What Are The Health Complications When Cat Eats Dog Food

Some cat owners feed their cats dog food as this is sometimes cheaper. However a cat that eats only dog food and nothing else is facing serious health problems.

Health Complications When Cat Eats Dog Food

• Food Formulation: Cat and dog food may look the same to you, but they are formulated with very different nutritional requirements in mind. They are not just the same product packaged differently!
• Amino Acid: Dog food does not contain added taurine, an essential amino acid for cats. Cats cannot synthesize enough triune from other amino acids, while dogs and humans can.
• Health Issues: Without taurine added to its diet, a cat can suffer reproductive disorders, eye lesions leading to total blindness and potentially fatal hear enlargement.
• Taurine: Commercial cat food has all the taurine cats needs.
• Supplementation: If you prepare your cat’s meal instead of buying commercial cat food, add taurine supplements to its diet no matter how much meat you feed it, because taurine is destroyed by cooking while raw meat poses health risks for domestic cats.

Dog food is not dangerous in itself of course. So if kitty gets the occasional can of dog food or steals from your dog’s dinner bowl, don’t panic—it won’t harm the cat just make sure it’s eating enough of its own cat food.