There is lots of information about what means healthy food for cats. Some owners swear on raw feeding, some believe in well-known traditional brands that spend lots of money on advertising (e.g Royal Canin, Whiskas). A new trend is, to completely avoiding dry food, while some owners feed exclusively dry food. But what is really good for cats? What is species-appropriate? Mouse?!
Meat based diet
I personally believe in a good balance. Cats are carnivorous (meat-eater), so they should be fed with meat. Cats would not eat cereals (wheat, corn, etc) in their natural habitat, so there is no reason to feed them those. Except, if a mouse or bird had some cereals in their stomach before eaten by a cat. But that only justifies about 5% of the diet.
Quality ingredients
Another point is to know the ingredients of the food we feed. A list of ingredients that doesn’t specify the percentage of the animal protein, cannot be trusted. A good list looks like this: Duck and poultry meat 73 % (duck 36 % consisting of muscle meat, heart, stomach and poultry 37 % consisting of muscle meat, heart, stomach, liver), duck and poultry stock 24.9 %, salmon oil 1 %, minerals 1 %, green-lipped mussel 0.1 %.
I recommend to avoid ingredient lists like this (borrowed from a very famous brand’s composition list meant for baby cats): meat and animal derivatives, cereals, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin, milk and milk derivatives, minerals, yeasts, various sugars.
So what to feed our cats? This is something everybody should consider based on the available information. I am not here to tell anyone what is right or wrong. I am sharing here some information to provide a starting point in the selection of cat food. I will also mention brands that my cats like (and I approve of). It doesn’t mean that there are no other or even better brands out there. It is just what I feed at home and that I would warmly recommend if someone asks my personal opinion.
High quality cat food
High-quality food has a high meat and protein content. Cereals are only present in very small quantities in the cat’s natural diet, and so cats have a very low tolerance to cereals and carbohydrates. They cannot digest them. Only small amounts of vegetable components should therefore be found in cat food to ensure that the kidneys are not overloaded. High quality in my opinion means at least 65% animal protein, no sugar and no cereals, no unidentifiable plant derivates or plant-by-products. Vitamins and minerals (especially taurine) must be added. Some brands offer various quality levels (with and without cereals). Always read the ingredients before deciding for a brand/line.
Examples of high quality brands
There are many brands that offer high quality cat food. My cats change their taste time to time. Some brands are loved for a while and then rejected for months. So we have tremendous amounts of temporarily rejected cans at home:
- GranataPet
- Mac’s
- Grau
- Animonda von Feinsten
- Leonardo
- Real Nature
- Mjamjam
- Purizon
- Feringa
- Rosie’s Farm
- Miamor Naturell
- Cosma
- Applaws
Complete or supplementary
Some of the high quality cat foods are not suitable for being fed as main food because they don’t contain ALL necessary nutrients.
Complete food contains all the ingredients, nutrients, vitamins and minerals that your cat needs for being healthy.
Supplementary food is only suitable for supplementing as it doesn’t contain vitamins and minerals that your cat needs. Feeding supplementary food as the base of the diet would lead to nutrients deficiencies. It is always written on the can if the food is complete or supplementary.
My cats love tuna (which cat doesn’t?) so they get tuna as supplementary food. Just to mention a few: Cosma, Applaws, Miamor for example offer pure tuna meant for cats (human tuna contains too much salt). Cosma also offers salmon and chicken meat. Probably other brands too, but I am only listing here my personal experience.
Milk and cheese
Most cats are lactose intolerant so giving them cow’s milk can upset their stomach or even cause significant health issues. They don’t have the enzyme (lactase) in their intestines to digest the sugar in milk (lactose). Cats should not eat any dairy products after their breastfeeding period has ended. Why is then milk and milk derivates in many cat foods? Yes. Why.
Some cats love cheese and some cheese are naturally lactose free due to the ripening process. But cheese also contains lots of salt that is hard on kidneys. I keep my cats lactose free but I think a 1 cm3 piece of hard cheese occasionally wouldn’t hurt them if they wanted to try cheese.
Dry food
The cat’s natural food does not come in dry form. A mouse is made of 65% moisture. Feeding your cat with dry food only is not advised. A cat on a dry food diet should drink daily 50ml water per kg body weight; that is 200ml for an average adult cat. Cats don’t drink this much, so they need the necessary moisture within the food.
However, this does not mean that dry food is generally bad for your cat. To decide whether a cat food is species-appropriate or not you need to check the composition. There is dry food with very high meat and protein content and without cereals that can be offered time to time as snack. When offering dry food, make sure that your cat drinks enough water.
Dry food can be used in entertaining search games if you hide it in an interactive cat toy or a hairy mat. Or can be used as training treats.
There are several very good brands that offer high quality dry food with 70% or more meat content but my cats decided to snack only the following brands: Purizon Kitten, Applaws, Wild Freedom and GranataPet
BARF
BARF stands for “Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods”. A true BARF diet for cats consist of what a feline in the wild would eat: muscle meat, bones and organs. Uncooked prey is high in protein and moisture, and contains essential substances like taurine, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. A correct BARF diet can improve the cats’ digestion, fur quality, reduces hairballs, promotes better weight control and dental health.
Preparing a homemade BARF diet can be a complicated process if you want to make sure that you offer a complete and balanced raw diet for your cat. I am not a BARF expert and so I can’t give here thorough information. But you can buy pre-made frozen BARF products meant for cats (e.g Vaisto Cat) or BARF supplement added to muscle meat (e.g Felini Complete) that help you out until you learn the necessary basics about raw feeding.
Or just simply supplement your standard high quality wet food with raw chicken wings, ground beef or chicken hearts as snack. Your cats will appreciate. When you offer bones, it is essential that you offer them raw!!! Cooked bones can be harmful!
Summary
I recommend to choose 3-4-5 high quality complete wet food sorts to be used as the base of the cats’ diet. Offering time to time supplementary food, raw food and dry food and avoiding dairy products and carbs as much as possible is also a good direction in my opinion.
And don’t forget to discuss your selection process with your cats 😀 Some cats rather die than eat a food they don’t like 😀