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888-733-1033 / 207-985-3038 (fax) Why do your feeding guidelines use about half as much food as traditional cat food? Wild Kitty cat food is different. It is nutritionally dense, with quality natural unprocessed protein and fat your cat needs. It has no filler, no waste products, no grain meals and very little added water. It is your cat's natural food in its natural state. The cat will naturally require less of it. What kind of meats do you use in your cat food?
Why do you use Clams and Conch in your cat food? We use them because they are nature's best source for amino acids like Taurine and Arginine that are imperative to your cat's health. Amino Acids are found only in muscle meats and algae. Most mollusks are miniature high velocity pumps that move an astonishing 70 gallons of water per hour, gleaning out the algae and plankton as food. As a result, the density of muscle tissue and density of amino acids is unequaled in any land animal. The natural trace minerals found in mollusks, like clams, are very beneficial to your cat. Why don't you supplement your food with added vitamins? We have formulated our recipes so our food doesn't need supplemental vitamins. It exceeds AAFCO requirements. We use only the best quality fresh organic and all-natural ingredients. The process of cooking food destroys or degrades the natural vitamin content of all foods. For example about 70% of Taurine and 99% of Thiamin are lost in the cooking process. Most commercial pet foods are not just cooked, they are also heavily rendered. Because Wild Kitty is a raw food the vitamins are not lost in processing. About 95% of cats' nutritional needs are met with animal protein, animal fat, animal bones, and internal organs. With the exception of the stomach contents of cat prey, like small rodents and birds, a cat will not eat vegetables or grains. Why do you add things like flax seeds, kelp, and vegetables? About 10% of our ingredients are non-animal and are used as the natural and potent source of vitamins and minerals. Other ingredients are used to supply small amounts of natural fiber to the cat's diet. Does Wild Kitty use human-grade ingredients? Yes!! We use human-grade, all-natural and organic ingredients. All ingredients come to our facility fresh, and are frozen only once after processing. Our food is "Fit for Human Consumption" from start to finish but you should only feed it to your cat. My vet told me never to feed bones to my cat, but you have bones in your food. Isn't this dangerous to my cat? On the contrary we feel raw bones are essential to your cats good health, and going without bones may be dangerous to your cat. What you vet was most likely referring to was COOKED bones, which can easily splinter and lodge themselves in the cat's throat or abdomen. NEVER give your cat cooked bones. Raw bones and cartilage are different. They are an essential part of the feline diet. They are loaded with fat, calcium and other minerals. The collagen in connective tissue is important to your cat's joint functions. Bones keep you cat's teeth healthy, clean and strong. People get sick if they eat raw meat. Aren't the bacteria in raw meat dangerous to my cat? Well, people do eat raw meats (rare steaks, Italian carpaccio, Lebanese raw kibbee) and don't get sick. However, as a rule poultry should be thoroughly cooked for people, to kill salmonella and escherichia coli (e. coli) bacteria that get on the meat during processing. But cats are not people. For 40 million years they have existed on a diet of raw meat. Cats adapted to these bacteria a long time ago. The Cornell Book of Cats and Feline and Canine Infectious Diseases say "cats are extremely resistant to experimental infection with salmonella spp. and clinical salmonellosis is uncommon in cats. Few references [to salmonellosis in cats] exist in the scientific literature. The likelihood of cats contracting salmonella through their environment or commercially prepared foods is equivalent to contraction through raw meat." Cornell Book of Cats and Feline and Canine Infectious Diseases briefly notes that "little is known about the role of escherichia in canine and feline enteric disease. e.coli is part of the normal flora of the gut ... Although some studies suggest that it may be implicated in certain cases of acute diarrhea, it is not recognized as a feline disease." However, we are proactive in minimizing these risks. 1. We use only Murray's free range poultry, the best in the business. Free range birds are much less likely to come in contact with Salmonella and E. Coli bacteria that contaminate meats when the animal is raised in a factory setting. 2. Our facility is a USDA inspected people food facility. The highest levels of sanitation and hygiene are followed in our processing and plant maintenance . 3. We keep it cold. Our raw poultry is stored at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (F). It is efficiently processed in small batches and packaged quickly. 4. We freeze it fast. Our food is blast frozen to -15 degrees F within 2 hours of processing. By freezing our food we minimize and reduce the growth of bacteria. Some raw cat foods add things like garlic, alfalfa, homeopathic herbs. Why don't you add these supplements? Primarily, we don't add these supplements because there is an awful lot of conflicting information about the benefits of these and many other supplements. Some say garlic is great, some say its poison. One homeopath will say alfalfa is a miracle substance, another will say it cause gas. Homeopathic herbs and oils are frequently used with great results on many pets, but the treatments should be specific to your cat. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment. However, if you or your vet is treating your cat with a specific supplement, it can be easily mixed in with Wild Kitty Cat Food. Does elevated water consumption from a wet food help alleviate problems with urinary tract health? Yes. Part of the challenge with the crystal formation in the urine that leads to lower urinary tract infections is the super-saturation of the urine with mineral salts. Just like salt-in-water solutions when too much salt is added to water it reaches a point where it can hold no more and salt crystals fall out of solution. Similarly, methods to increase water intake, primarily through canned or wetted foods, have been shown to decrease the incidence of lower urinary tract disease (Markwell et al., 1998). In these circumstances the cat increases overall water consumption on a daily basis, the urine is more dilute (lower specific gravity), and the cat urinates more often. As an added bonus, the more frequent urination decreases the amount of time for crystal formation. Does dietary vitamin C cause oxalate stones to form? Most likely it does not. While it is true that ascorbic acid, along with ethanolamine and the amino acid glycine, can be degraded to oxalic acid (oxalate), the dietary conversion to oxalate plays a minor role in the overall oxalate production in the body. Most oxalate is eliminated through excretion in urine rather than being metabolized further as an energy substrate. Formation of calcium oxalate stones occurs as a result of excessive production of oxalate, excessive calcium elimination, and super-saturated urine. Thus, even a large dose of vitamin C would not lead to an appreciable increase in the calcium oxalate production. Would cat foods made with ingredients like fish, that may be high in magnesium, predispose my cat to urinary tract infections? Presuming the diet containing the fish is properly balanced then neither the fish nor the magnesium should themselves lead to urinary tract disease. Early work indicated that diets high in minerals (ash) were associated with urinary tract issues. Some diets were also supplemented with magnesium salts like magnesium oxide and magnesium sulfate in order to meet the cats’ magnesium requirements. Diets of this type were associated with a predisposition for urinary tract disease (i.e. struvite urolithiasis). Magnesium salts can have an alkalinizing effect on the urine (increases pH above neutral). However, it was shown that the anion (oxide, chloride) rather than magnesium itself was to blame for the rise in urine pH (Buffington et al., 1985). Magnesium from fish and animals is primarily in the ionic form or as a hydroxide in bone. Are cats well adapted to a high grain or carbohydrate diet? To a certain degree. Cats do have the ability to utilize grains and carbohydrates in foods. However, as obligate carnivores their digestion and metabolism are more suited to high meat diets rather than carbohydrates. For example, cats lack a sweet taste receptor, lack salivary amylase (enzyme to break down simple sugars), and have lower activity of carbohydrate specific digestive and metabolic enzymes (Zoran, 2002). Can cats eat a very high protein diet with minimal carbohydrates and thrive? Yes. The cat is adapted to consume wild prey that are high in protein, moderate in fat, and have minimal amounts of carbohydrates. I’ve heard that a high protein diet, like the Atkins diet for humans, can be a great weight loss strategy for cats. Is this true? Will it do any harm? What are some of the benefits? It is true. Cats are very well adapted to a high protein (high meat diet). They are able to metabolize high amounts of protein for extended periods of time (Russell et al., 2002; Russell et al., 2003) without harm. Because the cat is so well adapted for high protein diets it has been suggested that it might better match their nutritional needs and thereby work to help prevent obesity. Several researchers have shown that in calorie restricted feeding strategies cats fed high protein diets were able to lose more fat and weight, and retain more lean body mass (Nguyen et al., 2004; Jeusette et al., 2005; Vasconcellos et al., 2005). There is some speculation that this is due to the restoration of feedback mechanisms from the stomach to the brain that signals to the cat that it is full after eating a protein meal. The net result of which is a reduction in weight by virtue of controlling caloric intake. Is a high protein diet beneficial for cats with diabetes? Indications are that a high protein diet is an effective tool among many in helping to manage diabetes in cats (Rand et al., 2004). The rationale for such a statement rests with the basic metabolism of the cat. Since the cat is adapted so well to a high protein diet, it has an enhanced ability to produce glucose by converting the amino acids from protein into glucose through the process known as gluconeogenesis. This process of producing glucose from the ground up, so to speak, runs at a relatively constant rate pushing glucose into the circulation for its subsequent use by other body cells. This is in contrast to the dramatic spikes in glucose that accompany a high carbohydrate meal (often called a glycemic response). The amount of insulin that is required to clear the glucose from the circulation is much greater after the carbohydrate meal than for that of the high protein meal. Insulin is the key to controlling glucose in the animal. Further, there is some evidence in other species that the insulin receptor can become resistant to the effects of insulin. Thus, a constant steady supply of glucose is preferred, like that which would occur in a high protein diet. Several studies have shown that for cats with Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent) that feeding a high protein diet may even alleviate the need for insulin therapy in certain cases (Frank et al., 2001; Bennett et al., 2005). Will a high protein food cause renal failure in my cat? Should this type of diet be avoided? High protein diets have not been linked to the cause of renal failure. Rather the cause of the disease remains a mystery. However, it is thought that the kidney is compromised due to viral or autoimmune attacks rather than from dietary factors. If your cat is diagnosed by your veterinarian then follow his/her guidelines. Typically they will recommend that you feed a diet in which the protein and mineral salts (like phosphates) have been reduced. The goal is to decrease the filtering load on the kidney. There are reports that cats with renal failure have been fed the ultra-high protein diets and faired quite well. While this may seem quite contrary to the goal of reducing the protein the kidney has to process, there are some offsetting considerations. First, the cat will consume a lesser total amount of food (grams or ounces) when fed these nutrient rich high protein diets. While the goal is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and minerals the kidney has to process, the lower intake more than offsets the elevated protein concentration in the diet. The net effect is often a wash – the animal consumes an identical amount or even less nitrogen. The benefit to the high protein diet is the fats and fatty acids are typically more anti-inflammatory, and the animal has to process much less carbohydrates. While this is still very much speculative and could be considered heresy by the mainstream veterinary community, some have reported exceptional results. Again consult your veterinarian if renal failure is suspected. Bennett, N., D.S. Greco, M.E. Peterson, C. Kirk, M. Mathes, M.J. Fettman. 2005. Comparison of a low carbohydrate-low fiber diet and a moderate carbohydrate-high fiber diet in the management of feline diabetes mellitus. J. Feline Med Surg 8:73-84. Buffington, C.A., Q.R. Rogers, J.G. Morris, and N.E. Cook. 1985. Feline struvite urolithiasis: Magnesium effect depends on urinary pH. Feline Pract. 15:29-33. Funaba, M., M. Hashimoto, C. Yamanaka, Y. Shimogori, T. Iriki, S. Ohshima, M. Abe. 1996. Effects of a high-protein diet on mineral metabolism and struvite activity product in clinically normal cats. Am J Vet Res 57:1726-1732. Frank G., W. Anderson, H. Pazak, E. Hodgkins, J. Ballam, D. Laflamme. 2001. Use of a high-protein food in the management of feline diabetes mellitus. Veterinary Therapeutics 2:238-246. 888-733-1033 / 207-985-3038 (fax) Write
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