It has come to my attention that a lot of vets just aren’t giving the right advice. They say to get the cat to play more, restrict the cat’s food, or give them the “diet” food they sell. But there’s only one thing wrong with this advice.
It’s wrong.
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Cats get fat when they eat stuff they can’t digest. That would be grains, or to the diet conscious, carbohydrates.
Cats don’t have the enzymes to digest carbohydrates. They even lack the amylase in their saliva that helps break down plant starches. So when we feed a cat such food, it only turns to fat.
There’s your problem!
So on top of the cat eating food that can only turn to fat, there’s also the hungry problem. Since cats won’t get the signal to turn off their appetite until they get enough protein and fat, they won’t get the signal when they are eating foods low in protein and fat. So they eat even more… of the food that’s making them fat.
What’s a pet parent to do?
For cats, the solution is to feed canned. Canned foods have much more protein and fat than any dry food. This gets the nutrients into the cat, and turns off their “hungry” switch.
How much? As much as they will eat within an hour. How often? Twice a day, morning and evening. If they bother us for more food, we can feed more often. Hungry problems aren’t solved by not giving the cat food!
We don’t restrict the food. We just give them more of what their bodies are crying for. After all, the cat didn’t get fat by eating too much. The cat got fat by eating the wrong thing.
Canned also has a high water content, which helps the cat’s digestive processes work well.
If our cat, like my two older boys, is used to having a bowl of dry food out all the time, it can be a challenge to get rid of it. Mine weren’t fat, but my research convinced me that they needed a more natural diet for their health. So I switched their dry to Innova EVO, the lowest carb dry food I could find. They like it, and we don’t get the anxious the bowl is missing! activity.
Mr. Bond got a little trimmer. Puffy actually lost weight, but his tiny-boned frame doesn’t need much. Which only convinced me that I was doing the right thing.
It will work. I’ve seen it work.
Too bad more vets haven’t seen it work. Show yours!
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This vet agrees.
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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on FEEDING THE CAT.
If a cat can’t digest carbs, why would they turn to fat? Wouldn’t they just pass through them?
Excellent question, Dave!
It’s actually more specific to say cats lack the enzymes to complete digestion of sugars and starches. Without the proper enzymes to break it down, carbs are digested to the point where they become blood sugar. Since cats are designed to run on ketones, not sugar, the cat’s pancreas produces insulin, which turns the blood sugar into fat; the same process as in humans.
Cats are very slow to burn their fat; in the wild, they wouldn’t get much in the way of carbs. They also would be slow to put on fat with their natural diet. In fact, if a cat has to rely exclusively on their stored fat, they can damage their liver. Cat’s fat storage works to supplement poor hunting, not substitute for it.
This is why cats fed too many carbs are so prone to diabetes. The cat’s pancreas gets overwhelmed with the demand, and begins to malfunction. Obesity is a symptom of the system imbalance that leads to diabetes; not the cause.
I agree with you, but I have a problem! I feed my cats EVO canned food, no grains or filler crap. But they are overweight. I saw you said to feed them as much as they want in an hour… I cant help but be like, WHAT?!
My cats will EATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT and not stop. I have no idea why. But they will eat any ad everything. They’re always on the prowl for food.
I use to feed them the directed amount on the cans, but it was oto much because that’s what caused them to gain weight in the first place. So now I have two pleasantly plump kitties (over a year old now). I’ve taken their food portions down to 4 ounces a day, since they aren’t particularly big cats, one about 10-11lbs and the other at least a pound or two smaller than her brother.
Do you have any advice, since what has happened to my cats seem to go against what you wrote about? And yes, they’ve always been on Innova EVO canned food (they’ve never had dried food) except when they were kittens (I had then on Wellness canned then). Also, I dont feed them treats or table scraps or anything like that. But I’m getting very worried about them.
Could they have metabolic problems, like an over-active thyroid? That is an odd situation. Since they are siblings, it’s more possible they share such a disorder than if they were unrelated. Has a vet checked for such?