A dry food diet could put your cat at risk! Dry food diets have been shown to contribute to many potentially life threatening health problems for cats, such as diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, cystitis, and kidney disease.

The doctors and staff at Affectionately Cats are recommending all cats be on a 100% canned food diet. Some of the canned cat foods that we recommend are: Wellness, Innova, California Natural, Instinctive Choice, Merrick, Natural Balance, Petguard, and Wysong. More information on the dangers of dry diets can be found in our library. Please contact us for further information and tips on how to transition your cat to canned food.

Dry Food Diet Risk

Cats are obligate (strict) carnivores and are very different from other species in their nutritional needs. In their natural setting, cats would not consume the high level of carbohydrates (grains) that are in dry cat foods. In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content, meat based diet, with only 3-5 percent of the diet containing carbohydrates. The average dry food diet contains 35-50 percent carbohydrates.

As animals that originally evolved in deserts, cats do not have strong thirst drives. The feline species is designed to obtain most of their water intake with their diet since their normal prey contains 70-75 percent water. Dry foods contain only 7-10 percent water. Canned foods, on the other hand, contain approximately 78 percent water.

Dry food diets have been shown to contribute to many potentially life threatening health problems in cats:

Diabetes-cats are unable to metabolize the high levels of carbohydrates in dry foods, and this wreaks havoc on blood sugar levels. Many diabetic cats have been successfully weaned off insulin or had the doseage significantly lowered when transitioned to a low carbohydrate 100 percent canned food diet.

Kidney Disease-is probably the leading cause of mortality in the feline. Cats being fed primarily dry food diets are chronically dehydrated. Chronic dehydration plays a large role in feline kidney failure.

Cystitis-bladder and kidney stones are extremely common in cats and can be life threatening. When a cat is on a diet of water-depleted dry food they produce a highly concentrated urine. This increases the chance of these crystals forming into stones. A diet of canned food will keep a proper amount of water flowing through the urinary tract system and help maintain health.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)-can cause vomiting and diarrhea and/or constipation. There is an impressive number of anecdotal reports of cats that were very ill with IBD that exhibited dramatic improvement when ALL dry food was removed from their diet.

Obesity-is an extremely common and serious health problem in cats, that is often inappropriately "treated" with so-called "light" diets. Pet food manufacturers have increased the grain fraction in these light diets leading to an even higher level of carbohydrates. Most cats will lose weight when fed a 100 percent canned diet.

Dental Disease-long standing claims that cats have less dental disease when they are fed dry food vs canned food are grossly overrated, inaccurate, and are not supported by recent studies. For proper oral health, we recommend daily tooth brushing, and once or twice a year professional cleanings done by your veterinarian.