The Wonders of Canned Cat Food

"You are what you eat" the old saying goes. Taken literally we can get a little carried away. After all, I am not a 5'5" chunk of string cheese (much to my husband's disappointment). Of course, we all know it means our bodies will be healthier if we fuel them with health food rather than junk food.

Pet owners have become extremely health conscious on behalf of their cats and dogs. They realize that the food Fluffy and Fido eat day in and day out must be nutritious and wholesome. Sometimes the adage "you get what you pay for" applies to pet foods but sometimes it does not. Consumers will be wise to remember that all pet food companies aim to make a profit through selling their product. Pet food marketing strategically plays upon our emotions as animal lovers. We want to feel we are doing everything possible to provide a safe and satisfying life for our pets.

Rather than take out a second mortgage on your home to buy that premium bag of dry cat food, please take a moment to read about a "revolutionary" approach to feeding felines. An approach that may reverse feline diabetes, reduce the incidence of urinary crystals and kidney disease, decrease food-related vomiting and allergies, and keep your cat lean and playful into old age.

The answer to your cat's prayers (even if he doesn't know it yet) is canned cat food. When I said this was a "revolutionary" approach I was being ironic. Canned cat food more closely mimics the diet felines evolved to eat--mice.

A mouse is a high protein, high moisture, low carbohydrate meal. Dry cat chow is a low protein (or mostly plant-based protein), low moisture, and through-the-roof-high carbohydrate meal. Eating an exclusive diet of dry cat kibble leaves the modern cat morbidly obese and chronically dehydrated. Obesity leads to diabetes, cancer, arthritis, skin problems, and more. Chronic dehydration assaults the kidneys, and triggers bladder diseases ranging from infection to crystals/stones to sterile cystitis. Poor quality or species-inappropriate proteins are claimed to trigger skin allergies and gastrointestinal inflammation ("puking cats"). Quality of life suffers as cats put up with discomfort on these many levels. Is it unlikely that some of this angst shows up as "bad" behavior?

I do not believe dry cat food is evil personified. However, kibble is just not perfect nutrition for the mighty feline hunter. It is a myth that dry cat food helps keep a cat's teeth clean. If you ate nothing but granola, never brushed your teeth and never visited a dentist...I shudder at the thought.

You may argue that canned food gives your cat the runs or makes him puke (this is usually a temporary problem during transition). Or worse that he doesn't like to eat it at all. Unfortunately, switching from highly-addictive carb-rich dry food to high-protein wet food is not always a simple task. Is it always easy to put down the bag of nachos and pick up a stalk of celery instead? Dry cat food is coated in a highly appetizing animal digest that makes kibble as tasty to most kitties as fast food is to most Americans (hmmm, is there a correlation?) It can take months to convince some cats that canned food is...well, the cat's meow. It took eight months and untold patience on his caregiver's part before my diabetic patient Tucker relinquished his dry food in favor of the canned variety. Lo and behold his diabetes improved practically overnight! Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM's handout "Transitioning Feline Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food" is an amazing how-to manual on teaching cats to love canned diets.


Ounce for ounce canned food is more expensive than dry kibble. For those cat owners who spare no expense, it may be a small thing to re-allocate the money spent on the premium dry food to cans instead. For those of us who operate on a tighter budget, we can certainly compromise. Is it affordable and practical for you to feed one moist meal a day? Even just several canned food meals a week can improve the overall health, activity and attitude of your feline friend.

Some tasty tidbits:
1) Normal cat poop is not voluminous and stinky. Cats that eat quality animal-protein moist foods exclusively pass smaller, firmer, less odorous stools. If you've even seen coyote or raccoon scat in the woods, you'll understand what a predator's waste should look like -- including your cat's.
2) Cats did not evolve eating fish. They evolved eating rodents and birds. While most cats like the taste of fishy cat foods, try not to feed fish varieties exclusively. I haven't seen "mouse" or "sparrow" flavored canned foods in the pet store yet, so you will have to stick to "beef" and "chicken" for now. (Yes, there are frozen raw food diets out there that more closely mimic a cat's wild diet...more on this later.)
3) If your cat gets on board with you and eats nothing but canned food from here on out, make sure it is "complete and balanced". Canned foods labeled "for intermittent or supplemental feeding only" are missing essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids -- fine as a snack, not for a lifetime.
4) Wet food diets do present very real challenges in the mechanics of feeding. We have become so used to shoveling dry food into our cats' bowls that it seems like the natural thing to do. It takes more thought and care to keep moist food fresh and appetizing. One suggestion is to freeze several meals and put out two meals each day--one meal warmed to "mouse body" temperature and the second left frozen to thaw throughout the day.
5) A mouse is approximately 30 calories. Cool factoid, huh? The average wild cat eats 7-10 mice per day, which is the equivalent of 210-300 calories. And they burn a lot of calories actually catching, killing and eating that mouse! (Oh yes, cats that eat wild meals like mice should be dewormed regularly...just because something is all natural does not mean it is completely without negative side effects.) Check to see how many calories are in a single 8 ounce cup of your cat food...

Help! I turned my back for 3 months and my dog got FAT!

EdGrrr the Athlete, 2007

EdGrrr, my 6-yr-old Labrador retriever, used to have the body of an athlete. No. Not just an athlete. A marathon runner. He was lean and mean. He had a lovely hourglass figure and was he ripped! Some people thought he was too skinny because, unfortunately, the breed standard for Labradors has been a somewhat thick and chunky variety of dog. While I battled baby bulge myself, I was so proud of my young lab's fitness and physique.

Then this summer, while I was building my vet clinic, EdGrrr went and got fat. And not just fat, but I-finally-weighed-him-on-my-clinic-scale twenty pounds fat! I'm not sure how I missed it, but now that he is chubby it has been a true challenge to whittle away the pounds.

EdGrrr the Tub, 2011

Although I have always measured my dogs' food and fed twice daily meals, avoided people food and shied away from regular treats, EdGrrr had plenty of help in the additional calorie department. His chummy personality and eager expression earned him a sandwich (or two) a day from members of the clinic work crews. Of course, I didn't learn this until after the work was done. To be fair, they played more fetch with him in three months than he's had in the previous three years.

I can't blame the workers entirely for the obesity-fueling excesses. EdGrrr, a farm dog through and through, finds calories in the darnedest places: a little grain from the feedlot steers here, a few compost heap veggies there, and a dead deer for dessert. I'm starting to feel like EdGrrr will foil my best efforts at dieting him no matter what I do.

So in spite of my failure at keeping my own dog at a healthy weight, here are some tips for your pet's diet:

1. Feed your pet distinct meals each day rather than keeping the bowl full. Many pets just can't resist another trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet. (Sound familiar?)
2. Use a true 8-ounce measuring cup to feed a precise amount of food as directed on your pet food bag (or by your veterinarian). The range on the pet food bag is often quite broad (such as "For a 40-60 lb dog feed 3-5 cups per day") so you will have to use your best judgement. Remember the amount is the total daily amount and you will have to divide that by the number of meals you feed a day.
3. If your pet is on a diet, make sure that you are feeding an amount meant for her ideal or goal weight, not her current weight.
4. Make sure chubby is on an adult maintenance diet (see Nutrition 101 for help selecting a pet food). "All life stages" foods are essentially puppy/kitten diets and won't help an obese-prone pet lose weight.
5. Watch the people food. It's really hard to gauge how many extra calories are being consumed by pets that lick the plates clean after dinner or receive tasty tidbits from Mom, Dad or human siblings throughout the day. Some types of people food are outright toxic for pets, so best to avoid it altogether.
6. Go easy on the treats. Of course you can still give treats. But your pet loves receiving a gift from you not the gift itself! So, if you can break that Milkbone biscuit (a doggie "candy bar" incidentally) into smaller pieces do it. Or choose a low calorie treat; the pet stores are full of them! In the really hard cases, you should eliminate treats and just offer a few pieces of your pet's daily allotment of kibble (chances are he won't know or care it's just his regular food).
7. Exercise. Enough said.
8. Once you've made one or more changes to your pet's diet you can weigh her periodically (say, once a month) to monitor progress. If your pet is small enough and you have a bathroom scale at home you can weigh her by holding her and then subtracting your own weight. For bigger animals you may need to schedule a weight check at your veterinary clinic (there probably won't be a charge for this...just ask!)
9. If your pet is not losing weight and you've really -- and I mean, really -- implemented the above tips religiously, please have a chat with your veterinarian. There are several treatable medical conditions that cause unrelenting obesity that can be diagnosed with a thorough examination and blood tests.

As 2012 dawns and I make my own New Year's resolutions to eat better and exercise more, I vow to get EdGrrr to a healthy weight as well. I may not have his full cooperation, but I do know that if I go out jogging he will be my willing companion. Then I can at least cross #7 off the list!

Have a wonderful New Year!