Food pH level

I've heard that the optimal pH for cat food is around 6.4. Does that apply to dry food as well? I'm asking because I visited Felidae's site the other day and noticed that the pH of their dry cat food is 5.5. Is that common for dry foods?

The pH of the food is different from the pH of the cat's urine after eating that particular food. The words to explain that are escaping me now. Let me try again...

Some companies have a target urine ph that they claim their food will produce. A common range may be 6.2-6.4 which is optimum.

The pH of the food isn't worth worrying about, IMO. It's the pH of kitty's urine that is of more concern. The relationship between the food's pH and the urine's pH isn't parallel, from what I have read.

The 5.5 that Felidae states..is, like you said - the pH of the food. That can't (and shouldn't be) what the urine pH would be after eating that food. I hope that makes sense.

That's what I thought, but when I read some info about it I became a little unsure.

From: http://www.catnutrition.org/catkins.html

Before the advent of commercial diets, owners fed cats organ meats that are low in calcium and high in phosphorus. This led to nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. In the 1980s, scientists linked a high incidence of struvite stones to high pH levels in food. And in the 1990s, scientists found that feeding acidifying diets to cats with struvite stones lead to an increased incidence of oxalate stones. Diets were reformulated to a more neutral pH. "The ideal pH is 6.5," says Dr Greco, which is the pH found in a mouse.

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PH is only an issue if UTIs or crystals are involved... figure the ph on the bag will be around what the cats urine ph is .... Drop me a line if needed

Well the way I see it UTI's are a potential issue for any cat. If possible I'd like to feed them a food that produces that optimal pH, if only for preventive reasons. That value of 5.5 seems awfully acidic to me. I've contacted Felidae however, and I'll post here the gist of any response I get.

From Felidae:

Q. Hi. In regards to your dry cat + kitten food, on your site you mention that the food has a pH level of 5.5. Now is that the pH of the food itself, or the pH of a cat's urine after eating the food? If that value is for the food itself, would you be able to provide me with the other value? Thanks.

A. Yes, the ph listed is the food itself, the resulting urine ph would then be a average 6.0. :-)

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I also emailed a couple other companies today for comparison purposes, just in case I decided to try a different brand of dry food.

Natura got back to me about Innova's dry line. They said:

All of Naturaâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s feline formulas are formulated to produce a slightly acidic urine with the average urine pH being 6.4-6.6.

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I'm still waiting on replies from Wellness and Nutrience (a popular chain store brand here).

Originally Posted by wmarcello

I'm still waiting on replies from Wellness and Nutrience (a popular chain store brand here).

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Thanks for taking the time to do that. Let us know what they say?

Originally Posted by wmarcello

I'm still waiting on replies from Wellness and Nutrience (a popular chain store brand here).

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i emailed wellness a couple weeks ago. this is what i got back.

Dear Brenna,

Thank you for taking the time to write about Wellness products.

Our Wellness feline diets are formulated to yield a urine pH of 6.2 to 6.6 for dry and 6.1 to 6.5 for canned, which have been determined by Veterinarians to be the optimum levels. We maintain these levels to avoid the possibility of any urinary or crystal issues. We test our diets on a quarterly basis to verify that they yield these levels. All results confirm that our diets are safe for the majority of the feline population. Other factors that affect a catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s pH are: 1) meal fed vs. free-feeding, 2) amount of fresh water intake during feeding, and 3) genetics.

Thanks again for contacting us.

Heather Rowe
Representative
Consumer Affairs

From Orijen:

ORIJEN cat foods are about pH 5.5, with resulting urine slightly higher
(about pH 6).

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