# What is really known about the food requirements of cats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405 "2014-07-30T06:16:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/21 "2014-08-01T22:06:25Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > I then read the label on a can of tuna - its ingredients were limited to tuna and water. We started feeding Andy on this (he thought it was a great idea, too) and within several months the spots cleared up. And luckily our local supermarket regularly runs sales of canned tuna, which puts them in the same price range as canned cat food. Sorry to pile on there **Daylate** , but a link for [you](http://maxshouse.com/Tuna_and_Cats_Nutritional_Facts.htm). Tuna is highly deficient in taurine among many other things and a diet of nothing but tuna muscle will eventually cause blindness/permanent eye damage and can also cause cardiac failure down the road. It’s just not a healthy diet and should probably be limited to the occasional treat if fed at all. I don’t doubt that you had a food allergen problem from your decription, but going to all non-supplemented fish diet is an even worse idea. Your cat could have been allergic to a grain or any of a number of particular proteins. Experiment with quality cat foods of different types to see what helps, but don’t stick with what you are feeding. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/22 "2014-08-01T22:54:48Z")
Sometimes, just switching to a single protein food that the cat hasn’t been exposed to before can do the trick. Venison, lamb, rabbit are often used, and are more commonly available as boutique foods as well as the more common prescription diets. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/23 "2014-08-02T05:29:42Z")
This thread is so funny and sad. The OP asks for scientific research to combat all the anecdotal evidence he sees in forum threads. What does he get? Anecdotal evidence with no scientific research. There are plenty of journals for animal nutrition, including pet nutrition. I see the [Journal of Applied Animal Nutrition](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JAN), the [Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1439-0396), and the [Animal Feed Science and Technology](http://www.journals.elsevier.com/animal-feed-science-and-technology/). All of them appear to be reputable, peer-reviewed journals. How about instead of saying what your little Tabby just adores in the evening, you actually read an article written by scientists, who know what things like control groups and confirmation bias are. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/24 "2014-08-02T05:40:24Z")
To get you started: [Here’s an example article](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377840107000363), looking at the use of spray-dried porcine plasma in dry dog and cat food, which is thought to help in the uptake of certain digestibles. It’s also used in wet foods, though this article doesn’t look into that. See, it does exist. Real science! Control groups, statistics, statistically significant results! It’s almost like we’ve learned that there are better ways to acquire new knowledge than to pull it out of your ass. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/25 "2014-08-02T14:22:14Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > Those cat foods that boast no grains use other fillers, such as potato starch. I suspect that’s not so much “filler” as “stuff that makes the meat bits stick together”. Without that you’d have to resort to the freeze-dried method, I’d think - I used to supplement high-meat ferret kibble with freeze-dried meat patties, reconstituted, when I owned ferrets. (Ferrets require an even higher protein content in their food than cats do.) ---
**Author:** ![Crazier\_Catlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Crazier\_Catlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazier_Catlady)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/26 "2014-08-04T06:13:10Z")
Thanks for the links buddy431, those are really useful. They even led me to a couple of books on medical problems of geriatric cats (and dogs), and since I run a small shelter for elderly cats those come in handy as well. As for the grain being a filler: it is indeed the stuff that makes the meat bits stick together, but quite a few pet food companies use far more grain than necessary for that purpose because it’s cheaper than meat and in those cases it’s also a filler. Generally one can say that the better the cat food, the less grain it contains. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405/27 "2014-08-04T08:58:07Z")
“THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.” _T.S. Eliot._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-really-known-about-the-food-requirements-of-cats/694405.md?page=1)