In “The Healthiest Diet For Your Cat,” Dr. Karen Becker says:
Research Proves It: Cats and Carbs Don’t Mix!
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have nutritional requirements that can only be met with a diet based on animal tissue. The macronutrient profile for cats is high in protein and fat, consistent with a meat-based diet.
According to study authors:
The carbohydrate ceiling explains many of the intake patterns seen in both dry and wet diet experiments and suggests that cats may only be able to process ingested carbohydrate up to a certain level.The feline body is specifically designed for a low-carb diet. Indicators your kitty isn’t equipped by nature to process a lot of carbohydrates include:
• No taste receptors for sweet flavors
• Low rates of glucose uptake in the intestine
• No salivary amylase to break down starches
• Reduced capacity of pancreatic amylase and intestinal disaccharidasesIn other words, cats don’t produce the enzymes required to digest carbohydrates. The only carbs felines eat in the wild are pre-digested and are found in the stomachs of prey animals.
If your kitty’s body is incapable of digesting a heavy carbohydrate load and she’s eating a cat food with high carb content, she could potentially develop digestive disease and other serious conditions, like diabetes and pancreatitis, related to eating a diet unfit for her species. And certainly, too many carbohydrates aren’t the only problem with most processed pet foods.
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Do not feed cats food with grains, or high in carbs. And avoid dry; cats are desert animals who get most of their moisture from what they eat. If they drink, they are dehydrated.
