Home-made cat food is one of the healthiest ways you can choose to feed your cat, but only if you do it exactly right. Making nutritionally complete cat food requires a great deal of information relating to what a cat's dietary needs are and how you can best provide for them.
Providing your cat with proper nutrition goes a long, LONG way in preventing so many of today's commonly seen feline diseases. There are many inappropriate "cat diets" available on the pet food market, including veterinary feline diets, and these inappropriate diets are largely responsible for creating a myriad of the health problems that exist in our feline friends.
Cats are obligate carnivores: they are NOT meant to eat dehydrated diets, they are NOT meant to be eating grains, they are NOT meant to be eating significant amounts of carbohydrates, they are NOT meant to eat fruits & vegetables, they are NOT meant to eat significant amounts of seafood, and they are NOT meant to obtain their protein from soy! These unnatural ingredients in dry cat foods (and some wet foods too!) are inflammation inducing and result in a myriad of gastrointestinal disorders, skin reactions, and other health problems in our pet cats.
Also, the dehydrated nature of dry cat food is responsible for the production of highly concentrated urine formation in cats that eat dry diets; studies have proven that cats who eat dry food do NOT drink the equivalent in their daily water intake to cats who eat canned food and hydrate themselves via their diets (canned foods are approximately 75% water content). Chronically highly concentrated urine causes bladder inflammation (idiopathic feline cystitis), kidney, ureteral, and bladder stones, urinary crystals, and predisposes to urinary tract infections. Urinary crystal and stone formation can cause sudden urinary tract obstruction which can be acutely fatal.
As mentioned at the beginning of this page, making your cat a nutritionally complete homemade diet is the best way that you can feed your cat. However, this is a somewhat time-consuming endeavor, and I recognize that not every owner is able to provide their cat with this type of feeding regimen (including myself at this point in time!). As such, I have decided to provide you with a summary (below) of various cat-feeding scenarios from best to worst. If you are unable to provide your cat with a homemade diet, as so many of us are, then scenarios 2 and then 3 are the best ways to feed your cat(s):
FIRST - THE IDEAL CAT DIET
* Nutritionally complete (and plentiful in moisture content!) homemade diet specifically formulated for the feline obligate carnivore: free of vegetables, fruits, grains, soy, seafood, artificial preservatives & flavoring, and toxic packaging contents.
* Owners are able to brush their cat's teeth to prevent plaque and tartar buildup.
A CLOSE SECOND
* Owners are unable to do a homemade diet, but feed 100% canned cat food that is devoid of soy protein, contains no de-hulled grains, no seafood, and no significant amount of fruits & veggies.
* Owners are able to brush cat's teeth to prevent plaque and tartar buildup.
Note 1: While many canned diets don't contain the unnatural grain and soy products that most dry diets do, some wet foods do possess these ingredients... you must read labels carefully!
Note 2: An alternative to a healthy canned food diet, is a nutritionally complete raw diet (eg. Feline's Pride) that is partially cooked prior to serving in order to reduce the bacterial load (zapped for 5 - 10 seconds in the microwave: ensure that it's not too hot before giving it to kitty!).
A CLOSE THIRD
* Owners unable to do homemade diet and unable to brush cat's teeth, but feed 95% of daily caloric intake through canned food (devoid of soy, de-hulled grains. etc.), and feed 5% of daily caloric intake through dental kibble to help minimize plaque and tartar build-up.
Note 3: If your cat has any gastrointestinal issues, including frequent hairballs, or has any dermatological issues and/or other inflammatory problems, you should consult your veterinarian and discontinue all dry food.
FOURTH - A POOR DIET
* Dry cat food diet, or mostly dry cat food diet.
* Not suitable for a feline (this includes grain-free dry diets as well!).
* You should consult your veterinarian and immediately begin to transition your cat onto a wet food diet, and/or a homemade diet.
Note 4: Just because a dry feline diet is advertised as "grain free" does not mean that it is an appropriate diet for your cat. There are still many shortcomings in dry, grain-free diets, not the least of which is the fact that they are devoid of moisture content!
HOMEMADE FELINE DIETS SHOULD INCLUDE:
* meat source (chicken, rabbit, duck, etc.)
* ground bone from meat source
* water (in addition to the water content in the meat
* fatty acid supplementation
* salt
* vitamin E supplementation
* vitamin B complex supplementation
* taurine (an amino acid) supplementation
Note: Taurine supplementation is crucial because taurine deficiencies lead to serious health problems in cats, and taurine can ONLY be obtained through diet. Cats are unable to create taurine endogenously by using protein building blocks they possess from ingesting other amino acids.
*** Please note that there are many cat food recipes available online that recommend including rice, pasta, or other such carbohydrate sources in homemade cat food. I do not advise supplementing extra carbohydrates (meat already contains carbohydrates) for healthy adult cat diets, particularly from these types of sources because they are unnatural for cats (for instance, pasta is full of wheat gluten) and will defeat much of the purpose of feeding a homemade diet. ***
It is important to know that if you are embarking on creating a homemade diet for your cat(s), it is essential that it be done correctly. Feeding cats just cooked meat does not provide them with a nutritionally complete diet, and will result in nutritional deficiencies. If you are going to feed your cat(s) a homemade diet it must be done correctly. For the best cat food recipes available please refer to the excellent resources listed below.
To read more of Dr. Ko's articles, please visit http://www.catdoctorko.com
The information provided in this article is for educational reference purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice and care of your veterinarian, nor medical diagnoses or treatments. All questions regarding your cat's health should be discussed with your veterinarian.
