Dog and cat food the SAME???

[MinkaMuffin]

I wonder why there isn't the same push for low carb foods for dogs then?

[Emelda]

Dogs are not obligate carnivores

[MowMow]

I would imagine it's cheaper to make batches that cover both pets and as long as both includes all the nutrition needed then there's no harm/no foul.

I can't think of anything a dog would need that would hurt a cat to eat and the other way around...

[furryfriends251]

This is all speculation/IMO, however maybe something below is why dog foods tend to be higher carbs:

Well, at least the canned Instinct, Before Grain, and EVO have the right idea about low carb for dogs. The companies that make grain free food for dogs, also make the same for cats.

There seem to be way more people that feed their dogs raw, than those that feed their cats raw. I wonder if any of these things has something to do with that?

1) dogs are easier to switch
2) there aren't as many good, low carb, options for dog food
3) the dog owner's personality, vs the cat owners?

Or maybe pet food manufacturers can get away with giving dogs higher carb foods, because they aren't obligate carnivores like cats. They are still carnivores...and if given the choice will avoid plant matter...but they are able to eat plant matter without the negative health affects that cats have?

[furryfriends251]

Originally Posted by Emelda

Dogs are not obligate carnivores

When they eat their prey, they will shake out the plant matter from the stomach/intestines, and then eat the stomach/intestines, leaving the plant matter to decay.

Myths About Raw: Do wolves eat stomach contents of prey? explains it more in depth, though the details may be to graphic for some, so I am not copy/pasting any of it.

[def kitty]

Originally Posted by furryfriends251

Or maybe pet food manufacturers can get away with giving dogs higher carb foods, because they aren't obligate carnivores like cats. They are still carnivores...and if given the choice will avoid plant matter...but they are able to eat plant matter without the negative health affects that cats have?

That's it. Dogs are carnivores just like cats and their natural diet is animal prey. However, a cat needs 200-250 calories a day, while a big athletic dog might need up to ten times as much. So it would be really expensive for that dog to get all his calories from meat - so they keep the meat in dog food at the bare minimum.

[doodlebug]

There's a lot of disagreement about whether dogs are carnivores or omnivores, though their teeth seem to indicate carnivore. In general dogs need less protein than cats...minimum protein for an adult dog is 18%, for cats it's 25-30%. That's usable protein...when you read a label you're seeing crude protein. Depending on the quality of food, anywhere from 40-75% of the protein is usable. So if you have a high quality dry food with 40% crude protein, then the cat is really getting about 30% protein.

Originally Posted by MinkaMuffin

I wonder why there isn't the same push for low carb foods for dogs then?

Of course there's a push for low carb foods for dogs. But for a dog "low carb" isn't quite as low as for cats.

Originally Posted by furryfriends251

2) there aren't as many good, low carb, options for dog food

There are tons of foods that qualify as low carb for dogs, probably more choices than for cats. For every high quality cat food, there's a corresponding dog food...and some dog food brands that don't make cat food. And other brands have more varieties for dogs than cats (e.g. Orijen/Acana have 5 choices for cats and 9 for dogs). As noted in the initial post of this thread...the canned dog foods are basically the same formulas as the cat foods. Good dry foods for dogs range in the 30-40% protein range, where with cats it's in the 40-50%. The biggest difference is that most dogs cannot live on wet food only, they just can't/won't consume the quantity needed to get them the calories they need. And their owners can't afford to feed wet food only...a larger dog could need to eat 3-5 cans per day (12 oz cans). So most people use canned food as toppers for kibble to give the dog some variety. And of course, dogs don't have the hydration issues that cats do, so eating kibble is not the kind of problem it can be for cats.

[Meezer_lover]

Just read this on Nature's Logic FB page. Someone asked this very question about their food and the company responded:

[CatsPride]

Personally I wouldn't do it the companey only wants to look " professional" at the expence of being honest.. One thing I've learned about work in the disabilities coummunity at least that there are many places for us to work that claim to be professional but really are not if you think about it.

Anyway back to the point I think feeding cats dog food and dogs cat food is just asking for trouble.

[Meezer_lover]

Originally Posted by CatsPride

Anyway back to the point I think feeding cats dog food and dogs cat food is just asking for trouble.

I'm no expert, but I'm not really concerned, knowing the type of food that Nature's Logic specifically is. There are no added vitamins or minerals (man made), everything comes from the meat and plasma directly.
So knowing this, why wouldn't the ingredients be the same? It is truly all natural.

I chose to go this route because the chemicals and man made content is where a lot of foods run into trouble.