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Yes, You Can Kick Kitty Krack!
Let this be the year you stop feeding dry food to your cat! I've been begging devoted cat parents to do this for over a decade. You all know by now that I coined the phrase "kitty krack" to make it crystal clear that dry food is unhealthy --- and can be addictive --- for cats! It's like putting the wrong fuel in the car engine --- you are going to cause damage. Cats require "high octane" fuel, which means quality protein wet food, or you are going to see the ill effects on your cat's system over time. Kitty krack is can be the cause of many serious physiological problems in cats --- diabetes, obesity, urinary tract issues. [Hear Dr. Donna Spector, a board-certified veterinary internist and my co-host on The Expert Vet™, explain on the show that "Diabetes in Cats Are a Man-Made Problem" created by feeding carbohydrates to an obligate carnivore.
What you think of as the convenience of feeding kitty krack from a bag can come back to haunt your cat over time.
My goddaughter, Missy, in California has just fallen in love with a kitten that her son brought back from school. My first question was "What are you feeding your Tiny Tiger?" and of course I hit the roof when she said "kibble." She didn't know any better. She had no idea that dry food was the wrong thing to feed a cat. They had always been "dog people" but when her son went to volunteer at the animal shelter in Berkeley, where he goes to college, he fell in love with a tiny tabby. Missy wanted "grandmother visitation rights" and negotiated to have the kitten live with her in Los Angeles part of the time. I immediately went onto Chewy.com and sent a big load of cans and pouches of high quality cat food to Cooper at college --- and another big box of to "Grandma's" house. I asked them to read this blog "Why Kitten Food? Because Growing Babies Need it!" and I also sent a copy of my book, THE CAT BIBLE: Everything Your Cat Expects You to Know, so they could understand why wet food is essential to a cat's well being. The book clearly shows the scientific and logical reasons that a cat will ultimately pay a high price for eating the "wrong" kind of food.
It's really simple: feed wet food only to your little tiger, who is an "obligate carnivore" (which means "obliged to eat only meat") just like his ancestors. Your kitty has the exact same nutritional needs and digestive systems as her ancestors did thousands of years ago. She has the same food requirements as her Big Cat cousins have today --- lions and tigers in captivity each require 30 lbs of meat a day. Consider yourself lucky because your pussycat only needs 1/2 can or pouch of wet food twice a day (Missy's growing kitten needs twice as much as that, more frequently, but it's an important investment in her long term health.)
Please don't cut corners by simplifying your life by filling a bowl with kibble, which may contain meat or fish, but is basically processed carbohydrates. It will eventually complicate your cat's health by compromising her health. If you've already been feeding this way, now is the perfect moment as the beginning of a new year to turn over a new leaf. No more kitty krack!
If your cat is already so addicted to kibble that he refuses wet food --- and cries and craves the dry food (which proves the truth of my moniker for kibble) don't lose heart. You can get through to the other side! Please read my blog "How to Get Your Cat Off 'Kitty Crack' and Slim Down." THE CAT BIBLE has suggestions from many experts on how to help your cat kick the habit and go clean! Or listen to these episodes of CAT CHAT®: "Kitty Crack Levi," "Maria Reports FABULOUS Progress with Kitty Molly," and the episode on DOG TALK® (and Kitties, Too!) with Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins (my frequent anti-Kitty Krack partner) entitled "The Evils of Carbs (for Humans & Cats)."
Now Missy's new little tabby is getting off on the right paw, thank goodness. Please do the same for your cat, no matter what his age, and remove the dry food from your cupboard. "Get with the program" --- get your cat off kitty krack and onto the good stuff, the right stuff for a cat to eat. Your cat will lose weight and may become more active and outgoing, shed less, become shinier, and leave less waste for you in the litter box. I know because back when CAT CHAT® was live on Sirius/XM we ran a two-week "Weruva's Biggest Kitty Loser" contest (I blogged about it in 2018) and those were just some of the benefits that people called in to report. Why not make the switch now yourself? Then write to me at RadioPetLady@gmail.com and let me know how kicking kitty krack has helped your kitty cat!
---Tracie Hotchner
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