We humans are omnivores, and the source of calories is nothing more than three major items: carbohydrates (rice flour), fats (fats), and proteins (meat, milk, eggs, etc.).
When one of these is occasionally insufficient, our bodies turn to breaking down and metabolizing other nutrients to provide energy. Monkeys are like this, pigs are like this, dogs are like this, but cats are completely different!
Our kittens belong to the feline family, and felines are the purest carnivores that surpass other species, which creates their infinite thirst for meat, that is, animal protein. That is to say, our kittens are not much different in diet from big cats such as lions, tigers and leopards.
The dietary calorie source of cats in nature is blood glucose converted from protein and fat. They feed on insects, birds, and small animals in the natural environment, and the starch and vegetables in their diet are infinitely close to zero, and they do not actively ingest. For domestic cats, the same is true of the diet structure.
It has to be said that cats can indeed digest some carbohydrates. But it can digest ≠ digest well, and it is not the same as consuming a lot of carbohydrates. There are very few enzymes in the cat's body that can digest and absorb starch, and most of the carbohydrates are directly converted into fat storage.
Therefore, in the diet structure of cats, the less starch, the better. This has to say that cat food, as long as it is cat food needs starch to fix the type, even if it is no grain cat food, there is still a lot of starch content, but some sensitive cereals are eliminated, such as corn, wheat and so on.
When the cat consumes too much starch, it must rely on the pancreas and small intestine to digest these substances, which will increase the burden on the organs and be prone to various diseases. So if possible, it is better to feed the cat a variety of different meats.
The most basic role of protein is to maintain the structure of the body, hair, skin, tendons, muscles..... It all takes protein to make up. In other words, it is not very rigorous but it is not far from the generalization: protein is everything. This is especially true for cats.
After nearly 100,000 years of evolution, cats have become creatures that rely on protein and fat to survive, and almost no additional intake of carbohydrates (starch, plant fiber, etc.) has created a very high protein demand for cats. Cats need three times more protein than dogs and five or six times more than humans, and we need to always remember that cats are cats, and unlike us, they are pure and pure carnivores.
When omnivores, such as our human diet, are not enough protein, they regulate the amino acid metabolism enzyme (transaminases) of the liver to reduce the speed at which the body metabolizes proteins, but this is not the case at all in cats. Cats no matter what they eat, whether they eat or not, the body will carry out protein metabolism all the time, if there is not enough dietary protein, they can only metabolize their own body, break down their muscles to obtain protein.
When the cat's protein intake is insufficient, two states may occur, the first becoming a big fat cat. Because of the long-term high-carbohydrate, insufficient protein intake, it will cause muscle loss, poor metabolism, and a large number of calories converted into fat backlogs into a fat ball.
When the cat begins to age, the protein absorption rate will decline, and with a diet that does not contain enough protein, it will be thinned into a skin and bone.
Therefore, in the diet we give to cats in our daily lives, we must have enough animal protein to ensure the healthy development and growth of cats.
If you can use scientific proportions of raw bone meat or cooked homemade food is the best, but if it is a family based on feeding cat food, the total amount of protein in cat food needs to be at least about 33%, preferably not less than 35%.
From this diagram, we can see that half of the cat's energy source comes from protein and half from fat. So cats can actually deal with fat very well, we don't want to take cats from people, cats have a particularly considerable demand for fat, so we can't just feed cats lean meat, we must have enough fat.
The fat a cat needs is high-quality, easily digestible, unhydrogenated fat, which is simply the fat on fresh meat. It is actually difficult to have such fat in the dry food of cats, after all, it needs to be smelted at high temperatures, and the typical low-quality oil is often produced.
After understanding the composition of the cat's natural diet, we know how to provide the cat with the right diet, that is, as much animal protein as possible, moderate fat, and as little carbohydrate as possible. Understanding this diet structure is of great help to us in the selection of cat food, as well as in the preparation of homemade and raw meat for cats.