"I'm not a nutritionist but how can dry cat food be too high in protein for an animal that lives almost exclusively on fish?"

But it's a mistake to consider a fish as just a glob of protein. Fish contains a lot of fatty acids (see below). In addition, protein isn't just "protein", there are TYPES of proteins. Perhaps it's the way that meats are often misrepresented as the "protein". Meat contains MORE than protein. When I speak about protein, I mean amino acid chains. Not the "protein" food group.


"Most dry catfoods are about 30 to 40% protein and the rest is vegetable matter like corn meal or soy meal."

Actually both CORN and SOY contain a lot of protein and serve as the main protein component of almost all processed pet foods. What LOOKS like chunks of meat in canned cat food is actually SOY. Big chunks of PLANT protein. Also consider that cat food is specially formulated for a CATs digestive system and liver metabolism, not a turtles. If you'd like more information on dog and cat food components I'd recommend seeing if you can pick up a copy of Small Animal Clinical Nutrition by Micheal Hand et. al.

"I would think that pure fish would be much higher protein than that."

Fish is actually more fat (and fatty acids) and less protein. The protein is has is more easily digestible protein than cat food. Refer the this link: http://www.annecollins.com/protein_diet/protein-in-fish.htm
Now these are just example fish, and this would be the parts of the fish PEOPLE eat. We don't eat the brain or intestines. Brain is mostly fat BTW. But 3 oz is about 85 grams. So... is you do the math and most of those on that page are about 20-25 g per 3oz serving... that's about 30% at most... then you add in the organs the turtle eats that we don't and we drop the protein content down considerably.

Now as far as the type of protein in fish. The easier a protein is to digest and absorb (like in fish) the less protein is available for the gut flora to turn into ammonia. Ammonia gets turned into uric acid by the liver (in birds and reptiles). The kidneys can only excrete a limited amount and once this level is exceeded this uric acid crystalizes within the tissues. Especially in the kidneys in reptiles (joints more often in birds). This is called gout.

Regardless - From review of veterinary case work all cases of visceral gout in reptiles stems from a diet of too high protein or feeding an inappropriate protein source. Cat food is one of the BIGGEST culprits now that people stopped feeding monkey chow to iguanas. So regardless of how you try to imply that cat food can't hurt, veterinary literature and actually clinical casework tells a different story.

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