Feeding Cats: What to Know Before You Begin

Everyone knows that the domestic cat is a predator. The ancestors of the domestic cats ate birds, small rodents, caught fish, snakes, and lizards. Accordingly, each owner of such cats has to choose a diet, which fully replaces them mice, snakes and lizards.

In cats menu must be proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. It is necessary to take into account the nutritional and energy content of the feed, its digestibility and quality. The balanced feed contains all the necessary; therefore, eating this food, your cat will live a long time and will not get sick.

Do not feed cats human food (sausages, smoked products, sweets, salted and fried foods). Also, do not feed it only meat and fish - it can lead to increased bone fragility.Do not give cats a lot of eggs, as protein in eggs contains a substance that destroys vitamin H (biotin), the animal body needs that. Because of this, the cat immunity can dramatically decrease.

Sometimes it is possible to change the cat's diet, but not often, because it is bad for the digestion. To correctly make a balanced diet is a complicated matter. It is especially difficult to do this for purebreds. The specialist will help to do that or experienced breeder.

Since the modern breeds of cats arose because of artificial selection, they do not always manage to adapt well to the environment in which they must exist, they often suffer from eating disorders.It can be avoided: you can buy high-quality ready-balance feeds in pet stores.

Currently, there are ready-made wet canned and dry food. Wet and dry feeds are available for different purposes (for spayed and neutered dogs and cats, for cats, for cats over 12 years, for longhaired cats, medicated feed, etc.).

Wet food is prepared in the form of pastes or in pieces in sauce or jelly; they may be packaged in either sealed packages or cans or glass tins.

Dry pet feeds are divided into 3 classes: economy class, premium class and super premium class.

The economy class feeds contain little meat, a lot of vegetable protein, and dyes are present. For full feeding, it is necessary to add vitamins and minerals into these feeds. Economy class feeds can only be used as an additive to the cat's food. These feeds have a low price, but most of the rate of consumption per day.

Premium Feeds are balanced - they have a lot of natural meat and by-products compared to the feed economy class, a small amount of vegetable ingredients. The price of such feeds is relatively small, they are well absorbed by the animals, and they can be compared with expensive feeds of economy class.

Super premium class feeds contain a lot of meat, a little vegetable protein, no ballast substances, and no dyes. Super premium class feeds are of high price, and they are well absorbed by the animals and have a small rate of consumption per day.

It is also necessary to know that ready-made feeds of super-premium class have great nutritional value, therefore, at least sometimes; you need to add them to the diet of cats.

Therapeutic feeds (strongly acidified) should not be given to all cats; they are only for veterinary purposes.

Every cat owner must decide what he is going to feed his pet - dry or wet food.Some cat owners use a combination feeding - use dry food with canned food.

Dry feeds have the following advantages:

Wet feeds are best used for small kittens and older cats, whose teeth are already not very strong. It should be remembered that close to feed (especially dry) must necessarily be a bowl of clean water for drinking.