Is Grain Free Food Good For Dogs And Cats

Unfortunately when grains are eliminated from dog or cat food your pet won t be getting more high quality protein as many pet parents believe.

Is grain free food good for dogs and cats. Are there any medical reasons why a cat would do better with whole grains in the diet. A misconceived solution to this has been to feed grain free pet foods because of the success of grain free diets in human nutrition. When they looked into what these dogs were eating they found that 90 were on a grain free food and 93 were on diets that contained peas and or lentils. Some pet food companies and other sources have suggested that grain free diets are good options for cats with allergies.

In large majority of instances there is no need for your pet to be eating a grain free diet. And because plant proteins are devoid of taurine dog foods might be deficient in taurine just like cat foods were 40 years ago. Cats are infamously finicky eaters. Cats that are underweight or are highly active and need extra calories can benefit from grains in their diet.

In general yes because grain free diets tend to be higher in protein content and cats love their meat based protein. As a result grain free and low carbohydrate pet foods are not always synonymous with one another. The foods were tested for minerals metals and amino acids and no significant abnormalities were found. The fda received 515 reports of dcm in dogs between january 1 2014 and april 30 2019.

In the fda s july 2019 update on diet and canine heart disease they examined labels of dog food products reported in dcm cases to determine whether the foods were grain free defined as. These ingredients are no more natural or healthy for your cat than grains. The grain free cat diets we investigated swapped grains for peas potatoes sweet potatoes and tapioca think of the pudding. Can feeding grain free cat food lead to better or more consistent eating.

They are not scavengers like dogs and will only eat fresh prey. They do eat the gut content of their prey grains and all like dogs and do consume small amounts of fresh green plant material but in general their diet is much higher in fresh meat content. Another reason that many cat owners choose to feed grain free or gluten free cat foods is a mistaken belief that these diets are the best choice for cats that have food allergies. Grain free diet for dogs can be good only for certain pets and in very specific cases.

Cats are true carnivores which mean they must eat meat to survive.