buggy buggies
so jericho obviously loves playing with bugs.
but what about eating them?
according to feline nutrition foundation yes cats do eat bugs.
but the bulk of their diet is whole prey.
small rodents and birds.
hey friends it's jess and jericho.
i'm sure the first question you have is are insects even suitable for cats?
technically yes cats do eat insects.
insects match whole prey very closely.
they're high in moisture, high in protein.
they have moderate fat and basically no carbohydrates.
but as i mentioned before the bulk of the cat's diet comes from eating whole prey.
you would probably have to eat like trillions of bugs to get the same amount of quantity
compared to eating you know rodents, small mice, birds, and other small mammals.
the next question we need to ask is can cat food manufacturers
even use insect-based protein in their products?
susan thixton is a wonderful advocate for understanding what's actually in your cat's food.
she's a member of aafco and attends these meetings.
and she said that no there's officially no definition for insect-based proteins.
and all cat food manufacturers in the us
have to abide by aafco's product name rules as well as their ingredient definitions.
so if aafco doesn't have an official definition for these insect-based proteins
technically no cat food manufacturers cannot use insect-based protein in their products.
until aafco actually has an official definition for it.
people want to use insect-based cat food because they believe that it's
more environmentally friendly.
but is insect-based cat food actually better?
so far i've only seen dry cat food kibble insect-based protein cat food.
so right off the bat no it's not better.
kibble all types of dry food require starchy ingredients because it's cooked and pressurized.
and those starchy ingredients hold that kibble shape.
they hold the ingredients together.
and starch, carbohydrates, high amounts of these ingredients are not appropriate for cats.
dry food is also very very low in moisture.
cats rely on food for moisture.
again going back to whole prey and eating insects.
those are between 70 to 80% moisture.
whereas kibble dry cat food is only 10% moisture.
there's a big gap between what cats need and what kibble actually provides.
now specifically for insect based protein cat food this one says low carb.
but peas, lentils, and sunflower seeds all contribute to carbohydrates.
and those are all within the first 10 ingredients of this specific product.
this product also says that insects have more protein than chicken and cows.
that may be true because again insects match whole prey very very closely.
they're very high in protein.
however this product still uses chicken.
so i'm not sure why they're using that argument that it's higher in
protein when they're still using chicken.
and going back to high carbohydrate and low moisture...
you know these qualities over the long term are going to cause serious problems for your cat.
for example carbohydrates can lead to obesity.
and obesity alone brings on so many risks for health issues.
and that means you're going to be driving to the vet more often that's more gas.
you know more stress on the environment.
more stress on you, more stress on your cat.
if your cat does have serious health issues that's going to require medications.
and again that's another trip that you have to make in your car.
and that's more stress on you and your cat.
so i would say that insect-based
dry cat food does not result in you know lower stress on the environment.
because if you're feeding these high carbohydrate foods these low moisture foods
ultimately that's going to progress into serious health issues for your cat in the long term.
so what is the solution?
well the solution is feed high protein, high moisture, low carb cat food.
the most ideal situation is a variety of protein sources.
and honestly ideal would be whole prey.
you know that's what mother nature intended.
but i understand that's not possible for everyone.
so the next best option would be homemade raw.
you can check out this video right over meow for raw food premixes.
and if that doesn't work for you this playlist over meow has
cat food reviews for every situation.
freeze-dried raw, wet, and air-dried food.
thanks for watching!