To answer the question of whether a cat can be fed dog food, and a dog can be fed cat food, the first thing to do is to understand the requirements that these animals have for their diet.
The whole truth about cats
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they need animal protein and fat, which they can tolerate in higher quantities than dogs. For this reason, cat food typically contains much more protein and fat than dog food.
In addition, cat food contains taurine, which cats, unlike dogs, can only get from outside. The same applies to arachidonic acid.
Details about dogs
In turn, dogs are carnivorous animals - they digest starch much better than obligate carnivores and receive much more energy from their carbohydrates, which makes their level of protein requirement lower than that of cats.
This concludes the main differences in the feed of these animals.
What's the bottom line?
If we are talking about healthy cats and middle-aged dogs, then you can feed a dog cat food, and a cat dog food, but not for long - about 2-3 days.
However, some consequences (such as diarrhea) cannot be ruled out.
This kind of story shouldn’t last long: if a dog can “last” on cat food, most likely without any deficiencies, then dog food is not suitable for cats – this is fraught with serious health problems.
Previously, we talked about what to do if you don’t like the look of your cat’s litter box .
