Commercial vs Homemade Cat Diets: What you need to know

Abstract

Practical relevance: A feeding plan recommendation for cats, both healthy and with disease, should include diet choice, amounts to feed and the feeding method. Diet choice can be complex owing to the abundance of products, sometimes with conflicting marketing messages, and the prevalence of information with no scientific basis. It is important to be aware of the specific challenges of both commercial and homemade diets. Moreover, a nutritional assessment is a prerequisite when recommending a diet to ensure that it is safe, appropriate for the cat's life stage and nutritious for long-term feeding.

Commercial vs homemade diets: There are a variety of commercial diets available, allowing considerable customisation. These products are regulated and can be tested to determine nutritional adequacy and safety, although as the industry is partly self-regulated, choice of manufacturer is important. Properly formulated homemade diets can be customised to the patient and are a good option when no commercial product that meets the patient's needs exists. Homemade diets can be an owner preference. A serious limitation is the lack of testing, potentially affecting safety and also resulting in a reliance on database information to determine nutritional adequacy. Generic homemade diet recipes (eg, sourced from the internet) have additional risks of deficiencies and imbalances, and are not recommended. Homemade diets should be devised by a veterinary nutrition specialist with consideration of both patient and owner factors.

Clinical challenges: Dietary misinformation, which is all too readily available on the internet, may result in owners making questionable feeding choices for their pets. A homemade diet may be requested by owners based on the perception that there are poor ingredients in commercial foods. The veterinary healthcare team needs to have good evidence-based information to present to owners about diet choice.

Evidence base: Several decades of research on feline nutrition forms the basis for nutritional requirements and dietary recommendations. There are varying degrees of evidence regarding requirements for each nutrient, and a lack of data on the effects of different types of processing on nutrient needs.

Keywords: Commercial cat food; cat food ingredients; cat food regulations; homemade diets; nutrition; nutritional deficiencies.

Figure 1

Advert for ‘Spratt’s’ patent cat food, which appeared in The Cat magazine in 1934. Courtesy of Cats Protection

Figure 2

Many cats find wet foods more palatable than dry foods

Figure 3

A protein source that may be included in commercial pet food is fish and seafood; in Europe, this comes under the regulation of the European Food Safety Authority

Figure 4

Food labelling in North America. Global Nutrition Committee Toolkit, provided courtesy of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association

Figure 5

Food labelling in the European Union. Global Nutrition Committee Toolkit, provided courtesy of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association

Figure 6

Due to being processed at high temperatures that are lethal to pathogens, it is uncommon for dry foods to become contaminated

Figure 7

While many retrospective studies have been performed to examine dry foods and dietary carbohydrates as risk factors for feline type 2 diabetes mellitus, no clear association has been found

Figure 8

A homemade diet can be more appetising, especailly if tailor-made to the patient’s preferences