Good food nutrition is essential for your cat's health.
Obviously we all need to eat. Just try going all day without eating and you will rapidly understand just how important eating is. How does this relate to your cat? A nutritious diet is very important to the health and long life of your cat and the right cat food plays a very important role in cat care.
As a cat owner you will find that there are two easy cat food options – dry biscuits or moist food either in cans or single serve sachets. The choices you see on the store shelves are those that are being pushed by manufacturers through advertising and paying extra for premium shelf space.
When choosing what to feed your cat, many owners rely on the advice of a friend or family member, another cat owner, a breeder, the place where they purchased the cat from (shelter, breeder, rescue organization), or they may ask the vet who will care for the cat. Your vet will more than likely have premium but expensive brands of cat food for sale. Don’t ignore these just because they are more expensive, your vet will only recommend quality food that suits your cat.
There are other factors that can affect your choice besides what recommendations you are given. These may include price, nutritional value, the age of your cat and any special health needs it might have. However, you need to be aware that some of the major cat food brands might actually be harming cats. Some contain fillers such as corn, others have been found to contain diseased meat or road kill. Commercial cat food may also contain chemical preservatives such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, and propyl gallate and these chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in lab animals.
A few years ago there was a pet food problem in Australia. All pet foods must go through an irradiation process before they can go on the shelves for sale. This is normal practice. However, some pallets of a very well known quality cat food had an adverse reaction to this irradiation and caused massive problems in the cats that ate those affected batches. These problems included brain damage, blindness and partial paralysis. It is debatable as to what the problem could be attributed to – the pet food as it only affected some batches or the irradiation process. Whoever was at fault doesn’t change the outcome for those poor cats and their owners.
Many cat owners have switched to natural cat foods because of the health of their cats or because of much publicized health scares such as this when cats have become ill or have even died from the harmful ingredients and chemicals found in some commercial cat foods. If your cat vomits frequently or has continual diarrhea, you need to switch to a food that contains better nutrition.
The scare that occurred after pets became ill or died as a result of harmful ingredients in some commercial pet foods, prompted many cat owners to try using raw food instead. When making the choice as to how to feed your cat, it is essential that you take into consideration the cat’s digestive system and nutritional needs.
Cats are obligate carnivores which mean they are obliged to eat meat. Cats get their vitamin A and D as well as arginine, niacin and the necessary taurine directly from animal sources. And cats need these nutrients to live.
There was a study some time ago that showed that cats who receive a ‘cooked food’ diet were no longer able to reproduce after three generations. They also developed serious medical problems that include infections of the gum and mouth, heart lesions and bladder issues. Once these cats were put back on a raw diet, the study found that within four generations they became completely healthy again.
When making the choice to feed a cat a raw food diet, you need to take precautions that will eliminate concerns about the cat being exposed to e-coli, bacteria or salmonella. Wherever possible, avoid packaged grocery store ground beef and instead use meat and poultry from quality butchers where you would buy your own meats. A raw food diet may include mince which has ground raw muscle and organ meat and grated above-ground vegetables and herbs and raw or lightly boiled chicken necks. You can probably order from these from your butcher. However, if you are feeding your cat a raw food diet, you do need to make sure that you include the important vitamin and mineral supplements. Many people lightly cook the raw meat which is fine. Lightly cooking still retains the highest amounts possible of amino and fatty acids, protein, vitamins and minerals.
Never feed your cat raw fish as it contains enzymes that are harmful to cats.
This information isn’t meant to confuse you in what you should feed your cat. It is merely to show you what is necessary for good cat nutrition and to give you choices. In the long run, it is better to pay a little more for your cat’s food to make sure it is receiving the proper nutrients. The extra cost will be saved in vet bills and you will have a healthy cat for many years which is what we are all looking forward to.
