Nutrition’s Curative or Detrimental Effect on Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Cats

Nutrition is the foundation of our cats’ health and wellness. What you feed your cat can directly impact its organs and overall health. Diet can improve your cat’s health or destroy it. In this short post, I will explain what cats should eat based on their anatomy and how what they eat can support their kidney health.

Kibble and processed commercial diets are not species-appropriate for cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they REQUIRE large amounts of meat and amino acids to survive and thrive. Anatomically, cats are designed for a high water and moisture diet, rich in animal-based proteins with tiny amounts of predigested fruits and vegetables. When cats are fed a low-quality, drying, processed diet like kibble, their kidneys can experience dysfunction over time as they are chronically dehydrated. Down the line, kidney disease can occur. Moisture is essential for a cat’s kidneys to stay healthy and avoid disease.

Raw diets are species-appropriate and contain enough animal-based protein and moisture to support the kidneys. Cats have extremely fast digestive tracts as they were designed to take in a lot of possibly contaminated or bacteria-ridden meat and pass it quickly so that it doesn’t cause any digestive or health issues. This is opposed to herbivores that can ferment foods within their gut and often have multiple stomachs as they are slow digesters. They do not produce much of the digestive enzymes necessary to break down or digest fruit, vegetables, or carbohydrates, and they don’t have a need or requirement for these types of foods either, as they are carnivores. Cats’ jaws move up and down to crush bones and rip meat; in comparison, herbivores can move the side of their jaw to side, called lateral mandibular swing used to grind grain.

The Takeaway: Cats can safely consume raw food; they are meant to be based on their anatomy, and, most importantly, raw food contains plenty of moisture to keep their kidneys strong and healthy.