I can give you a little different slant on this.
I contacted the Vet at the Purina pet food company and also checked with my vet --- because I had a dog that had lived on Meow Mix (a dry cat food) for 9 years.
They both told me that a dog "can" eat cat food, but like you all said, it is higher in protein than dog food is. Both vets told me that this is a problem only because it too fattening for a dog. The end result was that if my dog became overweight (which she did) -- she should be taken off the cat food (which she was). To be fair, I should mention that she ate cat food for more than 8 years without becoming overweight.
Even though they said that dogs can eat cat food - they both said that cats "cannot" eat dog food. Cats need to eat cat food. There are things in cat food that they need.
Given a dog's propensity to gain weight on cat food, I can see a vet saying that dogs should not eat cat food.
Carol Jean |