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Nutrition Tips for Cats


It All Starts with the Right Diet
Nutrition plays a vital role in the health of all living things. With a proper diet, you can prevent health problems and ensure your cat enjoys a long and happy life. At the Clinic, we will give you nutritional advice adapted to your cat’s age and condition.

Canned food should be half of the cat's daily diet. Anyone who owns a cat and has ever seen a dog drink water knows that cats never drink as much as dogs do. This phenomenon is now well documented: unlike humans and dogs, cats do not drink enough water. In nature, their prey contains a lot of water, but at home, when they eat mainly dry food, even cats that drink the most water still cannot compensate. This problem with hydration comes with serious consequences: their urine becomes very concentrated, leading to the production of bladder stones. The kidney must work harder, which causes it to age faster. In addition, since water is essential to all metabolic exchanges in the body, feline medicine specialists all agree that half of the cat's daily diet should be high-moisture food, such as canned food.

The Healthy Cat's Diet
A kitten has different nutritional needs than an adult. Kittens’ stomachs are small, so they cannot swallow large volumes of food. We don’t want kittens to stretch their stomach either, because that could lead to obesity. Therefore, a kitten’s food has to be more concentrated in terms of protein, calories and nutrients per serving than an adult cat’s food. Kittens also need more calcium because they are getting bigger, growing longer bones and making adult teeth to replace their baby teeth. A kitten’s diet needs to support healthy dentition and prevent joint problems as much as possible. This is why a diet of adult cat food is not recommended. Good food for kittens is designed to promote optimal growth at their stage of development.

The needs of adult cats can also vary according to their metabolism, which can be faster or slower. You can choose a less concentrated diet for cats that gain weight easily or a weight loss diet if the cat is already overweight.

Diet for a Sick Cat
In cases of diabetes or kidney failure, the first remedy to consider is the diet.
Carbohydrates worsen the condition of a diabetic cat, so you need to provide a diet low in carbohydrates. This will help control blood sugar levels better.

For cats suffering from kidney failure, the kidney has lost much of its nephron. The kidney can no longer do its job of filtering protein waste out of food intake and eliminating it in the urine; the waste remains in the blood and causes nausea. The cat becomes very finicky: every time a cat feels sick after a meal, they will associate the feeling with the food they have just eaten and not want to see it again. Waste continues to accumulate in the blood, becomes toxic and destroys the kidney even more. Not only does the kidney no longer clean waste out of the blood, but it no longer recovers water or certain essential nutrients and, therefore, the cat becomes dehydrated. A kidney-conscious diet adjusts the nutrients accordingly, increasing some and decreasing other nutrients depending on the diseased kidney. A renal diet is the first remedy to consider before any other medicine.


Cats Montreal

1830 Sherbrooke St W

Montreal, Québec H3H 1E4

Phone: 514-939-2287

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Business Hours

Monday to Thursday, 8:30AM to 7PM

Friday, 9AM to 5PM

Saturday, 9AM to 4PM

Sunday, 10AM to 2PM (Boutique only - the Clinic is closed)

In Case of Emergency

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