About Cat Food

Features

• There are several kinds of diets that cat owners choose to feed their pets. These include regular commercial pet foods, homemade foods, raw food diet, holistic pet foods and even vegan or vegetarian diets. Choosing a diet for your cat should be determined by the cat's nutritional needs rather than your own preferences. For instance, a vegetarian diet may be healthier for you but not for your cat. Choose a diet that will meet those needs.

Significance

• Cats are carnivores. They need meat products to maintain their health. In the wild cats are excellent hunters that obtain their nutritional needs through hunting and the consumption of animal flesh. For example, a cat's body cannot manufacture taurine, which is an essential acid necessary for good eye health in cats. A deficiency in taurine can lead to blindness. Cats cannot receive the nutrition needed from a plant-based diet.

Benefits

• There are benefits to feeding your cat a diet other than that comprised of a commercial brand of cat food but there are drawbacks as well. For example, a raw food diet definitely has dietary benefits but raw food will go bad quickly if not eaten within a short period. The same is true of a homemade diet of cooked food. You would not be able to leave food out for your cat to eat whenever he wants.

The Facts

• Most people feed their cat a commercial brand of cat food. The problem with many commercial pet foods is that they are mostly comprised of by products, animal digest, corn meal and other ingredients that do not provide proper nutrients. Pet food consumers can read the label on packages but if they don't understand what the ingredients are reading the label won't help much. Animal digest refers to foodstuff and other material slaughtered animals have ingested. Byproducts can contain portions of slaughtered animals such as beaks, feet and feathers. Many commercial pet foods also contain dyes to give the food its coloring. Dry kibble is even sprayed with fat to help it hold its shape and make it more tasty. People often try to cut costs by purchasing the least expensive pet food and by doing so they could be sacrificing their pet's nutrition.

Type

• Commercial cat food usually comes in three forms which include dry kibble, canned food and moist food. It is debatable as far as which form is more nutritious. Dry kibble has some nutritional value while it may lack some as well. Canned cat food is made up of mostly water content and moist food has nor more or less nutritional value than the others. In order to give your cat a balance of nutritional benefits it would be wise to feed your cat a combination. It wouldn't hurt to supplement your cat's diet with meat as well.

Effects

• Although not all expensive brands of cat food are nutritious it is best to feed your cat a premium brand of cat food. If switching from one brand of cat food to another make the transition slowly over the course of a week or two by gradually adding small amounts of the new food while decreasing the old food until you completely eliminate the previous brand. Switching abruptly from one brand of cat food to another can cause stomach upset. It is also important to avoid feeding your cat table scraps since some human foods such as garlic, onions and tomatoes can be toxic to cats. Avoid giving your cat milk also since it may give him diarrhea. Cats lack the enzyme necessary to properly digest dairy products and are therefore lactose intolerant. Feed your cat a premium cat food to keep him healthy.