The Truth About Grain-Free Cat Food (Explained by a Vet)

When my cat was diagnosed as diabetic, I started feeding prescription cat food per his doctor (and sold at his clinic). Several months later, no change. Then following internet research, I switched to grain-free non-prescription food. Three months later, my cat was no longer diabetic. I know many veterinarians agree with you about the lack of benefits of grain-free, but from my experience, I'm so glad that cat owners have taken the time to share their own knowledge. As an aside, I switched veterinarians.

My cat developed gingivitis 10 years ago. They told me he would die in a year. I treated him aggressively and as told he went downhill rather fast. He stopped eating and I was offering him anything soft. Raw ground meat seemed to appeal to him and 10 years later he's still eating raw ground meat. I stopped taking him to the vet 2 years ago because it was making no difference. He's at the end of things now but he did amazingly well on a raw meat diet.

This all makes sense and I appreciate you providing us with this information. My geriatric Aby is slowly dying of renal failure and is on fortekor and renal support kibble. We have extended his life by over 2 years now! BUT it is the new injections for arthritis that he receives monthly that have made a TREMENDOUS difference in his quality of life!! He is like a KITTEN now that he is pain-free!!! Sooo WONDERFUL to see this change in the love of my life! He turned 18 this month. VERY STRONG LOVING BOND!! ♥️🇨🇦♥️

Love the way you explain things. Great info!

Thank you Dr.Wooten!!! I always learn something new & important, and I really appreciate u take the time to educate us about our Lil kitties 😸

Thank you for basing your video on research and facts!!

Wow, thank you for sharing this topic, it is so difficult to make educated choices for my cats' diet with all the marketing hype out there. Talking to my vet was key as well. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas/holiday season!

Thank you for this follow up video to our past conversation in the comment section of a different video.

Thank you for this information. I found this very helpful. I look forward to more videos from you.

Thanks Sarah for this help information.

So nice to see u again love your vidio,s

YouTube has been recommending I watch this video for 3 days so here I am. Great video! I hope that people who are worried about grain free cat foods come here. IMO the most important things to consider for your cat's diet are 1. are they getting enough moisture? and 2. are they getting enough protein? After that everything else is about what works best for your specific cat and cat parents. Question - Do you know if there's difference in dental health / tooth decay when looking at grain inclusive (ex. corn) vs grain free (ex. peas) dry foods? Assuming, of course, that the kibbles are small, since I know that's important for dental health. I feed my cats mostly wet food. I buy brands like Nulo. I use dry foods as toppers and treats. Most of my dry treats are freeze dried pure meat foods, but after adopting some new kittens, my adult cats have tasted "regular" dry cat food* for the first time and they love it! I'm okay using it as a treat, but I do worry about the rice and corn on their teeth. Do you think it's worth my time to switching to one without grains for that reason? *The dry food I have is Royal Canin Kitten Dry Food. My kittens are teething and they love it. Of course, they get lots of wet food too and as they get older I plan to transition them to a higher moisture diet.

Vets need to be more honest, kind and not just think about what they can get out of. Thanks for sharing your knowledge to us.

Thanks for this info!

Pretty much all plant-based additives to cat food are unhealthy for cats, whether it's grains, rice, corn, soy, peas, legumes, potatoes or any of the other ones they like to put in. Their bodies did not evolve to digest these materials. Plant materials are added because it's cheaper to produce, not for health reasons. The only way a cat can ever get obese and develop diabetes is when they are fed abnornal amounts of carbs (i.e. plants). Cats need meat and other animals parts, nothing else. However, I cannot afford to feed my cats a 100% animal-based diet, so I still give them a bit of kibble that contains rice, but they mostly get wet food that contains very little plant-based material.

I think the issue with "not grain free" foods is they are usually just contain worse ingredients like meat by products and other junk and it just so happens that the "real meat" is in these "grain free" options. I agree that I'm wary of peas/beans so I am on the search for dry food that doesn't have a bunch of those in it. it does exist, but it's pricey and rare. fortunately my cat is mostly fed wet food and the dry food is just kind of a calorie intake filler at the end of the day

Wish I'd seen this 20 years ago! Very well presented scientific information. Did not know that grain free dry foods could be higher in carbs! due to having to use a carb like sweet potatoes to make it stick together.

Thanks for this video and your opinion. I've always been a proponent of grain free cat food, but I guess the question is also, have cats been domesticated so much that they digest differently than they used to? Cats in the wild seem to mainly eat animals and not much of any carbs besides what's part of their prey. I personally feed my cats less than 30% carbs and look for 50+% protein.

Very interesting video. Thanks.

Short and sweet, but I appreciate the feedback.