Dogs are from Mars ~ Cats are from Venus

Are they really different? 

Part I

 Everyday that I’m in the store, I get asked all kinds of questions.   Friends ask me,  “Kris will it hurt my cat if he eats the dog food?”  or “Will it hurt my dog to eat the cat food?”.  I am not a veterinarian, but I personally think that if your cat or dog eat each other’s food once in a while, your pet should be ok.  However, your cat and dog do have different  nutritional needs.   

Even though cats and dogs have some similar traits, there are some differences that are worth noting.  First and foremost, the cat is a true carnivore and the dog is a omnivore.  The cat cannot sustain its life unless it consumes meat in some form. Dogs, however, are able to survive on plant material alone (in theory), they do not have to consume meat. But please know that dogs do best with a higher meat diet and by nature are primarily meat-eaters. Just because by definition they are omnivores (can digest and utilize plant and animal food sources) does not mean that plant material alone makes a good source of nutrition for dogs. Far too many dogs and cats have been undernourished by those cheap grain-based pet foods and cats have suffered to a higher degree by these foods!

 Your cat and dog can manufacture most of its own required substances within its own body system.  For example, Vitamin C is a requirement for life sustaining processes for us Mammals  and dogs and cats make plenty of their own. We humans don’t make enough within our body so to keep ourselves alive we have to find some Vitamin C already made (preformed) somewhere in our environment, gather or capture it, then eat it (or go to the local drug store). Without the Vitamin C, we’d die.

On the other hand, there are numerous nutrients and chemicals that cats need that they can only acquire if they eat animal-derived tissues. That is, they need to prey on other living creatures that do make the essential chemicals that they don’t!  Out of necessity, the cat has evolved ways to hunt down, capture and eat this prey in order to "borrow" the prey's nutrients.

Next week’s issue:  Vitamin A, Niacin, Arginine, and Taurine:  how your pet gets it and is it essential in their diet.  

 GLOSSARY: 

 Carnivore:     Meat eater.  An animal with a diet consisting mainly of meat.  

Omnivore:    Eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively