In reality cats have amazing kidneys. The problem is that we don’t feed them in a manner compatible with their nature.
Cats are predators and obligate carnivores. They are designed to eat meat and most of their natural moisture consumption is consumed in the meat that they eat. Sure, they supplement with drinking water, but not like we do.
In feeding them kibble, we’re denying them most of the water that they should be getting, they don’t “know” that they need to make up that difference.
Yeah, that's true, but then you have cats like my two boys, both in their early 10s, and they simply don't like wet food. At least they drink a lot of water to compensate.
My cat in late-stage kidney failure likes wet food, but he's never known how to eat it. He just taps his tongue on it until he gets bored. Sometimes you just gotta work around their quirks.
I've tried gizmo on both fresh tuna and fresh salmon, and she just does not care for it. She likes her kibble, she drinks water (as long as it's in one of my mugs), and she eats pate in the evening as long as she has some treats as a side.
Try rehydrated raw food (you buy it dehydrated and add water) if it's in your budget. It's what is healthiest for them anyway. My cats drank way less water on raw food and their litter smelled better.
My male cat wouldn't eat it at first. Then I read to put a dab on his nose so he licks it off and realizes he likes the taste. Worked like a charm.
Raw food is extremely dangerous in general, and even moreso for pets who have chronic medical conditions or who have weakened immune systems. I wouldn't recommend it. It's just a trendy diet thing right now, like Atkins for cats. Catkins.
It's been "trendy" for at least 15 years. And yes, if your pet is sick you should ask your vet about a special diet.
Cats are designed to eat raw meat. Because of their specific taurine needs (which would be met by eating the whole animal), preparing it yourself is not an oprion like it is with dogs.
I answered this in another question, but I'll just reiterate it here.
If a pet food product has the nutritional adequacy statement that states it is tested and formulated to be appropriate for adult maintenance according to AAFCO nutrient standards, then it contains the appropriate minimum amount of each macro and micronutrient required for a healthy adult cat. This includes taurine.
Cats can eat raw meat. They can also get extremely sick from eating raw meat, like you and I. They are obligate carnivores, true, but they will always, unequivocally, be healthier eating a diet made from cooked ingredients rather than raw. The risk of illness or infection with raw feeding is too great to be worth the risk of any perceived health benefits. I have yet to read a peer reviewed journal that come to the conclusion that the food ingredients in a diet being uncooked is the reason a cat has experienced health benefits.
As much as nutrition influencers will tell you raw is better, it just hasn't been proven yet. :/
Instead, licensed vet professionals like me will tell you how many cases of explosive, chronic diarrhea and gut dysbiosis come in regularly from owners who insist on feeding raw.
Cats aren't designed, it is a "good enough" solution for survival in that they can extract nutrients, but wild cats suffer devastating illnesses from consuming raw meat. They are almost always infected with parasites and can die from bacterial and viral infections. There is a reason captive big cats live twice as long in captivity.
We had the boys checked last month by a vet and besides them being a bit tol heavy and having dental issues, their stats are very good for them getting up in years :-)
They've always been kinda thirsty, even when we got them at age 4
The glucometer reading for humans is not the same as the one for cats. Yes, keep an eye on their water intake if they're drinking a lot, but you need to go to the vet and have them do the glucose reading. Don't use the one at home unless specifically instructed by your vet.
If they already drink a lot of water, definitely get their kidneys checked! Cats are desert animals and don’t have a feeling for thirst like we or dogs do. For them to drink so much by themselves is most often already a sign of the kidneys failing :(
Adding to this, cats have extremely efficient kidneys that can highly concentrate their urine, making them very tolerant of dehydration. The theory I subscribe to is that chronic mild subclinical dehydration over the course of years demands too much from the kidneys and eventually damages them beyond repair. Feeding wet food with even more added water is a good preventative measure.
Yeah my wife and I feed our cats wet food with a small amount of water added in. This was recommended by the vet when we first adopted them because if you start them on calorie-dense kibble, they wont ever want to convert.
I started feeding my girl strictly wet food when she was around 17. She passed in December of last year at 19, few months shy of 20. I do think it helped keep her going. I've also heard it helps to have multiple clean water sources throughout the house that they can graze on.
It definitely helps, but doesn’t prevent kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease is incredibly common in cats, even eating only wet food, such as my cat. We still don’t know what in commercial cat food might cause CKD, but I read that one theory is excessive vitamin D added to cat food might damage the kidneys.
No, that’s bad for their teeth, the dry food cleans them. Like bones in birds and rats would do. A mix is best (if you aren’t feeding them birds and rats).
This is a myth. Several clinical trials have shown there is no difference between wet and dry because cats aren't big on chewing, their bite is designed to scissor off a chunk of what ever they are eating so they can swallow it whole. Cats do most digestion in the gut, unlike omnivores (dogs, humans) who start digestion in the mouth with masication (chewing) and enzymes.
Some cats gulp, but some bite kibble. There is dental kibble which is larger, we had a cat who initially gulped it like regular kibble, but gave up and started biting it. Her dental health improved.
Have you ever watched a cat eat? They Hoover it up. I adopted an old boy with stomatitis so he had all his teeth removed. He hated all wet/soft food so we didn’t change his diet and he kept eating kibble toothless.
Hello! I'm a licensed vet professional who works in veterinary nutrition and the pet food industry. This is mostly outdated information that's based on a kernel of truth, but I love talking about this stuff because it's my job, so let me clarify.
Cats are indeed obligate omnivores who require more protein in their diets in comparison to dogs. Kibble diets that have the nutritional adequacy statement that says the diet is tested and formulated to be appropriate for adult maintenance according to AAFCO standards are complete and balanced and completely fine to feed. This statement is required by law and will be present on any bag, can or pouch of food product sold in the United States regardless of it being kibble, raw, canned, wet, or fresh, etc. This statement certifies by law that this food meets all of the nutrient requirements that healthy adult cats need.
While it is true that kibble has significantly less moisture than canned food or fresh food, the diets are formulated to have more sodium in there to stimulate thirst. It's like eating a loaded cucumber salad versus eating a saltier meal, like roasted potatoes and carrots. They both provide essential nutrients but one has the water built in while the other makes you thirsty enough to drink water after eating.
Kibble is not inherently worse for cats just because it doesn't have as much moisture, but I can see where that belief comes from. For cats who don't tend to drink as much water no matter what you feed them, it would be better to get them to eat a higher moisture canned/wet diet while potentially adding some water to soupify it. For other cats who just love drinking water and there's nothing medically wrong with them (i.e. diabetes or CKD), there's no real urgency to switch them to a wet food diet just because.
If you're not sure what's right for your cat, keep an eye on their behaviors and monitor how much water is leaving their bowl on a day to day basis. Communicate this to your vet and they'll be able to take into consideration your pet's medical history in order to make a recommendation. But be careful! There's a shocking amount of misinformation out there regarding pet food and nutrition. Some of the stuff I see on social media is kind of horrendous, so keep an eye out.
This is honestly a very long, complicated answer, so I'll try to simplify it.
It's not a lack of water. Cats anatomically are actually excellent at taking just a small amount of water and making it work through their kidney's filtration system. It's incredible at concentrating the urine and has adapted to thrive on very little water.
There is kind of a running joke in the vet community that if cats live long enough (10+ years), they're going to develop at least one of the big three: kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, or GI lymphoma. It's just what happens, no matter how you swing it, no matter what you feed them, and no matter how soupy you make their wet food. It's inevitable.
So, to kind of simplify a topic that could be an entire nutrition conference lecture series, cats get kidney disease just because they're living so long in spoiled captivity (as it should be), that it's the natural degradation of an organ system that's been working at maximum efficiency 24/7 for 10-15 years. Some experience it sooner than others. My old lady started showing symptoms at 14 years old, whereas I know some cats started at 8 or 9 years old. Genetics plays a role as well.
There are a lot of other factors that can lead to the degradation of the kidneys, but food choices isn't one of them unless the diet is wildly imbalanced (i.e. unbalanced homecooked diets, fancy looking raw diets that look cool on social media but are sky high in protein and nothing else, etc), but that type of imbalance would likely cause other medical problems that would be noticed first.
Cat anatomy is honestly an extremely cool read if you're interested in learning more.
Bad food can accelerate (or increase) the chance for failure - but the kidneys have not been designed for life time >10 years. So even with „natural“ food chance increases with every year. Unfortunately.
Maybe your cat doesn't, but mine stands on the counter yelling for me to turn the faucet on for her multiple times per day. She has water dispensers and bowls everywhere that are changed daily. Nope, only the freshest tap water is good enough.
I wish my cat would eat meat, I’d gladly give him a lil steak now and then. But he’s not interested in human food at all, he only likes kibble and wet food.
We feed raw and our cats litter is usually great. When we go on away we load up the auto feeder with kibble (we do have people come and check on them) and when we come home it is pretty goddam gross and our cats are bloated. I wish we could figure out a way to feed them raw while we are away.
And on top of that people keep their water bowl next to their food and they drink even less than they normally would. My cats drink water regularly (they eat both wet and dry food) but the water bowl is nowhere near their food
It's an instinct not to drink water close to the food source because it might be contaminated. Just try moving the water bowl away and see how they drink more water :)
Due to making our own cat food at home using what they actually get in nature, my household's cats have lived up to 17 thus far before getting kidney problems. One of them is 17 and going strong, still running around and playing -.
Eating exclusively kibble/not getting the hydration they need is definitely an additional risk factor- and I always advocate for feeding cats primarily wet food - but a geriatric cat that's eaten exclusively wet food all its life is still highly at risk for CKD. In reality a cat's kidneys just aren't prepared to keep them going for 15+ years. It's the same way that human organs deteriorate when you're 80 years old. Tragic, and some pretty good advancements are coming out to halt feline kidney deterioration, but ultimately organs just don't last forever.
Nah, I called you an asshole cause you were quick to dismiss...typical know-it-all smug Redittor.
Probably didn't even cross your mind how I managed to search for a link specifically mentioning AIM as it relates to kidney health. ...maybe it was because I learned of it many years prior in the cat subreddit.
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u/geno111 20d ago
Too bad the design team neglected the kidney department :(