Your cat's food may well be the hardest thing you will ever have to choose. Build a cat castle will seem a lot easier when you go to a pet food store and try to pick the right cat food!
With so many different brands and varieties, how do you know you are choosing a high-quality cat food?
The best way to know is when the food you chose gets your vet's seal of approval and also suits your cat. But making a choice between a huge number of brands and formulas can be a daunting task at first.
The food you give your cat is what her nutrition and overall health depend on. Because your pet cannot speak for herself, you must pull out all stops to make the right choice.
Just like humans, not every cat is the same. What is right for one cat may not be suitable for another. Therefore, the first step is to know what to look for in a formula and what to avoid always.
What to avoid in cat food
Some ingredients are downright harmful for your pet, and her food should always be free from them. A few of those ingredients are:
Feed grade ingredients: Most of the time cat food isn't made of human grade ingredients, but with feed grade ingredients. These are the lowest quality substances, harmful to your pet in several ways.
Aside from fillers such as meat meals and dead animal tissues, feed grade cat food also contains contaminants like mycotoxins as well as pentobarbital (an anesthetic used to euthanize animals). Always buy high quality cat food minus these low grade ingredients.
Gluten: Cats are essentially carnivores and don't require grains and vegetables for nutrition. They have a hard time digesting any ingredient that contains gluten.
Dyes: Artificial dyes and colors are used in various cat food, but they are known to cause allergies and hypersensitivity in cats. Some colors are also animal carcinogens. Your pet's food should be free from such artificial dyes.
Artificial preservatives: All pet food contains preservatives, but they should never be artificial. Look for high quality cat food products only with natural preservatives.
Rendered fat: Unlike natural fat, rendered animal fat is used mainly for flavoring but also contains microorganisms such as Salmonella and toxins like heavy metals.
Always look for food with natural fats like omega 3 and 6, and not rendered animal fat.
Comments