What Is The Best Diet For A Cat – Feral cats eat a variety of protein-heavy foods, which can sometimes be difficult for pet owners to replicate for their feline friends. Fortunately, there are some guidelines that owners can follow to ensure that their cat’s meals are both nutritious and tasty.
Dr. offers Debra Zoran, a professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, has advice for mimicking natural cat food and finding the best option for your particular pet.
What Is The Best Diet For A Cat
Although cats are carnivores, a meat-only diet will result in fatty acid, vitamin, or mineral deficiencies; therefore, commercial diets are usually the easiest option for owners because they contain the necessary nutrients to ensure a balanced diet.
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“Feeding cats a complete and balanced canned food is the easiest way to have a high protein/low carbohydrate diet that will also help with calorie control and ensure your kitten meets their daily water needs,” said Zoran.
Canned foods’ ability to increase water intake is a major reason Zoran recommends them over dry foods; cats that eat only dry foods consume less water overall and are more prone to dehydration.
“Many indoor cats are prone to health issues, including urinary blockages and constipation, from being dehydrated,” she says. “Increasing water intake from eating canned food is an important way to reduce the risk of these problems occurring or reoccurring.”
Dry food diets tend to be higher in fat, carbohydrates, and calories—all of which can increase the risk of obesity.
The Best Diet For Your Cat
“Dry diets have been documented to lead to obesity and diabetes in cats that live indoors,” says Zoran. “Indoor cats usually have less opportunity to exercise, constantly have access to food, or are fed too much food.”
In general, for healthy adult cats, the best option is a canned food with a protein content of 40% or higher (more than 10% if the can is more than 78% water) and a carbohydrate content of 10% or less. Another way to determine this is to make sure the carbohydrate source is not one of the first five ingredients listed.
“Because every cat or kitten is an individual, just like people, they may have taste or texture preferences and unique dietary needs,” says Zoran. “Anyone who has more than one cat in their home knows that even if you want to feed each cat the same food (for convenience or simplicity), that’s not always possible.”
For this reason, he recommends tailoring each cat’s food to its specific needs, life stage, and preferences, in terms of taste and texture, and making sure that each cat eats only from its own bowl
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In addition to their regular canned food, owners can occasionally treat their cats to small pieces of unseasoned, cooked cat meat or grass, which can be a good source of fiber.
The next time you buy your cat’s food, take a moment to read the label and make sure your choice promotes your cat’s overall health and happiness. You will definitely be rewarded with lots of purrs at dinner time.
Pet Talk is a service of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. Stories can be viewed on the web whether you are a Master chef or a cooking novice, you can successfully prepare homemade food that your cat will love. All it takes is an understanding of the process and the necessary ingredients to create a complete and balanced meal.
You can choose to prepare raw cat food, cooked cat food or a balance of the two. Each option will require the following ingredients:
What Is The Best Diet Food For Cats?
To be considered truly raw, the meat is not processed with any heat. Cooking with heat can cause the meat to lose its nutrients, which is why raw feeding is considered very beneficial. However, if you’re concerned about feeding your cat raw meat because of the potential for bacteria, Lisa A. Pierson, DVM and owner of CatInfo.org advises that you can also partially cook the meat.
The type and origin of the meat can also influence your decision. Pierson chooses to feed the rabbit 100% raw, but partially cooks chicken and turkey whole thighs. “I don’t feed chickens from
Source in raw form because it is more apt to be contaminated with harmful bacteria,” he writes. If you buy pre-ground poultry, it should always be fully cooked.
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they have evolved on diets rich in animal protein, making homemade raw diets even more beneficial. Raw diets:
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When it comes to homemade cat food, preparing complete and balanced recipes is an absolute must. In the wild, cats get all the nutrients they need by eating their prey whole, but modern cats need vitamin and mineral supplements.
Below is a list of supplements needed for homemade cat food. You can usually find them at specialty grocery stores, health food stores or online retailers. The supplements are the same intended for humans, only the amounts will differ.
Cats have evolved to get their hydration from the prey they eat, so they don’t have a natural thirst like dogs. Raw meat used in many home-cooked recipes provides an excellent source of hydration, but you should also have fresh water available at all times.
You also want to make sure to get the freshest, highest quality meat possible for your homemade cat food recipes. Do not remove the fat from the meat; it is important for nutrient utilization, cell integrity and metabolic regulation.
Hill’s Science Diet Adult Light Chicken Dry Cat Food, 4 Lb
Pierson explained to CatInfo.org that cats can’t survive on meat alone — they need calcium, too. Homemade cat food needs to include the correct calcium-to-phosphorus ratio. If cats eat prey in the wild, they will consume a good balance of calcium (from the bones) and phosphorous (from the meat).
The bones should be ground together with the meat, or you should add another source of calcium and supplements if you only use meat. It is important to include the right amount of bone because too much can cause constipation or urethral obstruction. “I suggest using chicken thighs instead which will lower the bone content of the meal because the thigh is the heaviest part of the bird’s body that contains bone,” says Pierson.
There are a few essential tools you’ll need before you start preparing homemade cat food. Here’s a helpful list from Feline-Nutrition:
When you’re determining how much a homemade diet will cost, there are a ton of factors to consider.
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Depending on what you already have in stock in your kitchen, you may need to purchase some of the equipment and tools we’ve listed above. However, most of these items will be one-time costs.
Don’t forget the supplements. They may be expensive at first, but you can get a lot of use out of them, and they are very important to your cat’s health. You will also need ingredients such as eggs and salt which can be purchased at your local grocery store.
Homemade raw diets can cause health and safety issues if not prepared correctly. Here are some safety tips to keep in mind:
To help you start your transition to homemade cat food, check out this recipe from Lisa A. Pierson, DVM.
Hill’s Science Diet Dry Cat Food, Kitten, Chicken Recipe
Note: Always consult your veterinarian before making any changes to your cat’s diet. Your veterinarian can also help you create a homemade feeding plan tailored to your cat’s specific health needs.
Homemade cat food can be a healthy alternative to store-bought options, one that more closely mimics natural cat food — but what do the experts have to say about it?
Karen Becker, DVM, author, and pet nutrition educator and formulator, favors homemade diets, if they provide the right combination of essential nutrients. Becker says:
“As an integrative wellness veterinarian who understands the important connection between nutrition and health, I applaud all pet parents who make the commitment to prepare and feed only home-cooked meals to their pets. But here’s the rub – if you’re going the homemade route, you should do it right. And by right, I mean it
Hill’s Science Diet Adult Perfect Digestion Chicken Cat Dry Food, 6 Lb
. A growing problem in my practice is pets with compromised health as a result of being fed an unbalanced diet at home.”
Jennifer Coates, a DVM with more than 25 years of experience in veterinary medicine and animal welfare, echoes Becker’s statement and advises pet parents to be smart about which homemade cat food recipes they follow.
“Unfortunately, many recipes for homemade cat foods contain too little or too much of one or more important nutrients,” Coates said, citing a 2019 study of the foods prepared at home for cats.
When looking for homemade cat food recipes, Coates encourages pet parents to look for those provided by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and follow them to the letter. “Research has shown that, over time, many pet parents make dietary changes and/or stop including essential ingredients altogether, such as vitamin and mineral supplements,” she added.
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“The best pet food recipes will include very precise amounts of specific ingredients, and will include additional sources of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, B vitamins, iron, zinc, and essential fatty acids. acid,” says Cailin R. Heinze, a
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