right here on the left we have a glass of water that's approximately 250 milliliters.
and this is the amount that an average nine pound
cat would have to consume daily to maintain proper hydration.
in the middle this glass here is filled with 177 milliliters of water.
this is how much water your cat would consume daily with food alone
if your cat is consuming wet food only.
then right here on the right is 15.8 milliliters of water which
is what your cat would consume eating kibble only.
so now honestly does your cat drink plenty of water?
hey friends it's jess and jericho.
i talk about moisture a lot on this channel and how important it is for cats.
so first let's talk about why moisture is important and then
take another look at how much food provides.
this is a clinical anatomy and physiology book i read it's part of my nutrition program.
and it states "mammals consist of about 70 percent water and a loss of as little as
10 percent of its water can cause serious illness in most animals and a 15%
loss would be fatal without immediate treatment."
this is dr karen becker's website and she says "dogs and cats are made up of mostly
water which is required for maintaining crucial body processes like regulating body temperature,
flushing out waste, cushioning the brain, transporting nutrients through the bloodstream."
and we can see parallels to our lives too right?
so like regulating body temperature.
when we're hot we require more water.
flushing out waste like for example if we have a urinary infection
we would need to drink more water.
same goes for cats if there's a uti
or maybe there's crystals or bladder stones your cat needs more water.
water is essential for life.
dr becker goes on to say "if your cat or dog lived in the wild
her natural diet prey would be around 70% water.
a nutritionally balanced fresh species appropriate diet will also be about 70 to 80%
water as well as high quality canned food.
on the contrary dry food is only 5 to 10% water.
if your pet is eating moisture rich food
some of her water requirements will be met during her meals.
however eating mostly dry food which i don't recommend
she may need more water than average to compensate for the dry diet.
feeding cats or dogs a dry food diet actually puts incredible stress
on the kidneys because of its lack of moisture."
so the cat's natural diet mice, birds, and other small mammals are very high in moisture.
since food provides the majority of your cat's daily requirements
cats just have a naturally lower thirst drive.
this is dr lisa pierson's website she's another advocate for high moisture fresh food diets.
she says "water is an extremely important nutrient
that contributes to overall health in every living creature.
couple this with the fact that cats do not have a very strong first drive when compared to
other species, and you will understand why it's critical for them to ingest a water-rich diet.
the cat's lack of a strong thirst drive
can lead to low level chronic dehydration when dry food makes up the bulk of their diet.
especially if they have any level of kidney insufficiency."
and then dr pierson also discusses the moisture contents of food that we just outlined.
and she goes on "i hear the reader saying but
my cat drinks a lot of water so dry food is just fine for him."
and i know that a lot of you have said this to me before.
that's exactly why i'm making this video.
dr pierson goes on, "a cat consuming predominantly dry food diet
does drink more water than a cat consuming a canned food diet.
but in the end when water from all the sources
is added together what's in their diet plus what they drink
the cat on dry food consumes approximately half the amount of
water when compared with cat eating canned food.
think of canned food as flushing out your cat's bladder several times each day."
and that goes back to the chronic dehydration
the stress on the kidneys and really stress on all bodily functions.
again water is essential for life.
so feeding a diet of dry food only essentially dehydrates your cat from the inside out.
"the amount of water that is needed daily by an animal
in milliliters is equal to the amount of its daily energy requirement in calories."
this is the national research council's your cat's nutritional needs and they say that an
adult cat weighing nine pounds would consume 250 calories daily to maintain that weight.
so 250 calories would mean 250 milliliters daily.
and 250 milliliters is equal to almost eight and a half ounces.
i took the average calorie and moisture contents of kibble wet and raw
to calculate how much water will be provided with the food.
i won't bore you with the math but if you want to check it out it's in the description below.
right here on the left we have a glass of water that's approximately 250 milliliters.
and this is the amount that an average nine pound
cat would have to consume daily to maintain proper hydration.
in the middle this glass here is filled with 177 milliliters of water.
this is how much water your cat would consume daily with food alone
if your cat is consuming wet food only.
then right here on the right is 15.8 milliliters of water which
is what your cat would consume eating kibble only.
these two glasses represent the 250 milliliters that your
needs daily and then the 15.8 milliliters of water that your cut gets from eating kibble.
there's a massive difference between what your cat consumes
eating food alone and the amount of water that your cat needs daily.
so if your cat's eating kibble only to maintain proper hydration he would have to drink
over 200 milliliters of water daily which is equal to about eight ounces.
so an entire eight ounce cup of water daily. every single day just to stay hydrated.
these glasses represent the 250 milliliters that your cat needs daily and on the right is
the 177 milliliters of water for what your cat would consume if he's eating wet food.
this is much more water that's consumed if you're on a wet food diet versus kibble.
there's not that much of a difference really not big of a gap here.
the remaining difference is about 73 milliliters or two and a half ounces of water.
which is nothing compared to a full eight ounces.
so again here is the comparison of what your cat would need daily 250
milliliters and in the middle what your cat would consume with a wet food diet.
and on the right what your cat would consume with a kibble diet.
so now honestly does your cat drink plenty of water?
so what's the solution?
simply adding water to kibble doesn't work.
most cat parents leave kibble out all day which is really unsanitary.
bacteria and mold will grow on food that sits out all day at room temperature.
plus you have the cat's saliva getting onto the food as your cat eats.
so that extra moisture is just going to speed up the growth of bacteria and mold.
so if you're adding even more water to that
all of that moisture it's just going to create a soup of bacteria and mold.
a better option is to get your cat used to eating at scheduled meal
times that way you're not leaving food out all day.
then from there you can transition to a high moisture diet.
you can upgrade your cat's kibble in the meantime with this video right over meow.
then once you're ready to transition to wet food or raw check out that video right over meow.
thanks for watching!