The Best Cat Food for the Healthiest Cat

Most people think that the best cat food they can buy is the most expensive commercial cat food, often those sold at veterinarians, or in little individual packets.

Then they wonder why their cat seems to be hungry all the time.

In this article, I want to take you on a journey, perhaps a journey of discovery. It may not read as the most pleasant journey you have been on, but it may be the most informative one.

An abattoir is where animals are slaughtered, for food or leather or both. Most people are aware of this, but prefer not to think about it too much. The pretty packs of meat in the supermarket hide the real story behind meat production.

If you’re already cringing, and thinking of putting this article down, I promise to make it as informative as possible without making you too upset - just enough to take action, perhaps? After all, you do want to find the best cat food, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

If any animal comes in for slaughter who is suspected of Mad Cow Disease, because they can’t move when stimulated to, many countries in the world will not allow the meat from this animal to go into the human food chain.

Likewise for any animal who is showing certain signs of serious illness, such as cancers, abnormal body discharges, skin lesions, infested with maggots, respiratory problems, too thin, etc.

However, these same animals may be used in pet food. The animal may be euthanased with a lethal drug and then dyed and ‘denatured’ with carbolic acid or a strong disinfectant.

Then they are taken to a rendering plant, possibly some distance away. So they can be exposed to hot summer weather for hours, possibly days.

A rendering plant takes in anything from road kill to dead farm animals, to euthanised pets, horses or zoo animals.

And it’s from a rendering plant that many, if not most, pet food manufacturers buy their raw material. The ingredients may tell you. Typical ingredients from a rendering plant include meat by-products, animal fat, meat meal, bone meal.

Soap manufacturers also buy their raw material from rendering plants.

Many countries don’t insist on pet food listing all their ingredients. In this world, pet and animals have no rights and don’t matter. Why list something that will make people put your product back on the shelf, unless you have to by law?

Does your cat matter to you?

Would you willingly feed your cat rotten meat, diseased meat, meat containing acid, disinfectant, a lethal drug or a lot of fat?

Even if you tried, it’s likely your cat would refuse it.

So why doesn’t she refuse the commercial cat food, ostensibly the best cat food money can buy, which contains all this? Why are cats addicted to dried food?

I don’t know the reason for this for certain, but I can guess. Most cats adore tuna. Cats can become tuna junkies. I suspect that most commercial cat food contains tuna flavouring, either natural or more likely, synthetic.

If you’re looking for the best cat food to ensure your cat remains as healthy as possible, commercial pet food just doesn’t make sense.

I’m not suggesting that all commercial pet food is the same. But I think most are, especially the big names. Some smaller ones may be doing their bit to improve the image, but would you know if they sold to someone less ethical?

If you were fed low grade food, would you be hungry all the time? You bet! Why? Because low grade food has few nutrients. It is nutrient poor.

So your cat may be well fed on what you consider to be the best cat food you can buy, but if she’s hungry all the time, you can be sure she is lacking in something vital to her ongoing good health. Probably several somethings.

Best Cat Food - How to Make It Yourself

You’re searching around, looking for the best cat food perhaps because you have a new kitten and want to provide her with the best. Or perhaps it’s because you seem to have had a lot of illnesses with your past cats and are now wondering if the diet could be partly responsible.

Well, let me tell you that categorically, without a shadow of doubt, diet is all important to anyone’s health, including that of your cat.

Providing the best cat food will be the biggest step towards keeping your cat as healthy as possible.

But what is this?

Cats have spent a long time evolving to their present state. Many millions of years, in fact. Many tens of millions of years.

Over that time, they have perfectly adapted to the food that is available to them on a regular basis.

Whatever gives us the idea that we, as a species, can better that?

Whilst advertising, with it’s alluring pictures and fine words, may tell us ‘science’ has improved a cats diet, rest assured it hasn’t. The advertising remains just that - pretty pictures and fine words, aimed at improving the health of the manufacturers bank balance rather than the health of your cat.

So let’s go back to the earlier question - what is the best cat food?

There is not a shadow of doubt that the best cat food is that which is so close to a wild cat’s diet as to be almost identical.

OK, I’m not asking you to go out and catch mice - your cat can do a better job of that than you can.

Let’s look at a wild cat’s diet. Cats kill their prey and eat it all immediately. They aren’t opportunist eaters, like dogs, who are happy to eat carrion. So what does this tell us, about the qualities of the food?

• it must be raw
• it must be fresh
• it must contain bones
• it must include organ meat
• it must be varied

That’s quite a daunting list for someone new to the idea of not opening a box or can for your cat’s dinner.

And there is a bit to learn to apply those principles.

But it is really easy, once you get to know the basics and how to apply them.

Your cat will think she’s died and gone to heaven...

What is the Best Kitten Care for Lasting Health?

Most people look to their vet for the best advice on kitten care, or any animal care come to that.

But can you be sure that they are giving you good, sound, unbiased advice based on solid research?

The early months of 2009 have seen media reports about Harvard (US) medical students protesting that their professors have strong and lucrative ties to pharmaceutical companies. This compromises the professors integrity and can’t exclude them from biased teaching.

If the most famous and most prestigious medical school in the largest democracy of the world has this problem, image what it must be like in less well known medical and veterinary schools.

Add into the mix the lucrative commercial pet food industry and you may want to consider if your vet, who may be the nicest person in the world, has had the best training. Or perhaps s/he has received very biased and limited training: limited to ensuring the burgeoning profits of already highly profitable companies.

You can’t blame the universities who are always short of money. You can’t blame the governments as they are always under pressure to deliver cheaper courses. It’s probably best not to blame anyone.

But it does pay you to know what is going on.

Perhaps now you can appreciate why so many vets strongly promote commercial pet food. Their reception rooms are packed solid from floor to ceiling.

But stop and ask yourself if this is really the way to optimum kitten care. Or is it more for optimum profits in the commercial pet food industry? Or optimum vet care, with all the ensuing unhealthy cats?

I want to introduce you to Dr Francis Pottenger. He was a research scientist and conducted nutritional tests on cats between 1932 and 1942. He discovered that cats who were fed only a cooked diet, even though ‘perfected balanced’, showed a marked reduction in their immune responses. This lowered immune response was passed on to the next generation.

Further feeding of cooked food, further lowered the immune response. And so the cycle went on.

By the third generation illnesses such as heart lesions, hepatitis, feline urological syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, leukaemia, tumours, arthritis and a host of other immune deficient maladies were occurring.

Dr Pottenger went on to discover that the immune response could be improved simply by giving them a raw food diet. But it took another three generations for the immune system to be back up to a really optimum level of efficiency, that you commonly find in wild cats.

If you are still confused, and I can’t blame you if you are, here’s a suggestion to use when you search for the best kitten care.

Fads come and go. What ‘science’ discovers this year, is out moded next year as fashion changes, as inaccuracies are discovered, as more information comes to light.

On the other hand, nature has perfected herself over millennia. Cats have evolved on their raw diet and thrived. Man and his puny ideas, have not, and will never, alter a cats digestive system. How can it when you look at all the time nature has had to fine tune it?

Translating good kitten care feeding into practice is not without its problems. There are some do’s and don’ts that you must adhere to. Such as:

• what meat can be overfed with disastrous results
• what ingredient, often left out, MUST be present is a healthy kitten’s diet
• what additional supplements should you add to the diet

Once you get your head around the concept and get into the routine, natural kitten care comes easily. It will also deter most cats from hunting as an adult. Hunting domestic cats are normally trying to redress the lack of nutrients in their diet, rather than doing what comes naturally.

Feed your cat as nature intended, and the rewards will be endless.

Cat Care - The Best, The Easiest, The Most Natural

Caring for your cat is easy when you try to remember her origins. Being domesticated doesn’t mean you should abandon how she would live in the wild. Cats have evolved in the wild over millennia. They have been domesticated for a mere trifle in comparison.

This means that their nutritional and emotional needs remain identical to those of their forebears. In attempting to provide the best cat care means looking at these needs.

Lets look at their nutritional needs first.

Wild cats hunt on their own. They hunt small animals, sometimes up to about their own size, but mostly smaller than themselves. They rarely eat anything other than freshly killed meat.

Contrasting this with a typical domestic cat’s diet of dried pellets and you realise how off the mark commercial pet food is. Even if dried pellets were made with the best cuts of meat (which they aren’t), the meat is still not fresh or raw.

So, if you’re trying to provide the most complete cat care, what should you feed your cat?

In my opinion, the best cat food is raw meat and bones. You can’t completely duplicate a wild cat’s diet, but you can come so close as to not compromise her health. Cat care starts with food as this is consumed daily. Something done daily has much more impact on our health than say something that only happens once a year.

When a cat eats her prey, she will eat all the meat, including the bones. Bones are the best source of calcium for a cat. And meat can only be properly digested when it is consumed with bones. After all, all carnivores eat meat with bones.

Not only that, crunching up on bones is the best way of keeping her teeth and gums healthy, as long as they’re not too big. No dried pellets can do that as well, despite the promises on the label.

Some think that giving a cat raw meat will trigger their hunting instinct. In my experience, it does the exact opposite. Because raw meat is nutrient dense, your cat will be satisfied and won’t feel the need to supplement her diet as when fed a nutrient deficient diet.

Natural cat care also means providing your cat with her basic emotional and physical needs. Cats are intelligent and inquisitive. They need visual stimulation. This is best served by being outdoors, where nature provides an abundance of stimulation.

If it’s impossible or too dangerous to let your cat outside, do make sure she has access to safe stimulants, perhaps in the form of toys. Make sure you play with her to ensure she gets adequate exercise.

Sun is an important aspect of good cat care. Cats love the sun and it is essential to good health for all of us, not just your cat. Regular outdoor access will allow her to choose for herself. For confined cats, make sure there are times when you can open a window (safely) to allow the sun’s rays in, unhindered by glass or plastic.

Easy cat care really means allowing your cat the freedom she desires. Confining cats indoors is going against good animal husbandry,

I am also of the opinion that declawing cats is not only painfully inhumane, it deprives the cat of the natural joy of stretching. If you are considering declawing your cat, maybe you should also consider having a cat is not for you. Cats have already adapted a great deal to live with us. Putting them through an unnecessary, inhumane and painful operation is purely for your benefit, not your cats.

Cats provide us with an abundance affection, love and enjoyment. To provide even adequate cat care, we should at least do the same for them.

Cat Food - the Best, the Healthiest, the Most Nutritious

We humans have a capacity of extremes. There are those of us who are honest to the letter and there are those of us who are equally dishonest. Stress often plays an important part of being dishonest, especially for a struggling businessman desperately trying to provide for his family.

Then there are those who are just plain greedy and don’t care how they arrive at their fortune as long as they do.

Luckily, in most countries, there is now a system in place that ensures a basic (some might say very basic) standard that all manufacturers or suppliers of human food must meet.

Sadly this is either not the case for animal feed, or the standards are so low as to be useless.

So despite all the pretty advertising, all the logically convincing and reassuring words from your vet, chances are, if you’re feeding your cat a processed cat food, you’re directly contributing to her ill health.

The big brand names in cat food contribute financially to veterinary colleges, which explains why vets surgery reception areas are now piled high with these brands. But does it spell quality?

To find out we need to look at what’s in processed cat food. Most fresh meat goes for human consumption as more money can be made there. So pet food tends to get the dregs. Dregs can include meat meal or meat by-products (chicken feet, feathers, hair, skin, intestinal waste (poo to you and me), general slaughterhouse wastes), meat not considered safe (spoiled or toxic) or desirable for human consumption, fat, diseased carcasses (which may be far from fresh), including euthanised animals.

To bulk this out, low cost carbohydrates are used, which can include sugar, propylene glycol, leftover fast food, mouldy and rancid grain deemed unsuitable for human consumption, corn syrup, non-nutritive fillers such as sawdust or newspaper and so forth.

So the cat food starts out as low quality, too low in digestible protein essential to a cats well being, too high in fat, too high in carbohydrates and possibly poisonous - 100 Bald and Golden Eagles in North America have died recently from eating a euthanised animal.

Then the ‘food’ is cooked, usually at very high temperatures. Cooking destroys many nutrients which are essential for good health. Cats evolved by killing and eating their food instantly, showing that freshness is essential for a cats overall good health.

To address this, the cat food manufacturers add synthetic nutrients. Synthetic nutrients are isolated and not easily digested by anyone let alone your cat. So a label reassuringly boasting of a ‘nutritionally complete’ or ‘scientific’ diet are purposefully vague as neither are true. Unqualified claims are legally acceptable in most countries with their poor or non-existent pet food regulations.

As this resultant cat food doesn’t look very appealing, colour is added (Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 2), obviously for your benefit as I doubt your cat cares much about the colour of cat food.

Now, most processed food is in a dry or semi dry form. This means that you have to preserve the food to keep it. If you purchase any meat product that keeps longer than a couple of days in the fridge, you know it has preservative in.

Some common preservatives include disodium guanylate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (a very controversial synthetic vitamin K.), mixed-tocopherols (synthetic form of Vitamin E) and others considered unfit for human consumption.

All processed food is ‘dead’ food, with no life. Dead food is that which has been cooked, particularly at high temperature and for long periods.

So you might think that buying cat food direct from a pet food supplier or butcher might be the answer. A quality butcher I buy from once told me that most pet mince sold at butchers is all the excess fat they can’t use, mixed with beetroot juice. On further inspection of the pet mince in discussion, I didn’t doubt him.

I read recently of someone buying from a pet shop. As she walked up to the shop from the car park, she noticed a pickup truck loaded down with large boxes marked poultry. On closer inspection she saw they contained pre-packaged chicken pieces. Fresh chicken sitting in boxes, in the hot summer sun, not on ice, not in a refrigerated truck, but in the back of an open pick up truck waiting to be carried into the store for sale to consumers.

Cat Food Recipes - Quick, Easy, Nutritious

For years, I thought that the best cat food was bought from the supermarket, in tins, packets and boxes. After all, the labels said things like “scientifically proven” and “recommended by vets” and “low ash”, things that seemed to indicate to me the manufacturers knew what they were talking about.

I don’t doubt, that you do or perhaps did, feel the same.

It’s easier to assume the best if you have high demands on your time. And who hasn’t these days?

It was only when I started looking at a more holistic way of treatment, that I began to run into the idea that perhaps commercial pet food wasn’t the best way.

After all, the makers of such food are normal people trying to make their business pay. It’s tempting to cut corners. And the more corners you cut, the easier it becomes.

Now, you’re probably as concerned as I am about the lack of quality in commercial pet food. From the low grade meat, to the meat-by-products, to the high fat, to the synthetic nutrients, to the chemical preservatives. Even the cans aren’t safe, with BPA in the lining leaking into the food.

Really, the only way to ensure your family or your pet is getting proper nutrition is to make it yourself, from scratch.

And, of course, just as you and your family want variety, so too does your cat.

So you’re looking for some inspiring cat food recipes?

Ones that are quick to deliver after a hard day’s work?

Ones that are nutritious and balanced to ensure your cat’s ongoing good health?

Ones that don’t cost an arm and a leg?

Well, you’ve come to the right place!

When I adopted the idea of homemade cat food, I struggled with providing my cats with food they would eat and which was healthy. It took a lot of trial and error, but I got there in the end.

Now I know what the most nutritious cat food is, I know what cats like and I can vary the meals so they get something different every day of the week.

I thought others might like to learn from my experiences, rather than make their own mistakes. Why reinvent the wheel? This other has gone before and ironed out the wrinkles for you!

Cat food recipes must contain the essential meat that cats need, but just by varying one ingredient, you can create a difference that will stimulate your cats appetite.

And it’s just so easy!

OK, I admit, it’s not quite as easy as opening a can or box. But then, I’m guessing you’re looking beyond that, for quality and health enhancing nutrition.

Good quality homemade cat food recipes are fun to make, easy to do and ensures your cat’s optimum health.

The emphasis is on good quality.

I’ve read many different cat food recipes which really aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. It’s obvious that the writer hasn’t done any research into the dietary requirements of cats.

My cat food recipes are based on what I have researched, but also what holistic veterinarians are saying, as a body. They’re saying what really works, what diseases, often serious, melt away with a proper diet, made from good quality homemade cat food recipes.

Enjoy!

Why are Cat Health Problems on the Increase?

I remember, when I was a child, that our cats lived long and healthy lives. Twenty was common and thirty not unusual.

I also remember that trips to the veterinarian were rare.

And that our cats were often fed table scraps and raw meat and bones.

Cat health problems didn’t seem to be an issue.

Nowadays, it seems that cats barely live beyond ten.

And vet clinics are kept very busy by worried pet people.

Could there be a connection? A connection between frequent visits to the vet and cats dying young?

In my opinion, there is.

Let me explain, before you get hot under the collar about how good your vet is. (And yes, I do concede that there are good vets about, but they are few and far between and usually holistic.)

Veterinary schools are now partially financed by the top (and wealthy) commercial pet food industry corporations. They ‘educate’ the students how wonderful and nutritious their food is. You only have to look at the reception area of most vets, to know what I’m talking about. Packs and tins are piled high to the ceiling.

But, if the students did a bit of digging, they’d find that almost all commercial pet food is very far from healthy. So unhealthy, in fact, that it is killing your cat.

Some students do go digging and so reject the commercial pet food. Others comply with the industry and advocate its use widely. After all, look at the profit they make. It’s a double scoop.

Once for the purchase of the food.

And again for the consultations and drugs when your cat inevitably falls sick.

So what can you do about cat health problems?

Diet is crucial to a healthy life. The daily intake of low quality food (if you can call it that), poisonous preservatives (too toxic to comply with human food laws) and artificial nutrients (which aren’t easily absorbed) create havoc to your cat’s health.

The pretty labelling and fashionable words (natural, science, etc) have no substance. There are few, if any, laws in most countries, for the pet food industry. And what there are, are easily manipulated or side stepped.

Cat health problems has reached an all time high, because you’re not being told the truth. Like many other areas in your life, you’re being manipulated for profit. You only have to listen to the good (almost always holistic) vets to know that this is true.

Almost as a body they are claiming that serious feline diseases can be cured by a switch to a natural meat and bones diet. Diseases like hypertension, the so-called inevitable age related diseases, cystitis, dead mothers and babies, heart disease, tumours and cancer, hip dysplasia, skin and hair problems, renal problems, spinal myelopathy, feline leukaemia, this list goes on.

I do believe that there are other contributory factors to cat health problems, apart from diet. But as diet is daily consumed, I feel it is the major contributor by far.

Cat health problems can be resolved, not just prevented, by a switch to a diet more in keeping with how cats evolved.

Once the diet is addressed to one more in keeping with how a cat evolved (you can’t beat nature, even though we keep trying), the cat’s immune system comes up and they are much better equipped to deal with other damaging causes.