Ground Wheat

Ground wheat is whole wheat kernels milled into a coarse meal for use in dry food. Tufts veterinary nutritionists say cats can digest and metabolize properly cooked carbohydrates, while adult cats have no specific dietary requirement for carbohydrate. Wheat is also a reported food allergen in cats, though a less common one. If your cat has a medical condition, ask your veterinarian.

Source: sites.tufts.edu

Ground wheat supplies starch for energy and helps kibble bind, since the gluten proteins in wheat help a dough hold together. Grinding the kernels lets the wheat mix evenly with the other dry ingredients before cooking. Pettings scores ground wheat 1 out of 5 because cats have no dietary need for carbohydrate.

Both refer to the same grain. Ground wheat tells you the kernels were milled before going into the food, while wheat alone does not say. Pettings scores both 1 out of 5 and keeps separate pages because labels use both terms. Ground wheat appears on 1 of the 149 dry foods we list, and plain wheat on many more.

Yes. Wheat contains gluten, a group of proteins that gives dough its stretch and helps kibble hold together. The Merck Veterinary Manual lists wheat among the less common food allergen sources in cats. Rice and sorghum are gluten-free grains that some recipes use instead, and oats are naturally free of gluten but can pick up traces during processing.

Source: merckvetmanual.com

Pettings gives ground wheat 1 out of 5 and files it as a general cat food ingredient. It appears on 1 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. That score rates the ingredient by itself, and each food's page shows how the full recipe scores overall.