NB! Our favorite M&Ms just informed me that they don’t see our pictures. Our photo host was “all new and better” today so we wonder if it’s got something to do with it. PLS let me know if any more of you can’t see them. We know M&M have had issues with our pix before when they worked for others, so there’s also a chance that their computer sometimes sensor my handsomeness?
B
Hello Foodie Friends!
Today we’ll talk a little about a part of food that we don’t really think of as food at all – WATER. If we generalize a little most animals have a water content of about 75%. That means both you and your hooman(s) are more water than anything else!
I like water quite a lot, actually, as long as they don’t make me swim in it. I don’t swim very well.
Hyssy was quite skeptical when approaching the water, as was Virus. This is actually a quite common behavior for cats. Cats originated from small felines living in a desert climate. Since there’s hardly any thing there to drink, cats evolved to get virtually all their water from their food. Dogs are a little more prone to drinking if you look at our history. We’re also designed to get most of our water from the prey animals we eat, though.
Hee hee.. Here’s more pee! This is a color sample of Virus or Hyssy’s pee when they were eating the kibbles. They got some canned foods and tastes of raw foods, too, but their base food was kibble. You can see it’s quite dark yellow/orange in color.
Mom did a test month last spring where we all got no kibbles and only canned or raw to see if the kitties were getting enough water when they had to do most of their drinking on their own. She had read several studies that suggested the majority of cats are constantly dehydrated and wanted to make sure that was not the case with her boys. They did eat almost 50/50 canned and kibble most days. Still… it turned out at that they were not drinking sufficiently. We cannot seem to find the photo of their all raw/canned food pee, but when it was wet it had about the color of the yellowish dry crystals in the photo above, only less orange/brown and more like a very pale, pure yellow. There really was no doubt that they had been dehydrated by the amounts of pee they now left in the litter box.
So now they more or less stopped drinking altogether, but peed about twice the amount compared to before. The most surprising change, though, was the change in attitude. Virus used to be a rather aloof cat. He’d like to sit in a lap now and then, and ride on on of the hoomans’ shoulders. But he wasn’t exactly what you’d call a purring machine. He became a different cat. Cuddly.. social.. and I think he purrs at least 10 times as much as before. There was just no doubt he was feeling much better without being constantly dehydrated. (Bajas also keeps a much better water balance when he’s fed foods with a nice high water content. No over drinking episodes and vomiting – which is nice for both of us. )
We think efurrybody should eat the foodables that work for them, but it’s important to think about water content. If your kibble fed dog is a bad drinker you might put some water on the kibble when it’s served. You shouldn’t leave moist kibble out for long because of all the bacterial growth you’ll end up with, but as long as the dog eats it right away it’s no problem. The same goes for cats, but most kibble fed cats tend to be “grazers” who eat a little now and then from their 24/7 buffet.
Now who would have thought we could write so much about water? BOL! I hope you all have a great weekend! Mom fell on her face and busted her ankle, so I hope I’ll be getting some quality company.
Bajas
The WriggleButts 