Lucy Tales
Lucy is a 15-year-old tabby cat. She was a half-grown stray that came to live with me. When I think back about Lucy, she used to be sweet. She used to be sociable, friendly. But something changed.
Over the years, Lucy has become a pill. My husband Virgil and I realized her usual interaction was to swat us when we tried to feed her and then get in our faces twenty minutes later to demand more food. The sound we’re used to hearing from her is an angry “Mrow!” She just hasn’t been a pleasant cat.
To top it off, even though she has become legendary for demanding food from everyone who comes into the house, she certainly didn’t look like she was starving. In fact, she weighed at least a pound more than she should. For a 13-plus pound cat, that was overweight!
But we accepted it. “That’s Lucy,” we’d say. Then we’d sigh.
In early April this year, we changed the food we were giving Lucy (we changed our dogs’ food, too). And something happened.
Within two or three weeks, Lucy’s personality did a one-eighty. One day I noticed her lying placidly on my desk, purring. After that, Virgil fed her, and she waited patiently by her bowl for the food. No swatting!
“A fluke?” we wondered. But no. For four months now, Lucy’s been calm. She’s been friendly. She sleeps next to my keyboard. She purrs and snuggles.
“Is this Lucy?” we asked each other.
So we had to figure out what happened.
We took a close look at what we were previously feeding her and what we’re feeding her now.
Here are the first few ingredients of the old food: Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Corn Meal, Chicken, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Animal Fat.
And here are the first few ingredients from the new food: Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Rice Flour, Chicken Fat.
A simple comparison shows that the old food was predominantly corn and very low-grade protein sources, with some sugar added. The new food, by comparison, is very high-quality protein with nutritious grains and other nutritious ingredients.
In case you don’t know, “chicken by-product meal” and “animal fat” are waste products. They are disgusting and barely nutritious. By comparison, “chicken meal” and “chicken fat” are much higher quality sources that deliver important nutrition. These terms have legal definitions from AAFCO, the US standard for pet food. And while some chicken meal is better than other chicken meal, any chicken meal is better than any kind of by-product.
What’s wrong with corn (and wheat and soy) in cat or dog food? What’s wrong is that those ingredients are nearly indigestible by cats and dogs, and they are strongly linked with allergy-type symptoms in animals. A food that is mainly corn or wheat is, in fact, systematically depriving the cat or dog of nutrition, because the animal will simply pass nearly all the nutrients in the corn and wheat. Yes, corn and wheat contain protein, but it’s useless to the cat (or dog). Although the pet food company is allowed to include corn and wheat and to count them in the nutritional analysis, they actually contribute little or no nutrition.
To find out more about pet food ingredients, please watch the video on this page: http://www.TrilogyOnline.com/Trilogy/Pets/PetsHome.aspx?realname=20021662
So here’s what happened to Lucy. For years, she ate a food that filled her belly, but it did so mainly with empty calories. Corn (and wheat) and sorghum are what are called high-glycemic, which means that they convert easily to sugars. Cats don’t need sugars. They need high-quality protein, nutritious carbohydrates and fat, and other nutrients.
We were feeding Lucy the equivalent of total junk food for years. So while her belly bulged, every part of her body was starved for real nutrition. Her body slowed down all kinds of cell repair and cell regeneration processes. And the effect on her personality was evident. She acted like she was starving because she was!
Over the first few weeks she ate the new food, her body got started on its repair work. And the day when she first relaxed on my desk, purring—that was the day that she was finally a healthy cat.
Since then, more things have happened. Over the weeks, Lucy has voluntarily cut back the amount she eats, down about fifty percent. She no longer fusses and swats at mealtime. And she has slowly started to lose weight. She’s down about a half pound.
We are so thankful to have the real Lucy back. We only wish that we had known all those years ago how to give her a healthy, happy life. At least we do now.
If you have any questions about Lucy or about cat or dog nutrition, please email Rebecca@PawPrintsPet.com or Virgil@PawPrintsPet.com.
PawPrintsLife Blog
Friday, September 11, 2009
