Basic Needs

Above all it is important to remember that your cat is a carnivore and requires a meat diet. This apparently self-obvious fact is all too often overlooked by people who, all well meaning, attempt to make an omnivore or herbivore out of their pet. They are slowly killing the animal with love.

Dogs, while carnivores in the strictest sense, are omnivorous to a large degree, and have the ability to break down and digest vegetable as well as animal protein. A dog can survive quite successfully on the same foods humans eat, hence can live on table scraps, or even a carefully balanced vegetarian diet, especially if supplements are used.

Cats, despite 5000 years of domestication, remain strictly carnivorous. They are incapable of digesting and receiving nutrition from the majority of vegetable proteins. There are no and can be no vegetarian cats. In addition, cats in the wild are equal-opportunity carnivores and devour the whole of their prey: muscles, organs, viscera, bones, offal, skin, etc. In this manner, cats ingest not only the flesh and organs of their prey but also the partially and wholly digested vegetable foods the prey had eaten. With the assistance of the prey's own digestive processes, the cat then is able to derive nutrition from various vegetable sources.

This evolved approach to eating means that the cat has lost the ability to manufacture various vitamins, enzymes and other substances necessary to life, receiving these substances directly from its food. This "laziness" has caused the nutritional requirements of the cat to be radically different from that of the dog, which in turn has caused cat food to be considerably more expensive than dog food.

Food as Fuel

Food is fuel. The object of food is first and foremost to provide the body with the energy it needs to keep functioning. The greater portion of this energy is utilized to keep the body functioning as a machine. All processes in the body, movement, digestion, breathing, circulating blood, even thinking, require energy, all of which must be derived from the food consumed. This energy is measured in calories.

To a scientist, a calorie is a unit of thermal energy: specifically, the amount of thermal energy necessary to raise the temperature of one cubic centimeter of water one degree Celsius. This is a distinct and definite amount.

To a dietitian, a "calorie" is a unit of the potential thermal energy of a foodstuff: specifically, the amount of potential thermal energy that would raise the temperature of one liter of water one degree Celsius. Since one liter is equivalent to 1000 cubic centimeters, the dietitian's "calorie" is the scientist's "kilocalorie" (the prefix "kilo" means 1000). Dietitian's calories are sometimes called "big calories" to differentiate them from the scientist's "true calories" or "small calories." To us, they will simply be "calories."

The Exchange of Energy

Energy is derived from food and used by the body via a series of chemical reactions. All chemical reactions require the input of energy to trigger and control them. No input of energy, no reactions.

Some chemical reactions release more energy than was required to trigger and control them. This surplus of energy is stored by the body in the form of chemicals such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and is available for future use. Other chemical reactions release less energy than was required to trigger and control them. This energy deficiency must be made up from the body's energy reserves by breaking down the storage chemicals and releasing their energy. The waste products of this breakdown are passed into the bloodstream and filtered out by the kidneys.

Other Nutrients

Besides basic energy in the form of calories, it is the task of food to provide all essential nutrients, the chemicals necessary for life. The vast majority of those chemicals required for life are derived by breaking down and rearranging the molecular structures of the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the foods consumed. This process is known as synthesis, and is technically defined as the forming or building of a more complex compound from elements or simpler compounds.

It is important to note that virtually all organic molecules are synthesized. A glucose molecule synthesized by a cat is identical to one synthesized by an apple tree and is identical to one synthesized by a chemical laboratory. All molecules of a given type are identical: advertising claims aside, there is absolutely no difference between "natural" vitamin C and "synthetic" vitamin C. They are identical, and the terms "natural" and "synthetic" in this context are null words, without meaning.

Like most higher organisms, the cat has lost the ability to synthesize some of the chemicals it requires for life, obtaining those chemicals ready-made from the food it eats. Obviously, those chemicals must be present in the food, or the cat will fall ill and eventually die. In humans, for example, a lack of the chemical ascorbic acid, vitamin C, will result in the condition known as scurvy.

Protein

The primary source of food energy is protein. Like all animals, a cat's body is primarily protein, and vast amounts of food protein are required to maintain it. Typically, the energy content of a cat's diet should be derived at least 25 to 30 per cent from protein, almost all of which must be animal protein. The major sources of animal protein in commercial foods are meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products. Vegetable protein is typically obtained from beans and peas, nuts, and cereals.

Proteins, while providing the basic amino acids for muscle and organ tissue, do contain a high percentage of waste, which must be purged from the cat's system by the kidneys. An all-protein diet, such as a raw meat diet, will not only lack other important and even critical nutrients, but will overtax the kidneys, and may lead to urinary problems or premature renal failure.

Fats

The secondary source of food energy is fats. Fats have received much unwarranted bad press, mostly due to the public's preoccupation with being slim and total misunderstanding of what constitutes a good, well-balanced diet. This preoccupation and misunderstanding are both vigorously perpetuated by the advertising industry (the same people who define a Twinkie (R) as "wholesome," and who define "wholesome" as "not causing death within 48 hours"). While this tendency is bad enough for our own collective health, it can be disastrous when the same philosophies are applied to our cats. We at least have some choice in the matter.

The cat requires a diet containing a lot of fat, far more than either the human or the dog. From 15 to 40 per cent of the energy content of your cat's diet should be derived from fat.

Unlike proteins, fat is little wasted by the cat's metabolism, and hence does not provide a burden to the kidneys. Because of this, as a cat reaches old age, the fat content of its diet should be increased somewhat while the protein content is decreased proportionately. In this manner, the proper overall energy content may be maintained while easing the burden on the older kidneys. The key here is moderation in both rate and amount of dietary change. Sudden or rapid changes in diet are especially hard on an older cat, while an all-fat diet is as bad as a no-fat diet.

Carbohydrates

The tertiary source of food energy is carbohydrates, primarily starches and sugars. Like fats, carbohydrates too have received unwarranted bad press. Neither we nor our cats can live without carbohydrates: they are as essential to life as water.

Only a small amount of carbohydrates is required in the cat's diet, with only about 5 percent of the total food energy being in this form. The simple carbohydrates, the sugars, are more easily assimilated into the cat's system, while the complex carbohydrates, the starches, pass through virtually untouched. Cooking complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, corn, pasta, etc., start the conversion from starch to sugar and aid in the digestion process.

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