High-Quality Cat Food: The Secret to Feline Health

Cats are pretty much similar to humans. Just like the way the food we eat affects our health, cats also need high-quality and healthy food for proper growth and body functioning.

If cats don’t get cat food made from high-quality sources, their immune system will weaken over time, making them prone to diseases.

The above two lines pretty much explain the importance of high-quality cat food. Let’s delve into details to explain why high-quality cat food is essential for feline health and how you can select the best cat food for your furry buddy.

How Does Healthy and High-Quality Cat Food Keep Your Cat Healthy?

A good-quality cat food contains all the ingredients needed by cats. Here’s how it can improve a cat’s health.

High Protein

A cat food must contain at least 26% protein. Anything below this means that it will fail to meet your cat’s needs. Proteins are essential for various activities in cats, like building muscle, skin, fur, nails, cartilage, tendons, and enzymes.

Proteins provide cats with amino acids. Cats can’t make 11 essential amino acids, and they must come from their diet. Taurine is one such amino acid that comes from animal protein and is vital for eye and heart health.

Fats, Minerals, Vitamins and Carbohydrates

A good-quality cat food contains at least 9% fat on a dry matter basis. Fats serve as an instant energy source. The carbohydrates must not be more than 10%. The food must have vitamins and minerals, as they play an important role in growth and maintaining cat health.

Hydration

Wet cat food ensures that your cat stays hydrated but dry cat food has low moisture content. Cats feeding dry food must be hydrated by other means.

High-Quality Food Ensures Nutritional Requirements According to Age, Breed and Activity Level

A cat’s nutritional needs change with age. Indoor cats can live up to 20 years. Hence, it is critical to understand their nutritional requirements. A good-quality cat food for the right age, breed, weight, and activity level ensures that your cat’s nutritional needs are met in the right way. Kittens need more animal meat-based protein along with calcium to support bone health. Adult cats need a balanced diet with taurine, and senior cats need fewer fats and carbohydrates but more moisture. This is the reason many vets suggest feeding wet food to senior cats.

Is Expensive Cat Food Always Healthy and High-Quality?

Many cat owners believe that expensive foods are better. However, this is not always true. Expensive cat foods generally have no by-products and contain attractive ingredients (to humans). These by-products that are generally ignored by cat parents while selecting foods are not harmful. They are sustainable and healthy for animals to eat. Moreover, by-products that aren’t hair, horns, or intestinal contents are generally high-quality protein sources.

Tips to Select the Best Cat Food

• Ignore the price point and the fancy ingredients. These ingredients are in such small quantities that they don’t make any difference.
• Ensure that the food contains the required percentageof proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and water.
• Is the food certified by AAFCOor the local pet food control association in the manufacturing country?
• Does the brand conduct regular research on maintaining and uplifting food quality?
• How did the brand deal with recalls, if any?
• Are they happy with providing a detailed nutritional analysis and answering customers’ queries?

These things don’t necessarily mean that the food will be of high quality, but they are a good way to measure a brand’s general approach to doing business.