Among the miscellaneous junk mail in my mailbox this week, was a bright yellow envelope from Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. In huge bold print across the envelope it stated:
CAT FOOD ALERT
New findings from America’s most respected veterinary school reveal the ONE food you should feed your cat for optimal health!
They were soliciting subscribers for their newsletter, Cat Watch, but out of curiosity I looked inside to see what this magical food may be. Among other tips inside it stated:
What’s the one food you should feed your cat for optimal health? Wet food. Feeding your cat wet food, and not letting her eat from a dry food dispenser, could be the single greatest thing you do for her health and longevity. (New research shows wet food helps prevent diabetes, heart disease — even feline arthritis!)
Now, this isn’t news to me. I’ve written in the past about the dangers of dry food. I discovered most of the issues with dry food back in 2004, when I was struggling with cats that were obese, diabetic, and had gastro-intestinal disorders (such as IBD). Honestly, I would have liked to hear this cat food alert from Cornell back in 2004 – or earlier. However, I suppose it is “better late than never” and for once I hope a LOT of people were given this piece of “junk mail”.
Now, I wish Cornell would update their brochure on “Feeding Your Cat” to reflect these “new findings”.
Scanned copy of the Cornell mailing:
CatWatch mailing
Life of the Lintee Bean 
Hi,
I found your website to be very informative & it is clear you care about your cats.
I have a situation with my cats. I only wanted the very best for them (I’ve been fortunate to have cats be in my life all my life) and after rescuing 3 of the 4 cats I now share my life with, I picked a dry food called Innova EVO. It is suppose to have a formula closest to a raw diet. It has turkey, eggs, antioxidants, even pro biotics added after the low temp cooking. Also has less than 7% carbs & those are apples, sweet potatoes ect. Oh, also has NO grains. No harmful ingriedents or preservatives. (Unlike other supposedly good dry foods.) They all thrived on this food.
My problem is that the store ran out of this so I got the next best dry food made for cats. BIG mistake. Now, two or three of the cats has diarreha and that caused me to rush back to the store as soon as the old version (Innova EVO) was in and switch them back.
I still have the same thing going on – three of them have same issue. The time frame is now 5 days of this issue.
Oh – I forgot to mention that I also give them a “treat” of the canned Wellness food in the am & pm.
All the “girls” (my cats) love the Wellness canned food. (Turkey variety.)
Now I am considering canned food only… I just picked up the dry food and will try to sift through all the data at your web site & the ones you linked to. But could you please help and tell me if raw food is the only way or can I use the Wellness canned food as their main food?
I haven’t found the info on raw food yet – I will look around here for it.
The other thing that is difficult is my husband and I currently have no income. His company closed the office after 20 years and we are barely hanging on… so money is an issue.
Whew… sorry this is so long. But I want the very best for my “girls” and I’m trying to figure out what that is.
Please feel free to email me if you have time or post asap here.
Thank you so very, very much.
Lynn
Hi Lynn, and thank you for visiting my blog!
I’m happy to hear you are thinking of feeding wet food only. I personally think a canned food diet (like Wellness) is a great way to go!
Raw is another option, I recommend the recipes at http://www.catinfo.org or http://www.catnutrition.org.
I don’t recommend any dry foods, not even the “low carbohydrate” or “grain-free” dry foods.
1) Low-carb dry food contains potatoes or another form of starch – they *must* in order to form those little pieces of kibble. When potatoes (or other starches) are cooked at high heat (as they are to create dry kibble) they release acrylamide, which has been shown to cause cancer in animals.
2) Low-carb dry food is DRY – moisture is imperative for kidney and urinary tract health. Dry food is linked to chronic renal failure and feline lower urinary tract disease.
3) Low-carb dry food is high in calories – which may lead to obesity.
http://www.felineoutreach.org/EducationDetail.asp?cat=Nutrition
Hi Lynn, I got your response (on the Jellybean post):
Quote:
I don’t recommend sugar, vanilla, etc, for cats – and I suspect they are present in DanActive (to make it palatable to humans).
I looked up the NaturVet product:
“NaturVet Enzymes is a concentrated enzyme blend derived from vegetable sources and not from animal sources.”
Cats do NOT need more plants in their diet. They are obligate carnivores. I suspect the DanActive is dairy-derived, thus the better results over this plant-based product.
Personally, I would feed ONLY the Wellness Turkey, or if you feel digestive enzymes are necessary, use an animal-enzyme product such as Pancreatin (I use the Now Foods brand) or Biocase V.
Thanks for keeping me updated!
Lynette
Oh- if you really want to feed yogurt, I don’t object but give a little PLAIN full-fat yogurt, not flavored.
Thanks again for your info. Geeze, it looks like I did it again by giving them the NaturVet which is suppose to help them… but after reading the info on it you are absolutely correct about it being derived from veg source! Good grief!
Now I know why they had all the stool problems again! As for the DanActive; you were correct about the sugar content also.
I have, in the past, given the plain yogart on occasions as a way to keep the bowels healthy. However, I have one cat who RUNS AWAY when she even thinks I am going to give it as a treat! I have tried many ways of trying to disguise it, but nothing ever fools this kitty.
I will only be using the Wellness canned food for now. An update on the four “girls” is that 3 of them are now having normal stools; one hasn’t used the pan yet today & she is the one that had the worst problem. So, I guess no news is good news so far.
I am thinking about maybe doing the raw diet – it makes a lot of sense – but for now I want to get them all back to normal before I upset their system again. I will also use freat caution & do the change very slowly if & when I change them to raw food.
Thanks so much for the comments! I appreciate it.
Lynn
Lynette, Thanks so much for your comment on my blog about Gretzky. Your condolences are truly appreciated. We love and miss him dearly and will try our best to keep his memory a happy one. Take care!