Instead of an ungodly number of links along the side, I decided to dedicate a page solely to links of interest.
If you’re looking for links to specific cat food manufacturer’s sites, you’d be better off checking out the Good Brands, Bad Brands section.
General Feline Nutrition Info
Catinfo.org – A site run by a vet, Dr. Lisa Pierson. It provides an excellent overview on what cats need.
Max’s House Feline Nutrition – A really huge page containing many excellent details on feline nutritional needs.
The Carnivore Connection to Nutrition in Cats by Debra L. Zoran – A great if somewhat technical overview of feline metabolism and biochemistry
What Cats Should Eat – Another article by Dr. Jean Hofve
The About.com Cat Food FAQ – Love the articles, hate the endless barrage of ads and the pop-ups
The About.com Cat Food and Nutrition Guide – Franny Syufy’s a good old bird, and she gives it to you straight.
Nutrient Breakdowns of Various Foods
NOTE: Some pet food manufacturers include as-fed averages on their websites instead of just the guaranteed analysis (which consists of minimums and maximums), most notably Hill’s Science Diet and Wellness. I’m sure other pet food companies do as well, so check their websites if you’re curious about more precise nutrition breakdowns than what can be found on the label. Oh, and this is in no way an endorsement of the food Science Diet makes, by the way. Ha.
Canned Cat Food Nutritional Information – Run by a woman who had a diabetic cat. Provides % calories from carbs, protein and fat (NOTE: does not provide actual percentages of these nutrients) as well as other info on several popular brands and flavors of canned cat food.
Dry Cat Food Nutritional Information – Same as above, only for dry food.
Nutrient composition of Whole Vertebrate Prey (Excluding Fish) – The USDA’s analysis of the nutrient content of various whole vertebrate prey—sans fish, as advertised.
USDA National Nutrient Database – Meant for human food, not cat food, but very very handy when you’re trying to figure out how much calcium to add to boneless meats and such (the calcium:phosphorus ratio can vary from 1.1:1 to 1.4:1). Take note that analyses for chicken necks and other raw meaty bones do not include the bone.
Raw Meaty Bones Analysis – A useful guide if you want to feed raw food and use chicken necks/backs as a source of calcium, since these include the bone content as well as the meat content (unlike the USDA National Nutrient Database).
Assorted General Info on Cat Health and Cat Diseases (Usually Diet-Related)
Role of Dietary Protein in Weight Management by Steven S. Hannah
Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorders presentation from WSAVA 2001 by Tony Buffington
Feline Hyperthyroidism from WSAVA 2001 by David Bruyette
Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the Dog and Cat from WSAVA 2002 by Albert E. Jergens
Management of Hypercalcemia in Cats by Johnny Hoskins
Effects of Dietary Lipids on Renal Function in Dogs and Cats by Scott A. Brown
Effects of Dietary Protein Intake on Renal Functions by Delmar R. Finco
Acid-Base, Electrolytes, and Renal Failure by David J. Polzin, Carl A. Osborne & Katherine James
Dry Food Doesn’t Clean Teeth – Dr. Jean Hofve puts this myth to rest.
Excess Vitamin D and Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions – Translation: Too much vitamin D may cause cavities in cats.
Raw Diets
RawPaws Yahoo! Group – A big and busy Yahoo! group dedicated to raw food for cats, dogs and ferrets and holistic pet health.
CatNutrition Yahoo! Group – A fairly big and not-so-busy Yahoo! group, concentrating on feline nutritional needs and especially how to feed a balanced raw diet to cats. Lots of good files in the FILES section and good information is available in the archives.
Catnutrition.org – A woman has a kitten with IBD, and nothing worked until she tried the raw diet. Decent information, though she’s one of the “no vegetables for cats ever” evangelists.
Holisticat Raw Food Recipes – Recipes from various members of the Holisticat list
The Ideal Diet Thread – I describe some basic principles on how to make a balanced diet on the Feline Nutrition Tribe, and go on and on and on like I normally do (and make a huge mistake in one of the first posts, but thanks to the lack of an “edit” button on Tribe, can’t correct it).
El Sham’s Calcium/Phosphorus Calculator – An excellent tool for calculating how much calcium to add to boneless meats if you don’t want to do the math yourself. Contains information on most commercially-available cuts of meat.
No-Nos for Cats – I go on and on and on and on about what foods and substances to avoid.
Misleading Information from Raw Feeding Websites – Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. And I make more huge honking typos (100 g of eggshell powder doesn’t contain 360 g of calcium—that’s just silly).
Bad Science – A very thorough critique by Dr. Jean Hofve of an incredibly poorly-conducted study on how bad raw diets are.
Debunking Iams on Raw Diets – Iams says “RAW DIETS KILL,” and I tear them a new one.
A Rebuttal of “The Dangers of Raw Meat” – A snarky point-by-point rebuttal by Michelle Bernard and Anne Jablonski of this truly asinine Purina webpage. At some point, I need to write a point-by-point dissection of the rebuttal itself, because it’s inaccurate in many places and completely misses the point in others.
Academic Studies
The citation styles are not going to be consistent because I’m just copying and pasting as I go, but I’m providing sufficient info for you to look these studies up in the actual journals if you’re interested. These links provide the full articles unless I note that it’s a link to the abstract only. I know this list is huge, but to help you along, I’ve divided them into different categories (if the study focuses on nutritional therapy for a disease, it’ll be under the name of that disease, as opposed to Diet and Nutrition), and then sorted by article title.
Chronic Kidney Disease (or Chronic Renal Failure, if you’re old-school like me)
Effect of dietary phosphorus restriction on the kidneys of cats with reduced renal mass (Abstract Only) by Ross LA, Finco DR, Crowell WA, Am J Vet Res. 1982 Jun;43(6):1023-6.
Management of Feline Chronic Renal Failure, presented by Iams researchers at the 2000 North American Veterinary Conference (page 20 features “Effect of Fermentable Fiber Blends on Nitrogen Repartitioning in the Feline” by Gregory Sunvold, a study on the nitrogen-trapping effects of fermentable fiber).
Protein and calorie effects on progression of induced chronic renal failure in cats (Abstract Only) by Brown SA, Finco DR, Bartges JW, Brown CA, Barsanti JA, lin Tech Small Anim Pract. 1998 Nov;13(4):217-23.
Relationship of selected clinical renal function tests to glomerular filtration rate and renal blood flow in cats (Abstract Only) by Ross LA, Finco DR, Am J Vet Res. 1981 Oct;42(10):1704-10.
Diet and Nutrition
Cats increase fatty acid oxidation when isocalorically fed meat-based diets with increasing fat content by Tammy Lester, Gail Czarnecki-Maulden, and Douglas Lewis, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 277: R878-R886, 1999
Changing Perspectives on Aging and Energy Requirements: Aging and Energy Intakes in Humans, Dogs and Cats by E. Jean Harper, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2623S-2626S
Changing Perspectives on Aging and Energy Requirements: Aging and Digestive Function in Humans, Dogs and Cats by E. Jean Harper, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2632S-2635S
Comparison of corn gluten meal and meat meal as a protein source in dry foods formulated for cats (Abstract Only) by Masayuki Funaba, PhD; Chiho Matsumoto, DVM; Kunihiro Matsuki, DVM; Ken Gotoh, BS; Masahiro Kaneko, BS; Tsunenori Iriki, PhD; Yoshikazu Hatano, BS; Matanobu Abe, PhD; American Journal of veterinary Research Vol. 63, No. 9 September 2002, pp. 1213-1340
Diet and Feline Obesity by Susan Donoghue and Janet M. Scarlett, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2776S-2778S
Dietary Rice Bran Decreases Plasma and Whole-Blood Taurine in Cats by Meri Stratton-Phelps, Robert C. Backus, Quinton R. Rogers and Andrea J. Fascetti, J. Nutr. 132:1745S-1747S, June 2002
Dietary soybean protein decreases plasma taurine in cats by Kim SW, Morris JG and Rogers QR, J Nutr. 1995 Nov;125(11):2831-7
Effect of dietary soy on serum thyroid hormone concentrations in healthy adult cats (Pubmed Abstract Only) by White HL, Freeman LM, Mahony O, Graham PA, Hao Q and Court MH, Am J Vet Res. 2004 May;65(5):586-91
Fish Meal vs. Corn Gluten Meal as a Protein Source for Dry Cat Food by Masayuki Funaba, Tetsuji Tanaka, Masahiro Kaneko, Tsunenori Iriki, Yoshikazu Hatano, and Matanobu Abe, J. Vet. Med. Sci. 63 (12): 1355-1357, 2001
Glucose homeostasis in a carnivorous animal (cat) and in rats fed a high-protein diet (Abstract Only) by I. C. Kettelhut, M. C. Foss and R. H. Migliorini, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 239: R437-R444, 1980
Heat Processing Changes the Protein Quality of Canned Cat Foods as Measured with a Rat Bioassay by W. H. Hendriks2, M.M.A. Emmens3, B. Trass4, and J. R. Pluske, J. Anim. Sci. 1999. 77:669–676
Reduction of the energy density of cat foods by increasing their fibre content with a view to nutrients’ digestibility (Pubmed Abstract Only) by Fekete S, Hullar I, Andrasofszky E, Rigo Z, and Berkenyi T, J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2001 Aug;85(7-8):200-4
Use of a Raw Meat-Based Diet or a Dry Kibble Diet for Sand Cats (Felis margarita) by S. D. Crissey, J. A. Swanson, B. A. Lintzenich, B. A. Brewer, and K. A. Slifka, J. Anim. Sci. 1997. 75:2154–2160
Vitamin E Requirement of Adult Cats Increases Slightly with High Dietary Intake of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids by Wouter H. Hendriks, Yuben B. Wu, Rick G. Shields, Mark Newcomb, Kay J. Rutherfurd, Tsegaw Belay and Jonathan Wilson, J. Nutr. 132:1613S-1615S, June 2002
Intestinal Diseases
Diet and Large Intestinal Disease in Dogs and Cats by James W. Simpson, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2717S-2722S
Lower Urinary Tract Diseases
Clinical evaluation of cats with nonobstructive urinary tract diseases (PubMed Abstract Only) by Buffington CA, Chew DJ, Kendall MS, Scrivani PV, Thompson SB, Blaisdell JL and Woodworth BE, J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1997 Jan 1;210(1):46-50
Clinical evaluation of commercially available urinary acidification diets in the management of idiopathic cystitis in cats (Pubmed Abstract Only) by Markwell PJ, Buffington CA, Chew DJ, Kendall MS, Harte JG, DiBartola SP, J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1999 Feb 1;214(3):361-5
The Effect of Diet on Lower Urinary Tract Diseases in Cats by Peter J. Markwell, C. Tony Buffington, and Brigitte H. E. Smith, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2753S-2757S
Effects of a high-protein diet on mineral metabolism and struvite activity product in clinically normal cats (Pubmed Abstract Only) by Funaba M, Hashimoto M, Yamanaka C, Shimogori Y, Iriki T, Ohshima S, Abe M, Am J Vet Res. 1996 Dec;57(12):1726-32.
Effects of a high-protein diet versus dietary supplementation with ammonium chloride on struvite crystal formation in urine of clinically normal cats (Pubmed Abstract Only) by Funaba M, Yamate T, Hashida Y, Maki K, Gotoh K, Kaneko M, Yamamoto H, Iriki T, Hatano Y, Abe M, Am J Vet Res. 2003 Aug;64(8):1059-64.
Evaluation of effects of dietary carbohydrate on formation of struvite crystals in urine and macromineral balance in clinically normal cats (Pubmed Abstract Only) by Funaba M, Uchiyama A, Takahashi K, Kaneko M, Yamamoto H, Namikawa K, Iriki T, Hatano Y and Abe M, Am J Vet Res. 2004 Feb;65(2):138-42
Feline Reference Values for Urine Composition by Y. H. Cottam, P. Caley, S. Wamberg and W. H. Hendriks, J. Nutr. 132:1754S-1756S, June 2002
Liver Disease
Nutritional Support for Dogs and Cats with Hepatobiliary Disease by S. A. Center, The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 12 December 1998, pp. 2733S-2746S