the first undeniable reason that kibble
dry cat food is bad for cats is that it's too low in moisture.
affco defines byproducts as essentially leftovers from the human food industry.
so if i could buy all of those foods fit for human consumption
at my grocery store what the heck kind of leftovers are going in cat food?
additionally aafco states that 4d meats aka dead diseased dying
disabled are allowed in pet food as long as those ingredients are rendered.
and if you think it can't get worse unfortunately it does.
hey friends it's jess and jericho and this video is for any friends or family members
maybe even your cat's doctor if they're still pushing you to feed a dry kibble cat food.
and of course all of the resources are in the description below.
so the first undeniable reason that
kibble dry cat food is bad for cats is that it's too low in moisture.
mammals are approximately 70 to 80% moisture.
and a loss of as little as 15% moisture could be fatal without immediate treatment.
so if cats are between 70 and 80% moisture then a 15% loss would be 55 to 65% moisture.
and dry food only provides 10% moisture.
but my cat drinks plenty of water!
this is very common most people think that their cats drink enough water but this is not true.
cats rely on food for moisture.
again mammals aka cats prey are between 70 and 80% moisture.
so since they get all of their moisture from food they have a naturally low thirst drive.
cats require water daily in milliliters equal to the number of
calories that they're consuming every day.
so for example if your cat consumes 250 calories daily he needs 250 milliliters of water daily.
250 milliliters is about 8.4 ounces of water.
so if you take about 250 calories worth of kibble 10% of that would be about 15.8 milliliters.
so a cat that eats dry food only would have to consume over 200 milliliters of water daily.
and 200 milliliters is equal to almost eight ounces of water.
so basically kibble only provides six percent of the cat's total daily needs for water.
and no cat drinks over eight ounces of water every single day.
if your cat does drink that much water it
means that he's very very sick and you should go to the vet.
do you ever wonder why cats that have chronic kidney disease require fluids?
the second reason that dry kibble is bad for cats is it's way too high in carbohydrates.
i analyzed 80 different dry cat food brands and i took the average
of the carb amount on a dry matter basis.
the average among the 80 brands was 33% carbohydrates.
and the highest was 49% carbohydrates.
a mouse only provides about two percent
carbohydrate that would come from the stomach contents.
so 33% carbs in dry food would be a 1,550% percent increase from the cat's natural diet.
that's insane 1,550% increase.
and carbohydrates are a problem because they break down into
sugar which can fuel obesity, diabetes, and certain cancers.
so again do you ever wonder why obese cats often develop diabetes?
dr elizabeth hodgkins actually owns a patent in which she treats diabetes from switching the cats
from a dry cat food to a high protein high moisture moderate fat low or no carb diet.
bye jericho
obesity also puts your cat at a much higher risk for arthritis, respiratory issues,
certain cancers, diabetes, feline lower urinary tract disease,
surgical problems, hypertension, fatty liver disease, and shortened lives.
pet obesity prevention does a survey every year to see how many cats are overweight.
and in 2019 they found that more than half the cats in the us are overweight or obese.
they also found that 82% of cat parents feed dry food exclusively.
isn't it obvious what the problem is?
the third reason that dry kibble is bad for cats is that it's too low in meat paste protein.
now to understand this you have to understand aafco's product name rules.
one word in the product name could mean a lot of difference
in the meat that's actually in the product.
for example chicken recipe means the chicken amount is somewhere between
25 and 94.9% chicken because of the word recipe.
but if the product name says
with chicken the chicken amount goes down to three percent to 24.9%.
and even further chicken flavor would mean zero
to two point nine percent chicken because of the word flavor.
so again if you don't understand these rules you don't understand what's actually in the product.
now sometimes in those ingredients lists it contains byproducts that
aren't necessarily the meat based protein that's in the product name.
but aafco defines byproducts as essentially leftovers from the human food industry.
jericho really doesn't like that byproducts are used in cat foods that's why you left.
so aafco says that by products are essentially leftovers from the human food industry.
but i went to my grocery store
and i found different products that would be considered by products.
like pig feet, pig ears, pig skin, lamb head, beef heart, beef kidney, turkey gizzards,
chicken gizzards, chicken feet, turkey necks, turkey backs, turkey tails.
so if i could buy all of those foods fit for human consumption at my grocery store
what the heck kind of leftovers are going in cat food?
additionally aafco states that 4d meats aka dead diseased dying disabled
are allowed in pet food as long as those ingredients are rendered.
rendering is a process in which the ingredients are subjected to high heat and high pressure.
so they say that rendering kills pathogenic bacteria.
but what about the medicine that's in these diseased
feed animals? these very large diseased feed animals.
for example if a cow has a disease he's probably receiving a lot of medication.
how did the cow pass on? was he euthanized?
what about those drugs in that animal's system?
there may not be pathogenic bacteria but what about all of those drugs?
and if you think it can't get worse unfortunately it does.
there is a crs report for congress on the animal rendering industry.
crs report for congress states that these rendered ingredients
can come from feedlots, marketing barns, and even dead animals from animal shelters.
plus restaurant grease and waste from grocery stores.
there are also companies like midwest ingredients that sell waste to pet food manufacturers.
it even states on their website midwest ingredients exists to find a place in the market
for manufacturers waste stream.
now the biggest myth out there says that kibble is good for cats because it cleans their teeth.
but what if your dentist said to you nah you don't have to brush your teeth just
eat crunchy foods like pretzels and granola and peanut brittle.
it's crunchy it'll rub up against your teeth and it'll clean it that's fine.
or what about this...
if kibble did actually clean cat teeth
then why do cat food companies make specific products called oral care?
like if their kibble products already cleaned teeth they wouldn't need to
spend millions and millions of dollars creating a new product called oral care.
and if common sense and logic isn't your thing here's some science.
amylase is an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates.
cats cannot produce amylase in their mouth.
so that means that cats cannot break down carbohydrates properly in their mouth.
so how can a high carbohydrate food be good for their teeth?
also 70 to 80 percent of cats have some form of dental disease by the age of three.
so if 80% of us are feeding dry food then how can all of these cats have dental problems?
now the biggest objection to raw feeding is bacteria contamination.
but in 2021 a kibble manufacturing company called midwestern pet foods
recalled hundreds of kibble products due to potential salmonella contamination.
cdc advises against raw food but on the very same page you go down to the bottom
and they say oh but low key kibble and canned food can contain bacteria too.
so how can they advise against raw feeding because of the potential contamination germs?
and then on the very same page say that dry food and canned food can also contain these germs?
why wouldn't they advise against feeding those foods?
but only advise against feeding raw foods?
now maybe an objection that you have right now is i've tried feeding my cat different food
he doesn't want anything except for dry food.
cats are very sensitive to food changes.
additionally they form an addiction to dry foods.
so you'll have to transition to new food very very very very slowly.
you can check this video right over meow for a full transition guide.
what other concerns do you have about cat food? let me know in the comments below.
thanks for watching!