Diet and Nutrition are of increasing interest to cat own-ers (it has always totally fascinated cats!), and as we all move further from a “natural state”, new problems appear. The following is a small segment on a huge topic.
There is no getting away from the fact that the perfect diet for cats is mice. Their predatory powers was what encouraged the Egyptians to accommodate them in their houses and grain silos thousands of years ago, and even today, about one-eighth of Australia’s grain crops goes into rodents rather than the international markets! However, most modern town cats lead a rather more regal existence, and hunting is a recreation rather than a raison d’être, so humans must recreate a diet which fulfils all of a cat’s dietary requirements.
First came the tinned foods, and cats trained their owners as to which were worthwhile purchasing (by refusing to consume lesser quality offerings). Feline nutritional needs are much more highly refined than dogs or humans, particularly in regard to protein quality and quantity – it is not metabolically worthwhile for a cat to eat a food of less than 20% protein (of “dry matter” - if you look at tinned food, it is 80% water, so the protein quoted is really quite high in the better quality products). The move to dried foods has resulted in production of high proteins levels to reflect this requirement also. Now comes the interesting part. In order to entertain owners and cats, colourings, flavourings and preservatives have been added to most tinned and dried foods, particularly the cheaper “supermarket” products. In fact, often the “flavour” is only sprayed on the outside of the biscuit, to minimise the use of the expensive parts of the formula.
Cats can cope with a lot of things, but it seems that they draw the line at “additives”. Vets are seeing an increasing number of cats who vomit up their food (and some of the colourings in the dried food actually stains the carpet, so what is it doing to the cats’ intestines?), and who only need to be converted to a high quality, (preferably preservative free) dried food to improve.
The cats often start out by vomiting more furballs than usual, then start vomiting food. Some then progress to the near-cancerous stage of IBD, and some of those go on to develop cancerous (usually lymphoma) lesions in the bowel. Pretty serious stuff. Food Trials are the main diagnostic tool, and usually starts with ‘roo meat and Hills Prescription Z/D or Royal Canin Hypoallergic diet. It is readily accepted by most cats (and those with IBD tend to be fussy because of the nausea created by the condition). Royal Canin, Nutrience, Whiskas Professional and Hills Science diet (particularly Sensitive Stomach variety) are all high quality diets, with very small amounts of preservative, so are fine except for the really sensitive cat (who has usually been sensitised by eating the highly coloured varieties of food rather than starting and staying on a premium diet). The hallmarks of IBD are frequent vomiting (weekly or more) with weight loss. There are other conditions which cause similar symptoms, so any loss of weight or increased frequency of vomiting (more than once every week or two) needs to be checked out thoroughly.
Foods to avoid: any tinned or sachet / pouch foods, supermarket Pet Mince beef or milk (including Cat Milk) fish especially tuna.
OK to eat: turkey, kangaroo (pure), chicken (usually), pork, lamb (usually)