Common Sense of Pet Raising: Cat Food and Dog Food Cannot Be Mixed!

Why can't cat food and dog food be mixed? Let us find out together.

1. The dog is an omnivorous animal whose main diet is meat, while the cat is a pure carnivore. Therefore, the ingredients used for cat food and dog food are different, and long-term consumption of food that does not conform to one's eating habits will inevitably cause harm.

2. The length of the digestive tract of cats and dogs is different. The length of cats' intestines is relatively short. Cats do not need to digest those hard-to-digest crude fibers and more carbohydrates. Such intestinal lengths can fully satisfy their daily digestion of meat. Cats' long-term consumption of dog food is bound to increase the pressure on intestinal digestion, which will cause irreparable damage in the long run.

3. There is a big gap between cats and dogs in the ability to digest carbohydrates. Because cats lack the enzymes to digest carbohydrates, cats cannot accept high-concentration (generally recommended ≤10%) carbohydrates for a long time. In designing high-quality cat food formulas and When formulating dog food, there will be relatively large design differences. Compared with dogs, cats take longer to break down and use carbohydrates in food. Cats who eat high-concentration carbohydrate foods for a long time may cause feline urinary tract syndrome. Dogs are not so sensitive in this regard, and their tolerance to carbohydrates is relatively loose. Therefore, cats cannot eat dog food with relatively high carbohydrate concentration for a long time.

4. For cats, there is an amino acid-taurine is an essential amino acid for cats. Pure carnivores have extremely limited ability to synthesize cysteine into taurine, but dogs do not have this problem. Therefore, when pet nutritionists design cat food formulas for cats, they will add and supplement taurine according to the different physiological stages of cats. However, when designing dog food formulas, they will not deliberately add taurine. Therefore, if a cat eats dog food snacks, there will be a lack of taurine in cats. The consequences of a lack of taurine in cats are very serious, which can easily lead to degeneration or blindness of the cat's central retina. There is also a difference in the effect of arginine on dogs and cats. When the cat's food lacks arginine, the cat is very prone to hyperammonia, and the lack of arginine has a much stronger response than dogs.

5. The vitamin trace elements in cat food treats are different from those in dog food. For example, vitamin A. Dogs can effectively convert β-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A, into vitamin A, but cats cannot. Therefore, in the formulas of dog food and cat food, the ratio of vitamin A, a micronutrient, and the method of adding are completely different. Therefore, if cats eat dog food for a long time, vitamin A deficiency is prone to occur. In terms of B vitamins, there is also a big gap between the requirements of cats and dogs.

In addition to these, there are also a series of differences in protein content, fat, mineral trace elements, etc. in cat food and dog food. In the process of formula design, a large gap will be made in the ratio. In the process of food production process design, cats and dogs will also be treated differently according to the different nutritional characteristics of cats and dogs.

Key points: Pay special attention not to allow cats to eat dog food for a long time!!!

Solution: Regularly quantify, do not keep cat food or dog food in the food bowl for a long time; separate the cat food or dog food in the dining space, and stagger the time, do not feed at the same time, so as to prevent cats and dogs from eating each other food by mistake.