What to Feed Your Cat

Cats have different dietary needs than other pets. To ensure that they are in tiptop health, it is important that their diets be carefully watched to ensure that they get the nutritional requirements they need. If you have a dog at home, do not feed your cat your dog’s Natural Balance brand dog food because cats require five times more proteins than a dog.

Although a meal of Hill’s Science Diet is suitable, it is still always better to make your own cat food. In making cat food, there are however some safe yardstick rules like to never feed your cat food made with onions, pork, chocolates and raw eggs. These are not good for your cat.

When you want to prepare your own cat food, you must decide if you want to feed it raw food or cooked food. Cats have lived on raw food and have just become accustomed to cooked food when they became domesticated. Feeding them raw food will let them stick to their natural diet. When you decided to give them cooked food, make sure that the food you prepare is mixed with the needed supplement to compensate the lost nutrients.

The main ingredients for making homemade cat food are meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, milk and cheese and grains. Meat provids them with protein, fat and Vitamin A. Meat should however just be 10 percent of your cat’s diet because too much Vitamin A is not good for them. Fish on the other hand provide protein and iodine. In feeding your cat fish, make sure that there are no bones in it that can get stuck in its throat.

Eggs contain protein, carbohydrates, fats and many vitamins so they are also good to include in your cat’s diet but should only be fed once a week. Another good source of protein, carbohydrates, fats and calcium are milk and cheese. While it is good to give them milk, it also contains lactose that can cause diarrhea.

Vegetables will give texture to the food so they are good to include in your cat’s diet just as long as it is not over cooked. The safest ingredients that can be given to your cat in large quantity are grains like wheat germ, oats, barley and rice. They contain good amount of vitamins and minerals that your cat need.

There are some food that should not be given to your cat aside from what was stated earlier because these may cause digestive upsets and even severe illnesses that can lead to death. Alcoholic beverages should not be given to cats because this can cause intoxication and coma and even death. Baby food contains onion powder, which is toxic to cats so it is also to be avoided.

Large consumption of canned tuna can cause malnutrition because it does not provide enough vitamins and minerals. Coffee along with chocolates should be avoided because this contains caffeine that can cause vomiting and diarrhea. The lists go on so it is wise to research what you can and cannot feed your cat before deciding on homemade food.