Solving the “What To Feed A Sphynx Cat” Puzzle
Posted in Hairless Cat Hints, Sphynx Kittens Care on 02. Sep, 2009
Despite Sphynx cats being hairless, they are still only one small step away from being wild animals.
Wild cats gather their nutritional requirements from meat and meat only. If you came here hoping to be able to feed your Sphynx a vegetarian diet, I am afraid you are going to be disappointed. Not only are Sphynxes pure (obligate) carnivores, they also react in an extra negative fashion to low quality pet food products which include vegetable materials.
Let’s look at what Sphynxes need from their meat. These figures are a minimum requirements
Adult Sphynx Cat Food
Protein… 26%
Fat …… 9%
Calcium…. 0.6%
Phosphorus… 0.5%
Potassium… 0.6%
Sodium….. 0.2%
Chloride…. 0.3%
Magnesium… 0.04%
Iron… 80 mg/kg
Copper… 5 mg/kg
Manganese…. 7.5 mg/kg
Zinc……. 75 mg/kg (maximum 2000 mg/kg)
Iodine….. 0.35 mg/kg
Selenium…. 0.1 mg/kg
Vitamin A… 5000 IU/kg (maximum 750,000 IU/kg)
Vitamin D… 500 IU/kg (maximum 10,000 IU/kg)
Vitamin E… 30 IU/kg
Thiamine… 5 mg/kg
Riboflavin… 4 mg/kg
Pantothenic Acid… 5 mg/kg
Niacin… 60 mg/kg
Pyridoxine… 4 mg/kg
Folic Acid….0.8 mg/kg
Vitamin B12…0.022 mg/kg
Choline….. 2400 mg/kg
Taurine… 0.1%
If you feed your cat a pure fish diet, then you need to ensure you supplement with vitamin K at 0.1%
For Sphynx kitten food, Pregnant and Lactating Sphynx Queens
Protein… 30%
Fat …… 9%
Calcium…. 1%
Phosphorus… 0.8%
Potassium… 0.6%
Sodium….. 0.2%
Chloride…. 0.3%
Magnesium… 0.08%
Iron… 80 mg/kg
Copper… 5-15 mg/kg
Manganese…. 7.5 mg/kg
Zinc……. 75 mg/kg (maximum 2000 mg/kg)
Iodine….. 0.35 mg/kg
Selenium…. 0.1 mg/kg
Vitamin A… 9000 IU/kg (maximum 750,000 IU/kg)
Vitamin D… 750 IU/kg (maximum 10,000 IU/kg)
Vitamin E… 30 IU/kg
Thiamine… 5 mg/kg
Riboflavin… 4 mg/kg
Pantothenic Acid… 5 mg/kg
Niacin… 60 mg/kg
Pyridoxine… 4 mg/kg
Folic Acid….0.8 mg/kg
Vitamin B12…0.022 mg/kg
Choline….. 2400 mg/kg
Taurine… 0.1%
(Figures are from the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profile, referred to by pet food bodies worldwide. This is an industry standard recommendation and not a scientific one)
It is not always possible to feed your cat raw food. I am not going to push the “raw food only” line because there are reasons and conditions when it is difficult for Sphynx cat owners to do so. So saying that, feeding canned and manufactured dry foods means keeping a good eye on what the label says when it comes to what that food is made up of.
The biggest gut issues Sphynxes have can be linked to manufactured cat food that use “fillers” made from vegetable and cellulose matter. It might sound mighty tasty to us to see a bag proclaiming chicken and brown rice, but that brown rice is going to give your Sphynx Cat or kitten, gas, diarrhea and a bloated (painful) tummy.
How to read a pet food label
These rules may not apply in your country so check your local pet food standards
Pet food labels should follow standards held mostly worldwide that the ingredients are listed in order of predominance by weight including moisture, before cooking.
Use of the term “meat” can only be used for clean flesh, with or without the fat, skin, sinew, nerves, blood vessels. Meat byproducts include internal organs and parts of the animal, and ground meat meal will be parts of the animal like head, feed and other parts that would not be able to be consumed normally.
If you see corn,rice, wheat, or references to them up in that first couple of ingredients then thing very carefully as that food is using fillers for bulk weight and adding nothing to the nutrition or health of your Sphynx cat. Look for grain-free foods and ones that the majority of listed ingredients are meats.
Remember to take with a grain of salt (terrible pun) everything that is said on or about pet food by the sales and marketing companies. There is a brand out there that has made a specialized “Sphynx Cat” dry food that contains grain products and does not have any scientific basis on its development.
References
My adult female Sphynx cat has had diahrea for 2plus years now. Has been constantly to the vet and three times prescribed medicines that are not working… She has been on on Prednisolone & Tylan Powder Dispensed for 3 weeks now. I do not want to give her any more medicine!! The medicine makes her stools even more watery. She also has blood in her stools & strains when going to the bathroom. I have given her some canned pumpkin which in the past has helped but now it is not helping. She now does not like to eat the pumpkin so I have to mix it with her dry food.
For the past 9 months she has been eating Hills Prescription Diet WD Dry cat food & when on medication she takes her medication with canned Iams Intestinal Low-Residue
Would you recommend a raw diet? If so what would you recommend feeding? Can you please help??
Thanks!
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Allison Reply:
March 26th, 2010 at 1:54 AM
Sheryl sorry to hear about the diarrhea issue. Sphynxes are prone to sensitive guts and getting the mix right can be difficult. Please be aware that soft and pungent stools are not abnormal (much like our own!) but watery and bloody is definitely NOT optimum.
Being in Australia my foods may be different to yours BUT any form of vegetable is OUT. Cats are pure carnivores, they cannot digest vegetable matter, and adding extra fibre via pumpkin will not bulk out the stool, it will cause extra load on the already unhappy tummy.
Any change to diet should be introduced over a period of time and waiting to see what the effect is before making any other changes.
I feed my Sphynxes IAM kitten dry food (even the adults) even though it has some vegetable matter, my cats tolerate it well. For wet I feed them Fancy Feast Royale cans which don’t seem to be available in the USA. They have NO vegetable matter, are only meat, not meat by products, fillers etc Yes it is expensive compared to other foods, but it means they have firm, less fragrant stools. (read this post http://www.sphynxcatblog.com/hairless-cat-hints/solving-the-what-to-feed-a-sphynx-cat-puzzle/ ). Twice a week at least one meal is supplemented with raw chicken wing ends, beef strips, kangaroo, chicken breast.
My suggestion is get the very best canned food you can find after reading that post. Start with either the dry food or the wet and slowly introduce over a 3 week period. Then start on the other. This will be a slow process, and I hope all goes well for you!
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My sphynx girl had alsoo diarrhea for 2 years,many things we tried,vets visits,so many.Then one day I gave her Purina One Steril(she is not sterilised)just to try something else and its a great wonder,everything normal in a few days,still good now after 5 months!!!!!But the raw food is the best.I raised her last kittens with raw food and they are great.My girl with the problem won’t even try the raw food!!!!
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I have a male sphynx who has been informally diagnosed by the vet as having chronic irritable bowel syndrome. None of the prescription foods helped. I consulted an animal nutritionist-nothing she suggested helped. I couldn’t afford the raw food with 4 cats to feed. I tried ” beforeB.G.grain” salmon flavored food and I have been adding a product purchased online called “Diareze”. It works. All stools are firm-no more blasting messing diahrrea and it’s been almost one year. There are some vegetables in the food, but the primary ingred. are salmon, deboned chicken meal, dehydrated potato, turkey meal, chicken fat, sweet potato, and tones of other natural ingredients. I pay about $25.00 for an11.1 lb. bag. I’ve been scaling back slowly on the Diareze and so far no loose stools. I am hoping to do away with the Diareze. I tried Diareze with Sci. Diet brand food- the loose stool was better, not gone. With the combo of the Before Grain and Diarzez-no more loose stools. I have heard many succuss stories of people just using the Diareze. Good luck
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My sphynx had the same thing for almost a year! I mean not just diahrrea it was everywhere diahrrea! I can’t say how bad it was. After allergy testing, medications,and food changes nothing helped. This might sound crazy, and too EASY, but……. we moved and they didn’t eat on moving day, or the next day and the diahrrea stopped. For a year we cleaned pooped walls, doors, and carpets,and it turned out to be a case of overeating. It all was fixed with two days of fasting! I know it sounds crazy and too easy, but try cutting down on the food drasticly for a couple of days. It worked for us, and we have two happy sphynx now!
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My baby Izzy had horrible diarrhea and vomiting. We tried everything under the sun to help. Even medications. Our last try was Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach Dry formula. Within a week, he was back to normal. It is pricey, but it was well worth it. I slowly weened him off in about 2 months. He hasn’t had a problem since. If it happens again, I will definitely make it my first choice. Hope this helps anyone that is having this issue.
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I have been experiencing the same problem with my sphinx, Gypsy. When she heads to the litter box, everyone in the area would run! I have to keep her contained in a small area of the house at night or whenever I leave because if she does go #2 I have to be there to wipe it off her bum, her paws, her tail, her belly and any place that she walked or laid down afterwards. I have to keep baby wipes stocked by her litter pan for easy access and clean up. I took her to the vet and they gave her a shot to stabalize the PH of her intestine, but that didn’t help at all. I really appreciate the information that you have all provided and I hope this will be the answer to our problem.
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Allison Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 12:11 AM
heather I know that scene well.
I am just about to post about my experience with raw food diet….it will address this issue
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You guys, just feed them raw mince meat or chicken mince
Maybe crack a raw egg every 2 wkd. I have 2 male boys. 1 a pig who eats everything but has sinuses N
And my 2 boy is picky in what he eat and if cheap can store food he will have the runs
Just feed them raw mince meat and you will be okay
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I got my Sphynx from a friend and when I got him he had bloody diahrea. The vet put him on meds but had no good ideas how to make it stop. I have him on Royal Canin Sensitive Stomachs and it works perfectly. You can get it at Petco and Petsmart.
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Me and my boyfriend recently adopted Isis. She is about 1 year old. We’ve had her for 2 months already and the serious diarrhea problem started to worry me. Everything that I’ve read above are all symptoms Isis is having with her bowels. At first I thought there was something wrong with her like worms etc. I took her to the vet and he first gave her some pro-biotic powder to see if that helps. It didn’t. Went back 1 week later, then he tested her for worms, and some other stuff. He then asked me to change her diet and now she is on Purina EN GastroENteric. Not cheap food but it’s a mixture. Some days she had soft bowels and some days she has #3 again! I just looked up the food ingredients and i’m not really sure how to read what’s made from vegetables. Is it anything with “corn” in it? I’m not taking her back to that Vet because he diagnosed her incorrectly and said she had an inflammatory problem. He gave me antibiotics and it’s not even working. What a waste of money! I need help. We have 4 cats total. One is a persian cat that can only eat Hills C/D and the other 2 are okay with eating Hills. Isis my Sphynx cannot eat that, my loft would be filled with smelly diarrhea. My question is, how do you monitor how the cats eat and how much food should Isis be eating since she can’t have a bowl of food just sitting there?
To be continued….
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Allison Reply:
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:57 PM
Hi Christine
I know the pain of dealing with gut issues in the breed (and the appalling stench!)
I have to admit after putting my guys on a raw diet I am a complete and utter convert. NO diahrea, no stinky poos, no rumbly bellies. I posted about it here http://www.sphynxcatblog.com/sphynx-cat-news/putting-your-sphynx-on-a-raw-food-diet/ .
Are you able to get a cheap hand meat grinder to test out your guys, or borrow an electric one? I had no problems with them turning their noses up either. It was like feeding time at the zoo!
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Hi Allison,
I would love to put Isis on the raw diet, unfortunately I have a persian ( Bob) that has a health problem. He has stones in his kidneys so the only food he can eat is Hills C/D. As so I was told. I don’t think it would be fair if i only put my Sphynx on the raw diet. The others would hate me! Do you have another suggestion? I did some research and found that Sphynx can’t eat processed food that contains vegetables like corn oil, corn starch, etc… is that true? I called the vet and he’s never heard anything like that before. I hope I can get her in better health and no more runny poops.
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Allison Reply:
September 7th, 2010 at 2:51 AM
Christine
If your vet doesn’t know that cats are “true” carnivores then I would be getting a new vet!
Cats (of ALL breeds) obtain no nutritional value from vegetable matter and naturally subsist entirely on meat. Same as dairy products causing gut issues, vegetable matter will give bad belly problems. Anything that an animal cannot digest can cause fermentation in the bowels which leads to diarrhea and flatulence.
From my research into feline kidney issues I still endorse a raw diet (unless the cat is very ill). There is a lot of old thinking that is still being repeated out there, not backed up with any scientific study. It stands to reason that a diet as close to the natural wild diet of a cat will cause the least amount of health issues, and have the least amount of stress on the digestive system. I am not partial to buying rats and mice for my cats to eat (though some people do!) but I strive to imitate as closely as possible what a natural diet would be. That is, largely flesh with bone, a small amount of internal organs and a tiny amount of vegetable matter to imitate the stomach contents of a rodent (who are omnivorous not vegetarian).
From all of the stuff I have read and heard, the best results have always come from a raw diet. In your position I would be giving a try
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at the start of November this year, our sphynx kitten had an issue with really bad liquid stools – we were quite worried abnput him – he’s always been on Royal Canin Kitten 36 food which is great and the problem happened quite suddenly – it had lasted a week or so when we realised it started in conjunction with changing his litter to a cheaper brand (mixing it in with his old stuff, catsan wood), so we decided that we’d change the litter back to Catsan wood before taking him to the vets if neccesary. within days he’s returned to normal and hasn’t had a problem since. seems like he was staging a dirty protest to the cheap litter! i’d always suggest ruling things like this out first before diagnosing stomach issues or food intolerances
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Allison Reply:
December 5th, 2010 at 8:49 PM
Good to see you Kirsten. I am more inclined to think ingestion of the new litter in one form or another is more likely the issue than a protest (but you never know
). Some Sphynx, and other cat breeds, are allergic to the dust that is present in some litters, or the accompanying resin/strong smell from pine pulp derived litters. One of my little darlings loved to eat the clay based litter.. ugh lol
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