6Cats, through desert adaptation, require water as a component of their food. They also lack the metabolic pathways to efficiently process plant material, thus defining them as obligate carnivores; their food should consist only of meat, fat, bones, and organs. These are two very simple yet fundamental facts of feline nutrition. A cat is soley designed to hunt, kill, eat, and process meat. Through millions of years of evolution, cats have developed unique characteristics of anatomy, physiology, metabolism, and behavior indicative of obligate carnivores.Many feline diseases such as diabetes, obesity, urinary tract disorders, chronic renal disease, and irritable bowel syndrome can be directly attributed to low moisture, low-meat-protein, and high-carbohydrate levels that plague many of today's commercially produced cat foods.Many cats survive on these dry, supplemented, plant-based diets but they do not thrive.This book will discuss basic feline anatomy and physiology (explaining how a cat's body metabolizes nutrients) coupled with interpreting pet food labels which will help you make healthy selections whether choosing to purchase commercial foods or making a home-prepared raw diet to feed your cat.