How to make your own healthy cat food? Cats must consume meat to obtain the nutrients they require. While commercial dry or wet food is fine to feed your cat, you can add variety to its diet by providing cooked or fresh raw meat. Many kitties enjoy fish, but it is not a portion of suitable food for daily feeding.
Kitties are carnivores, which means they require animal protein to stay healthy. You’ll need to find a high-quality commercial cat food that is age and health appropriate for your cat. Please speak with your veterinarian before deciding what to feed your cat so that they can assess their health and ensure you’re providing them with the right food.
A vegan diet will not allow cats to survive or thrive. They must consume meat to obtain the nutrients they require. While commercial dry or wet food is fine to feed your cat, you can add variety to its diet by providing cooked or raw, fresh meat.
Things You Need To Know About Homemade Cat Food
Some owners may wish to take a more active role in their cat’s diet by feeding homemade food to them. Preparing and cooking food for your kitty may appear fun to add variety or new flavors to their meals. However, because balancing a cat’s nutritional needs is highly complex, the risks of making your cat food may outweigh any potential benefits. Furthermore, how cats perceive their food is complicated and depends on more than flavor.
If a vital nutrient is missing, a kitty may become deficient, and their health may suffer. As a result, it’s critical to understand your cat’s specific nutritional needs and consider the best way to meet them.
According to the Pet Food Institute, cats require more than 40 essential nutrients per day. Despite being strict carnivores, Cats need a varied diet that includes more than just meat.
They need a wide range of nutrients from other sources to stay healthy and energetic, including:
- Proteins
- Fats
- Carbohydrates
- Vitamins
- Minerals
Wild cats balance these nutritional needs by eating all parts of their prey, including bones and intestines that contain trace amounts of vegetable matter. They may also consume plants on occasion.
On the other hand, domesticated cats require each of these nutrient groups in varying amounts to provide a complete and balanced diet. Too much or too little of a group could harm their health.
Cats cannot naturally produce all the required vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids and must obtain some of them through their diet. Taurine, for example, is necessary for a cat’s vision and heart and can only be obtained from animal proteins.
Making your cat food is not the same as making human food. For starters, cats do not require a variety of flavors in their food. A cat has 4751 taste buds, compared to 9,000 in humans, and these will lose sensitivity as they age. Specifying a cat’s food to their ‘tastes’ isn’t necessary.
Therefore, making your cat food goes much further than selecting ingredients that cats are thought to like. The food’s size, shape, smell, and texture are all essential factors in a cat’s acceptance of a new diet. Perfecting these factors and meeting their specific nutritional profile can be extremely difficult.
What You Need To Know About Your Cat
- Breed
Some breeds will benefit from diets tailored to their specific body shape, activity level, and sensitivities.
- Lifestyle
Cats that live indoors require a lower energy diet than cats that roam outside. Indoor kitties will also spend more time grooming, so they can benefit from a diet that naturally promotes hairball elimination.
- Age
Kittens of various ages require specific nutrients and minerals to help them grow, but they typically consume more small amounts. Older cats may need additional vitamin E and C supplements and more essential fatty acids to aid flexibility.
- Health
Your cat’s chronic medical condition may affect its nutritional needs or ability to digest certain nutrients.
- Condition
Neutered cats, for example, are less active, which affects their daily energy requirements.
- Weight
To ensure that your cat maintains healthy body weight, the energy content of the food must be calculated.
- Sensitivities
If your cat already has a sensitivity, such as a dull coat, sensitive skin, or a tendency to gain weight, the proper nutrients can help.
How to Make Your Own Healthy Cat Food
How to make your own healthy cat food? A cat’s diet should ideally consist of what these hunters ate originally – prey and fish. You can assist your cat by creating an ideal menu for it. This option would be excellent and is not as complicated as it appears. Millions of people are already making homemade cat food, kibble, and even kitten formula!
Before making your cat food, ensure you have the scientific knowledge and skill to provide a complete and balanced diet. After consulting with a veterinarian to determine your cat’s nutritional requirements, you’ll need to invest in specialized equipment to make your cat food. Cat oners must always follow strict hygiene practices to avoid bacterial contamination.
When considering ingredients for homemade cat food, exercise caution as well. Components that are considered nutritious for humans can be highly toxic to cats. Grapes, for example, are a well-known source of Vitamin C and K for humans, but they are incredibly harmful to cats. Multiple recipes are available online for homemade cat food; it would be wise to consult your vet before trying them. Once you and your vet have agreed upon safe and beneficial recipes for your kitty, you can start your journey to making healthy homemade cat food!
Benefits of Homemade Cat Food
- There is Nothing Added
What else does cat food contain? Manufacturers include plant-based oils, various grains and seeds, and other questionable products as carbohydrate and fat sources. They may cause numerous health issues and are insufficiently digested. A long list of other ingredients is absent from natural cat food recipes. The latter enables the avoidance of potentially hazardous products.
- It is Entirely Natural
Have you ever considered what makes dry and wet cat food last so long? Why does it keep its flavor and properties for a year? Even the best cat foods go through additional processing and contain artificial preservatives. It’s bad for a cat’s health because many pets are allergic to chemical preservatives and flavors, but allergy symptoms may be subtle. Furthermore, homemade cat food contains more natural nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. They are easily digested and preserved in fresh products.
- It Contains 100% Protein.
Dry cat food contains 30-40% protein, whereas wet cat food contains 8-10% protein. Not only do meat and eggs contain this nutrient, but many manufacturers also include soy and bean products. These components are not equally beneficial to all cats. Some pets become allergic to peas, lentils, and soy.
How to Make Your Own Healthy Cat Food
If your kitty requires a special diet due to a medical condition, the best option is to consult your veterinarian to find a prescription diet that will meet your cat’s health requirements. If these diets are unsuitable, consult your veterinarian to find a safe alternative. They may be aware of alternative creative solutions to meet your cat’s nutritional and medical needs. When analyzing a diet to see if it is nutritionally complete, it is essential to look at more than just the ingredient list. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association has compiled a list of necessary guidelines. The Pet Nutritional Alliance has created an interactive document that allows you to determine whether a specific pet food manufacturer meets those guidelines.
