What Should I Feed My Cat? – Cat Nutrition with Dr Darren Foster & Dr Kate Adams [ Part 1/3 ]

hey cat lovers I’m Dr. Kate Adams from
Bondi Vets. Today we’re going to be talking about all things cats.
I see so many people who have so many questionsabout what to feed my cat, how come my
cat is overweight. . so instead of hearing about it from me,
I’m going to go and track down one of Australia’s leading cat experts -feline specialist, Dr. Darren Fosterhe knows everything about cats so I
pinned him down and I talked to himabout all those really pressing questions
that you guys have about your cats. let’s go find him. . . One of the questions that I
get asked most commonly is ‘what do I feed my cat?’So Darren, in an ideal world, what should we be feeding our cats?In an ideal world, it’s probably going to be controversial; but I would say the least amountof commercial food possible. But for a lot of people that’s not really practical. Some owners have to feed some commercial food, sometimes all commercial food to suit their lifestyles. So by commercial food you mean dry food, wet food by commercial. . ?That’s right. I feed my cats a
home prepared diet. . which is mainly raw. And when it comes to raw food and bacteria. . that’s something that people worry about. . There’s no evidence out there whatsoever
that raw food will contain bacteria thatare going to harm the cats or that
it’s going to harm people. So out of the commercial food, is there one that’s better than the other?
So dry versus wet. . ?I think wet food has actually had a bad reputation. Because it’s easy for commercial manufacturers to make dry foodand people find it more convenientBut I think that wet food is much more
nutritious in terms of that it has a lot of water in it. And it has still got all the good
proteins in it. The thing about cats is that they are desert creatures.
So they’re not normally designed to drink. So they get all of their nutritional requirements for water when they eat. Cats just don’t have the drive to drink it because they’re not naturally designed to do so. so I think that dry food is bad from that point of viewbecause it contains no moisture
whatsoever. And whilst cats will drinkwhile they’re on dry food – and they seem
to drink a lot more. . they never make up for that water deficit. so when it comes to wet foods and cats. .
The supermarket is literally wall-to-wall
different wet foods out there. . . . and some of them come in cute little tins and others come in these like mega whiskers kind of things. . Are they the same crap, different day?They’re the same stuff, different day. Look, all the wet foods and dry dry foods when they are commercially made, there’s very little difference in the actual ‘guts’ of the food itself. You know I always call the cats that love dry food ‘Biscuit Monsters’ -That stuff. . it’s like crack. What is it that cats love so much about the dry foods?When you think about the way dry food is made. . it’s made with a carbohydrate sort of biscuit and then they spray the biscuit with fat. Cats love that and they are used to eating protein and fat in their diet. They’re not used to eating
carbohydrates. . but it’s like giving them potato crisps for every meal. . . . and who wouldn’t do that?It’s like McDonald’s for cats. McDonald’s chips for cats.

Exactly. So what we’re kind of saying here is that your wet food is better than your dry food. But your natural food is better than your wet food. So in the hierarchy of things it’s really. .
dry food – the lowest common denominator. Your wet foods. . which are actually not so bad. . and then you’ve got your natural food productswhich is the bee’s knees of cat food
really, isn’t it?Yes, I would agree with that. Thank you for coming Dr. Darren. That’s a pleasure Dr. Kate. Guys, you can actually follow Dr. Darren and his blog at www. drfosterthecatspecialist. com -You can also subscribe to our YouTube. Next up we’re going to be talking to Dr. Darren again about toileting issues and cats.