What Cats Should Eat (excerpt)
By Jean Hofve, DVM
You love your cat. And, of course, you want to keep your cat healthy for as long as possible. The one thing you can do that will make the most difference in your cat’s health is to feed a good diet. But with hundreds of brands and flavors of cat food on the shelves of grocery and pet supply stores, how do you know which one is right for your cat? To help you begin to understand your cat’s nutritional needs and how best to satisfy them, here’s some essential information from our 13-page special report, What Cats Should Eat.
| Your article is an ENCYCLOPEDIA of info. THANKS for all that wisdom. I’ve printed it out and will read it with a yellow highlighter in hand. – Judy P., Englewood, CO |
The carnivore on your couch
Cats are true carnivores, requiring a meat-based diet for optimal health. Their natural diet is, of course, prey such as rodents, insects, and birds. These prey consist primarily of water, protein and fat, with only about 10% carbohydrate (starch, sugar and fiber) content. Cats are exquisitely adapted to utilize fat and protein for energy, as opposed to omnivores like dogs and people, who mainly use carbohydrates for energy.
When feeding our companion cats, the most logical strategy is to feed the diet that most closely mimics the natural prey diet. The best way to do this is with a homemade diet; however, not everyone is ready for this step. Feeding more (or only) canned food is another alternative. Canned foods are higher in fat and protein, and lower in carbs, than dry foods. Their high water content increases the cat’s overall fluid intake, which keeps the kidneys and bladder healthy, and is more filling.
Recent research has shown that high-carbohydrate diets, such as dry and semi-moist foods, are to blame in most cases of feline diabetes. It is likely that many overweight cats are carbohydrate-intolerant, and should be fed low-carb diets (think “Atkins diet” for cats!). More information on the link between diet and diabetes is contained in the full report, What Cats Should Eat.
| Last year my cat was diagnosed with diabetes. Using Dr. Jean’s recommendation for diabetes, I changed his diet immediately. Within days, his blood sugar went down to normal and stayed there, and he has never had any symptoms since. – Nicole P., Santa Rosa, CA |
Nutrition-Related Diseases
In fact, not only diabetes but many serious health problems in cats have a dietary component. Some are actually caused by diet, and all are affected by it. Diet-related diseases include:
- Obesity
- Chronic Vomiting
- Hepatic Lipidosis
- Pancreatitis
- Arthritis
- Heart Disease
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Chronic Renal Failure
- Lower Urinary Tract Disease
- Hyperthyroidism
- Viral Conjunctivitis
- Skin and Coat Problems
Food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease are becoming epidemic among our feline companions. That is why I recommend feeding our cats a variety of foods, instead of just a single diet all the time. Variety keeps cats from becoming finicky and food-addicted, lessens the chance of dietary excess or deficiency of any single nutrient, and may even prevent the development of food intolerances, allergies, and inflammatory bowel disease.
There is much more information on diet and disease in the special report What Cats Should Eat, which is available for $9.95 in our Bookstore.
In addition, the full 13-page special report will show you:
- How to read a cat food label. Find out which ingredients to look for, which ones to avoid, and how certain unappetizing animal ‘parts’ can be disguised in cat food.
- The facts about dry, canned, semi-moist, homemade, or raw There are advantages and disadvantages to every diet; some are safe and some are not! Find out which of these is best for your cat!
- The complete list of “Dr. Jean’s Approved Brands”. You don’t have to spend hours reading labels; I’ve done it for you! Get the benefits of my research and find out, once and for all, which brands pass my strict standards, and where to buy them!
- What supplements your cat needs. There are hundreds of supplements out there. But you don’t have to waste your money … there are only three supplements that every cat needs!
| I learned a lot! I love the common-sense approach Dr. Jean takes! – Julie M., Dallas, TX |
Commercial cat foods are certainly convenient. However, in spite of their claiming to be “complete and balanced,” many cat foods are really not very good for cats! Commercial cat foods are designed to look good to you and taste good to your cat. Pet food manufacturers must use all sorts of flavorings and additives to get cats to eat something that they otherwise would never touch: starch-based dry and semi-moist food.
As the author of this special report, I have spent hundreds of hours in medical libraries and online, independently researching every aspect of pet food and cats’ unique nutritional needs. My background includes writing articles for Cats, The Whole Cat Journal and The Whole Dog Journal, and many other publications. I’m internationally known as an expert on pet food, having been interviewed on radio and television from California to Colorado to England on pet nutrition, supplements, and the commercial pet food industry. I’ve even taught seminars on pet food to the veterinary students at Colorado State University and the University of California at Davis.
Some of the information in this special report has been published and copied in many places, but never before has all this information been gathered together in one place. And the complete list of Dr. Jean’s Approved Brands included in this report has never been published anywhere else!
If you’d like to order the full special report, you can get it online right now. Our computer will automatically send my special report What Cats Should Eat to you in an email with an attached PDF file, within minutes of receiving your order, for only $9.95. (You will need the free Acrobat Reader available at www.adobe.com).