New research shows that cats are able to self-regulate their diet.

   Recently,I came across this post on another cat forum about very interesting research for feline's preferences on their diet.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/12/17/sci-cats-food.html

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00360-012-0727-y/fulltext.html

What do you think about this research?

P.S  I feed my cat a wet and raw.

I was wondering who was behind this research.... There it is. WALTHAM[emoji]174[/emoji]/Mars.
Anyone who ever had a kibble addict at home, particularly one in a high carbs diet, and had to transition this cat to a wet or a raw diet knows that a cat doesn't "self-regulate". Not after being fed kibbles or a single diet for years. No, that cat is a finicky cat who will eat what is served, preferably something covered in fat and animal digest.
Nice study to back up dry food sales imho.... But far away from reality.
None of my cats self regulate, not even today, eating a healthy raw diet .
If there was such a thing, I wouldn't gone through months trying to transition Lucky out of kibbles to raw, and Bugsy wouldn't be obese because of the years on kibbles. Nah. Sorry.

Ritz doesn't self regulate, and like Carolina I feed raw.

The population used also doesn't take into account the formative years of many cats, i.e., semi-feral, rescued, stray, abandoned cats, who are now house pets.  Ritz lived the first four to six months of her life on the streets not knowing where her next meal was coming from and when it did come it was usually milk.  Twiddledee was abandoned and for nine months lived on the streets; 11 ounces of Fancy Feast wouldn't fill him up.

I don't trust any study funded by a company that has a vested interest in the results.

I had read a very drastic but tragic example of such a self regulation.

There was a women in Great Britain who was very much for liver.  So she let her cat live on liver ALONE.

The cat got thus massive excess of vitamine A, with the result the cartilage grew more bony.  Not least cartilage in her vertebral column... Painfully Immobilizing the cat.

The cat did now remediet itself, by ceasing to eat. No more liver, no more surplus A-vitamin - the bonied cartilage become normal again...

But starvation has it laws, the cat was willy nilly forced to eat again - yes liver again.

And so on, a couple of three returns.

The vet lost trace when this crazy lady moved on elsewhere with her poor cat.

A horrible story with several bottoms.

The lady was surely crazy, but in her way she surely loved her cat and surely didnt think herself be an evil person: Why otherwise bother to go to the vet and pay his fees, although the vet couldnt help anything?

The vet probably tried to talk her over. But didnt mention  anything in his retelling. He didnt report her to the Animal Care authorities either....

Thus, as I see it, it was the vets fault almost as big as the ladys.

...................................

Waltham is a serious firm and sponsor of books on cats and research on cats.

I can understand you cant rely on their reports about food, as they themselves do make cat food.

But I had read several of their books about cat behavior. They all were of very high quality, top of the line at that time they were written, without no traces of self advertising. Yet so written interested laymen could understand and have use, although the books were written by leading scientists.

Carolina said:

Anyone who ever had a kibble addict at home, particularly one in a high carbs diet, and had to transition this cat to a wet or a raw diet knows that a cat doesn't "self-regulate".

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Ritz said:

Ritz doesn't self regulate, and like Carolina I feed raw.
The population used also doesn't take into account the formative years of many cats, i.e., semi-feral, rescued, stray, abandoned cats, who are now house pets.  Ritz lived the first four to six months of her life on the streets not knowing where her next meal was coming from and when it did come it was usually milk.  Twiddledee was abandoned and for nine months lived on the streets; 11 ounces of Fancy Feast wouldn't fill him up.
I don't trust any study funded by a company that has a vested interest in the results.

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:dk: I don't understand these responses at all. :scratch:

From the article on the newspaper:

Cats are able to select their foods in wet and dry combinations and in different amounts in order to achieve a consistent intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats, according to new research.

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.

The study wasn't about cats self-regulating the amount of food they eat. It wasn't about cats not over-eating or calories or choosing dry food vs wet food.

This was a follow-on study to determine if the texture (type) of food affected cats being offered a mix of high protein / low carb foods and high carb / low protein foods and targeting a specific macronutrient content.

And this study verified that texture didn't impact their selection of a high protein, low carb diet.

This is the original study: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/6/1039.full#R22 "Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in the adult domestic cat, Felis catus." It found that when given the opportunity to eat ANY mix of protein/fat/carbs, the cats will choose a diet that works out to be (on an energy basis, not DMB), 52% protein, 36% fat and 12% carbohydrate.

All this next study just published indicated is that the texture of the food didn't impact that target macronutrient composition. :dk: The cats cared more about how much protein, fat and carbs they were eating rather than the form of the food.

In fact, here's an article - published on the Pet Food Industry website :lol3: summarizing the FIRST study: "Research finds cats prefer food similar to their natural prey." http://www.petfoodindustry.com/News...refer_food_similar_to_their_natural_prey.html


The Plantinga study, "Estimation of the dietary nutrient profile of free-roaming feral cats: possible implications for nutrition of domestic cats," was published AFTER the first Waltham macronutrient study - and it just confirmed the macronutrient composition of cats in the wild: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8404219 (The full report is now available for free, it's just you can only link to the abstract. But the links on the page will open the full study). On an energy basis, the macronutrient content of the feral cat diets was crude protein being 52 %, from crude fat 46 % and from N-free extract only 2 %. ("N-free extract" is carbs & fiber, though the study found fiber was basically nil).

So if the thread title read "New research shows cats prefer food similar to their natural prey regardless of texture," would your reactions be the same? :lol3:

They weren't trying to determine if dry is preferred over wet - they were trying to see if a preference for one or the other would impact the macronutrient content of the diet they prefer to eat. And it didn't. The cats wanted a high protein, low carb diet!

Carolina said:

I was wondering who was behind this research.... There it is. WALTHAM[emoji]174[/emoji]/Mars.
Anyone who ever had a kibble addict at home, particularly one in a high carbs diet, and had to transition this cat to a wet or a raw diet knows that a cat doesn't "self-regulate". Not after being fed kibbles or a single diet for years. No, that cat is a finicky cat who will eat what is served, preferably something covered in fat and animal digest.
Nice study to back up dry food sales imho.... But far away from reality.
None of my cats self regulate, not even today, eating a healthy raw diet .
If there was such a thing, I wouldn't gone through months trying to transition Lucky out of kibbles to raw, and Bugsy wouldn't be obese because of the years on kibbles. Nah. Sorry.

Click to expand...

Ritz said:

Ritz doesn't self regulate, and like Carolina I feed raw.
The population used also doesn't take into account the formative years of many cats, i.e., semi-feral, rescued, stray, abandoned cats, who are now house pets.  Ritz lived the first four to six months of her life on the streets not knowing where her next meal was coming from and when it did come it was usually milk.  Twiddledee was abandoned and for nine months lived on the streets; 11 ounces of Fancy Feast wouldn't fill him up.
I don't trust any study funded by a company that has a vested interest in the results.

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But this study isn't kibble fueled. It isn't even brand fueled. The only thing they MIGHT hope to gain is that people will buy MORE food.

This also doesn't apply to transitioning OUT of anything. If this applied to your situations, then you would have had wet AND dry out, with your cats not eating amounts of both. But that was not the case.


Basically a giant ^THIS to LDG's post.

Thank you LDG for taking the time to read the report/study and clarify it for me.

Headlines are written to attract the intended audience.

Absolutely had the headline read (to the effect) that cats prefer food similar to natural prey, I would have said yeah!  And been less skeptical.

It would only barely need to be changed: "New research shows that cats are able to self-regulate their nutrient intake."
:nod:


I definitely want to know more about this concept.


EDIT: And if all this is true, what does it mean for all the raw advocates? What if cats have truly changed their dietary needs???

Well.... And I don't agree with the study.... not with my cats :lol3:
Sorry...... But I tell you that If I Put a bowl of low protein junk food here, say Purina One, and another say Orijen, and Wet food - they will go to Purina One. And it HAS happened.
So no - they don't self regulate. And that was the point with my comment. And yes, I read the study.

:lol3: But they're talking about controlled conditions, controlled food - identical base food composition, the only changes being in protein, fat and carb content. They're not talking about commercial food.

And the bottom line is that when cats - not given a choice of junk food vs healthy food, but given a choice of the same base food, the only difference being macronutrient content, cats will choose the high protein / low carb diet.

LDG said:

:lol3: But they're talking about controlled conditions, controlled food - identical base food composition, changes being in protein, fat and carb content. They're not talking about commercial food.
And the bottom line is that when cats - not given a choice of junk food vs healthy food, but given a choice of the same base food, the only difference being macronutrient content, cats will choose the high protein / low carb diet.

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Well, but then that's not the real world, with real food, is it? So then cats do not self regulate on the REAL World, with real food, do they?
Come on.... try to do that with a cat addicted to junk kibbles
NONE of my three cats would "self-regulate".
In the end they say to do just that - feed and variety of commercial dry and wet food and the cats will self regulate.... well.... in the real World.... we know that's not how it works.... is it?

That's a very interesting study. It states that when given their choice, cats will choose a diet that provides them with certain proportions of macronutrients; namely 52% protein, 36% fat and 12% carbs (give or take). But it also notes this:

Interestingly, the macronutrient profile of the diets composed by domestic cats in the present experiments and previously (Hewson-Hughes et al., 2011) are similar to that reported for free-ranging feral cats (52/46/2; Plantinga et al., 2011), indicating that domestic cats have retained the capacity to regulate macronutrient intake to closely match the ‘natural’ diet of their wild ancestors, even though the manufactured foods provided to domestic cats bear little resemblance to the natural foods (e.g. small vertebrate prey).

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This makes me ask, Why did the cats in the study consume 12% carbs, when "free-ranging feral cats" consume only 2% (which is stated to be the 'natural' diet)? Twelve percent seems pretty high to me, but I don't know much about that. For the sake of argument, let's say for now that 12% is correct. What, exactly, should be the source of those carbs? Does anyone know? And how should people feeding raw change their recipes to include 12% carbs?

Also, it's noteworthy that they state this regarding the target ratio of 52/36/12:

     Quote:

This target was only attainable by cats offered the wet foods since the macronutrient compositions of the dry foods did not span this region of nutrient space (the foods contained a minimum of 26 % energy from carbohydrate), although cats did mix diet compositions from the dry foods provided that approached as closely as possible the target selected by cats offered wet foods.

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They specifically state that cats were able to achieve the target intake of macronutrients only when they were offered wet foods! That seems like progress to me! However, the study comes to this conclusion:

"[O]ur present results highlight that providing nutritionally complementary wet and dry foods offers cats the opportunity to mix a diet that meets their macronutrient target."

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They reach that conclusion even after stating this:

Although no food type was avoided completely, nonetheless, it is interesting to note that the intake of food Da (the dry food with the highest carbohydrate content, 52 % CER) was very low, particularly in the ESS phase, suggesting that cats had learnt to avoid eating this food.

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I'm not sure what to make of that. They admit the importance of wet food; they note that the cats seemed to have learned to avoid foods high in carbohydrates, yet at the end of it all they suggest providing dry foods along with wet? Why not suggest an all-wet diet? At the very least, I'd like their next study to be exactly that--do cats self-regulate their macronutrient intake to appropriate levels when offered an all-wet diet? (Another interesting study would be what percentage of moisture in a wet diet offers optimal health benefits.)  Until they do that, I don't think there is a complete basis for promoting a wet/dry diet.

But it's nice to see that they are promoting wet over dry. And if it was a very thorough study, their sample would have been large enough to account for kibble-addicts.

Along the lines of the 52/36/12 ratio, does anyone know what the ratio of a raw diet would be?

I know the macronutrient content of the diet I feed my cats. I feed homemade frankenprey. I use eggshell powder or freeze dried bone as a calcium supplement. The macronutrient content of this diet, the way I feed it, is 70% protein, 19% fat, 1.5% carbs. But I purposely trim all the fat, because the meat we feed doesn't have a fat profile anything resembling their natural prey.

The omega 6: omega 3 ratio in their natural diet (via the Plantinga et al. study, referenced above) is 2:1. The O6:O3 ratio of a commercial diet is typically 17:1 or higher. Without an omega 3 supplement and without trimming fat, the O6:O3 ratio of my diet was 17:1. Trimming the fat and altering the protein composition brought it down to 12:1. Adding an omega supplement (I use salmon oil for some cats and salmon oil for some cats) and sardines brought it down to about 4:1. If I stuck with the "ideal" macronutrient content, I'd have to feed bucketloads of omega 3s. They need the vitamin D in the sardines / salmon (or krill) oil. Those are a rather essential component of a homemade raw diet - but not to the extent that would be required by feeding the idea macronutrient profile (IMO).

LDG said:

They weren't trying to determine if dry is preferred over wet - they were trying to see if a preference for one or the other would impact the macronutrient content of the diet they prefer to eat. And it didn't. The cats wanted a high protein, low carb diet!

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^^ I also agree with this, except I would change the word "preference" to "availability."

Minka said:

EDIT: And if all this is true, what does it mean for all the raw advocates? What if cats have truly changed their dietary needs???

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There's a paragraph in the article that says this:

<snip>

...

indicating that domestic cats have retained the capacity to regulate macronutrient intake to closely match the ‘natural’ diet of their wild ancestors, even though the manufactured foods provided to domestic cats bear little resemblance to the natural foods (e.g. small vertebrate prey).

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They aren't saying that cats have changed their dietary needs; the opposite, in fact. Cats naturally regulate their diets to match the same nutritional requirements that their ancestors had.

Carolina said:

Well, but then that's not the real world, with real food, is it? So then cats do not self regulate on the REAL World, with real food, do they?
Come on.... try to do that with a cat addicted to junk kibbles
NONE of my three cats would "self-regulate".
In the end they say to do just that - feed and variety of commercial dry and wet food and the cats will self regulate.... well.... in the real World.... we know that's not how it works.... is it?

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OK, but they're a research arm of a Pet Food company. They're looking for information that will help formulate pet foods. I'm glad they found that cats in the not real world want what feral cats in the wild would eat. This may help bring the concept of "species-appropriate" more into mainstream consciousness. :dk:

LDG said:

I know the macronutrient content of the diet I feed my cats. I feed homemade frankenprey. I use eggshell powder or freeze dried bone as a calcium supplement. The macronutrient content of this diet, the way I feed it, is 70% protein, 19% fat, 1.5% carbs. But I purposely trim all the fat, because the meat we feed doesn't have a fat profile anything resembling their natural prey.

The omega 6: omega 3 ratio in their natural diet (via the Plantinga et al. study, referenced above) is 2:1. The O6:O3 ratio of a commercial diet is typically 17:1 or higher. Without an omega 3 supplement and without trimming fat, the O6:O3 ratio of my diet was 17:1. Trimming the fat and altering the protein composition brought it down to 12:1. Adding an omega supplement (I use salmon oil for some cats and salmon oil for some cats) and sardines brought it down to about 4:1. If I stuck with the "ideal" macronutrient content, I'd have to feed bucketloads of omega 3s. They need the vitamin D in the sardines / salmon (or krill) oil. Those are a rather essential component of a homemade raw diet - but not to the extent that would be required by feeding the idea macronutrient profile (IMO).

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Thank you for this. So a normal homemade raw diet doesn't aim for 12% carbs?

Yes, that study is interesting in some aspects, but I'm not convinced that it's a reliable basis for designing the "ideal" diet for a house cat.

ETA: ...but it is a start.

LDG said:

OK, but they're a research arm of a Pet Food company. They're looking for information that will help formulate pet foods. I'm glad they found that cats in the not real world want what feral cats in the wild would eat. This may help bring the concept of "species-appropriate" more into mainstream consciousness. :dk:

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Well, that was my point..... They are a Pet food Co..... However..... their feral couterparts don't have a diet that comprises of 12.5% of Carbs either, as we know, 2.25% is more likely......

LDG said:

I know the macronutrient content of the diet I feed my cats. I feed homemade frankenprey. I use eggshell powder or freeze dried bone as a calcium supplement. The macronutrient content of this diet, the way I feed it, is 70% protein, 19% fat, 1.5% carbs. But I purposely trim all the fat, because the meat we feed doesn't have a fat profile anything resembling their natural prey.
The omega 6: omega 3 ratio in their natural diet (via the Plantinga et al. study, referenced above) is 2:1. The O6:O3 ratio of a commercial diet is typically 17:1 or higher. Without an omega 3 supplement and without trimming fat, the O6:O3 ratio of my diet was 17:1. Trimming the fat and altering the protein composition brought it down to 12:1. Adding an omega supplement (I use salmon oil for some cats and salmon oil for some cats) and sardines brought it down to about 4:1. If I stuck with the "ideal" macronutrient content, I'd have to feed bucketloads of omega 3s. They need the vitamin D in the sardines / salmon (or krill) oil. Those are a rather essential component of a homemade raw diet - but not to the extent that would be required by feeding the idea macronutrient profile (IMO).

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I feed pretty much the same diet Laurie feeds, calcium supplemented home made frankerprey. I also give Krill oil as Omega 3, and trim the fat. My Carb percentage is in between 1-2% and no way I would take it to 12%.

Oh, shoot. I forgot that the macronutrient content I posted of the diet I feed my cats is on a DRY MATTER BASIS, not an ENERGY basis, which is how the data in the study is presented. Completely different things!!!!

StealthKitty said:

This makes me ask, Why did the cats in the study consume 12% carbs, when "free-ranging feral cats" consume only 2% (which is stated to be the 'natural' diet)? Twelve percent seems pretty high to me, but I don't know much about that. For the sake of argument, let's say for now that 12% is correct. What, exactly, should be the source of those carbs? Does anyone know? And how should people feeding raw change their recipes to include 12% carbs?

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They address this in the first study - I'll find it.

But people feeding raw shouldn't, IMO, include 12% carbs. I don't know how to convert ENERGY basis to DRY MATTER basis. I know how to convert AS FED to DRY MATTER , but not energy to DM. And this was a study done of cats fed "fake" food (for lack of a better word. :lol3: ).

No, in the Plantinga study, which is an analysis of feral cat diets - cats eating what they naturally do - (using only studies where access to human garbage or human provided food was less than 5% of the diet) - eat a macronutrient content on a DRY MATTER basis of

The calculated mean macronutrient composition on a DM basis was 62·7 (SEM 0·30) % CP, 22·8 (SEM 0·5) % EE, 11·8 (SEM 0·1) % ash and 2·8 (SEM 0·3) % NFE. Fig. 1(b) shows

62.7% protein, 22.8% fat, 2.8% carbs.