Pet owners are increasingly
seeking petfoods that seem more
natural and closer to what pets
would eat in the wild.
Are niche diets backed
by science?
To date, little research has been done on grain-free or raw diets,
especially in cats
Online exclusive!
Watch Dr. Vester Boler’s presentation
from Virtual Petfood Forum Target:
Nutrition at www.petfoodindustry.com/
SciencePowerpoint.aspx.
GRAIN-FREE AND RAW pet diets are
increasingly appearing on store shelves,
sought by pet owners seeking natural
petfoods. Grain-free diets are petfoods that
do not contain cereal grains, such
as corn, rice or wheat. Raw diets are
composed of raw skeletal muscle
along with other ingredients (fiber,
vitamins and minerals, etc.).
While their presence in the
marketplace is growing, very little
research has been conducted on
these diets except for a few studies
on grain-free and raw petfoods for cats.
AS OBLIGATE CARNIVORES, cats require
nutrients found only in animal tissue, yet
most commercial cat diets today contain
a large amount of carbohydrates. The
increased carbohydrates and reduced
protein in cat diets have been blamed for
causing obesity in cats, but there are very
little data to support this claim.
