Mary Allen
Can Cats Eat Dog Food?
As different as cats and dogs are overall, so do their demands on their food. Should it ever happen that your cats eat dog food, this is not yet a matter of concern. However, if your cats consistently ate dog food, serious health consequences would be to be feared. You should avoid that in any case.
Basically, cats absolutely have to get the cat food intended for them – and of course in high quality. There is a good reason for this: cats need a very protein-rich food with a sufficient proportion of the amino acid taurine because cats cannot produce this themselves. Dogs, on the other hand, can produce these on their own, but do not tolerate protein as well and need a food that is rich in carbohydrates. At the same time, the proportion of the amino acid taurine, which is so important for cats, is too low in dog food, which could lead to deficiency symptoms in cats. Taurine is particularly important for the health of cats because the cat’s liver cannot synthesize it on its own. The reason: the enzymes that are responsible for the conversion into taurine are hardly active in the cat. Therefore the amino acid has to be taken in through the diet.
If cats are fed dog food on a long-term basis, there will be significant deficiency symptoms in the cat. These can manifest themselves in the fact that the cat gets dull fur or bad eyes. In the worst case, the deficiency leads to retinal degeneration – a disease of the retina that is irreversible, i.e. irreversible, and which in the long term can even lead to blindness in cats.
Animal protein is found in large quantities in meat and fish products. Vegetables, on the other hand, are primarily rich in carbohydrates. Therefore, dog food contains a higher proportion of vegetables, while cat food contains more fish. Dog food also does not meet the nutritional needs of cats in that dog food contains too many carbohydrates due to the high proportion of vegetables, while the proportion of meat in dog food is too low for feline carnivores.
How Can I Prevent My Cats From Eating Dog Food?
- It is helpful to feed cats and dogs spatially separated, i.e. in different rooms if possible or at least in different corners of a room.
- If you enjoy working with the clicker, you can also use it to draw the cat’s attention away from the dog food – if necessary. Cats don’t always find dog food appealing at all. In many cases, the problem does not arise at all.
- You can also prevent each other from snacking on the bowls by filling the bowls of your beloved feline friends and canine buddies at certain feeding times. This gives you the opportunity to observe what is happening and, if necessary, intervene. Ultimately, this is the only way you can completely prevent your roommate kitty from tasting your dog’s food. An important aspect is of course that cats and dogs internalize from the start that they should only eat food from their own bowl.
- Another tried and tested possibility is that you offer the food in a limited time window of only 15 minutes. So you put the bowl in front of the dog and remove it after the period has expired. In this way, the dog learns that he has to eat all of the food within the given time frame.
The way we assess the gluttony of our beloved canine buddies is not absolutely necessary because the dog usually eats up his meals very quickly and completely anyway. His roommate kitty usually has no chance to try the contents of the dog bowl because the dog simply leaves nothing for the cat in the house, but likes to eat everything himself and at high speed.
What Should I Consider When Buying Cat Food?
High-quality food has such a positive effect on the health and well-being and thus also on the life of the cat that it is very advisable to attach great importance to high-quality cat food. The food should contain the ingredients that are necessary for the optimal health of the cat and, of course, do not contain any substances that could be harmful to the cat’s health.
You can recognize high-quality cat food by the accuracy of the information on the label. On the other hand, great caution is required with unspecific information such as “products”. Terms such as “animal by-products”, “fish by-products”, “dairy products” and “bakery products” are euphemisms for waste products that arise in the production of food for humans. In the worst case, cat food with such a label can contain slaughterhouse waste including blood, urine, and claws from animals. As critically as consumers question the origin of food in their own diet, it is also advisable to check which unsavory components of cat and dog food can be hidden behind certain names – especially since these can also harm the pet. This applies, among other things, if they contain hidden sugar. So if you love your sweet velvet paws, look carefully at the information on the label.
There is nothing better than a harmonious coexistence of dog and cat, which complement each other in their differences in such a wonderful way – and when dog and cat lying next to each other on the carpet or sofa after eating from separate bowls. Because as different as they are when it comes to eating, dogs and cats agree that sleeping is the most beautiful thing in the world. Besides eating, of course.