Petfood study looks at ingredients in wet, dry cat foods

Very interesting study on domesticated cats and their nutritional intake.

From petfoodindustry.com:

A study on the macronutrient regulation of petfood was conducted to determine how adult domesticated cats select what to eat, when given a choice of petfoods with different ingredient amounts.

The study, "Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in adult domestic cats, Felis catus," looked at whether adult domesticated cats, given a choice of three foods with variable amounts of protein, carbohydrate and fat, would deliberately select a food that is biologically appropriate for them.

The study found that when the cats were restricted to a high-carbohydrate food, they did not eat enough of it to get the targeted amount of protein. The cats who were more experienced in eating dry foods increased their protein intake and ate a smaller amount of carbohydrates than cats with little experience who were offered the same choices in the study.

According to study authors, when given a choice, cats learn to avoid eating an excessive amount of carbohydrates because they do not produce the enzymes required to digest high amounts of carbohydrates. Authors also said that results indicated that strong nutritional regulation of petfood is important for proper formulation of cats' diets to account for macronutritional differences between wet and dry commercial cat foods.


The actual study source can be found here:


http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/6/1039.full#R22

Wow that is a very interesting study. Thank you for posting it . Now can they do a study on hybrid exotic cats and pure exotic cats just for me ?

IMO, this test is really only helpful to manufacturers to determine palatability of different recipes.

The reason I say that is that generally speaking animals are attracted to foodstuffs that are a required part of their diet that are either high-yield or difficult to find, much more so than attraction to a balanced diet.

Take fat, sugar, and salt for example which when tasted in nature is very good for a human to eat since they are nutritious and not found in abundance (especially salt), but there really isn't much in the brain telling kids not to eat too much marshmallow cereal, ice cream, and salty potato chips even when they are clearly WAY overdoing it. And save for hunger strikes, cats have no control over what they eat.

Originally Posted by Ducman69

IMO, this test is really only helpful to manufacturers to determine palatability of different recipes.

The reason I say that is that generally speaking animals are attracted to foodstuffs that are a required part of their diet that are either high-yield or difficult to find, much more so than attraction to a balanced diet.

Take fat, sugar, and salt for example which when tasted in nature is very good for a human to eat since they are nutritious and not found in abundance (especially salt), but there really isn't much in the brain telling kids not to eat too much marshmallow cereal, ice cream, and salty potato chips even when they are clearly WAY overdoing it. And save for hunger strikes, cats have no control over what they eat.

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Part of what you say is true but the study was to see if cats would regulate their intake of carbs, proteins etc. themselves. At least that is what I got out of it.

And the study used 'normal' cats. It would be interesting to see if stray/dumped/feral cats self-regulated.
Ritz lived on the streets for the first four to six months of her life. I have to increase the amount of dry food significantly that I feed her (per vet's instructions), and her metabolism hasn't adjusted to the fact that dry food is much more calorically dense than the wet food (Seafood & Tomato Bisque Chunks in Sauce by Nutro, by the way). (Not sure the change in diet is helping her GI problems.)

I'm very surprised that the results of this study were made public. Considering how much of a condemnation it is of the typically high in carbohydrates dry food produced by the pet food industry.

My added bold:

...it can be seen that consumption of dry diet pfC resulted in deficits of both energy and protein intake (relative to the target). 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

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The reduced enzymatic capacity for digesting carbohydrate may mean that high carbohydrate intake could have untoward effects on cats, with any carbohydrate escaping digestion in the small intestine passing to the colon and providing substrate for microbial fermentation.

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Originally Posted by NutroMike

Part of what you say is true but the study was to see if cats would regulate their intake of carbs, proteins etc. themselves. At least that is what I got out of it.

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It shows they regulate their intake of carbs, protein and fat if given the opportunity to. Pet owners don't typically put down a plate of high protein food and a plate of high carb food and a plate of high fat food then allow kitty to select what proportion of each she eats. Many just put down a bowl of high carb dry food. The study suggests a cat fed that way might not be getting sufficient protein and fat. I emphasis "might" because it is just one study and, as it says, more research is needed.

Without sounding completely condescending, I fail to see how this is anything new or groundbreaking. We've known for a long time that cats don't need carbohydrates as an energy source - they need protein. So why would it surprise anyone that if given a choice a cat would naturally select to eat what it needs for it's body to perform well? The fact that consumers are finally becoming educated as to what their cats nutritional needs are is exactly why pet food companies are doing these types of studies and changing their formulas in the first place.

In any case, thanks for making the study available - interesting either way.

Well, us humans know what we should eat but many of us choose to eat crap, hence the obesity epidemic. I think the difference here is that our cats are domesticated and are eating what we choose to feed them. I think that no matter how educated consumers become, there are still going to be those who choose cheap over quality; colourful food over bland colouring. However, some veterinarians I've discussed food with believe that corn and its derivatives can provide nutrition for a cat. I just read a couple of studies that concluded that although corn gluten meal does provide the same level of protein as chicken meal for example, but the corn gluten meal was not as digestible or utilized by the cat as the chicken meal. It also required increased mineral requirements if used as the sole protein source. Do you think that a cat would choose corn gluten meal over chicken meal? hmmm

The difference for me is that this study was sponsered by a big pet food manufacturer (Mars). It proves that at least Mars is well aware that some of the food it produces may not be nutritionally adequate for cats.

Somehow, I think this goes without question. Sadly enough, the big almighty dollar wins over species-appropriate nutrition. Purina has a 14 year study going on with cats. I lo e hiw Purina has that Dog Chow commercial that states that dogs lived 2 years longer on dog chow but the study was comparing Labs who were free fed vs those fed on a restricted, meal-based feeding schedule. It was found that the Labs fed restricted meals were slimmer and lived two years longer than the other group. But on the tv ad, there's no diclaimer about that. Yet they don't say "dogs lived two years longer than dogs fed other foods' either.