Cat Nutrition - Reading The Ingredient List
Feline diets are a lot different than canine diets. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they require meat in their diet and need little carbohydrates. In fact, cats have a number of unique metabolic idiosyncrasies that make them very different from their canine housemates. Cats are physiologically, biologically, metabolically obligated to eat other animals. They simply cannot survive otherwise. Whereas omnivorous species like dogs can get nutrition from both meat and vegetable matter.
In the wild, cats usually prey on small animals, such as mice and birds. But as a pet, a cat might only be preying on a can of cat food. Because pet cats often don’t get the opportunity to hunt for their own food, it’s important for cat owners to mimic the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet their cat would naturally eat in the wild.
Cat food rich in carbohydrates may place the cat's metabolism under stress, and might have unwanted negative health effects in the long run.
Here’s what you should look out for in a cat food ingredient list and learn to choose the best food for your cat:
1. A single meat (protein) source as the first ingredient. You should be able to tell what type of meat was used; chicken meal is a much better ingredient than meat meal. Look for a muscle meat (preferably, not an organ meat like liver) as the first ingredient. A muscle meat will be listed as "chicken," or "turkey," etc., not "chicken by-products" or "chicken by-product meal," or "chicken broth" or "liver."
2. The best way to mimic a cat’s natural diet is to feed them food that has a protein content of 40 percent or higher and a carbohydrate content of 10 percent or lower.
3. Try to avoid grains, soy, corn, wheat, rice, peas, gluten ingredients. If grains are present, they should be minimal in amount. This is where checking out the carbohydrate content comes into play. It is ideal to feed a grain-free diet. Might be okay for them to be present in very small quantities, but they should definitely not be at the top of the ingredient list.
4. It is best to choose a canned-food diet that says on the label “complete and balanced”.
5. The words "natural" or "premium" or "veterinarian recommended" are not necessarily indicative of high quality.
As a cat owner, it is your responsibility to read the ingredient list carefully and take your cat’s dietary needs seriously. As the old saying goes, you are what you eat! :>