Cat with kidney disease eats wet dog food, but shuns most cat food

Question

Since my cat is old (17) and has kidney disease I Try to give her whatever she will eat. She won't touch the canned cat food anymore, and I don't often see her eating the dry food. She will eat scraps off my plate, mostly meat which I assume is healthier for her than canned cat food. But lately she has found another food source she loves canned Dog food! She is gaining weight again which is good, but I am wondering what it is about dog food that she now prefers it to the wet cat food.

Could it be the lower protein and sodium content?

Is it her bodies way of trying to keep kidney disease at bay?

Answer 1

Your cat is being quite sensible and seeking the food with higher water content and possibly less salt and protein.

Dry cat food is not good for cats with kidney or renal disease/issues. The dry cat food has extra salt to encourage the cat to drink, to help boost the water content to the dried feed. This helps prevent constipation and crystal formation in the bladder, among other things. However this is not optimal or always effective for the cat's health. I no longer feed my cats dry food at all, except for a veterinary prescribed mixture. They are fed mainly canned food.

Answer 2

Just like people, cats have their own quirks to the dietary preferences, and those preferences may not be good for them. There's not really any logic to it. Liking dog food is one of those irrational preferences because cats cannot live on dogfood. Though dogs are generally thought of as carnivores, they're actually a bit more omnivorous than cats which are designed to pretty exclusively eat meat. Thus food designed for dogs lack vital nutrients in the quantities sufficient for cats such as vitamin A and taurine. Deficiencies in these nutrients can be very harmful or even lethal to cats. So absolutely try to make your cat eat catfood as much as you possibly can.