Do British shorthair have to have grain free food?

[nsnwtd]

Just wanting to clear something up before I buy more food today!

Six month old male BSH, neutered.

When I got him the breeder told me they can only eat grain free food so I have been buying blink. At the vets getting him neutered I mentioned the grain free diet for him and she looked at me like I was mental and told me she had never heard they had to only have grain free, She told me I could feed him any kitten food.

Now I'm not sure what to do? Anyone else heard they have to have grain free only?

I've got a bsh cat and she has never had grain free. She happily eats Aldi tins of cat food or Aldi pouches in jelly. She's not keen on kibble or cat food in gravy yet she scoffs down some roast chicken in gravy on Sundays.

I've got Persians, they were fine on no grain free. Although I've recently swapped to grain free as one of them is a delicate petal and tolerates it better. The other three were bombproof

Grain free is generally accepted as better by those who know about cat nutrition. Vets usually have a deal with a food supplier and just recommend whatever food that is. Cats are obligate carnivores and don't need carbohydrates from the grains. But unless she has allergies to it, your cat will be ok on normal food.

Like with humans, tolerance to different foods depends on the individual cat - you can have litter mates where 1 has an issue and the other doesn't. Yes there are some breeds where they can be a bit more prone to problems but that tends to be the more "exotic" and/or manufactured breeds, or those with a small gene pool available. BSH are in general a robust breed when it comes to health (though they do tend to HCM, Hyperthyroidism and I think PKD or similar), and I've not yet met a fussy eater.

All that said, grain free is considered to be the gold standard these days, and I have friends with moggys who will feed nothing else. I think many breeders advise certain standards of food to prevent the cats being given any old cheap rubbish the new owner can find that's on offer that week - yes looking at you ex-NDN - or even food not intended for cats.

There are (very tenuous) links between grain free diets and heart disease in both dogs and cats.

For that reason, it's not something I would feed my pets unless they had a a genuine intolerance to grain.

If you read up, those studies were sponsored by the big food manufacturers and involved dogs and cats being fed diets deliberately high in pulses (ie they didn’t just feed them commercially available grain-free food). I really question their reliability. It’s not the lack of grain that caused those issues in the studies, it was the protein deficiency causing a lack of taurine. Commercial grain-free is high in taurine as it’s added to the food.

@Tygertiger I know lack of taurine is a problem for cats but studies showed similar issues with dogs who don't require taurine.

Not entirely true - the breeds most prone to DCM (golden retrievers and spaniels) actually do have a dietary need for taurine. And in dogs, the evidence seems to be that it’s not the lack of grain, it’s a high inclusion of peas that caused problems in studies. Again, the “evidence” is beagles being fed diets deliberately low in protein and high in peas, some of whom went on to develop DCM - but the studies didn’t feed commercially available grain-free brands.

Personally I think the basic ingredients of complete grain-free foods are much better quality than Royal Canin, Purina etc. But those brands have much bigger marketing budgets and sponsor vet chains.