Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I have a 7-year old Siamese mix cat who came to my house as a starving kitten. She was terified of humans, but hunger won out, and after many weeks she allowed me to pet her. I brought her inside where she has stayed since then. She only likes dry food, except for tidbits of chicken which I give her for good behavior. She was drinking lots of water and peeing massive amounts, so I took her to the vet about two weeks ago and had a metabolic panel done. It turns out she is borderline diabetic, and the vet put her on Hill’s Prescription diet m/d for weight loss, low carbohydrate, diabetic — I’m feeding her 3/4 cup per day. She currently weighs 16 pounds. I had a cat that lived 16 1/2 years and died from kidney failure. He didn’t show symptoms until about a year and a half before his death. Is my current cat headed in that direction? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

~ Carol

Obesity can put cats at risk for many health problems, including diabetes. (This is not Carol's cat, by the way; it's a photo we found in a random Google search.)

Siouxsie: Carol, it’s a good thing you took your cat to the vet when you did. If she’s borderline diabetic, there’s a very good chance you and your vet can work together to manage her care and perhaps even get her back to remission — a non-diabetic state that could last for weeks, months, or even the rest of her life!

Thomas: You didn’t say your vet put your cat on insulin. That’s a good sign: it seems that your vet believes your cat’s diabetic symptoms are due to her obesity, and that if she loses weight she may well go into remission.

Dahlia: Sixteen pounds is quite heavy for a cat. It’s more or less the equivalent of a 5’6″ woman weighing 250 pounds when her ideal weight is somewhere between 135 and 155 pounds.

Siouxsie: So your vet prescribed the m/d food not only to control your cat’s blood sugar but to help her lose weight. If you feed her an appropriate amount of food and spend more time exercising her with interactive toys, the weight will come off, and at a reasonable pace.

Thomas: We visited the Hill’s Pet Nutrition website to get more information on m/d food. According to the chart on that page, 3/4 cup per day is a maintenance dose for a 16-pound cat. For weight loss, they recommend half a cup a day (of course, their chart is trumped by your vet’s orders, so if he or she recommended 3/4 cup a day, take your vet’s advice).

Dahlia: But the thing that really stunned us about m/d dry food was the ingredient list! Most vets agree that a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is the best way to manage diabetes and correct problems like obesity. But the m/d food’s second ingredient is corn gluten meal. Ingredients 5, 6 and 7 are powdered cellulose (plant fiber), brewers rice, and whole-grain corn.

Siouxsie: Although we’re sure that the carbohydrate levels in this food are lower than they are in most dry cat foods, which is why they can call it low-carbohydrate food, we would encourage you to think about switching her to a canned food.

Thomas: Canned foods have more meat protein by volume and fewer carbohydrates than many kibbles. The reason for this is that kibble needs to be made with carbohydrates or plant products in order to be shaped into those little crunchies, but canned foods don’t.

Dahlia: You say your cat likes tidbits of chicken, so we think you might be able to convince her to eat canned food if you use a product that features chicken. Of course, you may have tried this before, with no luck. But fear not, veterinarian Lisa Pierson has written a great guide on how to transition a dry-food addict to a canned diet.

Siouxsie: We think it would be a great idea for you to do some research on diet and nutrition, and diabetes management in cats, and we’re going to give you some great places to start.

Thomas: Little Big Cat is an award-winning website written by veterinarian Jean M. Hofve and celebrity cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy. Mama’s learned lots of cool stuff from Doctor Jean, and she highly recommends you check out the Health and Nutrition sections of the site.

Dahlia: We’re big fans of a species-appropriate diet for cats. Cat Nutrition has information on species-appropriate diets and about obesity and diabetes.

Siouxsie: Veterinarian Lisa Hodgkins runs Your Diabetic Cat, a website dedicated to information on the management, treatment — and prevention — of diabetes.

Thomas: The Feline Nutrition Education Society has information on species-appropriate diets, and how to read pet food ingredient labels. You should know, however, that FNES advocates a raw-food diet, and this is still very controversial among veterinarians.

Dahlia: That said, we eat a raw diet at least half the time. Our vet knows this, he knows Mama uses recipes from highly qualified and experience-tested sources, and he’s fine with it, especially because we’re such healthy cats.

Siouxsie: In any case, Carol, you don’t have to make drastic changes and turn your and your cat’s life upside down for her to be okay. Just start educating yourself about diet and do try to transition your cat away from dry food. Canned food — any canned food! — is, in our opinion, better for cats than kibble. Exercise your kitty every day and work with your vet to make sure she’s losing weight at a proper pace.

Thomas: We’re certain that your sweet girl will stay healthy for a very long time to come because you’ve discovered her health condition early. Your quick intervention will ensure that she’ll be a part of your life for many years to come.

Since we’re part of the crowd that amplified the rumor, we feel ethically obligated to set the record straight.

When we responded to a letter from a reader who heard Ellen De Generes and Halo Pet Foods plan to introduce a line of vegan pet foods, we had no idea how much response we’d get to this post and how far it would spread around the blogosphere. We were a little concerned when we were able to source the story to a gossip blog in the Chicago Sun Times, but it didn’t occur to us to ask Halo directly. Yesterday, another blogger asked Halo Pet Foods whether the rumors about a vegan cat food are true, and they said in a direct e-mail and in a tweet that they have no plans to introduce a vegan cat food.

We apologize for our error, and we hope our readers will also share this story and help us get the truth out there.

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I recently heard on the radio that Ellen DeGeneres is coming out with a line of vegan cat food. Is that even a healthy possibility for our cats? I thought they naturally ate meat proteins.

~ Donna

Do these look like the teeth of an herbivore to you? Image courtesy of free-extras.com

Siouxsie: After all four of us (that would be the three of us cats and Mama too) went “WHAAAAT?!?” when we heard that Ellen’s pet food company is coming out with a line of vegan cat foods, we did some research to verify this fact. It seems that this tidbit has been reported in more than one place, so we’re reasonably certain there’s some truth to it. (Update Dec. 12, 2011: it seems the rumor about Ellen’s line of vegan pet foods — including cat food — has been substantiated. Read the article here.)

Update again: In response to questions from its followers, Halo tweeted on Tuesday, Dec. 13, that they have no plans to introduce a vegan cat food — although they do have plans to introduce a vegan dog food in 2012. We apologize for any part we had in spreading this misinformation.

Thomas: Apparently there’s a fairly decent niche business in the vegan pet food market. We even found a website that sells only vegan dog and cat foods.

Dahlia: We know quite a few vegan humans, and we understand and respect the health, spiritual and political reasons for their choice to embrace an animal product-free lifestyle. But the fact of the matter is that while most humans can live well on a vegetarian or vegan diet, cats can’t — no matter what PETA or the celebrity talking-head of the week says.

Siouxsie: Cats are obligate carnivores. They have to eat meat in order to stay healthy. While many domestic cats seem to do okay on grain-based kibble, it does not provide optimum nutrition. In fact, a number of veterinarians and nutritionists attribute the alarming rise in feline obesity and diseases like diabetes and chronic urinary and digestive problems to a carbohydrate-rich diet.

The teeth of a carnivore on the left and those of an herbivore on the right. Herbivores have lots of molars for grinding their food. They also don't have fangs or incisors. Carnivores like cats, on the other hand, have few if any molars and the teeth they do have are designed for ripping, not grinding. Image courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management

Thomas: How do we know cats are carnivores? First, just take a look at their anatomy. While humans and herbivorous (plant-eating) animals like horses have relatively large stomachs, molars designed for grinding food, and a long intestinal tract that allows time to absorb nutrients from plant foods, cats have small stomachs, short intestines, and teeth designed for ripping meat off bones and swallowing it whole.

Thomas: And because cats evolved to be such specialized carnivores, their bodies lack the chemicals necessary to digest and use the energy from grains.

Dahlia: Because we’re designed to be meat eaters, our livers are always creating the enzymes needed to break down proteins. In humans and other omnivorous animals, the liver starts and stops making the enzymes as needed.

Siouxsie: That’s one reason why cats get so sick if they don’t eat for a while. If there’s no food to break down, a cat’s body starts breaking down the proteins that keep the body functioning.

Thomas: While humans and other animals are able to manufacture an enzyme called Taurine, cats aren’t. We need to get our taurine from the food we eat, and the best source of taurine is … meat.

Dahlia: Sure, pet food manufacturers supplement the cat foods they make with a variety of vitamins and nutrients, including taurine, but eating an unnatural diet — whether it’s a vegan diet or one composed strictly of colorful meat-flavored kibbles — is, in the long run, not the healthiest choice for your cat.

Siouxsie: So, exactly what’s in vegan cat food? And how do they make it palatable for carnivorous animals?

Thomas: Mama went to the vegan pet food website we mentioned earlier (we’re not going to link to it, but you can Google “vegan cat food” and it’ll appear in the top of the results) and took a look at the ingredients in some of these products.

Dahlia: Every single pre-made vegan kibble at that site was filled with grain! The first three ingredients in one vegan kibble were corn gluten, corn oil, and rice protein. Another vegan kibble’s ingredient list began with whole grain ground wheat, corn gluten meal and soybean meal.

Siouxsie: The vegan canned cat food wasn’t much better. Its first three ingredients (after “water sufficient for processing”) were peas, brown rice and avocado.

Thomas: If I ate those foods, I’d get so sick! I’d be crying in pain and having awful, awful diarrhea all the time!

Dahlia: There, there, Thomas. It’s okay. Mama knows you have a serious sensitivity to grains and she would never feed you anything that would make you suffer like that.

Siouxsie: Even if Thomas didn’t have digestive issues, we still wouldn’t eat cat food with grain in it. Like we said earlier, cats’ bodies are not designed to digest grain. We strongly advocate for grain-free diets for all cats, whether or not they can eat grain without getting obviously sick.

Thomas: The botrom line, Donna, is — you’re right. Cats do need to eat meat protein to be healthy.

Dahlia: And if you want a fluffy pet that’s also a vegan … get a bunny!

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I have a 10 year old Bengal who has never had health issues. She’s a strictly indoor cat. Recently she dropped from 11 lb 8 oz to 9 lb 13 oz. It seemed to happen over a matter of weeks but may have been more gradual. I took her to the vet who did an exam and took blood. According to the results, there appears to be nothing wrong with her — no disease and no parasites, no tumors. Throughout this entire time, her behavior never changed: she eats and drinks, urinates and excretes, is interested in toys and petting, no signs of withdrawal. My question is, have you heard of anything like this? Any advice? And most importantly, what kind of high caloric nutrient rich food should I give her to increase her weight?

~ Tara

The Bengal is a naturally lean breed. Photo by V. Sauvaget, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Siouxsie: Tara, you did the right thing when you noticed your cat’s weight loss. Because you took her to the vet, you’ve been able to rule out common causes of weight loss such as hyperthyroidism, diabetes, tumors and parasites.

Thomas: When we looked at photos of Bengal cats, it seems to us they tend to be a bit on the lean side naturally, probably because of the Oriental breeds that were added to the mix to create the Bengal kitty.

Dahlia: That probably makes it even more alarming when they start to lose weight!

Siouxsie: Cats, like humans, tend to go through weight changes as they age. They may get a bit plump during their middle age years — between about 6 and 9 — and then start losing weight again as they age further.

Thomas: Ha ha, Siouxsie. I remember when you were 7, you were so big that Doctor Sarah threatened to put you on a diet if you gained any more weight!

Siouxsie: Don’t make me get out of my throne and smack you! Besides, 11 pounds isn’t fat; it’s … pleasantly plump!

Thomas: Too bad you wouldn’t let me snuggle with you when there was more of you to love.

Dahlia: Anyway … Tara, age 10 is about the equivalent of 56 human years, so she’s not quite what I’d consider a senior. But she is on the downhill side of middle age, and that is about the time cats start losing weight.

Siouxsie: That’s how it happened for me. I gradually slimmed down to 8 pounds, and I tend to hover around that weight these days.

Thomas: But why do older cats tend to lose weight? Well, part of it has to do with the fact that our bodies don’t process nutrition as well as they used to. Because of that, you may need to feed your cat more calories in order for her to maintain her weight.

Dahlia: Sometimes cats don’t eat because their teeth are hurting them, and that can cause weight loss. Dental disease is fairly common in older cats. However, since your cat is eating and drinking normally, we don’t think this is the case with her.

This chart shows feline body conditions. A 1 is emaciated and a 9 is grossly obese. If your cat looks like a 7 or a 9, he is at a high risk of developing Type II diabetes.

Siouxsie: So, as you’ve figured out, what you need to do is offer her a more calorie-dense food with more high-quality nutrients than she’s getting right now.

Thomas: Canned, home-made or raw diets are typically much richer than kibble. As an added bonus, these foods have more moisture, which can protect against dehydration, another common problem in older cats.

Dahlia: If you’re going to go with canned food, we’d recommend that you feed a grain-free premium product such as Wellness CORE, Evo, or Nature’s Variety Instinct grain-free (there are quite a few grain-free canned foods out there, but these are three brands we’ve tried and liked).

Siouxsie: Home-made and raw diets also offer of appropriate protein levels and moisture content. However, opinions on raw food in the veterinary community are divided. Some vets see it as a great way to keep cats healthy and give them the nutrition they need; others express concern about potential contaminants (salmonella, for instance) and the possibility of malnutrition if the owner doesn’t feed a balanced diet.

Thomas: I’m not sure the salmonella argument passes the logic test, though. We cats are evolved to eat raw meat: we have short, highly acidic digestive tracts, and that makes us naturally resistant to bacterial pathogens in our food.

Dahlia: The balanced diet issue can be addressed by using tested and proven recipes. You can find them in books like Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats and Anitra Frazier’s The Natural Cat. (These links go to our store at amazon.com — if you want to buy these books through our shop, Mama puts the money in our treat allowance jar. Please support our catnip habit!)

Siouxsie: Websites like the Feline Nutrition Education Society offer great information for people interested in feeding a homemade or raw diet. (For the sake of transparency, we should say Mama is a member. She also knows the people in charge of the website and can testify to the fact that they really know what they’re doing and are passionate about their mission to get cats eating species-appropriate diets.)

Thomas: Tara, we’d also recommend you monitor your cat’s weight. You want to make sure she doesn’t gain too much weight, and you want to know if she’s continuing to lose weight despite her richer diet.

Dahlia: There are two ways you can do this. The most accurate way involves purchasing a digital baby scale and using it to weigh her at least once a week.

Siouxsie: Alternately, you can stand on the scale and weigh yourself. Then pick your cat up and weigh yourself again. The difference in the two numbers is your cat’s weight. Unless your scale is digital, you may not get as accurate a reading as you would with the baby scale.

Thomas: We hope we’ve been able to help you. Good luck getting some meat back on your kitty’s bones!