All About Cat Food - What Are You Really Feeding Your Cat?

 

"Your cat may have nine lives, but you shouldn’t gamble six of them on food from an unreliable brand."

Cats have complicated dietary needs, while high-quality ingredients are very important you also have to take into consideration your cat's age and any health conditions that it may have such as kidney stones or renal health issues. Cats are obligate carnivores that in the wild rarely drink water, which is why the food you feed your cat with must provide the right amount of moisture.

Low-quality ingredients lead to health problems.

Processed ingredients and additives don’t have the same nutrients as whole meats and fish, and might be contaminated with bacteria and other harmful agents. Rendered fat is an ingredient in pet foods because it easily increases the necessary fat content. However, it is full of bacteria and mold growth so it can be unsafe for your pet to eat. In addition, it doesn’t offer the same health benefits as the whole fats that come from real fish and meat.

It is very hard to tell which is the best type of food for cats since there are multiple opinions between veterinarians, researchers, and cat owners...

• Raw Food – Nutrients will be in the purest form, all ingredients are fresh and unprocessed. BUT raw food can be harder to digest, must be constantly bought or kept frozen, not convenient and expensive.
• Dehydrated Food – Nutrients are fresh and unprocessed but they make dehydrated food by removing moisture from ingredients which means that your cat's hydration may become a concern.
• Wet Food – Cats crucial hydration comes from wet food, less proceed and more optimal balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. BUT cat wet food is more expensive than dry cat food and less convenient.
• Dry Food – Better for dental health than wet food, less expensive and more convenient. BUT these tend to be more proceed and contain less water, which may lead to dehydration.

10 Best Cat Foods

1. Addiction Grain Free Herbed Duck Confit and Sweet Potatoes Entree
2. Blackwood Chicken Meal and Field Pea Recipe Grain Free Dry Cat Food
3. Earthborn Holistic Wild Sea Catch Grain Free Natural Dry Cat & Kitten Food
4. Fromm Gold Holistic Adult Dry Cat Food
5. Lotus Just Juicy Pork Stew Grain Free Canned Cat Food
6. Now Fresh Grain Free Adult Recipe Dry Cat Food
7. Redbarn Naturals Salmon and Delilah Grain Free Canned Cat Food
8. Wysong Optimal Vitality Dry Cat Food
9. ZiwiPeak Daily Cat Cuisine Venison and Fish Canned Cat Food
10. Spring Naturals Grain Free Chicken Dinner with a Medley of Garden Greens and Berries Dry Cat Food

Other Cat Food Brands To Consider...

However, the best food for your feline friend is not always the one you find at the vet or the one you see the most commercials on, that's just the brand that has the most NEED to spend its money on marketing and advertising so that uninformed individuals buy it without asking any questions or looking at the ingredients. Here's why I'm saying this. You've probably heard of Science Diet or Purina, right? Please keep reading...

What Should I Avoid In My Cat's Food Ingredients?

We've reviewed a list of cat's food to consider. However, there are some ingredientes that can damage your cat's health.

• Animal Digest: Unspecified parts of unspecified animals which are cooked to a goopy broth (rendered) and used as a spray-on or added directly to the food. This is unsuitable for human consumption. The grease that rises to the top is used as a source of fat and the rest of the mash is dried and used as “meat meal”. No quality control is used and this can be a varied mix of dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter, goats, pigs, horses, rats or road kill “By Products”. It means the internal remains of an animal not including the muscle meat, often times including diseased tissues, organs and tumors.
• Ethoxyquin: Used as a ‘preservative’ but it’s really a herbicide, which means it’s a toxic substance used to kill unwanted vegetation. Has been associated with chronic diseases, liver and kidney damage, blindness and leukemia in dogs.
• Prophylene Glycol: Found in “anti-freeze.” Reduces moisture and prevents bacteria growth, killing both bad and good bacteria needed for digestion.
• BHT/BHA: Dangerous preservatives used to reduce food spoiling. Responsible for kidney damage and has been linked with chronic diseases in both dogs and humans.

Other ingredients you should avoid feeding your cat with:

• Corn/Corn Syrup: Used as a sweetener and although it's not toxic, it contains high levels of sugar, which based on studies such as that published by Global Health, it may be linked health conditions such as diabetes. Plus, corn has no nutritional value, it's used to make production cheaper and overtime develops mold and fungus which can be fatal.
• Salt: Causes bloat in dogs if consumed in high doses.
• Beet Pulp: Pure sugar filler — leads to weight gain, hyperactivity and feeds arthritis.
• Wheat Flour: Wheat is the leading cause of dog allergies. No nutritional value comes from wheat flour. Companies manufacture the fine particles of wheat bran, wheat germ, and the offal from the “tail of the mill.” “Tail of the mill” means the floor sweepings of leftovers in the mill after everything has been processed from the wheat!.
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: A sweetener made from corn starch that has been processed by glucose isomerase to convert some of its glucose into fructose.

Controversial foods your cat should not eat

• Brewers Rice: Controversial Ingredient, low-quality by-product of the milling process that is often used as a filler. Rice may deplete the amount of taurine in the cat’s body which can lead to deficiency.
• Garlic: Ingesting garlic can lead to hemolytic anemia, a condition that causes the red blood cells in a cat’s body to burst.
• Ocean Fish: Perhaps surprisingly, fish is one of the top cat food allergens and it can contain mercury and other toxins.
• Rendered Fat: This is controversial because it can come from any number of animals, including diseased or disabled animals and roadkill.

Dog Owner? Find out more in our post!

All About Dog Food - What Are You Really Feeding Your Dog?

Worse 10 Cat Foods

1. Meow - Contains ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, beef tallow, animal digest and turkey by-product.
2. Whiskas - Contains ground yellow corn, chicken by-product, corn gluten meal and animal fat preserved with BHA.
3. Kit N' Kaboodle (By Purina) - Contains ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal and added colors.
4. Friskies - Contains ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product and added colors.
5. IAMS - Contains by-product poultry, corn meal and corn gluten.
6. Royal Canin - Contains corn, corn gluten and meal.
7. Purina One - Contains corn gluten, by-products and wheat flour.
8. Fancy Beast - Contains ground yellow corn, corn gluten and poultry by-product.
9. 9 Lives - Contains corn, by-product poultry, corn gluten, animal digest and BHA.
10. Science Diet - Contains corn and corn gluten as one on of their top ingredients.

Keep in mind your cat's only need is for nutritional food and water if this is not provided it will be reflected in poor health.

IMPORTANT: We are not being sponsored or paid by any of these companies, we are informing you. You make the ultimate decision. We hope this post has been helpful, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.