This is why cats and dogs are so picky when it comes to food
Turns out, two of the most popular pets in the world — cats and dogs — are very specific when it comes to their food. Dogs gravitate toward high-fat food, but cats pounce on carbohydrates with even greater enthusiasm, says a research conducted by the Oregon State University.
The study shed new light on optimal nutrition for the animals and refutes a common notion that cats want and need a protein-heavy regimen.
The study’s corresponding author, Jean Hall, says, “Some experts think cats need diets that are 40 or 50% protein. Our findings are quite different than the numbers used in marketing and are going to really challenge the pet food industry.”
Hall’s research involved monitoring 17 healthy adult dogs and 27 cats over 28 days and used four types of food that were designed to taste equally good; with flavour out of the equation, the animals could make macronutrient choices based only on what their bodies were telling them they needed.
“Previous studies have shown that if you don’t balance palatability between foods, cats do in fact prefer to eat very high levels of protein and dogs want to eat a lot of fat,” Hall said. “When you balance palatability, both dogs and cats prefer significantly different macronutrient content than what they would choose based on taste.”
The animals studied by Hall and her collaborators could choose among high-fat, highcarbohydrate, high-protein and balanced foods. Each day, dogs had an hour to eat all they wanted up to a predetermined caloric intake — that is, they could get all the calories they needed for metabolic requirements and to maintain weight, but no more.
The cats in the study were likewise not allowed to overeat, though even if given unlimited access to food that tastes how they like it, cats tend to eat in a weight-maintenance way by adjusting their intake based on the food’s energy density. In the study, cats had 24-hour food access up to the point of hitting their caloric threshold.
Food container placement for the dogs and cats was changed daily to guard against ‘bowl position bias’. The study appears in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
SOME EXPERTS THINK CATS NEED DIETS THAT ARE 40 OR 50% PROTEIN. BUT, A RECENT RESEARCH REFUTES THE NOTION