles and places like the loo!

Interestingly, many don't really like having their water next to a food bowl. Some say this is a primitive knowledge retained from the wild with the danger of water sources being polluted further upstream by dead carcasses in the water or whatever.

I tend to leave a few bowls of water dotted around the house in safe places and it's then that I will see them drink.

[KetoQueen]

Hello. Maiden contribution here. I’ve read that cats fed meat not kibble are less likely to hunt garden birds. Another benefit from keto! Also, that Labradors and retrievers have a genetic defect (POMC) that makes them always hungry.

[Subtle_badger in reply to KetoQueen]

Welcome, KetoQueen!

[KetoQueen in reply to Subtle_badger]

Thank you very much Subtle Badger