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I heard that if you feed cats processed cat food for a period of time, their palate/stomach will be unable to eat natural food again (meat, rat, etc). Is that correct?

Jacob B
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Ooker
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4 Answers4

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It's not really true - at the physiological level, I certainly cannot see how prolonged consumption of processed food could disable a cat from being able to digest natural food. However, I could see the trace element of truth in this statement's essence, which might explain it's plausible origin.

Cats, compared to dogs, are known to be a bit of picky eaters. Unlike dogs, cats could literally starve themselves to death in case of the available food not suiting their fancy - that's how picky they could be*. At the same time, please take into account that it's in the cat food manufacturers' best interest to make their products as tasty as possible, and they certainly have all the necessary means to do the research and come up with the optimal formula.

As a result, transitioning from processed cat food to natural food could in a way resemble - apologies for not coming up with a better analogy - transitioning a child's diet from prolonged dining in fancy restaurants and eating pizzas with a whole variety of alluring flavors, to unseasoned and blandly-tasting homemade food. The child would surely be resistant and need some time to transition - which, as other answers already mentioned, is the case in all diet changes - but it doesn't mean that the child's physiology and metabolism had been changed in a way that disabled them from digesting natural food. Like the child in this hypothetical scenario, a cat could just get psychologically used to a certain kind of tasty food, forming a deeply-rooted habit.

My analogy to human diet is obviously not the best and it's not directly one-to-one - yes, cat food manufacturers don't enhance flavor by using spices known in human cuisine, like black pepper, chili, onion, garlic, etc. Not only cats experience taste differently from humans, but also some of the human cuisine spices are extremely toxic to cats.

But my point still stands; as Trond Hansen noted in the comment, cat food manufacturers are using flavor enhancers, known as palatants, which could be seen as analogs of spices used in our human cuisine. Also, manufacturers do in fact research for the optimal texture, humidity, salinity, tenderness, etc. of the food to suit cats' fancy as much as they can. A cat used to this kind of food could just have been in some sense addicted to a great taste (addicted in the sense of psychological habit, not physiological dependency, though) - together with the before-mentioned cats' pickiness, attempts of such diet transition could give the convincing, albeit completely false impression of their inability to eat natural food ever again.

References to the statement marked with asterisk:

lila
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  • @AlexeiLevenkov Hi thanks a lot for you comment, your improvement suggestion is valuable, I might use it in the future to improve my answer, I appreciate it and I'm not sure why you've deleted your comment shortly after posting it, but if you decided to do so then I respect your choice of course. – lila Sep 02 '20 at 21:38
  • "cat food manufacturers don't use flavor enchances in the form of spices known in human diet" looks at the manufacturing process of dry cat food Are you sure about that? – nick012000 Sep 03 '20 at 02:20
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    @nick012000 the answer from lila is correct in that catfood does not contain spices that are used in food for human consumption,but it does contain some of the same flavour enhancers that are used in human food production(salt,flavouring based on different types of yeast,cheese products) https://pets.thenest.com/flavor-enhancers-cats-10660.html – trond hansen Sep 03 '20 at 04:45
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    "Unlike dogs, cats could literally starve themselves to death in case of the available food not suiting their fancy - that's how picky they could be."... source? ;) – MaxD Sep 03 '20 at 12:32
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    @nick012000 What I meant was they don't use human cuisine spices as black pepper, chilli, onion, garlic, etc. Apologies if my wording wasn't clear, but that should be obvious from the context as that's the whole point of the paragraph - they don't use flavor enchancers in the form of black pepper, etc. but they do enchance the flavor in other ways by researching and applying the optimal and the most appetizing texture of the food, etc. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 16:49
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    @nick012000 One exception in that context might be salt, as it's added to both in cat and human food - but I actually consider it more as an essential nutritient than spice, as sodium and chlorine are both essential nutritients; if we consider the salt as a spice it will make my point stand even more. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 16:50
  • @trondhansen It's true, thanks for clarification ^.^ – lila Sep 03 '20 at 16:50
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    @MaxD I couldn't find the exact source for now but I promise I will look for it later and message you; generally cats could be extremely picky for food and at the same time cat refusing to eat anything for any longer than 24 hours is a serious alarming signal as it can result in a fatal metabolic disease known as feline hepatic lipidosis, also known as feline fatty liver syndrome; one should never assume that a cat would eventually get hungry enough to eat something because the onset of this disease is extremely fast; as little as 2 to 3 days without food could result in cat's death. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 17:06
  • @MaxD and, as a result, it doesn't really take a lot for a cat to starve itsef to death; if the food was to be changed to completely different type not suiting them, especially if it was to be abruptly done, a cat could starve itself to death. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 17:15
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    @lila I was kinda joking, but if this is ACTUALLY true I definitely wanna know cause it's gonna blow my mind like never before. – MaxD Sep 03 '20 at 20:30
  • @MaxD https://pets.thenest.com/causes-rapid-weight-loss-older-cats-4628.html is about potential of fatty liver disease occurring after sudden diet change and the cat not wanting to eat the new food; as mentioned in Wikipedia untreated fatty liver disease has mortality up to 90% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_hepatic_lipidosis – lila Sep 03 '20 at 21:09
  • @MaxD https://feline-nutrition.org/health/avoiding-hepatic-lipidosis-in-your-cat warns the cat owner about fatty liver syndrome - the owner who has already tried to transition to different food a few times and the cats refused to eat. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 21:11
  • @MaxD https://twocrazycatladies.com/feline-hepatic-lipidosis-cats-must-eat-daily/ - "[...] hepatic lipidosis is common when cat parents try changing their kitty's diet and the cat refuses to eat it. [...]" and hepatic lipidosis = fatty liver disease. As I mentioned earlier, this disease is triggered by prolonged fasting period - cats' bodies are just not "designed" to withstand starvation periods longer that about 24 hours; starvation triggers utilization of body fat reserves and cat liver is poor at metabolizing fat, liver gets quickly damaged in this case leading to liver failure. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 21:14
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    @lila “What I meant was they don't use human cuisine spices as black pepper, chilli, onion, garlic, etc.“ They spray flavour chemicals into dry cat food as a part of the manufacturing process. Fats and meat flavours, mostly, so that it’ll smell and taste like something that a cat would want to eat. – nick012000 Sep 03 '20 at 23:13
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    @nick012000 It's true yes, thanks for your comment, I've read the link in comment of Trond Hansen and that's also what it says, I've also updated my answer to include that. I just wanted to make a distinction, because in my answer I explained some things using an analogy to a child eating human food, and I wanted to make it clear that it's not exactly a 1-to-1 analogy - cat food doesn't use black pepper, onions, etc. and human food doesn't use the same platalants in a way that is specific to cat food. They both use things as salt, sodium glutamate, etc. though. – lila Sep 03 '20 at 23:27
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    you could use as analogy that children could be very affected to sugar. For example in drinks, some children do not drink tea or water anymore. They need limonade or even the taste of it when it is "zero sugar full taste". Same with salt, it could be very difficult to reduce (for health reasons) salt intake (even as grown up) because it makes any basic taste more intensiv. – Allerleirauh Sep 05 '20 at 15:36
  • @Allerleirauh Oh thanks for suggestion, it's good example, also even I am somewhat addicted to sweetened drinks and don't drink water unless it's the only thing I have, and I'm an adult ^.^ I'm still thinking whether to improve my answer and I don't know if I do, but if I use your idea I will credit you ^.^ – lila Sep 05 '20 at 19:09
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    @lila I think it would be a good idea to include a source for the stuff about cats starving themself in the main answer instead of leaving it in the comments. No guarantee the comments will stay around :-) – eirikdaude Sep 07 '20 at 11:54
  • @eirikdaude Okay thanks for suggestion, yes it's good idea, I'm still thinking whether and how to include some more information and I might need some time to find out how to write it up so it nicely fits, I will soon include these links. – lila Sep 07 '20 at 19:25
  • @eirikdaude I mean I want to add some more explaination besides the links, but at the same time the cats starving themselves to death aren't immediately and directly related to the main question, I added this more as a side information, so I also don't want to include too much of unneeded information and I need to think how to concisely write it up ^.^ – lila Sep 07 '20 at 19:47
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    @lile Personally I think just adding a link backing up that information is fine. That way people who want to know more have somewhere they can start to read. – eirikdaude Sep 08 '20 at 05:49
  • @eirikdaude Okay added sources. – lila Sep 08 '20 at 20:24
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No, that is categorically false.

Now, it does take a cat some time (on the order of a week or two) to adjust to a new diet. But that's true of any new diet, whether you're moving from natural to processed, processed to natural, or between two different types of processed food. It's possible that whoever started that rumor just misunderstood the fact that cats need time to adapt.

It's also possible that a cat raised in captivity and kept indoors all the time might not know how to hunt their own food. In this case, it's less a matter of being unable to eat "natural" food, and more about being unable to get it in the first place.

HiddenWindshield
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    On the last point, my mostly-indoor cats will hunt and kill small prey, but they don’t seem to understand how to get to the meat inside the fur/feathers. They will happily eat raw meat from the store, though. – StephenS Sep 02 '20 at 21:20
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    can it change abruptly? What if suddenly there is only new diet? – Ooker Sep 02 '20 at 22:14
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    @Ooker gastric distress is what happens if you give them a sudden dietary change. Which may include vomiting, and nearly always includes horrible diarrhea. – Allison C Sep 02 '20 at 22:36
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    @StephenS That's fascinating. Is that something they are forced to learn from just being way too hungry and can eventually figure out? Or must they be taught it? – DKNguyen Sep 02 '20 at 23:16
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    @DKNguyen I assume they’d figure it out if they were hungry enough. – StephenS Sep 03 '20 at 01:31
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    @AllisonC that's exactly what I'm looking for. From my understanding in lila's answer, it's just a matter of switching from restaurant-level food to homemade food. It should be picky, but not lead to gastric distress? – Ooker Sep 03 '20 at 05:44
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    @Ooker ANY transition in food will lead to gastric distress. Additionally, lila's answer was an analogy using humans--think "McDonalds" to "broccoli," both of which you shouldn't feed your cat. Balanced homemade cat food is not an easy thing to prepare, and shouldn't be attempted without advice and guidance from your vet (as well as regular checkups to ensure it's balanced). – Allison C Sep 03 '20 at 13:03
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    @AllisonC I mean, why does gastric distress happen? Why it may vomit and nearly always has diarrhea? This means that the cat is changed physiologically, not just taste (psychologically). – Ooker Sep 04 '20 at 07:58
  • @Ooker Hi I am sorry if my answer stirred up some confusion; I might have oversimplified some things. What I meant in the subject of no physiological changes was that prolonged consumption of processed food doesn't specifically change physiology in a way that would make it impossible to digest natural food and utilize it's nutritional values. But I didn't mean that physiology couldn't be changed in other ways - and in fact it does; in general, physiology is always constantly and fluidly changing in many subtle ways, because a living organism is a complicated system of interconnected vessels. – lila Sep 04 '20 at 12:46
  • @Ooker As an example of what I meant saying about physiological dependency I could tell about alcoholism - ethanol is a toxin, but prolonged ethanol consumption makes our bodies progressively alter the physiology by incorporating ethanol into the metabolic pathways and thus adapting to the constant toxin presence. But the problem is at the time an alcoholic stops drinking cold turkey after a prolonged drinking binge and ethanol is suddenly removed from the equation - physiology has been changed to account for its presence, so now there's a missing element and it could even result in death. – lila Sep 04 '20 at 12:58
  • @Ooker And what I meant in essence was that prolonged consumption of processed food doesn't form a dependency like described above - and I assume that forming such a dependency would be needed to make eating natural food impossible. And also, please note that even in case of serious alcohol addiction, physiological changes aren't permanent - alcohol withdrawal syndrome lasts up to about a week, then metabolism isn't dependent on ethanol presence anymore and returns to normal (psychological addiction and brain damage stays for lifetime, though). – lila Sep 04 '20 at 13:12
  • @Ooker And about why does sudden diet change induce diarrhea - one reason is that what we are eating isn't only feeding us, but also the gut flora living inside us. In a healthy cat, person, etc. the beneficial bacteria in gut flora keep the harmful ones in check - but a sudden diet change could, for example, not be appreciated by the beneficial bacteria and make them "weaker" - if they aren't able to keep the harmful bacteria in check anymore, the harmful ones quickly grow in numbers, triggering our bodies to defend and expel them out by inducing a horrible diarrhea. – lila Sep 04 '20 at 13:22
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As Fraxinus has said this, in practice doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

A lot of cats are known for begging for almost any food, just like dogs, and as the owner of 3 cats that are fed procesed cat food I can personally attest that they will eat anything. 1 of them goes and hunts birds and mice all the time and the other 2 will eat chicken or bacon or pretty much anything I give them.

lila
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GamerGypps
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    A lot of cats are very finicky. And most birds killed by cats are not eaten by the cat. – Acccumulation Sep 03 '20 at 04:19
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    Do they actually eat the animals they kill? – nasch Sep 03 '20 at 16:36
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    @nasch It depends. We have had several cats, depending on their taste they ate their kills, but sometimes they just brought them over to show us what they caught, One of our cats would refuse to eat moles it hunted, while other one would happy steal the kill. Meanwhile, another cat refused to eat any fish unless it was freshly caught. As in "just got this fish off the hook aaaand the cat stole it" level of fresh. Anything else? He would not eat. Cats are notoriously finicky eaters. – Mandemon Sep 07 '20 at 12:28
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From a practical experience with a few cats: wrong.

All cats that I am aware of (most of them fed cat food for their entire lives) line next to anyone trying to cook meat.

fraxinus
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