Dry food has become a part of the daily lives of busy cat owners. They are easy to use and animals love them. Manufacturers assure the benefits of this product, but numerous reviews claim the negative impact of such a diet. Therefore, before purchasing, you should find out whether dry food is harmful for cats. Veterinarians do not give a definite answer, because much depends on the composition of the food and the characteristics of the animal itself. This article will help answer this and other questions related to cat nutrition.
Benefit or harm?
This method of feeding is in great demand among animal owners. The advantages of feed are its long-term storage and balance. You can add food for a day and not be afraid that the animal will be hungry in the absence of the owner. Cats eat food with pleasure, and this is not surprising.
But is dry cat food harmful? Many well-known brands of products contain components that stimulate appetite and improve taste. Thanks to modern technology, low-quality feed appears attractive to animals. Eating such a product becomes addictive, and the cat begins to refuse other food.
Many foods are oversaturated with carbohydrates, which are harmful to animals. Such a diet can negatively affect the condition of the stomach and kidneys. 24/7 access to food causes obesity in cats, which is unnatural for animals. It is better to use two meals a day.
Dry food is the main cause of urolithiasis in cats. The reason is insufficient saturation of the body with fluid. Also, high carbohydrate content in food increases sugar levels and can lead to diabetes. To avoid this, you should choose meat-based food.
What should be the composition of a good dry food?
To determine the best components for your pet, you should first pay attention to the product class and manufacturer's brand. Based on this, today there are several types of nutrition:
- Economy class. This type of dry food is the most popular due to its low price. However, despite the manufacturer’s belief that the diet of this product is balanced, it is worth considering that there is no meat in this food. As a rule, the composition contains only soy, corn and a huge amount of preservatives, as well as flavorings. This category of feed is highly not recommended by experts.
- Premium class. This type of feed contains natural ingredients, but their quantity is limited and rarely exceeds 15%. In this case, meat, fish and corn are used as animal protein. This product is characterized by good digestibility and quite economical consumption.
- Super premium. The composition of these products includes up to 50% natural elements. Such food really meets all the requirements of a balanced diet for pets; in addition, they contain vitamins, mineral supplements and other useful components necessary for the animal’s body.
- "Holistic". Food in this category contains only products of high quality. At the same time, this diet will be as close as possible to the natural diet of four-legged animals in the wild. Meat in such feeds can be up to 80%. In addition, they add berries, fruits and various nutritious herbs, the mass fraction of which usually does not exceed 10%.
Speaking about whether cat food is harmful for cats, it is worth considering some of the myths associated with this type of food.
Recommendations for using dry food
When using this food you need to follow some rules. First of all, you cannot mix ready-made food with natural food, since the imbalance of nutrients is disrupted. If a problem occurs, it will be difficult to understand the real reason. Also, do not change the brand of food often. This leads to poor absorption of substances and causes disturbances in the body. If you need to change food, you should do this gradually over 1-2 weeks, adding a new product and increasing its quantity.
Cats by nature drink little water, and dry food is recommended to be washed down with plenty of liquid. Therefore, for better absorption, you need to ensure that there is always water next to your food bowl. Veterinarians recommend diluting the diet with wet food. When feeding kittens, you should pay attention to the packaging labeling, which should indicate the age at which the product can be consumed.
Can cats get fat due to dry food?
As a rule, owners of animals who have undergone sterilization and castration complain about such problems. The fact is that after a rather complex operation, the animal’s body must “come to its senses.” During this period of time, power failure often occurs.
And this happens due to the fact that the body is rebuilt, metabolism changes. Therefore, very often, while continuing to feed the animal in the same way as before the operation, many people notice that the fluffy little ball has begun to gain a lot of weight.
However, this does not mean that everything happens because of the feed. It's about the processes that take place in the animal's body. In this case, many begin to wonder whether it is possible to feed a cat only wet food. Yes, indeed, such a diet will be more dietary, since liquid food contains much less fat.
Which food is better to choose?
When choosing a diet for a cat, you should focus on the composition, which will make it clear whether feeding your cat dry food of this brand is harmful. The highest quality food is made from animal meat and ocean fish. They contain all the necessary nutrients and do not contain harmful components.
A high-quality product will not cause allergies and other unpleasant consequences, but, on the contrary, will help prevent them. Often, special dry food is used to treat diseases. Many are put off by the price of such “cat joy”, but considering the cost of fresh food, it is quite justified. And if you calculate the effort and time that will be required to prepare a balanced menu for your pet, then dry food will be a priority.
Are there any dangerous ingredients in prepared foods?
A few years ago, a big scandal broke out in the United States when one of the agricultural farm workers conducted his own investigation. He drew attention to the fact that during inspections at poultry farms, sick and damaged parts of chickens were not disposed of, but thrown into special containers for further production. Later, everything that was in them was lost and sent for processing for cat and dog food.
From here it is quite easy to conclude what kind of natural meat is contained in cheap food for cats and dogs.
Another story once again confirms that the meat included in ready-made food is far from being of the first grade. Events also developed in the USA. One of the journalists managed to find out that animals found along highways end up in pet food.
In addition, this food included meat from animals with rabies, as well as those that died due to infections in various industries.
Based on this, when talking about whether cat food is harmful, it is worth continuing to develop the topic regarding proteins. The fact is that this category also includes tumor tissues of infected animals. In addition, protein is found in large quantities in hooves, wool, feathers, skin and other disgusting fillers, which most often are the very natural meat that manufacturers write so proudly on their labels.
Accordingly, there is practically no natural meat in cheap cat food. Therefore, you can buy such food for cats (Whiskas and other “penny” analogues), but veterinarians strongly do not recommend feeding your animal with it constantly.
Is Kitekat and Whiskas dry cat food harmful?
Since cats are carnivores, their digestive system is not adapted to food of plant origin. Meat products completely lack carbohydrates and other vitamins that animals need. But wild cats get the necessary substances from the stomachs of the herbivores that they feed on. At the same time, they arrive to predators already in a processed form, which allows them to absorb some of the carbohydrates. The resulting dietary fiber helps cleanse the intestines. But apartment residents can only rely on a person. The owner takes responsibility and must know whether the dry cat food he feeds his pet is harmful.
“Kitekat” and “Whiskas” are unbalanced or poorly balanced feeds and do not contain all the necessary nutrients. Their use often leads to various disorders in the cat’s body. These feeds belong to the economy class and contain meat waste: skin, intestines, heads, as well as offal with low nutritional value. They contain too much corn, wheat and rice flour. In this case, you can answer the question positively: is dry food harmful for cats and kittens? Daily consumption of such food leads to gastrointestinal disorders, kidney and liver diseases, as well as hair loss. This product negatively affects the growth and development of kittens. Carbohydrates are not digested and disrupt intestinal function.
Medicinal feed
Modern technologies do not stand still. Many cat food manufacturers have developed new food that has medicinal purposes. This is a product designed to normalize the functioning of the digestive system during an exacerbation of a particular disease. In fact, medicinal food has a balanced formula, the so-called “veterinary diet”, which helps improve the health of the animal.
It is important to remember: medicinal food is used only as prescribed by a doctor! Under no circumstances should you self-medicate or give food with a medicinal effect at your own discretion.
Medicinal food is not a cure. It is designed to alleviate the cat's painful condition and is a complement to traditional drug treatment.
During illness, medicinal food should be the only type of nutrition. To work effectively, you cannot mix medicinal food with any other food: neither other dry food, nor canned food, nor natural products. Otherwise, the healing effect will be destroyed.
Is Royal Canin and Proplan dry cat food harmful?
If they want to save money, manufacturers often add moldy products to the feed, which causes irreparable harm to the animal. Is this dry food harmful for cats? Reviews from veterinarians say that it is better to give preference to medium or premium products. These include feed produced by Royal Canin. They are made from muscle meat tissue, without the use of flavor enhancers and flavoring agents. This food is rich in all the essential nutrients that an animal needs for its daily diet. It helps improve immunity and makes the animal more resistant to stressful situations. Many people are also interested in whether Proplan dry cat food is harmful? No, since all foods are developed taking into account the age characteristics of the cat and its activity. But even premium food can be harmful to the animal if it is not chosen correctly. Any expired product will also negatively affect your pet’s health, so you should pay attention to expiration dates.
How does eating dry food affect your pet's health?
You could argue that many cats and dogs eat dry food and are fine. But any living creature seems healthy until external signs of illness appear.
Check out forums for owners of sick pets. All the animals mentioned there were eating dry food and were fine until their owners began to notice signs of illness:
- urination has become difficult due to the blocked urethra;
- pets with cystitis began to experience acute pain, blood began to come out in the urine, and they began to relieve themselves throughout the house;
- pets began to lose their appetite, suffer from food intolerance, intestinal inflammation and asthma;
- kidney stones continued to grow until clinical signs appeared;
- Cancer patients' tumors continued to grow until obvious symptoms appeared.
In other words, diseases can remain undetected for a long time, and all this time develop into more severe forms.
How to feed a cat correctly?
It is important to take into account the physiological characteristics of the animal and adhere to certain rules when forming a daily diet.
- A healthy cat eats no more than twice a day. For a pregnant and lactating pet, 4-6 meals a day are suitable.
- It is important to monitor drinking; the animal needs to drink 20-30 ml per 1 kg of weight if the diet consists of natural products or wet food. 3 times more liquid when eating dry food.
- The water bowl should have wide edges because cats don't like their whiskers touching the edges. Liquids should always be available to your pet, especially if their diet consists of dry food.
Why dry food is so good: 7 pros
If dry food were such an unambiguous evil, as ardent supporters of the natural type of feeding believe, it would not be so popular. Thousands of cats live full lives on industrial diets. Let's look at the advantages of this type of feeding.
Balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals
If you feed your cat table scraps or even meat porridge specially prepared for it, you hardly know how many calories your pet receives per day. And if you feed with food, then everything is like in a pharmacy. This is especially important when it comes to preventing obesity in neutered animals.
Even in inexpensive feeds, manufacturers maintain the percentage of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Cat food should contain 30-40% protein and 10-25% fat. These rates may vary for different age groups and health conditions.
Vitamins and individual amino acids (taurine) are added to the feed to compensate for their loss in products after heat treatment. The composition also indicates the exact amount of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E.
The feed contains the correct ratio of calcium to phosphorus, as well as their total amount. Therefore, industrial diets help to avoid rickets in kittens (with natural feeding there is a risk of developing nutritional osteodystrophy).
Feed is a complete product. There is no need to buy or give vitamins or mineral supplements. The pet will receive all the necessary substances with food.
Secondary hyperparathyroidism is common in kittens that eat only meat
Treatment and prevention
These foods are very convenient if your cat has special needs or a chronic illness. Leading manufacturers have therapeutic diets for any situation: for diabetic cats, for cats with kidney failure, with chronic constipation, and so on. It’s really not easy to create a therapeutic diet at home, and getting a cat to eat it later is even more difficult. Veterinary dietetics is a very young science: doctors prefer ready-made solutions in the form of industrial feed. At home, you cannot break down protein into molecules or add individual amino acids to food - but this is possible in production.
Foods for removing fur are convenient for furry animals: otherwise, you need to regularly give your cat malt-mast. Foods for older animals contain a lot of fiber to promote regular bowel movements. Chondroprotectors (glucosamine and chondroitin) are added to food for cats with joint diseases. In other words, for every problem there is a solution.
Fractional meals
The cat should eat often, but little by little. It was as if she caught a mouse, ate it whole, and went after the next one. But when owners work, they can only feed the pet 2-3 times a day.
Homemade or canned food may turn sour or stale in the bowl if the cat does not eat it all at once. Nothing will happen to dry food, and you can pour the daily portion at once so that the cat comes up to eat a little throughout the day. Some owners even leave the cat in the apartment for a day, giving it more food or using an automatic feeder.
Convenient, fast, easy
It’s definitely easier to pour food into a bowl than to buy meat for your cat, cook porridge, cut it, mix it, and add vitamins. If your pet eats dry food, you can even entrust feeding it to children who are delighted with such a responsibility. You can ask friends or relatives to feed your cat while you are on vacation.
Eating at home is more difficult. Cooking every day takes a lot of time, and if you make and package it for future use, you need to defrost and reheat.
Stability
If the food suits the cat, digestion will be stable. Only with an industrial type of food, the owner knows exactly how often his cat goes to the toilet. Therefore, if there are disturbances in the functioning of the intestines, he will not sin on food, but will immediately contact a veterinary clinic to find out the cause.
Cats like dry food
Although plain brown crackers don't seem attractive to us, cats enjoy eating dry food. Entire scientific laboratories are working to make food appetizing to cats.
This cat is clearly happy with her lunch
Cats have fewer taste buds than dogs or humans. Their tongue is covered with a stratum corneum; they have difficulty distinguishing the taste of food. Cats rely on smell.
A cat can eat the same food for years without getting tired of it. But in the case of homemade food, the pet can be picky - he will eat something, but absolutely not something. If your cat eats only meat, leaving cereals and vegetables in the bowl, it will not be easy to balance its diet.
With selective eating, especially in kittens, feeding dry food will be healthier than natural food.
Budget savings
Cats are relatively small animals, weighing 2.5-7 kg. Therefore, you can afford to buy them really expensive food.
Personal experience: a cat weighing 3.5 kg eats Now Natural Holistic food costing about 700 rubles. for 1 kg. The feeding rate is 50 grams per day, that is, about 1.5 kg per month. A little more than 1000 rub. per month. This is cheaper than feeding your cat even the cheapest canned food. But there are many decent feeds much cheaper (500-600 rubles/kg).
Natural food
If the owners decide not to use food, but to prepare food for their pet themselves, then they need to know that it differs from “human food”. It should not contain spices, salt, oils and other components familiar to people. Self-preparing food for your animal, rich in vitamins, increases your pet’s life expectancy by 30% when compared with cats eating dry food. The main disadvantage of the method is the complexity of preparation and the fragility of the feed.
To prepare natural food for cats, use: beef, poultry, oatmeal, vegetables. Soups are prepared using meat broth. By-products can be given raw, but they should be pre-treated with boiling water and chopped. To prevent your cat from becoming constipated from natural food, you need to dilute the diet with vegetables and cereals. You should not feed your animal fish, especially if you have urolithiasis. It is better to mix milk with water or remove it from the cat's menu, as it can cause diarrhea. Also, you should not give foods that contain bones; they can get stuck in the throat or injure the mucous membrane. Chicken skin has a bad effect on the stomach; it can stay in it for a long time without being digested, and fatty pork can cause upset. Feeding an animal warm food irritates the mucous membrane less than cold food.
Premium dry food for kittens: which one to choose
Selecting a diet for the little ones is a difficult and responsible task, because the menu for those whose bodies have just begun to grow and develop should be as healthy, complete and balanced as possible.
photo from website: kentstart.ru
- Royal Canin Kitten - this food is intended for kittens up to 12 months and contains a complex of highly digestible proteins and fiber to improve digestion and normalize stool, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals necessary for the health of your pet.
- Hill's Science Plan Kitten contains omega-3 fatty acids, protein, taurine, phosphorus, calcium and other active substances that ensure the full development of your pet. Tuna or chicken is a source of animal protein. Hill's diet helps boost and strengthen the immune system and supports the health of your pet's teeth and bones.
- Pro Plan Junior is optimal nutrition for the little ones, which includes vitamins C and D, colostrum - the most important source of immunoglobulins, DKG and whey, which helps improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
How to plan a diet correctly?
The cat can be fed mixed, using natural food and food at the same time. But this method is considered the worst. You should not mix natural food with wet or dry food, except in cases of transferring the animal to another type of food. The animal’s body gets used to a certain feeding option and produces the necessary enzymes for breakdown. You can mix dry and wet food, but preferably the same brand.
So, whether dry cat food is harmful for cats depends on the brand and its composition. For your animal’s diet, it is better to use premium products that contain meat rather than food waste, or prepare natural food yourself. You can combine meals, but with extreme caution. In any case, you should not save, as this affects the cat’s health.
What is the best dry food - reviews from veterinarians
According to veterinarians, the use of dry food is very useful due to its balanced composition.
Sergey, veterinarian:
I recommend premium food to my clients. The most suitable one is Royal Canin. After two months of taking this food, the cat’s health improved and her coat acquired a healthy shine.
Nikolay, experienced veterinarian:
In the field of cat nutrition, my recommendations relate to such foods as Acanu, Felide, Biomill, Golden Eagle, Pronature Holistic. These feeds are premium and of good quality. They balance all the ingredients from vitamins to lysine and taurine. These dry foods do not cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract and take care of kidney function.
How to minimize the harm of dry food
To prevent the development of diseases, it is recommended to purchase holistic or high-quality super premium food. If the animal has any pathologies, it is advisable to consult a veterinarian to choose the most suitable product. Hygiene procedures will help prevent the formation of tartar. If your cat swallows the pellets whole, it is advisable to purchase a special bowl with large cones so that the animal is forced to eat slowly. In some cases, it is wise to combine dry food with wet food.
And yet there are benefits!
Of course, not everything that is said in advertisements is a lie. Dry food also has health benefits for cats. Let us immediately note that we are talking about premium food. The first advantage of such nutrition is that the content of vitamins and minerals in the granules is perfectly balanced.
Attention! When choosing food for your pet, study not only its composition, but also the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding the age category of the animal. Today, many foods are divided into age groups, and what is suitable for a small fluffy animal will be useless for an adult animal.
Dry food manufacturers also take care of pregnant and lactating cats. There is a special series of food for them, containing all the components necessary for the health of both mother and crumbs. You can even find food for animals diagnosed with obesity. However, when choosing such food, it is better to consult a veterinarian.
Another useful quality of dry food is its taurine content. This element provides the animal with good vision, prevents heart disease and strengthens the nervous system. If taurine does not enter the pet’s body in the required amount, it simply will not be able to digest fats in the small intestine.
On a note! Dry food intended for dogs generally does not contain taurine! Therefore, it is not recommended to give this food to a cat.
And another advantage of dry granules is their abrasive properties. Dry food cleans the animal's teeth from plaque, thereby preventing oral diseases. However, you still need to brush your furry dog’s teeth additionally.
