Choosing a Cat Food
What Is the Healthiest Cat Food?
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The following is an excerpt from Petfinder.com's FurKeeps Kickoff Live Facebook Q&A.
Q: What do you suggest as healthy food for my middle-aged (one 8-year-old and two 6-year-old), inside-only, declawed cats?
A: What truly is the right food for cats? I do believe we feed most cats the wrong way. They are carnivores and were never intended to have carbs.
We are seeing huge amounts of obesity and associated diseases (arthritis, fatty liver and diabetes, diabetes, diabetes!).
I believe at least 50% of the calories should come from canned food as water is critical to prevent urinary and kidney disease.
What diet is best? Some suggest grain-free. We know that many of the grain-free diets are similar to the wild cat diet of mice, rabbits and birds. The problem is we do not know what problems might develop as a result of long-term, high-protein feeding.
In summary, some dry, some canned. What do I feed my three cats? A grain-free dry plus canned. I do not, however, know if I will wear out their kidneys sooner.
I hope that 10 years from now we will feed cats differently than we do now, but more research is needed to sort out the answers.
Dr. Grant Gugisberg, D.V.M.
Parkview Cat Clinic
Mendota Heights, MN
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Pet Nutrition: Choosing a Cat Food:
Is Wet Cat Food Better Than Dry?
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