The Truth About Grain-Free Cat Food (Explained by a Vet)
The Truth About Grain-Free Cat Food (Explained by a Vet)
In this video, Dr. Sarah Wooten, DVM, CVJ explains the facts about grain-free food for cats.
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This is a bad video. I mean it’s cool you inform us that if it is grain free then other carbs go into it. But at no point do make an effort to recommend wet food and raw food over dry kibble. Dry kibble is the worst you can feed your cat. It is so heavily processed and to make it you have to add a bunch of stuff and reheat it several times. Why do you think it can sit for months without going bad or spoiling? It’s also relatively new. Dry kibble came in the 60’s I think it was and it’s convenient and that’s it. Convenient and totally unhealthy. Why do you not make an effort to recommend wet foods? Guys I can recommend Jackson Galaxy on YouTube he made some good videos on cat nutrition. He got the facts more straight than this vet here. But Jackson also published studies from vets in his video so this is just a bad vet who doesn’t know any better. I also saw one vet on YouTube mention that many of these cat food companies heavily influence the veterianian studies and sponsor them etc. Jackson said he would much rather feed his cat the worst wet food over the best dry kibble that is how bad dry kibble is. Stay away from it guys.
I wish I could find a decent food that isn’t necessarily grain free but still
Has exceptional ingredients and isn’t owned by some giant conglomerate corporation. 🤦🏼♀️
I adopted Belladonna as a 2 year old from a local rescue center. She weighed 10.1 lbs. and I started her on Orijen fit and trim. I was able to keep her just under 11 lbs feeding her mostly canned and some dry (which she prefers). I decided to switch her to Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein Salmon Kibble Cat Dry Food and gradually added it to her Orijen. Well she gained a bunch of weight, probably up to 12 by now. Yes I play laser and other games every day. I think it’s Elseys food. I’m switching back to all Orijen fit & trim. I didn’t realize it could be the amount of carbohydrates. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I had a male cat live til 18 strictly eating Hills science diet, then I Moved to switzerland where hills was expensive even across in german and I switched the food but he lived until eighteen. I need to change the food for my cat. Who was just diagnosed with heart disease? But when I look up hills, the ingredients are not good and it has a bad rating online, so I don’t know what to do. They are currently eating Crave indoor salmon and chicken, and Tiki Cat born carnivore indoor. But I am soooo confused how to find a good low sodium dry cat food , needed asap!!! Thanks for any help
Is Matisse salmon and tuna safe dry food is this safe for cat pls tell ?????!!
Thank you for this vid! I guess if the USDA is allowed to lie about the "Food Pyramid",that gives the green light for everyone else too.
Jesus, this is a horrific video. Cats should not be eating anything other than meat. No carbs. No grains. No veg. And definitely not seed oils. The only reason to ever include those things in cat food is to make it cheaper. That’s it. That’s the only reason. Your cats health will suffer if it eats anything but meat. I have no idea how you could think any other way. Blows my mind.
Thank you so so so much because I have been contemplating changing to grain free cat food for my 11-year-old cats but I think I’m going to stick with feeding them regular cat food. I have a hard time with one because all she wants is just the gravy. 🙄
I would love to know what prescription foods are the best
Kitty was showing signs of diabetic, drinking a lot of water and peeing constantly. Switched to grain free wet food and small amount of grain free kibble. Diabetic signs have disappeared completely, however, her poop stinks to high heaven. Have to light scented candles, lol. 🕯🕯🕯
In my opinion, the cat, which is a sticke carnivore, should not eat any kibble made by humans, only prey that has been created to kill and eaten like Mouse, Rat, Bird etc..
Hi , never give sugar or derived as glucose o other things, cats need meet and fish and taurine, and less fat. Is the good things i give to my little one.
I thought grain caused kidney stones in cats
Thank you!
Appreciate the perspective! My vet was confusing me because she said cats need grains, and I asked why. She explained the lentils, peas, legumes, etc. often replace the grains and cause illness. So I confirmed that it’s not about whether they eat grains but what they replace it with. “Yes” she replied but then continued to insist cats need grains …
Of course it isn’t dangerous for cats. They’re obligate carnivores that haven’t been truly domesticated the way dogs have been. Grain free is always better for a cat, but grain free dry vs. grain-containing wet is more complicated.
Cat food is garbage full of chemicals and by – products . Cat’s must have taurine and it’s found in whole milk [room] temp and red meat .
A 2022 survey by APOP, shows 61% of cats are overweight or obese. This is because 81% of cat owners state they feed dry kibble all or most of the time. Cats do not need carbs. Any wet food is better than any dry food. My two 15 month old females are now eating chicken thigh meat or raw ground beef every day. Every other day or so, a grain free wet cat food. No more throwing up. So far, no hairballs. I do brush them frequently.
I’m not sure we’re on the right track. Perhaps it’s carbs and not grains that are poisoning our cats. Perhaps cats dont need either one.
Anyone have a brand recommendation? That’s low low carb? Adopting soon and doing my research atm. Assuming I should do a dry food wet food topper to boost over all protein value.
Did you pass out from University of Cats?
Out two sister kitties Moonlight and Shadow are three years old and doing pretty well on grain free dry food. We were feeding one brand of grain free two years ago and then couldn’t get it anymore locally. So switched to another brand and they love it! And are pretty healthy with nice coats. The brand is also for sensitive stomachs as well, because Moonlight has a more sensitive stomach than Shadow. We ran out of food recently and couldn’t get to the city to pick up their food. So we bought some cheap grain cat food from a small local store. They ate a lot more of it and it seemed to just go through their systems faster. Like they had to eat more of it to get what they needed. Now we make sure we don’t run out of the good stuff. I cant’ name the brand here. but you can see how good our kitties look on my channel.
The way I interpreted this video is she is confirming that she would advise a grain inclusive diet which is also what my vet said…but reading all of the comments, everyone is thanking her and saying their cat is on a grain free diet? Which is it?
Cats are obligate carnivores…they do not eat grains in the wild.
WOW! lots to digest – hahaha – but AWESOME THUROUGH INFO!!! so we hit the🔔&📝too!!! Thanks so much Dr Wooten!!!
Thank you for allowing that some cats do have grain allergies – my cat’s one of those rare dudes who actually does have the allergy and when I take him to other vets way too many of them interrogate me about it, even with records.
I feed mine a mix of both when it comes to wet food and her dry food all contain grains. That way she gets the best of both worlds.
I have cats for 10 years. For the first 4 years, my cats were taking normal cat non grain-free food that the vet prescribed to me!!! They got very fat over those 4 years and then didn’t have a "perfect" blood work during a check-up. I switched to grain-free cat food, and they became perfectly healthy. The vet was even surprised and asked me to which food I switched. They’re about 10yo now and very active and healthy for their age according to the vet. Don’t get me wrong, I trust science most of the times but I believe experience always overpowers "scientific evidence" in terms of pet food. So I believe a Grain-free, if it has a good composition with proteins, fat and carbs ratio, is always the much better and superior option to choose if you can’t do anything other than Dry Food. ( As you can see from the comments too)
As obligate carnivores, how can cats digest grains and vegetables found in cat food?
My dogs eat grainfree food supplemented with meat and veggies. They are healthy. Not vet bills.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They are supposed to eat meat. Grains are bad from them. This vet is lying to you so that you buy generic cheap cat food.
Whats the signs of allergies in cats?
I think as long as a cat is ok with it I just think corn meal etc in regular cat food can be unnecessary and cause weight gain just added to be cheap so I feed Purina Beyond not grain free but the salmon and whole brown rice recipe it’s a higher quality natural cat food brand my cats enjoy it
My girlfriend has celiacs so we have to avoid gluten. Do you have any dry foods that you would recommend that are gluten free but not grain free? I only see treats and wet food when I add gluten free to my search 😢
You said absolutely I thing in 5 minutes 😂. You skirted around everything and gave no answers. What a waste of my time. You’ve definitely been indoctrinated by the Animal Food Company that funded your. Veterinarian school.
I recently started giving my cat kibble to save some money. He eats 4 times a day, will have kibble for 2 of them, either as a topper or half and half. I assumed grain free was the best so now I have no idea what to get. But as he has wet food or fresh meat majority, will it make much difference? He goes absolutely crazy for Carnilove kibble and also has Royal Canin digestive
Thank you for the video. I’m still confused about something: should cats eat grains at all my understanding is that since they don’t occur in the wild, they should not eat grains.
Chemicals in cat treats cause kidney failure.
Absolutely dreadful advice — to suggest a "therapeutic" diet (ie prescription diet) would help cats with diabetes, kidney disease, etc — that stuff is garbage. Also, no mention of how dangerous it is to feed dry food (kibble) to cats.
I really need a suggestion for a low sodium dry cat food just diagnosed last week with heart disease. I have fed grain free for the past 7 years, thinking it was better. I need to buy a new food today, thank you
how about grain free in wet food? I notice my cat litter stink a lot more when he eat non-grain free cat food.
Any brand you guys recommend that’s actually Grain free? My doctors don’t recommend raw food or freezed dried because of pathogens and contamination unless if it’s a live prey. Kind of like we are not suppose to eat uncook meat and fish because of food poisoning. I mean I love sushi and medium rare steak.
Tysm for this
Didn’t make sense was all over the place
What about Insect based cat food? Been seeing a rise of that lately. . .
I think most of the time when ppl argue back and forth about two topics the truth is usually neither or a mix of both and in this case it’s silly to talk about grain free vs regular kibble cuz I don’t believe any cat should be eating kibble.
Cats shouldn’t eat grain, simple as that. It’s a cat for Pete’s sake!
Cats are obligate carnivores. How grains of any sort fit in their diet is beyond me. Their systems are optimized for digesting meat, period. You say grains may not be good for cats with diabetes, I say grain-filled commercial foods are the eventual CAUSE of feline diabetes.
Cats are obligate carnivores. That means they NEED to eat meat,they can not survive on a "vegetarian" diet. Carbohydrates are not in their natural diet, (except small half digested amounts from their prey’s stomach/intestines)
Carbohydrates(both grains and peas,sweet potato,potato,etc.) in their food are sort of like what sugar is to humans. it will cause them to possibly/most likely overeat,they will crave more carbs/more food ,when what they really need is quality (for cats,animal)protein.
That said,cheap,junky wet food is often better for cats than almost the best carb free dry food….(not sure there really IS a carb free dry food,at least commonly available.
Please do research this for yourself,and best wishes for you and your cat(s).
Thanks.