Some Dry Cat food contain large amounts of Calcium, Phosphorus and Sodium. Such as the Open Farms Kibble. It seems like a great food. But some Animal Nutritionists say the uppers limits are too high. And that it could result in Kidney Issues down the road. Curious what your thoughts are? Thanks for the information.
Was supposed to be Dry and Wet
Hi PSTORES,
If you haven't yet, make sure to read the article I wrote on phosphorus in cat food, as it may answer your questions more completely. The main concern with potential development of kidney disease in diets is phosphorus levels. But with all the research that has been looking at this, there were three main takeaways. The first is that phosphorus levels exceeding 3.6g/1000 kcal ME have been found to cause kidney injury. Second, diets that have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of less than 1:1 carry similar risk, even if the total phosphorus content is less than that 3.6. Phosphorus should never exceed calcium in the ratio. The third is that the source of phosphorus also matters. Inorganic phosphates, especially sodium phosphates, were found to be the highest risk. The slide you included has limited information that can be interpreted. It can say something about the Ca to P ratio. At best it has a 2:1 to 1:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus, but it is possible it could be lower if it contained the lowest percentage of calcium and highest percentage of phosphorus in the ranges shown. But beyond that, it's hard to say. Studies looking at phosphorus in cat foods did not specifically find that wet vs. dry foods were higher or lower risk. The studies really emphasized comparing diets using the g/1000kcal ME. The problem with listing ingredients like this only as percentages is that the calorie densities of foods vary considerably. A diet that is 0.8% phosphorus in a more calorie dense food will be different compared to a diet that is 0.8% P in a less calorie dense food. The slide shown also does not indicate if the percentages are on a dry matter basis or as fed basis, which makes a big difference in what the percentage numbers look like to the average person and how diets are being compared to each other (wet vs. dry). This of course is a crux of the problem with assessing P content and safety (as I mention in the article), as many diets don't provide the right kind of label information.
@chris-vanderhoof
Thanks for the information. I’ll go ad read that article. So from your perspective is the Open Farms Grain Free Kitten Kibble a good food to feed? I am getting a Bengal Kitten in a couple weeks. And realize that the 1st year is important to what you feed the kitty. I’ll be researching down the road for the Adult food as well. But for now just concerned about the Kitten StageS
I can't recommend it specfiically for your cat, as I am not your cat's care provider, but I will try to provide some guidance. At the most important, we want to make sure any diet meets AAFCO feeding guidelines for a particular life stage to ensure it is nutritionally balanced, and this one does, so that box is checked. Beyond that, the proper diet for any kitten or adult cat is going to depend on a combination of factors including what their digestive system can tolerate (some cats are more sensitive than others), what they find palatable, and the diet philosophies of the owner. If this is the Open Farms Rawmix kibble, there are advantages and disadvantage to freeze-dried foods. In the article on 12 types of cat foods, you can read through the specifics (it's a long article with lots of info, but at the top, you can select the section on freeze-dried and skip to it).