Let’s talk about carbs.
Big pet food loves to tell us cats need carbohydrates.
They do not.
Cats have no dietary requirement for carbohydrates. They need protein, fat, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. They are obligate carnivores. Their bodies are designed to get nutrition from animal tissue, not from rice, wheat, corn, barley or other starch heavy fillers.
Now, that does not mean every ingredient containing some carbohydrate is automatically bad.
The real issue is not whether a food contains one non animal ingredient. The real issue is why it is there, how much is there, and whether the food is still clearly built around animal nutrition or whether carbs, starches and plant ingredients have started taking over the formula.
Take our Freeze Dried Chicken Meal ingredient list:
Chicken, chicken bone, chicken liver, chicken heart and gizzard, egg yolk, green lipped mussel, potassium citrate, phosphorus, choline l-bitartrate, sea salt, taurine, zinc citrate, ferrous sulphate, manganous gluconate, vitamin E, copper gluconate, thiamin mononitrate, potassium iodide, pyridoxine KCl, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, selenium yeast.
That is a complete food built around animal ingredients. It looks like cat food.
Now compare that to many prescription style wet foods, where you may see ingredients like rice starch, wheat gluten, rice, barley, plant fibres, binders and flavourings appearing high in the ingredient list.
And this is where the carb conversation matters.
Because carbs do not just show up as obvious ingredients like rice or barley. They also show up in ingredients that can help inflate the protein number on the label. Wheat gluten is one example. In other foods it might be pea protein, corn gluten or soy ingredients.
That means the protein percentage can look impressive on paper, while part of that protein is not even coming from animal tissue.
And that matters because cats do not just need “protein” in the vaguest technical sense. They need animal based protein with the amino acid profile their bodies are designed for.
So when a food leans heavily on carb rich and plant derived ingredients, it is not just adding carbs. It can also be using plant proteins to prop up the protein number and make the food look more meat based than it really is.
That is why looking only at the guaranteed analysis is not enough.
You need to ask two questions.
Do cats need the carbs in this food?
And where is the protein in this food actually coming from?
Now, before anyone says some cats need specialist diets, yes, of course they do.
For example, our Freeze Dried Roo and Pork Meal is formulated for a specific purpose. It is a hypoallergenic option for cats with digestive issues and intolerances.
Kangaroo, pork heart, pork tongue, kangaroo liver, algae meal, calcium carbonate, potassium citrate, algae extract, prebiotic carrot fibre, taurine, olive leaf extract, kelp, vitamin E, folic acid, selenium, choline, vit B3, magnesium, iodine, vitamin D3.
Yes, that food contains a small amount of carbohydrate. But this is exactly the point.
A small amount of a functional ingredient like prebiotic carrot fibre in an otherwise meat based formula is not the same thing as building a food around rice starch, wheat gluten, rice, barley and multiple plant fibres, binders and fillers.
Not all carbs are equal.
A tiny amount included for a clear digestive purpose in a meat based formula is very different from relying on multiple carbohydrate and plant ingredients to bulk out the recipe, support processing, and help boost the protein number on the label.
So no, this is not about claiming every single plant ingredient is evil. It is about recognising the difference between a carnivore food with a small functional inclusion and a heavily padded formula where carbs and plant ingredients are doing far more of the heavy lifting than most people realise.
Cats do not need carbs in their diet.
And a high protein number means very little if too much of that protein is coming from plants instead of animals.