Keeping Your Cat Healthy with a Focus on Moisture in Their Diet

Many potential feline health problems can be avoided with proper nutrition. Raw food, especially raw frozen food, fits the profile of what a cat evolved to eat in the wild, which is a moisture-rich high-quality protein diet. By giving your own carnivore the meat their ancestors ate, their digestive system and other organs work at peak efficiency. This type of eating can also help stave off the risk of urinary tract disease and chronic kidney disease; two common problems for many felines.

One interesting thing about most raw foods is the low carbohydrate count. Why are fewer carbohydrates beneficial for cats? The fact is cats don’t necessarily digest carbs because they are obligate carnivores. That term is exactly what it sounds like – their bodies are obligated to eat meat to maintain optimal health. Cats aren’t omnivores like humans (or dogs).

Cats were animals that evolved in the desert, so they relied on prey to get all their nutritional requirements. They don’t get many benefits from most carbohydrates because their digestive system doesn’t produce the necessary enzymes to digest them.

So, knowing that, what are some of the benefits of adding raw food, and therefore more moisture and high-quality protein, to a cat’s diet? When you add raw food to your cat’s diet, you’ll spot changes in their skin and coat in a few weeks. You’ll also notice smaller stools, and some people report that their cats’ breath smells better, too.

Raw food, unlike other cat food options, also contains natural enzymes that make it easier for cats to digest. Those enzymes, combined with the moisture in the meat, make it easier for their digestive system to use.

Furthermore, kidney disease is a prevalent problem in older cats. Most cats live in a state of constant mild dehydration. They’re evolved to get moisture from meat, so they don’t naturally drink enough water to stay hydrated. And being dehydrated is hard on the kidneys.

Thus, one of the reasons it’s good to feed your cat a high moisture diet—like one found in many raw foods—is to help the kidneys work more efficiently. If your cat is well-hydrated, their kidneys can work better to filter out the toxins in your cat’s system.

The same concept works for preventing urinary tract infections. If your cat is well-hydrated, it helps keep the urinary system healthy and prevents bad bacteria from thriving.

There are a couple of different ways to get moisture into your cat’s diet, depending on your cat’s flavor preferences. If your cat doesn’t like frozen raw food, you can feed freeze-dried raw and add warm water to the food to increase the moisture. You can also add bone broth or goat’s milk as a way to rehydrate it and make it a little tastier.

Using warm liquid is best because it emulates the heat of a fresh kill. It’s also more appealing to the cat because warm food has more smell, and cats rely on smell over taste to choose foods. If your cat prefers wet food, which is already moisture-rich, you can boost the moisture content even further by adding some warm liquid to that.

For cats who are presently on a diet of pure kibble, or if your cat isn’t inclined to eat canned food, you can start by trying small amounts of warm liquid in their kibble. Once you start adding liquid to any type of food, it’s important that you clean the bowl after every meal and don’t let it sit out. Don’t just add more kibble and liquid, because your cat’s bowl could become a breeding ground for bacteria.

When adding different foods to your cat’s diet, it’s important to be patient. Think about placing a very small amount of new food in a separate dish near your cat’s old food. That helps your cat learn that the new item that they’re seeing is actually food. There’s plenty of other food transition tips you can try if your cat is resistant to eating kibble.

Ultimately, having an easily digestible food with plenty of protein and packed with moisture benefits the health of many different cats. But wet food or gently cooked foods offer many of the same benefits to cats.

Of course, there are other things you can do if raw food doesn’t make sense for your household or your cat’s specific needs. If you want to add more moisture, you can provide multiple sources of water throughout the house. Using a cat water fountain is also great for some cats because many cats prefer to drink moving water.

There are also a lot of water-rich treats available, made with various proteins such as chicken, fish, liver, and egg. As well, toppers can provide additional moisture to a diet and also enhance overall digestive health.

So, no matter how you decide to offer it to your cat, it is important to make sure enough moisture is available. Between various diet types—such as raw, wet, or gently cooked—along with moisture-rich treats and toppers, and abundant amounts of available water, you should be able to formulate a plan to help your feline friend stay healthy and hydrated. And remember, you can always ask a Muddy—either in-store or online—for solutions-based tips and advice.