Cat Food Which Is The Best One For Optimum Cat Health .

Cat food and providing the best one for your cat which contains all the vital ingredients to make sure your cat stays happy and healthy is one of your main responsibilities as a cat owner.

Cat Nutritional Requirements

Cats require special nutrients in their diet to keep them healthy. Unlike dogs, cats are unable to produce an amino acid called Taurine which is needed to prevent heart and eye diseases.

This acid is mainly found in animal protein, which is why cats are predominately carnivores. However you can now buy Vegetarian pet food, which provides everything required for good cat nutrition to keep your pet healthy.

Cats also need to have a balanced diet like the rest of us which includes:

• water,
• protein,
• fat,
• Carbohydrate,
• Minerals and Vitamins.

All of which can be provided either through wet or dry food or a combination of both for variety.

Wet or Dry Cat Food!

Dry cat food has its advantages:

• It can be left in the bowl all day and still remain fresh.
• Your cat can return to it now and again for a little snack.
• Plus it has much less odour than wet food, so you will not have to worry about nasty smells.

If you do feed your cat tinned wet food, remember that it should not be left out for more than 30 minutes especially in warm weather as flies can easily and quickly contaminate it.

Either cover it or place it in the fridge, however wet food removed from the refrigerator will have less smell at first, so you may find that your cat will only eat it after it has warmed up.

Which Food is Best.

There are many options to choose from these days as to what pet food is available to feed your cat. From hundreds of commercially prepared foods, pre-packed and ready to eat including:

• organic pet food,
• natural Pet food.
• homemade pet food recipes available for you to make yourself.

If you do decide that you want to make your cat food yourself, we have provided a handy E-book of 100 Homemade Cat Food Recipes. Which at only $0.99 is a a real bargain.

Which food you choose for your cat depends on many factors. Do you have the time to make it yourself, do you want something quick and easy, or something inexpensive?

And there are of course specially formulated food varieties available for kittens, adult cats, nursing mothers and elderly cats.

If your cat has particular dietary needs due to a medical condition, then your vet will be able to recommend or prescribe the correctly formulated food for them.

You may also base your decision on the fact that you might prefer to know exactly what is in the food you give your cat. Something you can only really do if you make it yourself.

How much and how often should you feed your cat.

An Adult cat should be fed only twice a day. In the morning and in the early evening. Although I must say this is news to our cats who think every time I enter the kitchen it's dinner time.

Luckily our cats are very active and haven't put any extra weight on and also we are quite strict with how much we feed them.

It is important though not to over feed your cat as this can lead to owning a fat cat and this is unhealthy. Always follow the recommendations on commercially bought food.

There is also a visual guide to determine if your cat is a healthy cat weight or not.

Depending on how active your cat is, most cats need a daily calorie intake of between 60 - 90 kcals per kg of their body weight. But there are many factors involved to keep your cat at a healthy weight.

Water or Milk

Water should always be available to your cat especially in hot weather. If your cat loses just 10 per cent of it's total body water content they will become seriously ill.

Cows milk does have fats and proteins which are good for your cat. But milk contains lactose which your cats digestive system may find difficult to digest causing diarrhoea. Milk should only be given as an occasional treat.

There are special cat milk products available which do not contain lactose. Our cats love cows milk but unfortunately it does give them diarrhoea if they have too much. So we generally only give them cat milk and then only a little every day, water is available to them all the time.

Eating Disorders

Just like us humans somethimes our cats also go through phases of not eating their food. However our cats are far more complicated than we think and the reasons behind these eating problems can be varied, read my page about eating disorders for more information.

It is important that we take notice of our cats eating behaviors as it may be an indicator of something wrong and should not be neglected.