Rice Is Cat Food - How Much Is Acceptable?

[solomonar]

In the days of old, the home-made cat food included a generous 25-50% boiled rice.

Today, some wet-food brands include rice in the formula, apparently up to some 25% in weight.

I recently spotted one new brand that labels 25% rice in the dry food.

Few recent scientific articles I read stated an hypothesis that Felis catus may naturally need some 5-7% vegetable matter in the intake food.

I would very much love to know what are your opinions about rice in the cat food (it is that needed? it is pure marketing and no harm? or it is just a matter of percentage?)- both from the practitioner perspective and scientific perspective.

Thank you!

 

[duckpond]

IMO rice is no different than any grain, fruit or veggie. Rice may be easier on some cats digestive system, i dont know. I do see it in a lot of sensitive formulas. Some may be better than others but carbs of any type are only needed by cats in small amounts. Many of these items are added to cat foods as filler, they are much cheaper than meat, in higher quantities than a cat needs.

I try to feed high protein, moderate fats, and low carbs. I try to keep the carbs as low as possible, under 10% on a dry basis. But will , in a rotation. include an occasional food that is above that. I feed several wet foods in rotation. Tiki Cat, Almo nature they have a chicken and green beans my cats like a lot, surprised they like the green beans, Caru, some weruva, and some fancy feast. For Dry i use Dr Elseys, as it is one of the lower carb dry foods i can find, I think around 4.6%. What ever i am feeding i try to make sure more of the calories come from protein, rather than carbs or even fat. Not every meal, but the majority of them.

I have two places i like to use to rate cat foods. And i do think its all about the percentages.

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

 

[Azazel]

I would say that cats don’t need rice. I don’t feed it.

 

[Willowy]

White rice is just filler. If you make your own cat food, and badly need to reduce costs, I would say up to 25% rice would probably be acceptable. Not ideal, but acceptable, as long as you adjusted the vitamin levels accordingly.

 

[Azazel]

White rice is just filler. If you make your own cat food, and badly need to reduce costs, I would say up to 25% rice would probably be acceptable. Not ideal, but acceptable, as long as you adjusted the vitamin levels accordingly.

I would disagree. Cats shouldn’t have more than 5, maybe 10% carbs in their diet.

 

[jen]

Acceptable to the extent that you might as well just go buy some dollar store cat food. It is unnecessary, especially at those high numbers. Rice is grain is carbs is sugar is diabetes among other things.

Always remember cats are OBLIGATE CARNIVORES. They don't need all the junk in the foods we feed them. They can survive and live long lives... or they may not on an improper diet.

 

[solomonar]

I screened the scientific articles - I found only one that stated the cats food is animal matter + up to 7% plants, based on stomach content.

Strange enough, no scientific evidence for "cats are obligate carnivores" statement.

I remember that there were some research about the cat's enzymes, but I could not find the articles.

++++

The big question is however whether rice can downgrade cats health. Not necessarily whether rice can lead to obvious or evident health problems, but whether rice can impact negatively cats metabolism and behavior.

As a parallel - humans can ingest no matter how much fiber, that does not harm. It is not needed that much, but no problem.

 

[orange&white]

Wild cats eat rodents, birds, reptiles and insects. Those prey animals have small stomachs in relation to the entire prey animal...probably 5%. The stomach contents are partially digested too, so the grass and grains would be similar to probiotics.

When I was young and one of my cats got sick, I remember the vets recommending feeding the cat boiled chicken and rice. It's very bland. The kitties seemed to eat it when they wouldn't eat anything else.

I still offer boiled chicken/rice to my cats, only if they are "off" their food and wont eat anything else. It's been a decade or so since I had a cat that ill that it preferred the dish over a choice of wet and dry foods. Otherwise, my cats eat a homemade diet of meat, bones and organs...no carbs.

 

[solomonar]

I know there is a human population in far North that used to eat only animals. They take the vitamins out of the organs they eat.

Interesting, when the civilization hit these people, switching to complex modern food (that included vegetables) caused them teeth cavities and a lot of health issues related to lack of vitamins.

What I could not understand whatever is how these persons intestine managed to pass the bowl with no fibers at all?!

That is the same for cat: ok, obligate carnivores. But how do they make the bowl? And if they can make the bowl without fibers, then can the rice cause troubles and impact this low digestive tube mechanism (whatever mechanism)?

 

[Willowy]

I know there is a human population in far North that used to eat only animals. They take the vitamins out of the organs they eat.

Yes. They are dark-skinned people living in a far North area, where they're usually bundled up and the sun is at a low angle. So they only way they can get vitamin D is by eating the raw livers of sea animals. And they do have to be raw or too much of the vitamin D is cooked out. Yuck! I always wonder how their ancestors figured out that the people who ate raw liver were healthier than those who ate cooked liver or didn't eat any liver. It seems like a hard thing to narrow down.

What I could not understand whatever is how these persons intestine managed to pass the bowl with no fibers at all?!

They ate all the parts of the animal. The fat, the tendons, I think they even pulverized bones and ate that. There are enough indigestible bits in the weird parts of an animal to keep things moving along.

if they can make the bowl without fibers, then can the rice cause troubles and impact this low digestive tube mechanism (whatever mechanism)?

Yes, it's possible for a cat, after years on a high-fiber diet, to become dependent on the fiber.

It's not ideal for there to be much rice. But like I said, if money is tight at the moment, that amount shouldn't hurt them. Many commercial foods have that amount of carbs. The rice should be somewhat overcooked and pulverized if possible, to make it easier on the cat's digestion.

Remember that people in some areas feed their cats homemade food because commercial cat food isn't available or is cost-prohibitive.

 

[orange&white]

That is the same for cat: ok, obligate carnivores. But how do they make the bowl? And if they can make the bowl without fibers, then can the rice cause troubles and impact this low digestive tube mechanism (whatever mechanism)?

Bowel movements of cats who eat a zero carb diet are smaller and dryer....and they don't stink. They usually go about every 2 days.

 

[BonitaBaby]

"Rice is cat food" - I'm going to say No to this. No cat in the wild can cook rice to eat and they don't eat rice raw either. I remember from my college Biology class that evolution takes millions of years or at least hundreds of thousands. Our human existence actually hasn't been for very long and the same with humans keeping cats as pets. Animals' digestive systems evolved to fit their diets. Carnivores. Herbivores. Omnivores.

Some of us might cook rice and feed it to cats, but rice isn't their natural diet. I don't know how much of it can be processed by their mostly carnivore digestive systems, but rice is definitely a human food and not a cat food. That's the whole point behind the BLUE Wilderness ads that cats' stomachs still resemble their ancestors. That's why there's the whole "grain-free" movement.

Cats of old in Egypt would "guard" grain by eating the mice that ate the grain, so they did get a little bit in their diets, but not a lot. Even though some people feed cats rice, their stomachs have not evolved (yet) into more omnivore stomachs. IF they do, it would probably take hundreds of thousands of years or at least thousands of years.

Also, if you have Netflix, I'd watch Pet FOOleD, which another TCS member recommended.