Feeding Your Cat Part one

You’d think feeding your cat would be easier – buy kitten, adult or senior food, according to their age, trust in the manufacturer to have done everything right, and feed it to your cat. But no, cats aren’t going to make your life that easy!
First of all, as we all know, cats can be finicky. Some like dry food, some like canned. Some like the same food every day and some like a change. And some cats have food allergies – the most common being fish, wheat, and beef. Then the manufacturers, desperate to sell to us, put lots of fancy names on their foods – organic, grain-free, “natural”, etc. Organic is desirable for everyone, although the legal meaning of that word is not well defined in anyone’s food. So, you don’t always know it’s truly organic. Grain-free is today’s fad, like lamb and rice of twenty years ago. Lamb and rice was harmless – if undesirable in several ways. Grain-free, not so much – at least in dogs. Multiple, generally smaller “boutique” manufacturers, have produced grain-free foods lacking a certain nutrient that has actually caused heart disease in dogs. This has not been reported in cats, and hopefully never will be; but it’s a good lesson in what combining many new, previously under-used, ingredients can mean in formulating a nutritionally complete diet.
Then there’s the raw diets. In theory – well, cats are meant to hunt, and eat raw freshly killed food. They might not be meant to eat raw, killed-quite-a-while-ago food – which may have been growing some undesirable bacteria since it’s been sitting around uncooked or unprocessed. Feed it at your own risk, against the American Veterinary Medical Association’s advice – but be extra careful if there are very young, very old, or immuno-compromised humans in your house, who may be susceptible to the bacteria your cat eats and then passes out in his or her stools.
Part two will be in the September issue – stay tuned! To schedule an appointment please call 661-259-5288.