If you feed your kitty dry food, you may be setting him up for feline diabetes and urinary tract problems. Your furry friend is an "obligate carnivore," which means that he needs to be getting his protein requirements from a meat-based diet, not a grain-based one. His body is not built to digest plant proteins like corn, wheat, and rice efficiently.

Guess what most commercial dry foods are made of? You've got it--corn, wheat, and rice. And this includes dry foods formulated especially for diabetic cats. Feeding a kitty with this disease a diet high in carbohydrates has been compared to pouring gasoline on a fire and wondering why you can't put it out.

A kitty in the wild eats birds, mice, rabbits, and squirrels, not grains. This meat-based diet contains only three to five percent carbohydrates. Commercial dry foods, on the other hand, contain between 35 to 50% carbohydrates. These excess carbs are stored in your kitty's body as fat. And it's a known fact that fat cells secrete a substance that causes insulin resistance, a factor in type 2 diabetes.

Water is another important nutrient. Most kitties don't drink a lot of water. Why is this? Wild cats, large and small, get most of their water from the animals they eat, so felines don't have a strong thirst drive. This can lead to problems when we feed dry food, which only contains about 10 percent water. If your furball eats mostly dry food, he's probably in a constant state of low-level dehydration.

High-quality canned foods not only contain about 78 percent water, but their carbohydrate level is around three to five percent. This is much closer to what a cat would eat in the wild, and provides the water he needs.

A kitty who eats dry food exclusively may drink more water than one who eats canned food. But when you consider how much water he's getting from both his food and what he drinks, the kitty on dry food is taking in only half the amount of water the kitty on canned food is getting. This is probably one reason why urinary tract infections are so common in kitties.

Kidney disease is one of the leading causes of feline death. A kitty who is chronically dehydrated is more than likely headed for kidney problems. Any feline with kidney trouble needs to be fed a high-quality canned food, not dry food.

It's important to read pet food labels. This isn't as easy as you would think, since these labels don't really have a lot of information on them. You can get an idea of what's in the food, but not how much of each ingredient. For example, if "rice" is mentioned, you can't tell if the food contains a lot of rice or a small amount. You may need to contact the pet food company and ask for a breakdown of the number of calories that come from protein, from fat, and from carbohydrates. If more than ten percent of the calories come from carbohydrates, avoid that food.

Look for a muscle meat as the first ingredient, not an organ meat like liver. Words like "chicken" or "turkey" are preferable to "by-products" or "broth" or "meal." "Meal" is a meat that has been cooked for a long time at high temperatures, which lowers its quality. "By-products" includes yummy stuff like feet, intestines, feathers, and egg shells.

There shouldn't be any grain listed, but since grains are inexpensive, most pet food companies include them as fillers. Corn, wheat, and soy should not be among the first three ingredients, as they cause blood sugar to go up quickly. These ingredients are also common allergens, along with yeast.

Most of the "prescription" diets contain corn, wheat, soy, and meat by-products, and they're also very high in carbohydrates. Be aware that words like "natural," "premium," or "veterinarian recommended" don't mean a lot.

It's unfortunate, but many vets don't know a lot about nutrition. Do your own research to prevent health problems for your kitty.

Note: If your kitty has diabetes and is being treated with insulin, be sure to check with your vet BEFORE making any changes to his diet. Dietary changes can change the amount of insulin your furry friend needs, and too much or too little insulin will cause serious problems or death.