THE BASICS NUTRITION OF FELINE

Diet is the way of health. This article lays out some often-ignored principles of cat nutrition and explains why feline have a better chance at optimal health if they are fed a quality canned food diet instead of dry kibble. Putting a little thought into what you feed your feline(s) can pay big dividends over their lifetime and very possibly help them avoid serious, painful and costly expensive.

Cats Need Animal-Based Protein

Cats are obligate (strict) carnivores and are very different from dogs in their nutritional needs. It mean to be an ‘obligate carnivore'? It means that your cat was built by Mother Nature to get her nutritional needs met by the consumption of a large amount of animal-based proteins (meat) and derives much less nutritional support from plant-based proteins (grains). It means that cats lack specific metabolic (enzymatic) pathways and cannot utilize plant proteins as efficiently as animal proteins. It is very important to remember that not all proteins are created equal. The protein in dry food, which is heavily plant-based, is not equal in quality to the protein in canned food, which is meat-based. The protein in dry food is, therefore, less bioavailable to your cat. 
Do not be confused by the listing of the protein percentages in dry food compared to canned food. At first glance, it might appear that the dry food has a higher amount of protein than the canned food—but this is not true on a dry matter basis which is the accurate way to compare the two foods. Most canned foods, when figured on a dry matter basis, have more protein than dry food. And remember, even if this were not the case, the percentage numbers do not tell the whole story. It is the protein's bioavailability that is important.