|
 Cats are obligate (strict) carnivores which means that their nutritional needs must be met by the consumption of a large
amount of animal-based proteins and they derive much less nutritional support from
plant-based proteins.
In their natural setting,
cats—whose unique biology makes them true carnivores--would not consume
the high level of carbohydrates that are in the dry foods that
we routinely feed them but would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content,
meat-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only
approximately 3-5 percent of the diet consisting of carbohydrates. The average dry food contains
35-50 percent carbohydrates. Some of the cheaper dry foods contain even higher
levels.
To understand more about cat metabolism and nutritional needs go to
http://www.catinfo.org/
A helpful handbook with information on natural diet and natural treatments for common ailments is:
The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care by C J Puotinen (Mcgraw-Hill, 1997)
Felicity
Laurence's excellent book 'Eat Your Heart Out' which looks at the food
business and its effect on our health starts with a look at the diet of own cat who was becoming rather fat:
'guaranteed
real tuna! Enriched with omega-3 and -6 fats! The feed was of course
not much to do with tuna - 10 per cent minimum, it said in the small
print, with the omega -3 and-6 as recent fashionable additions. it was
made largely from rendered poultry meal mixed with fillers of corn
gluten meal, ground rice, soya oil and dried beet pulp.
Dodi
is our cat, and we know cats do not eat carbohydrates such as ground
rice or sugar nor corn nor vegetable oils in normal circumstances.
Nevertheless that's what we had been feeding him. It said on the
packets that it was 'scientifically formulated' after all, though it
might better have claimed that it was economically and politically
formulated. Beet pulp is the waste from the sugar industry. Corn gluten
meal is what's left over from the manufacture of corn syrup or corn
starch for a vast range of processed foods and drinks. Rice is both one
of the most subsidized and dumped crops in the world. Soya is the
ubiquitous commodity that finds its way from the Americas into almost
every form of comestible, whether for pets or humans. These are the
products of corporate power and agricultural protection, of geopolitics
and economic empire more than any kind of independent science.'
( Eat
Your Heart Out, felicity Lawrence: Penguin Books, 2008)
However, feeding a raw diet is time consuming and it can be difficult to get the balance of vitamins and amino acids correct. I do feed some raw food to my cats, mainly muscle meat (lamb and beef heart are good sources and very high in taurine), a small amount of organ meat (kidney) and occasionally some bone through chunked wild rabbit on the bone and chicken wings.
Enjoying a plate of rabbit offal from woldsway foods.
I also feed good quality canned food, but i'm careful to read the labels as many of the supposedly top quality cat foods contain no more than 4% ‘protein of animal derivatives’ (which might be anything left over from the meat industry) and the rest is cereal and water. The better quality foods such as Nature's Menu. Hi- Life and Bozita foods contain at least 60-70% meat.
The only dried food I have found which contains a high meat content and no carbohydrate is Orijen, imported from Canada. It, and good quality we foods ,can be bought online from www.mutleyandmog.co.uk and www.zooplus.co.uk/shop
| 