Whole Navy Beans

Navy beans are small white dry beans, a type of pulse, cooked into some grain-free kibble as a starch and protein source. Tufts veterinary nutritionists say diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy appears to be associated with diets high in pulses, a group that includes dry beans, and that cats seem less sensitive than dogs. For a cat with a heart or other medical condition, ask your veterinarian.

Source: sites.tufts.edu

Whole navy beans add starch and fiber to grain-free dry foods. Their protein also raises the label protein figure without meat. In the foods Pettings lists, they appear in only a few high-meat recipes, where they share the carbohydrate role with lentils and other legumes. Whole on the label means the entire bean, seed coat included, was used.

Both are varieties of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris. Navy beans are small and white, while pinto beans are larger with a speckled coat. In cat food they do the same job, adding starch and fiber along with plant protein. Pettings scores both 2 out of 5 and treats them as legumes, and they often appear together on the same labels.

They can. Dry beans contain sugars that cats cannot digest. Bacteria in the colon ferment these sugars and produce gas. Cooking during kibble production reduces some of them but not all. The amount of beans in a dry food is usually small compared with the main protein, so the effect varies from cat to cat.

Pettings gives whole navy beans 2 out of 5 and lists them as a legume. They appear on 3 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. They add fiber, but their plant protein raises the protein percentage without meat. Each food's page shows how it scores overall.