The Truth About Grain-Free Cat Food (Explained by a Vet)
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- Опубліковано 27 лис 2022
- In this video, Dr. Sarah Wooten, DVM, CVJ explains the facts about grain-free food for cats.
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When my cat was diagnosed as diabetic, I started feeding prescription cat food per his doctor (and sold at his clinic). Several months later, no change. Then following internet research, I switched to grain-free non-prescription food. Three months later, my cat was no longer diabetic. I know many veterinarians agree with you about the lack of benefits of grain-free, but from my experience, I'm so glad that cat owners have taken the time to share their own knowledge. As an aside, I switched veterinarians.
Wow! That’s wonderful!
Yes! Raw diet even better. Maybe vets promote this prescription food because they get incentives from it?
@@khabibpogosyan2587 Unfortunately, I think that's true in some cases. Vets make a profit off of all the prescription food they sell. There's also the incentives that companies like Hill's offer veterinary scholarships to students and hold conferences that are probably nice experiences and very prescription-food centric. What I don't understand is why these prescription food makers don't just use appropriate ingredients (where diabetic cats are concerned, at least). The science is there; they know what they should be using. My cat would probably be on a prescription diet today if it were actually beneficial. That said (sorry this is so long), I used to have a cat with food allergies and a prescription diet was perfect for him.
Hi Laura, that's cool lower carbs have health benefits for people and cats! I learned something every day 😊
That's great to hear. Yes unfortunately Veterinarians only push their sponsored products (in food and medicine). I had the same last week, they gave me food with so much grains and only 14% meat. I returned the bag of knibbles.
My cat developed gingivitis 10 years ago. They told me he would die in a year. I treated him aggressively and as told he went downhill rather fast. He stopped eating and I was offering him anything soft. Raw ground meat seemed to appeal to him and 10 years later he's still eating raw ground meat. I stopped taking him to the vet 2 years ago because it was making no difference. He's at the end of things now but he did amazingly well on a raw meat diet.
Yeah, vets are pretty useless theae days, unless they need surgery.
What about calcium? Do you use any supplements? Thank you.
@@Lisa-cn2uu . Nothing but raw ground meat and water.
This all makes sense and I appreciate you providing us with this information.
My geriatric Aby is slowly dying of renal failure and is on fortekor and renal support kibble. We have extended his life by over 2 years now!
*BUT it is the new injections for arthritis that he receives monthly that have made a TREMENDOUS difference in his quality of life!! He is like a KITTEN now that he is pain-free!!!* Sooo WONDERFUL to see this change in the love of my life! He turned 18 this month. *VERY STRONG LOVING BOND!!*
♥️🇨🇦♥️
It makes us fur parents feel so good when we can help our babies feel good. I started my boy ( 16) on Cosquin for arthritis 3 mos ago. He has the zoomies again. Yeah!
what's the name of the arthritis injections medicine? glad your cat felt better after the treatment! mine 8 yo is on the arthritis-kidney journey too
Need to add water in dry food, or in wet food too. Cats don’t drink enough water a lot of the time, leading to issues like renal failure.😢. I hope your baby is doing better . 🙏
@@richreitz5815 Thank you. 😻
@purrrpurpurpur8005 Solensia is the name of the drug that is injected. Sub-dural so no trauma administering.
Love the way you explain things. Great info!
Thank you Dr.Wooten!!! I always learn something new & important, and I really appreciate u take the time to educate us about our Lil kitties 😸
Thank you for basing your video on research and facts!!
Thank you for this follow up video to our past conversation in the comment section of a different video.
:) Thank YOU!
Thank you for this information. I found this very helpful. I look forward to more videos from you.
Thanks Sarah for this help information.
Wow, thank you for sharing this topic, it is so difficult to make educated choices for my cats' diet with all the marketing hype out there. Talking to my vet was key as well. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas/holiday season!
Dr Elsey's clean protein chicken. Contains gelatin as a binder, rather than carbs.
Thanks for this info!
So nice to see u again love your vidio,s
Vets need to be more honest, kind and not just think about what they can get out of. Thanks for sharing your knowledge to us.
Dr. Elsey's kibble is extremely low in carbohydrates. The chicken flavour uses gelatin to hold the kibble together.
Very interesting video. Thanks.
I think the issue with "not grain free" foods is they are usually just contain worse ingredients like meat by products and other junk and it just so happens that the "real meat" is in these "grain free" options. I agree that I'm wary of peas/beans so I am on the search for dry food that doesn't have a bunch of those in it. it does exist, but it's pricey and rare. fortunately my cat is mostly fed wet food and the dry food is just kind of a calorie intake filler at the end of the day
Same. Thanks for sharing . My cat has stopped throwing up since I give her two cans of wet food a day and she doesn’t gorge in her nasty blue Buffalo hairball sensitive stomach . I think they change their recipe and my cat will pro of logs of that food so I’m on the search for something different.
@@smashleyabodeely1127I switched from Blue Buffalo to Wellness. They seem to be more reputable and have better quality ingredients. Have you picked a new brand yet?
Great information
one of my cats was overweight at about 18 pounds. tried everything i could think of including "veterinarian-approved" prescription diet food. zero change. i switched her to grain-free (don't recall the brand) and the pounds just melted off down to about her ideal weight. my other cat had skin and coat issues and switching to gf improved things on that score as well.
my current cat doesn't seem to tolerate anything but the freeze-dried food i now give him.
I am in the same boat with my 18 pounder... So was it Grain-Free Weight Management food specifically, or just going to a Grain-Free wet or dry food that worked for your cat?
A lot of vets are contractually obligated to sell certain brands for pet issues. Unfortanately these foods aren't always as good quality as they're made out to be. Look at any of the big name/highly promoted pet foods out there and the ingredients will show you what I mean. Doing your own research and looking around at your options is the best way to find something that will help your pet. Super glad you found a food that works for you.
UA-cam has been recommending I watch this video for 3 days so here I am. Great video! I hope that people who are worried about grain free cat foods come here. IMO the most important things to consider for your cat's diet are 1. are they getting enough moisture? and 2. are they getting enough protein? After that everything else is about what works best for your specific cat and cat parents.
Question - Do you know if there's difference in dental health / tooth decay when looking at grain inclusive (ex. corn) vs grain free (ex. peas) dry foods?
Assuming, of course, that the kibbles are small, since I know that's important for dental health. I feed my cats mostly wet food. I buy brands like Nulo. I use dry foods as toppers and treats. Most of my dry treats are freeze dried pure meat foods, but after adopting some new kittens, my adult cats have tasted "regular" dry cat food* for the first time and they love it! I'm okay using it as a treat, but I do worry about the rice and corn on their teeth. Do you think it's worth my time to switching to one without grains for that reason?
*The dry food I have is Royal Canin Kitten Dry Food. My kittens are teething and they love it. Of course, they get lots of wet food too and as they get older I plan to transition them to a higher moisture diet.
Wish I'd seen this 20 years ago! Very well presented scientific information. Did not know that grain free dry foods could be higher in carbs! due to having to use a carb like sweet potatoes to make it stick together.
Thanks for this video and your opinion. I've always been a proponent of grain free cat food, but I guess the question is also, have cats been domesticated so much that they digest differently than they used to? Cats in the wild seem to mainly eat animals and not much of any carbs besides what's part of their prey. I personally feed my cats less than 30% carbs and look for 50+% protein.
Thank you for allowing that some cats do have grain allergies - my cat's one of those rare dudes who actually does have the allergy and when I take him to other vets way too many of them interrogate me about it, even with records.
Thank you for all your helpful, upbeat videos. We would be interested in your feedback on a long term plan for a ruptured cruciate ligament in a cat. We are currently under the care of a vet and our cat is making improvements, thankfully. Thanks
I have a townhouse , with a litter box downstairs and one upstairs. I have one kitty. I clean the popl out of any box daily as I pass by and notice any odor. I've had cats for almost 45 years. And the clean litter box is the key to long life for your kitty
Short and sweet, but I appreciate the feedback.
Thanks for sharing
My cat is on a gf diet... for the most part.
I have him eating instinct original. Its 81% animal product because i LITERALLY CANNOT AFFORD ANYTHING 100% in the dry food area.
Since hes a grazer and takes forever to eat a normal serving for meals, i just leave it out for him to eat. Ive had him about a year now, and hes the normal weight hes supposed to be.
I also have him on fancyfeast because their patés are also nearly 80% animal ingredients as well.
His coat is healthy, his weight is healthy, he has all kinds of energy.
I chose this diet because /i/ dont have alot of money. Ive wanted a cat for as long as i can remember but didnt know the numerous diseases that can develop.
Diabetes and kidney disease are things i can prevent with his diet. Currently in the market for a water fountain for him to increase water intake, which surprisingly was never an issue for him.
I figure the price tags for his food can mitigate the vet bills later in his life.
Testicular cancer can be prevented by neutering (done)
Gum disease can be prevented by brushing his teeth. All of these things seem excessive, but they keep payments down. So if something major comes around in the future, like he develops cancer in another part of the body as its not a 100% preventable disease, i can treat it where i can.
I love my orange boi so these smaller expenses prevent the 1000s in the future.
Some of the fancy feast wet foods have great ingredients; a lot of people don’t realize that, you just have to check the labels.
Another surprisingly good one that’s affordable and widely available are from Sheba. The little containers can be annoying to open though, but my cats like them the most of any wet food and it doesn’t break the bank!
I love that you're taking a proactive approach. I never expected my cat to get diabetes, but in truth, I wasn't targeting his diet toward preventing this outcome. I'm a lot more aware now that even healthy young cats should be fed quality diets. And yes, Fancy Feast pates are definitely part of my arsenal. Friskies pate is also grain free, but Fancy Feast has significantly more muscle meat making it a better choice.
@@randomanda OMG! I've yet to be able to open a Sheba tray without making a mess. I had to stop feeding it out of my own frustration.
How long on the diet and how are his teeth? I just found out the Virbac toothpaste has glucose, tastes like molasses so I stopped the paste at the moment.
Pretty much all plant-based additives to cat food are unhealthy for cats, whether it's grains, rice, corn, soy, peas, legumes, potatoes or any of the other ones they like to put in. Their bodies did not evolve to digest these materials. Plant materials are added because it's cheaper to produce, not for health reasons. The only way a cat can ever get obese and develop diabetes is when they are fed abnornal amounts of carbs (i.e. plants). Cats need meat and other animals parts, nothing else. However, I cannot afford to feed my cats a 100% animal-based diet, so I still give them a bit of kibble that contains rice, but they mostly get wet food that contains very little plant-based material.
Cats in the wild DO eat vegetables found in their prey's stomachs and intestines. As a matter of fact, that is what they usually eat first. A lion will tear into a deer's intestines and stomach and eat the grass, etc. found there.
I feed diamond naturals and solid gold katzn'flocken w nutrient boost and my cats are normal weight, rarely puke, and are very soft. Grain free.
Can you please review the go! Food lineup on a video or the acana wet cat food
Wet food over dry food for cats, and if you can, raw over wet food
Most dry cat food is processed under high temperature and pressure, which destroys its nutritional value. The air dryed, freeze dried brands are super expensive. I found a dry food, that is grain free, and low in heavy metals. I hope to phase this out eventually. My two, nine month old females, main diet, consists of two wet food brands that are grain free, low in carbs and low in heavy metals. I mix them together, so the cats don't get picky. Beef bone broth is added to the food. I also mix in some raw ground beef or lightly boiled chicken thigh meat. Once a week, I add an "over easy" egg yolk. They eat better than I do. Interesting video. I liked and subscribed.
What are the 2 brands? Thanks.
@@Lisa-cn2uu Back then, I believe I was feeding Tiki Cat After Dark and Nulo Beef and Lamb. I have since learned they are high in calcium and phosphorus. I now feed mostly homemade food. For commercial food, I use Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken. It is low in calcium and phosphorus. It comes in 10 oz. cans which makes it affordable with two cats. Weruva is available at Chewy, Petco and some local pet stores. Happy Sardine Sunday!
@@edschulhof6303 I will try Weruva. Where did you find the info about the heavy metal amounts in the foods? I do have canned sardines - Happy Sardine Sunday too!
@@Lisa-cn2uu Weruva's website has detailed nutrition information for all of their food. Just click on the link for each of their recipes. Scroll down to the Dry Matter Basis chart. The level of calcium, phosphorus and sodium are the most important for cats.
There is a difference between a carb and a starch. All starches are carbs but not all carbs are starches. Starches are usually used as binders in dry cat food because starches are sticky. The vast majority of ingredients in mainstream cat food would never be consumed by a cat living in the wild. Beef, pork, peas, carrots, wheat, corn, soy, etc.
The problem this argument is that feeding your cat dead mice is probably not a feasible sustainable petfood model.also the chances are high that they would eventually get toxoplasmosis.chicken is an excellent natural source of taurine and most cats tolerate it and like it.
@@pwood6532 Raw ground mice are available to purchase as petfood from Hare Today and there is also mouse based canned cat food called Mouser. Raw, canned, and fresh cat food can be made from rabbit, quail, game hens, etc.
There is absolutely no need for cat food manufacturers to include starches like corn, wheat, soy, etc in cat foods. They can easily replace peas and carrots with more nutritionally dense greens and grasses.
Used to give my 2 cats Royal Canin
Hair & Skin Care cats did love it. Sadly did read it was maybe not that good as i tought. So started give them Acana cat food. Not easy since they did not like it that much. I Give them wet food 2 times a day and they have dry food all the time so they can eat when they want to. After some weeks cats fur did get way better more fluffy and soft . Wet food they get Latz Tasty Shreds not the best but is the only wet food they want i tryed all . At least they eat the dry grain free Acane now :)
Always good to here a vet's opinion.
Would also like to hear your opinion on L-Lysine.
Good or bad?
My vet reccomends it but I keep seeing references that say its bad.
So my vet says they now have realized from studies it really does nothing to boost amunity in cats so useless but coast lots
So from what I understand, the reason most vets still don't like grain-free food for cats is because the way the legumes are processed can basically counteract some of the naturally occurring taurine in the animal products, which means even though the food has taurine in it naturally as well as an additive, the cats do not have a high level of bioavailability, so they still get deficient in it, which can lead to the same type of heart disease that dogs get. That said, I have been feeding my cats Orijen dry food, which is grain-free and also ironically has a high level of legumes, but they are very far down the line in the ingredient list, and the only reason I'm doing so, is because one of my cats is allergic to chicken. As a vet, do you have a recommendation as your personal favorite dry cat food, both for those who don't have any health issues, those who do, and those who have allergies?
Thank you!
You're welcome. 😻
I have cats for 10 years. For the first 4 years, my cats were taking normal cat non grain-free food that the vet prescribed to me!!! They got very fat over those 4 years and then didn't have a "perfect" blood work during a check-up. I switched to grain-free cat food, and they became perfectly healthy. The vet was even surprised and asked me to which food I switched. They're about 10yo now and very active and healthy for their age according to the vet. Don't get me wrong, I trust science most of the times but I believe experience always overpowers "scientific evidence" in terms of pet food. So I believe a Grain-free, if it has a good composition with proteins, fat and carbs ratio, is always the much better and superior option to choose if you can't do anything other than Dry Food. ( As you can see from the comments too)
Which food did u use?
@@yoyoyo3439Farmina N&D prime grain free. I recommend.
@@user-pc8bl3qk5k thank you! Any specific one? I tried the urinary one before
Out two sister kitties Moonlight and Shadow are three years old and doing pretty well on grain free dry food. We were feeding one brand of grain free two years ago and then couldn't get it anymore locally. So switched to another brand and they love it! And are pretty healthy with nice coats. The brand is also for sensitive stomachs as well, because Moonlight has a more sensitive stomach than Shadow. We ran out of food recently and couldn't get to the city to pick up their food. So we bought some cheap grain cat food from a small local store. They ate a lot more of it and it seemed to just go through their systems faster. Like they had to eat more of it to get what they needed. Now we make sure we don't run out of the good stuff. I cant' name the brand here. but you can see how good our kitties look on my channel.
Dear Sarah Wooten, I do love and highly appreciate your channel! It is a great help for me because I became a cat parent just few months ago and for the very first time and your videos make all the difference!!! I would like to ask you if you could make a video or give me advise about how to handle the 12 hours in which a cat should stay hungry because of a surgery? There is almost nothing useful on the internet. And I find it hell - both for me and for my cat! My cat is hungriest in the morning. She gets totally desperate if I don't feed her and won't even play... I get so heartbroken that I can't stop crying... I would so much appreciate to hear from you! Thank you so so much!!!
Hi, Mallory here. Unfortunately, Dr. Sarah can't respond to comments on the channel at this time, and as a non-vet, I can't give you the kind of expert advice you deserve. If you create a post about your issue in the AAC community forum, one of our vet moderators should be able to give you a detailed answer. allaboutcats.com/community
@@AllAboutCatsYT Thank you so much dear Mallory!!!
Hello Kitty Dr…
🥰🐈⬛🥰🐈⬛ from my twin boys in SE Michigan….
My daughter has two cats that will “attack “ a bag or bowl of chips whenever they can. But my indoor female cat doesn’t seem to care for any type of human food. And she’s not a big fan of cat grass. How ever she does love to chew on plastic bags😒
Re chewing on plastic bags: As long as they don't swallow the plastic, I wouldn't worry about this behaviour. I've always viewed it as them sort of using it as dental floss!
Great topic! I often question the adds on commercials of cat foods advertising that they have veggies in them that is nutritious for cats when cats are obligate carnivores and lack enzymes necessary to break down veggies. Wouldn't that make anyone sick if they couldn't digest something from not having the right anatomy to do so?
we can't digest fiber, but it's good for us, cats also can't digest grain, but food has it, the point is there's either food with grain or with vegetables, but non is only meat
@@ailidh-Bcn There are actually several cat foods that are only meat or 95%+ meat, the carbohydrate requirement is a kibble thing. Low-carb is more important than the carb source, as cats do not have the infrastructure to digest more than about 10-15% carbohydrate and naturally only get 2.8% of predigested carbohydrates in their diet
@@elle7483 I know, but my cats only eat dry, and the 95% meat is too expensive, and very hard to find, since the common belief is that expensive brands like royal canin, iams and such are very healthy, the vets and stores make money our of advertising.
and the grain free industry is also making money making people feel like bad pet owners if we don't feed them luxury all meat diet.
saying that domestic cats have to feed like wild cats, when the average length of time a domestic cats lives, more than duplicates the life expectancy of wild cats, so people must not have been feeding domestics cats so bad.
feed them the best you can, and don't feel bad if you can't afford the more expensive food, after all they already eat better than us.
@@ailidh-Bcn The point of my correction to your comment was to point out that carbohydrates aren't a required part of food and there are foods that are only meat, any excessive carbohydrate inclusion is not for the benefit of the cat. You insinuated that it's impossible to have food without carbohydrates. I corrected and pointed out that, while it is nearly impossible to find dry food without carbohydrates, it is not at all impossible to find cat food that is all meat or contains only a species-appropriate amount of carbohydrates.
I also mentioned that the carb source and complete carb-freedom is not as important for cats as amount. That's why Fancy Feast flaked fish (which contains under 8% grains and is some of the cheapest wet food), would be considered more species-appropriate than the more expensive Weruva's Grandma's chicken soup flavor (which has 24% carbohydrates, despite none of it being grains) on their carbohydrate composition
I wasn’t commenting on your, or anyone’s feeding practices. Just cat physiology and the food market. “Luxury” is a marketing term, but cat nutrition and digestion is a science. The science around cats and carbohydrates always concludes that cats can ”tolerate” carbohydrates and get calories from them, as well as indicates that cats have low ability to digest carbohydrates, carbohydrates mess with cat’s blood sugar regulation, and there is likely is an upper limit of tolerable carbohydrate inclusion. But there is no definitive research into what that limit is because the major food corporations aren’t funding that research (there are assumptions based on their physiology, enzyme distribution, and natural diet). Because of that, manufacturers can include whatever quantity of carbohydrates they want into the diet for no purpose other than cheap calories or a binding agent and call it “backed by science.”
Domestic cats don’t have differing physiology to wild cats, so when we’re talking about what is biologically appropriate for them, it is going to be similar to feral cats and feral cats are relevant. Feral cats live shorter lives due to environmental factors like fights with other animals, food scarcity, parasites, infections, and lack of medical care, but none of that is the nutrition composition of their diet so we can’t consider lifespan as relevant to nutrition aside from food scarcity. However, domestic cats have a higher rate of nutrition-related diseases, such as diabetes, kidney disease, renal failure, and FLUTD than they did decades ago when more cats were indoor/outdoor and kibble was less popular. That is still correlational, but is relevant to nutritional composition beyond food availability. Kibble specifically is indicated by research to be harmful for cats, most notably in the fact that cats eating dry-only diets get 30-50% lower total water intake across multiple studies (which is chronic dehydration and raises their risk for all water-based illnesses and organ failure), but also in that the food looses substantial nutrient quality in the pressurization process and requires a carbohydrate binder which provides very little nutritional value, meaning that most of the nutrients cats need have to be added back synthetically at the end. Kibble should honestly never be used as an example for cat nutrition in the same way that comparing fast food meals shouldn’t be an example of human nutrition. Fast food exists and is popular and sometimes is all that a parent can feed their child (which is better than nothing), but we don’t talk about the whole of human nutrition while thinking about fast food. But, for some reason, we often talk about cat food with kibble as the default, which is a problem
Cats in the wild eat the digested vegetables found in their prey, such as grass eaten by deer, in their stomachs and intestines. The vegetables in canned food is cooked, so they can digest it. Same thing with humans. We can't digest some raw vegetables like potatoes or winter squash, but cooking it helps us digest it.
I adopted Belladonna as a 2 year old from a local rescue center. She weighed 10.1 lbs. and I started her on Orijen fit and trim. I was able to keep her just under 11 lbs feeding her mostly canned and some dry (which she prefers). I decided to switch her to Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Salmon Kibble Cat Dry Food and gradually added it to her Orijen. Well she gained a bunch of weight, probably up to 12 by now. Yes I play laser and other games every day. I think it’s Elseys food. I’m switching back to all Orijen fit & trim. I didn’t realize it could be the amount of carbohydrates. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
2 thumbs up dang good info
My girl used to get diarrheoa mixed with blood. After talking with a vet, the vet concluded she may have a food intolerance. He gave me the option of running tests to pinpoint exactly what she was intolerant to or he could just put her on the generic food they put most food sensitive cats onto and save the money of testing, especially if she'd end up on the food anyway. I took the food option, but in hindsight I probably could have done the tests and then found a good commercial food for her to eat and save in a lot of money for expensive vet prescribed food. After several years of expensive vet food, I decided I wanted to try experimenting myself with what foods she'd be able to tolerate, after all, it is just an intolerance, not an allergy, at most she'd just get some diarrhoea, and I'd just gotten a new cat with no intolerances so any food she couldn't eat would just go to him. Grain-free is a fad at the moment, and I learned that there is a such thing as grain allergies. So since there was a decent range in the market that were easy to identify, I started there. She is 3/4 on a grain-free commercial food and 1/4 on the vet food and so far so good. But as I learn more about cat nutrition, the more I wonder... was she actually intolerant? Or was she just on a shit supermarket food? (I don't remember what it was exactly as this was when my mum was still in charge of feeding her, but it was whiskas or friskies). She is now on an ACANA grain-free food, which, even their grain-inclusive food is miles above friskies and whiskas. So my next experiment will be trying her with the same brand but grain-inclusive. I want her to have an inclusive diet as possible and not restrict if unnecessary, and this video saying how grain intolarences are rare has helped me solidify the decision to trial my girl with a grain-inclusive diet. At least if she has or doesn't have a reaction to the food, I'll know for sure. And I'll know that there is an option out there for her if she does have a reaction that is significantly cheaper than the vet food.
Interested in hearing the vet's opinion.
I've tried to get my cats off grains.
I started with my recently passed cat and her sister, though I did find with them it was better to do a mix of dry food and wet as a daily treat. They didn't eat much wet even though they liked it.
The two I have now actually were stray feral cats living outside. I can't go grain free on one of them, because she gets crystals easily. Unfortunately, I'm stuck feeding a bit of the proplan UR mixed with a grain free.
I tried to do wet for them, but only the one likes wet and will only eat so much of it.
The other will lick at it then try to bury it.
So my back up to this is they get freeze dried real organ treats or treats with organ meat. Both love them.
I wish I could do raw, but don't have the resources to make and keep it.
You sound like a wonderful human. If everyone were only half decent as you, the world would have a chance! ❤
I just make sure to not have any corn, wheat or soy as she mentioned earlier in the vid, plus no preservatives. That’s why I really like Blue Buffalo! Then when it comes to water, I know a lot say tap water is fine, but I honestly buy cheap non-branded purified water as cats have super sensitive kidneys, so it’s worth the few bucks a month! Great vid as always :)
Which Blue Buffalo is that?
I think your talking about their Blue wilderness line, the food I use that has no corn/wheat/soy is Purina beyond in which the carbohydrate source is oats
As a vet i and my colleagues dislike blue buffalo...just a hyper marketed brand..lots of urinary crystalluria ..dry skin..recalls..and all for a pricebthat you could buy a top notch prescription brand for.
@@pwood6532 LOL you’re not only completely wrong, as a Vet of course you will say to buy a prescription brand as they are the most expensive and benefit only the vets. Blue Buffalo is rated among the best on any reviews you search, your claim has no evidence to back it up. Don’t bother replying I won’t read it, instead spend the time to go back to Medical school.
@@EndoV2 What a hilarious comment!Why would I want to go to medical school...I dont want to be an MD.
I wish you would do a video on the importance of a wet food over dry food diet! I think there is nothing worse than feeding a cat nothing but kibble! Prey is 70% moisture, as is our bodies (all mammals)! I think the macros of a diet is the most important place to start! Feeding nothing but dry food will wreck the kidneys, and cause dehydration! I know it's more expensive, but even if you can give them wet food a couple of times a week it will make a difference!
Only some of my cats have tolerated a wet food diet, most of them will refuse to eat it exclusively, I tried for months. Cats really do like their crunchies, sometimes I wonder if it's instinctual. Though they don't really chew their food, I think when they do accidentally bite it, they must find biting down on dry food more pleasurable than biting down on the wet slop of canned food. I've wasted more wet food trying a wet food diet than I ever have with a dry food diet. One of these days I'm gonna get one of those fancy watering fountains though ♥️
@@jen2804 Sure, and most people would rather pig out on chips than eat broccoli!
@@jen2804 Get the Zeepet fountain. Best design I've found; I've been ordering and giving them away.
@@lynnmartz8739 will look into it! Thanks!
You are right. But our late cat refused to eat wet food. He died of kidney disease when he was 8. I never had a cat before that only ate dry food. Off course we gave him the best dry food possible and as extra's for moisture cat soup and cat milk.
I've been giving my cat grain free food on the assumption that it would be better because i assumed grains would be naturally rare in a cat's diet and that grain-free would be lower in carbohydrate and thus protect from excessive weight gain and possible diabetes. Thank you for giving me some good information ❤️
Grain free is always better for a cat. Always. They're not omnivores like dogs. They're not just carnivores, but obligate carnivores.
hey doc, how do we feel about the special canin indoor dy cat food? the one with the blue half circle?? i have a 1 year old Maine coon and I'm about to switch her dry food from kitten to grown cat : [ i don't know what to pick!!!
Hi from Ontario Canada great video. Here as we are trying to address 2.5 month old Siamese kitten loose stools. She has been fully dewormed. Tried pro / pre biotics, currently trying grain free diet. Next on list will be limited diet and then elimination diet no chicken ect. She doesn't throw up, has tons of energy and is growing accordingly. Our previous Siamese had a stomach like a goat. Not sure if this will clear up with time and age. Videos like this give us great insight, Thanks.
I believe pumpkin firms up their stool. Your can either try pureed pumpkin or the powder
What brand of food do you recommend that are good for the cats? and if boiled and deboned mackerel fish is good for everyday consumption? how many times a day do we need to feed our cats? Thank you Doctor.
watching from 🇵🇭 😍😍😍
Can u guys cover essential oil in diffusers? I've read online that some essential oils are harmful and some aren't.
Trying to get the best quality cat food you can afford is such a confusing thing!
I've been feeding food labelled "grain free" (which is more expensive) to my cat, since I got her. She likes it, but I always try to look at how much animal product is in the ingredients list and even that can be a little confusing at times.
It's the "Fussy Cat" brand, I don't know if it's only in my country, but if anyone has any information - I'm more than willing to hear your point of view 😸
Anyone have a brand recommendation? That’s low low carb? Adopting soon and doing my research atm. Assuming I should do a dry food wet food topper to boost over all protein value.
Has anyone examined the ingredient called Calcium Carbonate which is ground up limestone? This ingredient is found in some cat and dog food which I will not purchase because I've read where doctors are saying this substance clogs up arteries. C.C. is found not only in some pet food but also in some human vitamins. Thank you.
IF calcium clogs arteries, calcium carbonate would be the safest to use as it’s not well absorbed.
But that’s a big IF because they don’t understand well whether there is an actual link between calcium and cardiovascular disease, only that calcium appears in plaques.
Apparently there was one single study a few years ago that caused a hubbub over calcium supplements but it’s still unknown and unproven.
This is one you’ve definitely got to choose for yourself; there’s no clarity to it.
Personally I think maybe some people are trying to sell more expensive supplements with “better” calcium- that could potentially be more dangerous! 🤷♀️
My cat is so fussy it's frustrating sometimes. How do you know if a cat has an allergy to a certain food? Throwing up? Scratching ears?
A 2022 survey by APOP, shows 61% of cats are overweight or obese. This is because 81% of cat owners state they feed dry kibble all or most of the time. Cats do not need carbs. Any wet food is better than any dry food. My two 15 month old females are now eating chicken thigh meat or raw ground beef every day. Every other day or so, a grain free wet cat food. No more throwing up. So far, no hairballs. I do brush them frequently.
In the past I paid one of the vet nutrition universities to formulate a diet for my cat that was homemade. They need calcium and several supplements, especially taurine to prevent heart problems. They learned decades back that not adding taurine to cat food caused cardiomyopathy. I read that taurine levels may lower too much as fresh meat ages. It seemed to be too much powder volume to mix in the food. I was told I think it was 10% calories of our human food as a snack would be OK to not cause a nutritional imbalance. The vet list was from the Balance It website. I don't like that Balance it uses baking soda which can cause GI bleeding and other problems. There are raw diets made already balanced. A lady that did raw said her cat got toxoplasmosis parasite in the liver and died so she will not feed raw anymore. This parasite can cause blindness and schizophrenia in humans. They do get carbs from the prey animals stomach, but I was thinking the prey animal has included enzymes to digest the carbs for the cat. A post stated she gave her kitten the best- no carb and later her cat had cardiomyopathy. When the dogs fed grain free had cardiomyopathy, cats were included but a lesser number than dogs. Wish you and your cats good health.
Hi Dr. Sarah are you providing online consultations? How could I register for it? Thanks.
I would reach out to her through her website: www.drsarahwooten.com/
@@AllAboutCatsYT big thanks!
My cat's opinion is he doesn't like grain free food of any kind. I tried to switch him and he said no dice😸 Now the newest challenge is trying to get him on Senior food, no problem with the kibble but he's not liking the canned. My boy is 16.
Maybe it’s the sugar he’s Addicted to?
I really need a suggestion for a low sodium dry cat food just diagnosed last week with heart disease. I have fed grain free for the past 7 years, thinking it was better. I need to buy a new food today, thank you
Im mixing up the food scenario with raw food with wet food & wellness core dry food. I figure hes getting the best of 3 worlds. I also throw in cooked chicken plain nothing added.
IAMS Cat food how safe is it my cat is been eating it for about six months I would like your opinion thank you.
Can you make a video on cat allergy shots? My cat was recently diagnosed with allergies to dust & food mites. She just started allergy shots. She licks all the hair off her tummy. So far we haven't seen any improvement.
That’s happening to my cat too! He has licked off the fur on his belly & inner thighs too! We can’t figure out what’s going on 😔
Freeze your cats dry food for at least 24 hours (and thaw slowly to prevent mold) to get rid of all the mites! Helped my baby with her allergies, she's not itching nearly as much.
@kathyriley9276 yes she does her inner thighs too. So far the allergy shots r not helping but we're still trying. Please post if u find a solution
@@LoveHardFightHard we've been doing that since Oct. Keep her extra food in the freezer & her working food in the fridge. So far, no improvement
@@sunsetatshabooms4558 I took him off of chicken it’s been almost two months, so we will wait to see. Poultry free diet is what we are hoping to be the cure
I had a male cat live til 18 strictly eating Hills science diet, then I Moved to switzerland where hills was expensive even across in german and I switched the food but he lived until eighteen. I need to change the food for my cat. Who was just diagnosed with heart disease? But when I look up hills, the ingredients are not good and it has a bad rating online, so I don't know what to do. They are currently eating Crave indoor salmon and chicken, and Tiki Cat born carnivore indoor. But I am soooo confused how to find a good low sodium dry cat food , needed asap!!! Thanks for any help
When I adopted my cat Mabel, I was told she had a grain allergy, which I do believe to be true because she threw up when she got my other cat Harper’s regular food. So they are now both on grain-free.
We are using Blue Wilderness.
Do you think this is ok?
Hi friend, I used to work at a boutique pet food store so I'm going to throw my two cents into the ring. Blue Buffalo makes high quality food, but their brand has a history of food recalls. Personally, I avoid that brand for that reason alone. I am very picky. I use a similar brand that has never had any recalls. I use Nulo but there are lots of other great options. Sometimes it's all about what is available and comfortable for you as the pet parent :)
What about beans as a replacement for grains?
My girlfriend has celiacs so we have to avoid gluten. Do you have any dry foods that you would recommend that are gluten free but not grain free? I only see treats and wet food when I add gluten free to my search 😢
The way I interpreted this video is she is confirming that she would advise a grain inclusive diet which is also what my vet said…but reading all of the comments, everyone is thanking her and saying their cat is on a grain free diet? Which is it?
The core point is that grain-free diets tend to be a bit gimmicky and don't offer what you might assume they would; the premise of grain sensitivities is flawed to begin with. But grain-free diets aren't necessarily bad, either.
@@AllAboutCatsYT thanks for clarifying! I think I’ll stick with a grain inclusive diet as my new vet recommended. 😊
Our vet also strongly advised including grain in the diet (possibly due to kidney issues) so I've been having the same confusion seeing all the hype about grain-free options. It's also been similarly difficult finding any alternatives to hills science diet (which seems to do fine but it would be nice to see if she prefers any other brands) since almost everything is grain free, especially the high end stuff with well documented ingredient origins.
@@StephenSmith304 my vet sold me hills science diet at our visit. I took a closer look at the bag once I got home and realized I wasn’t too happy with some of the ingredients…I finished the bag cuz I didn’t want to waste it and figured I’d search for a different brand while my cat was eating the hills food. I searched high and low for a high quality grain inclusive food and came up with literally a couple of brands. I settled on “Wellness complete health.” I think wellness is a good mid tier brand and the ingredients seem better than hills ingredients. I really wish some of the higher end brands offered grain inclusive food cuz for me, budget isn’t an issue but they simply don’t offer it unfortunately. I do recommend wellness though as it seems like the better option over hills! I think the whole “grain free” is just marketing
@@mirandaduffy4367 Good to know! I think the hills science wet food might be alright if you only tried the dry option, our cat needs wet food and the hills science diet cans look alright, at least it has way more meat in the top 5 ingredients compared to the dry food. I also found firstmate which looks to be almost entirely salmon and rice with no other fillers but I have yet to get it to try.
Our poor boy is allergic to SO much. Egg, wheat, corn, beef, fish, just to name a few. We currently have him on a wet food that's low ingredient. Had to go with chicken because it's his lowest allergy score, at a very low but it still rated! Still, both his constant itching and his digestive issues have calmed substantially. It was quite a challenge finding something appropriate for an obligate carnivore with so many allergies.
Would you please tell us what the wet food is? My kitty has the same issues. He is on Hill's prescription d/d dry food. He won't eat the wet.
@@elizabethmeadows6469 We're currently using Wellness complete kitten pate chicken entree. No grains, no egg, no fish protein. Little bit of fish oil but it seems to be ok since it's the protein that causes the allergies.
@@elizabethmeadows6469 Both of our cats are still under 1 year old so we're trying to stick with kitten version for the wet. Once they get over a year old and we go to transition them to adult wet food, we'll be switching to the adult version of the Wellness Complete Health Pate Chicken Entree. Ingredient-wise, it's pretty much the same as the kitten version, just in different formulation for adult nutritional needs. For dry, we are using the Wellness Complete Health Grain-Free Indoor Chicken Recipe. That's an adult kibble, but we only supplement with it as snacks so it's not their primary source of nutrition.
Overall, Wellness is not cheap, but we find it to be more affordable than Science Diet, and with a better ingredient panel overall. I hope this helps and good luck with your poor little allergic baby.
@@ladykilgore2337 Thank you so much!
Hi , never give sugar or derived as glucose o other things, cats need meet and fish and taurine, and less fat. Is the good things i give to my little one.
I discovered a lot of potatoes in some grain free food, do a cat eat potatoes??
Thank you for this vidéo, Dr Wooten
No, potatoes aren't a normal part of the feline diet.
@@AllAboutCatsYT I'm very happy with your response and feel honoured about
I'm french and have the feeling we have lot of retard in everything about cat food, I feel guilty about my cat's renal desease cause we were told to food him just with kibbles till last years. I try to give him more grain free food with the Hill's KD and Royal Canin Renal, with German pet food grain free (they are more advanced then we are), but potatoes and even spinach (oxalate?!) seem not such a good choice to replace grains. Now, with your good advices, I learn and know better what it's good or not, but it is still hard to find real other choices, that you have in US. I thank you so much for your advices and presence on UA-cam, so I can ameliorate my behavior and maybe, I hope, my cat's health
hi can you do the introduction on our pet product? and please help us to quote a price ?
I would love to know what prescription foods are the best
My cat has Manx syndrome and is urinarily and fecally incontinent. How does this affect his tolerance for grains?
Isn t the base of that discussion, that cats in the wild eat aprox 1-3% carbs only ( that comes from the content of the stomach of a mouse or bird they catch).
Plus cats naturally take 80% of their moisture intake over food. With grain or other carbs added they have to drink a lot more and some cats are too lazy for that and that is not good for their kidneys. To me it is like a bit of a discussion if it would be good for a human to eat a piece of paper every day (or people that ate bark during war). There are no big studies about it, probably does not add any nutrients but probably is not bad for you either. But why would you do it.
I'm aware of this concern with grain free, but at this point it's hard to find food that ISN'T grain free!! Any recommendations?
You can cook cat food at home.
Origen, Acana, Bravery, Wellfed canned food is what I get.
Wet food. Grain-free wet food is usually low-carb wet food and therefor doesn't have these issues. This issue is pretty unique to kibble, which requires a binder
Maybe we should feed saffron and bergamot to cats and dogs..
Hi mam !
my cat can't eat only drink water sometime what happens with her how to recover her
I have a chubby guy. I’m trying to get him to eat something other than dry food, which I understand is high in carbs. I got some grain free food for all three of my kitties. He’s not having it though. My girls aren’t thrilled with it. But after watching this video, maybe it’s not that good for my girls as they are hypothyroid with kidney issues, and one is diabetic with asthma. I’m trying to figure out the best way to feed them.
Any wet food you can get into them is best. Fancy Feast is a good cheap option that most cats will go for (just check the labels, some lines are better than others - classic pate and gourmet naturals pates are both food, and creamy delights is pretty good). For dry food, focus more on the analytical composition than any bag labels to make sure that the carbohydrate content is as low as possible. The diabetic cat should be on a food with under 5-8% carbohydrate. The only dry food I know that fits that criteria is Dr. Elsey's
@@elle7483 thank you for the information! Fancy feast pate is the only food the girls like. I’ve tried Weruva and Reveal, they don’t like them . Seriously the food seems to just be incredibly expensive tiny cans of plain chicken and tuna! I wonder if I could just give them roast chicken (they like that!) Years ago I looked into making my cats food. But all the info said that you had to include a lot of special additives and it was dangerous to their health. But now the commercial trend seems to be limited ingredients or just meat. Reveal’s tuna is just that, tuna.
@@cebundy The Fancy Feast classic pate is a great option for them to eat! So if they're eating that I'd say stick with it. The biggest thing for cats is to eat a primarily wet food (at least 50% of bodyweight using 1lb = 1oz daily), low-carb, animal-based, complete and balanced diet. 100% wet food is actually what cats need, but if you can't afford it you can use any amount above 50% (the bare minimum) and add as much extra water to the wet food as the cat will tolerate.
Avoid fish flavors, as fish may be linked to thyroid problems. BPA is also linked, but I believe Purina cans are BPA free (but the lowest BPA risk is pouched food, all cans have a slight risk). These links are speculative though, so we don't know much about it. Depending on how severe the kidney issues are you might need to check phosphorus levels. Water is the most important thing for kidney issues, but phosphorus is the most important nutrient and you want it to be low, especially if it's being fed in its inorganic source (which is what's in most commercial food). The tricky part is that phosphorus tends to be linked to protein, so sometimes kidney cats need more of the food to be made up of fat instead of protein, which can be difficult to find in today's market. Weruva actually has some of the lowest phosphorus foods, despite being high protein, so it sucks that your cats don't like it
The price of the other foods is usually due to more care in the ingredient quality, sourcing, and manufacturing process (Purina can offset this in FF by having other high-carb foods and dry foods be overpriced, but smaller brands can't do that). The meat tends to be raised with more care and is more specific in its role in the formulation (for example, Fancy Feast tends to use things like "meat by-products," which means they can source any organ from any animal for the formula and it'll count under that label - AKA they can use whatever is most easily available on a given day - but Weruva foods will always specify something like "chicken liver" or "beef lung," which means they can *only* use that specific animal part). That also plays into the sourcing of the meat, as the more expensive brands will tend to use more ethically raised meat (which costs more). Of course, all of this is not always the case and every brand has their own reasons (and sometimes things *are* just overpriced), but that's the general market tendency with the meat-only or meat-primary foods
You can give them roast chicken as a small portion of their diet, but not too much of it. Since cats naturally eat raw whole prey (fur, blood, organs, bones - all of it), cooking just the muscle meat doesn't have the full nutrient profile. The simplest way to home feed a cat would actually be to give them a varied assortment of euthanized small birds and mice, plus some trace algae. But whole prey is a big jump from commercial cat food. Most people might do a cooked chicken meal, which isn't similar enough to the small prey animals and anything water-soluble gets cooked out of the meat, so therefor you have to add in extra supplements and other organ meats. Raw homecooked food gets closer to whole prey because the nutrients aren't being cooked out and you can get closer to the natural small prey animals but you still have to balance the muscle-organ-bone ratio. And then whole prey would be basically no extra work
The danger to cat's health is primarily from people who attempt to feed homemade food without properly researching cat nutrition to understand these nutrients, therefor resulting in deficiencies that cause the cat to get sick. The safest thing to do is work with a certified veterinary nutritionist or experienced feline nutritionist to formulate complete meals. Canned cat food also has to add a bunch of supplements if they don't use enough muscle meat, organ meats, and bone (that's what all the extra ingredients on the label are). There's also a lot of talk about potential bacterial contamination in raw food, but cats are extremely efficient at processing raw meat (due to the short digestive tract) and don't tend to actually get sick. And where you source the meat makes a big difference in the risk of contamination (is it just from the grocery store? a butcher? is it expected to be fed raw or cooked by the person selling it?). The concern there is more to the humans in the house handling the meat and feces of the cat, but practicing proper hygiene procedures (which people should be doing with any food, especially meat!) drastically reduce that risk. Feline-Nutrition, CatInfo, and BalanceIT are websites run by qualified professionals experienced homemade diets, if you want more information
The biggest takeaway is stick to low-carb wet food and do a lot of research into nutrition and food safety if you're thinking about homemade
What's your take on kibble vs wet Vs freeze dried food?
The AllaboutCats team as a whole is a proponent of cat food needing to contain an appropriate water amount. Every study I've read that looks at hydration has found that dry-only cats get 30-50% lower total water intake (despite drinking more water orally). Which is in line with cats evolving as desert animals and having poor water drinking physiology
That puts all kibble in a subpar position
Thank you for summarizing this for us, Elle. As long as it's rehydrated, freeze-dried cat food is generally the best option out of all of them, offering excellent species-appropriate, meat-based nutrition that's highly bioavailable.
Kitty was showing signs of diabetic, drinking a lot of water and peeing constantly. Switched to grain free wet food and small amount of grain free kibble. Diabetic signs have disappeared completely, however, her poop stinks to high heaven. Have to light scented candles, lol. 🕯🕯🕯
I changed my dogs and cats food but then worried about cardiomyopathy..so I changed it again. Changed to Hill Science. My cats are overweight as indoor rescues. Hopefully this helps I dont want them to be diabetic🤞
I use Dr Elseys Clean Protein and I was told that it’s grain free but help together with gelatin instead of excess carbohydrates. Is this true? Is this a good maintenance food for them? They’re in their fourth bag of it.
Yes and yes! It's our number one recommendation here: ua-cam.com/video/w9k8NKFe3Tc/v-deo.html&
@@AllAboutCatsYT thank you so much! I just found this channel and I love it!
I'm not sure if Dr. Wooten would answer my question, but if anyone know the answer, please kindly tell me. My friend's adult cat likes to eat fabric, like blanket, even her own clothes the owner put on her. What can be the cause and how to fix it? Thank you.
I don't know about the treatment, but the condition is called pica, so you might want to research pica in cats for suggestions. Good luck!
@@kittyasylum Thanks a lot!
Not doing grain free anymore unfortunately, my cats struvite situation got significantly worse after starting the grain free super premium food. So now we are on purina's urinary cat chow and raw chicken breast :)
Do you read the ingredients and compare what’s in all the foods?
I’ve seen they are just about the same with lots of gmoed foods in them which blocks their vitamins n minerals that they need.
Any animal or human eating gmoed foods cannot absorb vitamins and minerals. Thus, illnesses eventually happen.
So I’m going to try organ mats and raw organic chicken to see if that is a good option to help with my cats health.
Right now I’ve only got my oldest cat with me. She is around 15 years and she is on Purina grain free foods.
So far no health issues with her.
I feed her a bit of meat ( raw and cooked) when I’m eating it but she mostly snubs her nose to it.
I’ve never tried giving her organ meat yet. I have chicken livers in the back of the freezer that I’m going to try on her ….cuz even with lots of coating n onions, my husband won’t eat them n so I eat them alone. LOL
So my cat will get to share them with me.
🙏🤍🕊🙏🕊🤍🙏
Oh and I heard never feed a cat things like garlic n etc….I try to remember to cut up the raw and cook a bit separately for her. I don’t always remember. She still wants to smell everything but hardly ever eats anything. She shakes her paw at the disdain she has for most all foods! LOL
She still plays like crazy every morning. So far!
😊
I prefer to feed my cat rice, than potatoes.
Thank you so so so much because I have been contemplating changing to grain free cat food for my 11-year-old cats but I think I’m going to stick with feeding them regular cat food. I have a hard time with one because all she wants is just the gravy. 🙄
I'm trying to parse out where my biases lie and where scientific information begins.
I've been doing the grain free diet for years with my cat because obviously, it makes sense that they don't/shouldn't eat grains. I've followed along the Jackson Galaxy's of the cat world, but can't bring myself to do the raw cat diet for many reasons. My cat needs dental care and I'm going to be shelling out for a teeth cleaning in a few months, but I've always been skeeved by the dental dry foods because they're full of grains and things I was taught was "bad for cats".
At the end of the day, I want what's best for my cat. I've bought dental food for him and mixed it into the food rotation. But will this improve his health? Only time will tell.
Our vet told us at our first kitten appointment that our 7m old kitten’s gums were red indicating a gum disease (forget the name) and wanted us to do X-rays and and teeth cleaning. I took her considering but as we left I told my hubby let’s go get toothpaste/toothbrush (which I was already planning to do but hadn’t yet) and I got the greenie dental treats, a bunch of chew toys (all recommendations from vet ortho website), etc. On her next check up our vet says oh her gums look better, maybe she was just teething 🤦♀️😤 … I said to my husband as we left… “excuse me? Just teething!? We went from a disease to teething!?” She also wasn’t happy we were on a grain-free diet and highly encouraged us to buy their food as it’s the best- Purina, Royal Canin, Hill’s (oh and that she should only be on a dry food diet, wet wasn’t needed). This coming from a highly recommended vet hospital by the community.
Anyways, my rant took a detour lmao… my point was we have been brushing her teeth to avoid any cleaning as I don’t want to put her under for any procedures that we don’t really need to do. Have you tried brushing your cats teeth and doing dental treats!? I read that if the kibble isn’t big enough to force them to chew it won’t be beneficial as cats don’t tend to chew their food. The rip (if needed) & swallow. From my understanding most dental kibble is too small so they don’t chew. The greenies are big enough that our cat has to chew.
@@lseh Good foods, for cleaning a cat's teeth are uncooked chicken or turkey gizzards or necks. Small, uncooked chicken bones, such as a wing. There is a product called Silvervines. All are better than dry cat food. Hills website says that corn is good for cats. Absolutely not. Cats can't process corn. Sounds like you are doing right by your cat
If it's one of the clinical dental kibbles, chances are it will, because they have to be coated in a plaque reducing agent that's approved by the VOCH. That's also what stops the carbohydrate plaque from forming that would happen with any other kibble (since cats lack amylase to break it down in their mouths). The nutrition of those foods are still poor for cats, they're just basically also coated in toothpaste
The best balance of proper nutrition and teeth cleaning is probably from giving the cat a little of the kibble 15-30 minutes after each meal
The best dental cleaning, however, is teeth brushing with a VOCH approved toothpaste. If your cat will tolerate that, it's the best solution (and what the VOCH gives as the 'gold standard')
@@lseh oh wow!! I took my 7 month old kitten to the vet a few days ago and was told THE EXACT SAME THING! I.e., that I should be feeding one of the “top 3” brands, either Purina, Hills Science or Royal Canin, and that I should be feeding Kibble, not wet, as “Wet Food promotes obesity.” WHAT????? Are these vets being paid by the “Big 3” brands???
@@oliveoil4380 it’s frustrating. We’ve stuck with them for a year and I still don’t like going even though we have seen a few different vets there. Thinking of switching for her next appointment.
As obligate carnivores, how can cats digest grains and vegetables found in cat food?
Hello, I'm suprised to hear you say food allergies are triggered essentially by proteins, therefore can't be triggered by grains (if I understood correctly?) since there are proteins in grains.
One of these proteins is gluten, which may cause non-allergic issues in humans, such as non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. I guess such inflammatory mechanisms may exists in cats and could be linked to things such as neurological and behavioral issues, just like in human?
I believe she was basically saying common allergies are caused by proteins. Like beef chicken soy etc not that they can’t have allergies to grains
Yes humans shouldn’t eat grains but basically this vet offered expaination as to why they must add them or than substitute sweet potatoes or tapacoica they must be added as a thickener cats are able to put up with that.
They can be triggered by grains, vets just tend to say that it's rare for grains to be an allergy source, as it's more commonly an animal protein that would cause an issue. That is true, but we don't have good data on grain allergies because they are significantly less reported on, as well as less likely to result in a vet visit. So, it's possible the actual occurrence of them is much higher than the data indicates
Thank you for the video. I’m still confused about something: should cats eat grains at all my understanding is that since they don’t occur in the wild, they should not eat grains.
👍🏻
You have unknowingly explained to me how grains got into an obligate carnivores diet in the first place.
When metals were in short supply during the world war, we needed to put food in bags and popularized kibble. It's all been downhill for cats since then
Can cats get infections laying on a cold ground in the winter? My father says no the squirrels don't get them...not sure u can compare a cat to a squirrel either. He thinks animals are more resistant than humans...
Interesting question and conversation! I'm not sure what sort of infections you're thinking of, but they won't get infections simply from lying on cold ground. Of course, any open wounds could get infected if they're contacting dirt, but cold ground alone won't cause infection.
What about grain free wet food? We have been giving our cat that for years and she seems to tolerate it better than dry food, even GF dry food. She also lost about 6 lbs when we switched to GF wet food.
In my opinion, I think grain free wet cat food is definitely better than cat food full of grains. Unlike dry food, the carbs don't make up for the food. Cats, no matter how you look at it, are obligate carnivores so the added grains and vegetables aren't necessary. If anyone reading this comment is feeding their cat wet food with grains and it's working well for them and it always has been, good for you. Stick to it since cats can become picky. I'm not vet this is just based off the research I have done
Grain-free wet food is significantly more likely to be low-carb, so it's usually good. They can still add other vegetables or starches if they want (so check the label to see if it's like 2% as a thickner or 20%), but wet food doesn't have to be bound with carbs like kibble does so they're already usually lower carb in the first place. Wet food is more species-appropriate by default just due to the water content, but the ability to have higher meat content and no actual requirement for carbohydrates in the formula bolsters that even more
Any dental problems? Which brand? Thank you.