Feeding Your Cat a Healthy Diet part 1

*Survive* versus *Thrive*

… there is a very big difference between the two states of health we see in our pets….

Cats are often put into the same bracket as dogs in regards to their dietary needs. We pop a bowl of whatever in front of our dogs and they eat it, and seem to do ok for it as well (I put the word ‘seem’ in italics as they are actually probably not quite as healthy as you imagine – but that’s for another blog post!).

A cat on a species appropriate diet (high in real meat, moisture and low in carbs) should poo only once a day – if that. My raw fed cat only poo’s every 3 or 4 days … The poo should be dark brown, firm in consistency (easy to pick up) and pretty tiny! They should be peeing at least twice a day, if not more. Why is this?

Cats on a low residue (low fiber/low waste/highly digestible) diet will often not pass stool every day because there is very little non-digestible matter contained in this diet.  Therefore, the volume of faeces will be less when compared to cats on high fiber or poorly digestible diets.

The colour, consistency and frequency of your pets poo can tell you A LOT about the state of their inner health. A cat fed raw meat will only poo once every couple days while a cat on good quality wet (high meat content) might poo just once a day or every other day as opposed to a few times each day when fed kibble. Cats eating a natural, species-appropriate diet do not produce soft, voluminous, stinky faeces like so many people are used to seeing from their cats eating commercial diets. The two pictures below show the poo deposits of two different cats – the one on the left is a RAW fed cat and the poo on the right is from a canned diet, not as great as real meat but a hell of a lot better than kibble. The bottom picture is the poo of a cat fed a popular kibble – Go Cat (god awful choice of food by the way). This is what comes out of the poor cat every day, sometimes twice a day.

Which poo looks the most healthy to you? Which would you prefer to clean up? Yep, it isn’t the kibble fed cat poo that’s for sure!!

Some people are put off wet food because they can’t free feed it. Actually cats don’t need to eat throughout the whole day. Yes in the wild they tend to eat lots of tiny meals, but you can replicate that with your automatic feeder. With these you can put a section of it into the freezer which will keep a meal cool for most of the day. In fact I feed my cat just twice a day … morning and evening and nothing in between.

Cats are obligate carnivores and require a diet high in protein. Cat food ingredients are listed in decreasing order according to weight, so formulas that are mostly meat will have meat listed as the first ingredient. Feeding your cat a formula with a meat or identified meat meal (like salmon meal or chicken meal) ensures that your cat is getting its protein from a quality meat source and not an unidentifiable mystery grain or dubious animal part.

What to look for in a food

• Protein is listed as the first ingredient on the label, and the meat/poultry used is fit for human consumption. …
• The food is grain-free (no rice, barley, or any other grains (pea included) …
• The food does not contain by-products, corn, soy, or any other fillers ..
• Percentage of meat should be above 70% (meat, not animal derivatives)

Top Tip: don’t be fooled into the marketing gimmick of ‘gravy being a great sort of liquid’. It’s also chuck full of carbohydrate which your cat doesn’t need.

*************************************************************************************************************

Jog My Dog is a small, friendly and professional company offering home boarding, puppy visits, doggy day care, cat visits and dog walking services in Milton Keynes and the surrounding villages of Bow Brickhill, Brickhill Sands, Little Brickhill, Great Brickhill, Aspley Guise, Woburn, Woburn Sands, Brogborough, Linslade, Stoke Hammond and Soulbury.

Registered, Insured, Knowledgeable and Experienced, we take the job of pet care seriously. So whether you’re looking for a cat sitter for your weekend away or regular runs for your dog while you’re at work, we can help! Get in touch to book your pet sitter and dog walker in Milton Keynes today.