Researchers found that feeding directions on adult maintenance cat foods sold in Canada differed from commonly used predictive energy equations, with discrepancies influenced by product type, feeding unit and label claims. University of Guelph scientists conducted a cross-sectional observational study of products available in Ontario between July and October 2023.
“Cat food feeding guidelines are a starting point,” they wrote in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. “Feeding amounts must be reassessed and adjusted over time based on each cat’s body weight and condition trends and lifestyle.”
Researchers surveyed feeding guidelines on 802 commercial cat foods across 11 retail locations, including specialty pet food businesses, grocery stores and a home goods store. After excluding 12 products without feeding guidelines or metabolizable energy values, 790 diets were analyzed. Products represented 57 brands and 159 product lines and were categorized as dry, dehydrated, kibble, wet, raw-meat–based or human-food–like cooked foods. Most (94%) carried an Association of American Feed Control Officials nutritional adequacy statement for adult maintenance; 14% of those were labeled for all life stages.
Recommended energy intakes in cat foods
Recommended energy intakes (REIs) were calculated from label feeding amounts for hypothetical adult cats weighing 3 kilograms and 5 kilograms in ideal body condition. Low, medium and high REIs were derived and compared with predicted maintenance needs using the National Research Council equation for lean cats and American Animal Hospital Association equations for inactive or obese-prone and neutered cats.
Among the 790 diets, 57% and 32% of low REIs were below the inactive or obese-prone equation for 3- and 5-kilogram cats, respectively. In contrast, 35% of high REIs for 3-kilogram cats and 52% for 5-kilogram cats exceeded the lean cat equation. Medium REI was higher in dry foods than wet foods for both body sizes and was positively correlated with metabolizable energy per serving unit in wet foods.
Product characteristics affected these differences. High REI was higher for both body sizes in diets labeled for all life stages compared with adult maintenance diets, and 65% of all-life-stage products had a high REI for a 5-kilogram cat above the lean cat benchmark. Diets with weight-management claims had lower metabolizable energy and a lower low REI for 5-kilogram cats than products without such claims. Labels using package-specific measuring units showed different low and high REI patterns compared with gram-based labels.
