? Type and Quality of proteins

If we are trying to feed our cats a more natural diet, then there is no question that plant protein sources are not a good choice (how many cats have you seen chowing down on soybeans or chewing up corn to get that delicious corn gluten meal thing going?).

Cats are carnivores. Carnivores eat meat. If I was choosing a meat-like substance for ME to eat, I would want the one that was actually meat, pure meat, just meat. Give me a big ol' chunk of chicken, or beef, or salmon.

BUT....cats, housecat type and size cats, don't hunt chickens (mostly) and certainly not cows and rarely grab salmon out of streams, let alone take down a deer or a turkey or a lamb. They would eat mice and shrews and chipmunks and small birds like finches and sparrows, maybe a dove, and rats, small rabbits, squirrels, tiny animals. Which do not have big chunks of breast meat and rump roasts and tenderloins where a cat could chew off a half pound of meat at a meal. They would chew up the whole mouse, the whole bird, pulling off the really unpalatable parts (like fur, feathers, beaks, toenails) and crunching up the rest.

So, the ratio of meat vs the amount of guts and bones and connective tissues and fat and gunky stuff is going to be much lower than what we imagine we'd like in a can of meaty food to eat. Giving them a bowl of almost pure ground chicken isn't natural at all. Giving them a bowl of chicken meal, or chicken by-product meal, which includes almost everything but the feathers and intestinal contents, THAT'S a more natural cat food, isn't it?

Thinking it through this way, Meat-Byproduct meal is a better cat food than pure meat. Which seems wrong. But cats don't eat just the meat off a mouse or a sparrow, they eat the whole thing.

Does this make sense? Am I nuts?

 

You're right and it does make sense! Cats in the wild would eat the whole animal, gunk and all, so in that environment that would be natural - and that's all that would be on offer. As humans we like a piece of meat to look appetising and not have bits of beak etc in it, so really we are projecting our own tastes and opinions onto our domestic cats. That may not be as natural but it may also be a good thing as the cats are getting the quality of protein they need and it hopefully comes from a reputable source. Animals lower down the food chain in the wild may be diseased or may otherwise not really be the perfect "meal" for a hungry cat. Wild/feral cats tend not to live as long as well looked-after domestic cats and nutrition is probably part of the reason.

Not sure if that really addresses your question which was an interesting one but that's how I personally see it. Of course, anyone wanting to feed a domestic cat a more natural diet than processed tinned etc foods could always feed raw which is probably closest to what nature intended...

 

But then, to do it right, you'd have to be blending up whole mice and finches....

Anyone else here old enough to remember Saturday Night Live's "Bass-o-matic"?
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/bassomatic/n8631

 

There are meat sources that sell whole frozen mice. My cat would not know what to do with “real” food lol. I’m trying to switch him to raw as we speak but he still likes his food mushy with no chewing or tearing.... so spoiled he doesn’t even have to use his teeth