In recent years commercial dry foods have been heavily promoted through advertising and by Veterinarians to be the choice of caring, health conscious care givers. The truth is, dry commercial cat foods are anything but healthy for cats. First and foremost, the nutritional composition of commercial dry foods does not compare to or reflect the cat's natural diet from which cats have evolved as absolute and true carnivores. The cat, having evolved on the plains of Africa, has adapted to quench her water requirements entirely on the moisture content in her prey.
Cereals create the base of dry commercial foods and make up over half of the foods weight.
Cereals frequently used in commercial dry cat foods like corn, rice, and wheat, give the food bulk and structure and represent a cheap source of calories. Cereals are primarily made up of carbohydrates, a nutrient nearly absent in the cat's natural prey diet. A diet high in carbohydrates will result in obesity, because excessive amounts of this nutrient are converted by the liver to body fat. Since a cat metabolizes primarily fat and protein for energy, most of the carbohydrates in the diet are then stored as body fat. Both products are overprocessed and based on refined carbohydrates.