About nutrition for honourary pugs - cats

[Pugpillow]

Good job pugs are not like cats.  (That comment lets me post in the pug section, right?)

When I was at the vet's last week, he was telling me about cat nutrition (I don't know squat about cats).  Apparently the old school vetting which says that kibble is better than canned for cats is being rethought by the vet community because now that cats are indoor pets mostly, feline obesity has become a terrible problem.  The obesity brings about all kinds of health issues including feline diabetes which is reaching all-time high proportions.  

Kibble contains too many fillers and cats need at least 56% protein as well as fat in their diets.  They don't process carbohydrates/sugars and in fact have no salivary gland to taste it, unlike dogs and humans.  They can very much taste fat, though, and love the coating of fat that is sprayed on the kibbles after baking to make it palatable.  

It's very hard to switch cats from kibble to canned (which has higher protein and fewer fillers) or raw because they are addicted to the taste of the fat (kind of like McDonalds) and would literally rather starve than switch in many cases.  Then when the owners try to decrease portion size of kibble to manage weight loss, there is something in the cat's brain which tells their metabolic system to slow down to accommodate the lesser portions, so it's a net sum game for calories in/out but doesn't give the cat enough nutrients at the lesser portions for an extended time.  Basically he said that by the time a cat reaches adulthood, it's too late to switch and if someone has an overweight cat, there's not much that can be done about it.  

Moral of his story - once weaned, cats should not be fed kibble.

I found this interesting, but depressing.

[lmcpug]

Hi There;

Not only do canines love a raw diet but so too do felines!
If you are interested in giving your feline a healthy lifestyle,
I encourage everyone to pick up this great book!

It has many "starter" recipes for both feline and canine pals and loaded with great advice for both on holistic care as well!

It is a book that I think, should be mandatory for the new pet owners out there and one that even myself as an "old" pet owner has found very very valuable.

Not only does it contain recipes, holistic approach but also a great section on all types of diseases that our pets face but also CPR and First aid advice.

It is an all around great book!

Make it a great Christmas gift for your pet lover this year!

Lori

[Anonymous]

That is fascinating information.
A friend of mine recently went through a terrible time with her adult male cat....he was getting bladder infections and the vet was worried about stones and wanted her to switch him to canned food.....he would NOT eat....and when I say not eat I mean for days on end.  She finally gave up as he was starving to death!

That explains why!  Thanks for posting that!!

[Candace]

I did switch my cat to one meal of canned and kept one meal of dry. She gobbles up the wet food. Now the kibble I feed is Wellness Core. The kibble appears to have more protein than their canned cat food.