Sugar in Cat Food

Many wet foods for cats list sugar in their ingredients. This concerns some cat owners, as they fear tooth decay, obesity, or an addictive effect. But are these worries justified?

Does Sugar in Cat Food Cause Addiction?

Many cat lovers suspect that the sweet taste of the food makes cats addicted and entices them to eat more than is good for them. The truth is, cats cannot even taste the "sweet" flavor. Therefore, sugar is not primarily used to make the product more appealing to the cat in terms of taste. Rather, it is there to make the food's appearance more attractive to the human eye.

Sugar is added to food in small amounts because it caramelizes at high temperatures, coloring the food, and especially the sauce, a nice brown, making it look more appetizing for us pet owners. Some food manufacturers therefore do not declare sugar on the ingredient list, but state that the product is colored with natural caramel.

Does Sugar Make Cats Fat?

For humans, it seems clear: sugar leads to overweight. But what about cats? Overweight is also a widespread problem among domestic cats. However, the main culprits here are a lack of exercise and unrestricted access to high-fat food (especially dry food, which is offered to animals ad libitum). The minimal sugar content in many wet foods, which is less than 0.5%, certainly doesn't make a cat fat and, by the way, wouldn't make a human fat either!

Is Sugar Bad for Cat's Teeth?

Every child knows that sugar causes tooth decay. That's how it is for humans, but what about cats? A dental caries disease comparable to humans has not yet been observed in cats, because the caries bacteria responsible for it cannot survive in the environment of the cat's mouth.

A tooth decay-like disease, where holes form in the teeth, are the so-called Neck lesions (or FORL = Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions). Alongside tartar, they are the most common dental diseases in our domestic cats. However, such lesions have already been found on medieval cat skulls and in wild big cats that were never fed industrial processed food. Unfortunately, the exact cause of this disease is not yet fully known.

How Much Sugar Does a Cat Consume with Wet Food?

If a cat eats a 100g pouch of wet food daily, it consumes on average less than 0.5g of sugar – this corresponds to approx. 2kcal or 0.6% of the daily calorie intake a cat needs.

The minimal use of sugar in wet food therefore gives no cause for concern whatsoever – for those who still prefer to avoid it, there are also individual wet foods without added sugar, which are usually recognizable by their lighter sauce and food color.