Gluten Intolerance in Cats

Cats are true carnivores. They must have high levels of meat proteins not just to thrive but to survive. As with other carnivores, cats' teeth are designed to tear, not to chew. Their digestive systems have short structure and specific enzymes for digesting meat and fat. Your feline friend does not have a long intestine like yours, which is necessary for breaking down the tough cellular walls of veggies, grains and other nonprotein nutrients. From a biological perspective, gluten is not natural to a cat's diet. Your kitty can't process gluten and gets no nutritional value from it.

Gluten is the starchy, sticky stuff that's a byproduct of processing grains like wheat or corn. It contains protein but not the healthy meat protein that cats need. Gluten serves two main functions in cat food. First, the sticky gluten helps the food bind together into kibble pieces during the processing and hold together in the bag. Second, it boosts the overall protein content of the food. But since cats can't process the gluten, your cat isn't getting as much protein as the label suggests.

Many cats can eat gluten without issue, even though their bodies aren't designed to eat gluten or grains of any kind. After they swallow it, their digestive system churns it around and passes it. But for some cats, gluten can cause a variety of health issues. The most common symptom of intolerance to gluten is digestive trouble such as diarrhea or vomiting. In the long run, some kitties may develop asthma, severe irritable bowel syndrome or allergic skin reactions in response to the gluten. Veterinarian Karen Becker, in her discussion of byproducts in pet food, suggests avoiding cat foods with any kind of gluten since the filler has no nutritional value and is hard to digest.

In 2007, dogs and cats across the United States died from eating pet food that contained melamine-tainted gluten -- over 60 million bags of dog and cat food were recalled because of it. The gluten ingredients, sourced from China, had melamine mixed in to raise nitrogen levels and produce a falsely high protein content reading.