Good nutrition are the building blocks of good health so this is a subject I'm extremely interested in. I have always wondered about the cats that lived the longest, and by longest I mean anywhere from late teens to twenties and beyond and what kind of cat food diet they were on. Did they simply live long due to genetics or did their owners do something special for them to make them live longer? I know a lot of you here are experienced so please tell me if you had long lived cats or knew someone who had long lived cats and what did they eat? If they ate an excellent diet and lived long please tell me and if any cats had a not so great diet and lived long simply due to genetics I want to know too. It's a research study I'm doing on my own because I want to know what it takes to make cats live the longest. Thank you.
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Nutrition and Longevity
- Thread starter moggiegirl
- Start Date
I had two sister cats that lived to be almost twenty. They were in and out cats (I know I don't let my current cats out) they had inexpensive canned food, kibble, and supplemented with live prey. I do not recommend letting cats out now however. We lived on a quiet street, no predators, no traffic. I made sure they had flea, heart worm meds, and yearly shots. I believe the outdoor stimulation added to longevity, but it usually shortens it for most with cars and coyotes etc
That was normal however back in the day, I would not risk it now
That was normal however back in the day, I would not risk it now
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My parents had two cats female died of diabetes at 13 (ate dry food) the other a male died of a blockage at 7 (ate dry food)
My current cats are 8 and 6 and only get grain free canned food and do not go out, unless the female sneaks out, but she comes back in in an hour. They were both formal ferals, and she still gets the call of the wild! Ha ha
My current cats are 8 and 6 and only get grain free canned food and do not go out, unless the female sneaks out, but she comes back in in an hour. They were both formal ferals, and she still gets the call of the wild! Ha ha
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- #4
It seems like many cats who don't live past the age of 13 are exclusively eating dry cat food. My Dad and stepmom lost one of their cats to cancer and the other one is really overweight. But how do you tell people who only feed dry cat food that what they're doing isn't healthy. They usually don't want to hear it or react defensively. People don't want to be wrong but the cost of being "right" (or believing so) is a shorter life for the cat. I think it's hard to convince people because cats will survive on kibble for years and seem fine until they're not.
You can live on McDonald's but eventually your blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes will show up at a certain age.
The only cats I know that have lived long on dry food were let out and I believe they caught prey.
My college-era cat lived to at least 14 or 15 on only dry food -- she was a stray that I took in as an adult so we don't know how old she was. She died of kidney disease. Our cat that died in 2013 ate mostly dry food, plus about a small can of food (much of it Fancy Feast foods with wheat gluten -- not ideal!) a day and we think she lived to at least 17 though don't know her exact age, either. Brooksie had all sorts of problems: arrhythmia, minor kidney disease, minor thyroid disease, and major digestive issues that most likely gave her cancer. She was pretty active even as a senior cat and I wish we'd known then how to feed her better so she might have had a chance of living longer. On the bright side, at least I learned about feline nutrition through her illnesses so we could feed our next cats well!
Beyond longevity -- which I want, of course, for the two cats we have now -- I feel a moral obligation to feed the cats as well as I can to keep them healthy. Our two cats are youngish Siamese mixes who have food sensitivities and eating quirks so we feed them a very low-carb diet of commercial raw foods, homemade cooked foods, and very meaty canned foods. I know some disease can't be stopped no matter how well you feed a cat but we've seen changes in their behavior since we added, in the last several months, the homemade food, increased their raw foods, and decreased their canned foods: our cat who was a hesitant eater is now an enthusiastic eater and a much happier and more energetic cat as well!
Beyond longevity -- which I want, of course, for the two cats we have now -- I feel a moral obligation to feed the cats as well as I can to keep them healthy. Our two cats are youngish Siamese mixes who have food sensitivities and eating quirks so we feed them a very low-carb diet of commercial raw foods, homemade cooked foods, and very meaty canned foods. I know some disease can't be stopped no matter how well you feed a cat but we've seen changes in their behavior since we added, in the last several months, the homemade food, increased their raw foods, and decreased their canned foods: our cat who was a hesitant eater is now an enthusiastic eater and a much happier and more energetic cat as well!
That's the catch, isn't it? People so often say, "my cat does fine on X food." But just because the cat doesn't show obvious symptoms doesn't mean X food isn't having a negative effect that might take years to build into something diagnosable. Beyond that, with hindsight I can say that many vets (like Brooksie's) miss the importance of symptoms like hairballs (not normal!!!) and bald patches (I don't think it was stress grooming!) and even occasional blood on the stool (it wasn't idiopathic colitis!) so don't recognize seemingly minor or unnoticeable symptoms that may be indications of serious disease. (The new cats have a new vet, a cat specialist.) Beyond that, cats are very good at hiding their pain so it's hard to know how they're feeling unless they're very sick.
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- #8
My Spotty died of kidney disease at the age of about 15. He might have been older because I got him from the shelter 13 years ago along with my other cat. I fed my cats canned food twice a day with some dry. After losing Spotty I eliminated all dry food from Rosie's diet and I'm feeding her a combination of canned and Nature's Variety raw bites. These are my cats. Spotty is the black and white boy Who I had to have put to sleep because of kidney disease last week and Rosie is the brown and white kitty I still have. My wish is for her to have longevity. She seems to still be doing quite well.
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- #9
I am very devastated that I no longer have Spotty. :-(
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- #11
Yes, I believe so. Her eyes are blue. When I adopted her at the shelter in 2003 she was called a Siamese Tortie and White Mix. Her tail has tabby markings.I am so sorry about Spotty, KatzenMutter: it's very, very hard to part with a cat.
You're doing the right thing to feed Rosie only wet foods of various kinds--they're so much better for cats. Does Rosie have some Siamese in her? At least upside down, she looks a little bit like our cat Edwina, who's a snowshoe mix. Our vet told us Siamese especially need good diets (high protein, low carb, no grain, etc.) because they tend toward digestive issues: we didn't know that when we adopted them but both cats have proved us right and their diet has helped them tremendously!
Here's Edwina, helping me work!
Both of my previous cats ate only dry food and lived to be 18 yo. What does tell us? Not much, really. There's a lot of factors that go into a cat's quality of life and health other than food. Genetics is only one of them.
I also replied in your other thread so I'll say that here once again. I have yet to see any convincing evidence that feeding only-wet is superior to feeding only-dry. To have any epidemiological significance, you would need cohort studies at the very least (lifelong lab studies just don't exist though they would be superior, no doubt). Case studies are irrelevant as are most studies on small numbers of cats.
Here's something I wrote about the topic -
[article="32765"]The Science Behind Cat Nutrition[/article]
You may also find this article interesting -
[article="31658"]Cat Food Feline Nutrition With Pet Nutritionist Dr Martha Cline[/article]
I also replied in your other thread so I'll say that here once again. I have yet to see any convincing evidence that feeding only-wet is superior to feeding only-dry. To have any epidemiological significance, you would need cohort studies at the very least (lifelong lab studies just don't exist though they would be superior, no doubt). Case studies are irrelevant as are most studies on small numbers of cats.
Here's something I wrote about the topic -
[article="32765"]The Science Behind Cat Nutrition[/article]
You may also find this article interesting -
[article="31658"]Cat Food Feline Nutrition With Pet Nutritionist Dr Martha Cline[/article]
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #13
I will read the articles you posted. Please check out this article by Lisa Pierson. Everything in her paper is backed up by evidence and makes so much sense I can't even dispute it. www.catinfo.org
I'm aware of Lisa Pierson's website and views and respectfully disagree with a lot of what she says. I'm sorry, but evidence in science requires a whole lot more than what she offers. She has her views, which she is absolutely entitled to, of course. What you call "making sense" is essentially intuition. Just like me saying that feeding a cat only 2-3 times a day instead of free-feeding dry is not healthy for the cat's pancreas and can cause diabetes. It "makes sense" to me and frankly, there's no way to dispute that without conducting a proper study.
Please note that I am not saying that feeding dry is better than feeding wet. All I'm saying is that there is not enough evidence to say either way.
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- #15
I leave the wet food out. Dr Lisa Pierson had also stated in her article that she has routinely left wet food out for up to 12 hours with no issues. I have done the same. No issues. My cat doesn't always eat the whole can in one sitting. It depends on how hungry she is. So she is getting her multiple mouse size meals per day. And I doubt cats have access to food 24/7 in the wild. Also her article states that even though cats on dry food drink more water they consume half the amount of water than cats on dry food when you add up the amount of water a cat gets from the food plus what the cat drinks. And feline diabetes really is a man-made killer caused by the excessive amount of carbohydrates in dry cat food. Cats don't need so many carbohydrates. Dr Elizabeth Hodgkins has also written a lot about this subject. While I would rather see a cat that has a home and is fed dry food than homeless and starving I understand that dry food does not provide optimal nutrition for the carnivorous cat and I don't want any cat of mine eating such a diet. It isn't species appropriate.
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I think the carbs/protein issue is a separate one. You can have carb-laden wet food and protein-rich dry food.
As for leaving wet food out for 12 hours, I think that's potentially dangerous advice.
By definition, you will get bacterial contamination in the dish. Maybe a healthy cat will manage the ongoing contamination but can't see how that's a good thing to put the immune system under the constant stress. Young kittens, senior cats or cats with an immune compromised that's weakened for any reason would be at risk at least for things like vomiting and diarrhea. I wouldn't eat meat that was outside unrefrigerated for that long and wouldn't serve it to my cat.
I actually don't think there's anything wrong with feeding all-wet. It's a bit more expensive and it's terrible for the environment (basically moving a lot of water around in cans) but it's not bad for the cat. I am a bit concerned to hear that Dr. Pierson recommends leaving wet food out for so long. I need to look it up but I'm pretty sure the recommendations on refrigerating wet food between serving are fairly solid.
As for leaving wet food out for 12 hours, I think that's potentially dangerous advice.
By definition, you will get bacterial contamination in the dish. Maybe a healthy cat will manage the ongoing contamination but can't see how that's a good thing to put the immune system under the constant stress. Young kittens, senior cats or cats with an immune compromised that's weakened for any reason would be at risk at least for things like vomiting and diarrhea. I wouldn't eat meat that was outside unrefrigerated for that long and wouldn't serve it to my cat.
I actually don't think there's anything wrong with feeding all-wet. It's a bit more expensive and it's terrible for the environment (basically moving a lot of water around in cans) but it's not bad for the cat. I am a bit concerned to hear that Dr. Pierson recommends leaving wet food out for so long. I need to look it up but I'm pretty sure the recommendations on refrigerating wet food between serving are fairly solid.
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- #17
If she has had a lot of experience leaving wet food out with her rescue cats then either cats have strong stomachs or they know when it's no longer good enough to eat. My grandparents and my Aunt, they had many cats which lived an average of 16 and a half years, some Siamese cats lived into their early 20s. They were fed a combination of dry food, canned Fancy Feast and scraps of raw meat, liver, heart etc. Canned food was left out for hours or even all day and in the summer the flies were all over it and I was always grossed out by it. There was never a case of food poisoning in the cats. That said if I ever see a fly in the house I'll swat it before it touches the food. But I do not believe canned food can only be left out for 20 minutes as the pet food manufacturers say (because they want you to buy more dry food). Cats in the wild do not always finish their freshly killed prey and they do come back to eat it later. What I see with Rosie is she will either eat it within a couple hours or she will leave it for me to throw out by the evening.
In my family, growing up, our cats were always long-lived, so I've tried to carry on that tradition by buying the best quality foods I can afford and feeding a good amount -- not too much, not too little. We lost our eldest last November -- adopted him at reported age 14 and he was with us for 7 years, making him 21. And we lost our eldest beauty on 29 June at age 19 years, almost 2 months -- that age is confirmed, as she was with me from kittenhood and her finder was our vet tech at the time, so she was good at aging kittens. I am not a member of the grain-free society, the raw food society, or the no dry food society. I buy wet and dry foods of the highest quality I can afford, including Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Soulistic, Drs. Foster & Smith, and for the dry, Solid Gold. Since my cats now range in age from 9-18, I buy the mature formula Solid Gold turkey. In wet food, I buy a large variety of formulas, and yes, I do feed seafood, as well as poultry. As with myself, I believe diet is the most important factor in maintaining health, along with exercise and a good lifestyle. It seems to work.
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- #19
And I'm guessing that you're not a member of the carrageenan free society either. I think it's good that you fed variety because this way your cats never got too much of anything in one food that may not be good. Congratulations on having long-lived cats. Do you feed Wellness too? It's one pate brand I would like to keep feeding but I've been worried about the carrageenan.
My cats (4) were all in their teens when they died, but it was due to kidney problems. I later, after my fourth baby died, found out it was due to the dry cat food I was feeding them. It seems that dry food doesn't have enough moisture. The vet recommended that I feed my present cat, Baby, canned food as a supplement to the dry food. The vet also told me to read the ingredients of the food to make sure it was safe.I am now slowly switching her over to the natural foods so that she remains healthy and playful. She's 5 and 1/2 now, and I'd like to see her live past 17, which was the approximate age of the four who died.
