Pet obesity, with both cats and dogs, is a serious problem and one that dramatically affects the health and quality of our pets’ lives, as well as their longevity. Since we control what our pets eat, we can help them stay fit. One way we can do that is by paying attention to the fat content of the food they eat.
The first step in understanding the fat content of your pet’s food is to learn some basic rules of thumb; a gram of protein contains four calories whereas a gram of fat contains nine calories, over twice the number of calories for the same weight. When you look at the label of a can of cat food, and you see 10% protein and 5% fat, you logically think it has twice as much protein. However, from a caloric perspective you are getting 45 calories from fat versus 40 calories from protein. With that food, your pet would be getting over half of their calories from fat. That is simply too much fat!
Now you might think, yes but the canned food I purchase is labeled 95% meat so it must be equivalent to the 95% lean ground beef I buy for myself at the supermarket. Take another look. That can of 95% meat food may be only 6% protein and a whopping11% fat which means that 75% of the calories are coming from fat! Now who would buy that?
The following table illustrates the differences between 3 canned cat formulas. Remember, the %fat should ideally be much less than the %protein.
| Weruva Green Eggs & Chicken | Wellness Chicken Formula | Blue Buffalo Chicken Entrée in Gravy |
| Protein (min) 10% | Protein (min) 10% | Protein (min) 9% |
| Fat (min) 1.6% | Fat (min) 5% | Fat (min) 4% |
| Fiber (max) 0.5% | Fiber (max) 1% | Fiber (max) 1.5% |
| Moisture (max) 85% | Moisture (max) 78% | Moisture (max) 82% |
| Ash (max) 1.2% | Ash (max) 1.95% | Ash (max) Not Available |
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