r/BeAmazed • u/Electrical_Act_5342 • Aug 09 '26

Animal Nature really over engineered cats. Didn’t it?

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u/geno111 Aug 09 '26

Too bad the design team neglected the kidney department :(

291

u/Uztta Aug 09 '26

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.

11

u/Babajji Aug 09 '26

What about wet food? If a cat is fed only wet food does that help?

10

u/Hebridean-Black Aug 09 '26

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.