Hi everyone. Just a little heads up on pet nutrition. What you feed your pet can effect it’s health and well being. You’d be surprised what’s really in your Dog or Cat’s food. I see so many pets with allergies (usually from wheat, corn, or soy) and poor skin and coat and it’s usually all because of their diet.
Your best foods to feed your pets are that human grade or organic foods. The ingredients and the quality of the ingredients matter! You wouldn’t eat junk food everyday for every meal so don’t feed it to your kitty.
When you see chicken, beef, etc. on a non human grade food that meat came from an animal that was denied for human consumption. Which means it was either DISABLED, DISEASED, DYING, OR DEAD (known as the 4D’s). Now I don’t know about you but I would not feed my pets something like that. Also we see by-products. These are parts of the animal that are considered inedible such as beaks, feet, necks, intestines, etc.. Also several foods are full of fillers such as corn. Dogs and cats can not digest this…
Most people’s concern about switching foods is the cost. Don’t let price fool you. You end up spending more on your grocery store food in the long run. Here’s why. In your lower grade foods they are full of fillers. Therefore your pet must eat much more food to digest the amount of nutrients they need. Which equals more food and more waste. In your high quality foods the pet will eat less to become satisfied. Also they digest more of there foods which means less food and yes smaller poops! It’s true!
I used to feed my pets a medium grade food before I found out more about pet nutrition. One of mys dogs suffered from skin allergies, bad dander, and would even chew her tail until the fur would fall off. I switched to a human grade high quality food and within a month my dogs’ coats became shiny and dander free. My dog would no longer scratch or chew her tail. Now all the hair that was missing on her tail grew back and her coat is softer than ever! Also the size of their waste is almost 2/3 smaller.

Lets help our pets stay healthy. Find a human grade food with no wheat, corn, soy, artificial flavors or colors, no preservatives, gluten-free, and no by-products! Go ahead read what’s on the label of your pets food.

I have read some things about this, but I was wondering what foods you might recommend for a cat? Or what foods everyone else might recommend?

I am not sure about making my own cat foods, but I am trying to find the healthiest foods vs. price that I can get, and would like some suggestions.

Thanks!

I know that feeding your cat gluten & corn is bad, and so is most dry cat food.  I have chosen to feed my cat raw gizzards, chicken necks (uncooked), Wellness brand packets & canned kitty food (no wheat gluten or corn), and sometimes Meow Mix Wholesome Goodness… but that one isnt that good.  I just try and offer different kids of food to my kitten, so she doesnt get picky.  Just like my 2 year old!

I spend about 60-75 cents per day on organic healthy cat food for my kitten.  Not too bad!  Even less when I pick up a huge packet of chicken gizzards at the grocery store!

I agree that nutrition is incredibly important for our companion animals, as well as ourselves.  However, it’s often difficult to decipher various claims.  We have a tendency in our culture to make foods into poisons.

There’s the current hype about “grain free” foods, but let’s also remember that our cats who are carnivores do eat prey species that contain carbohydrates.  If you analyze prey species of cats (typically rodents, bird and lizards), they are generally less than seven percent carbohydrate.

So, I recommend that my clients feed a low-carb diet, predominantly or exclusively canned that can be augmented with cooked poultry meats.  As far as dry foods, the lowest carb dry food on the market is Evo by Naturapet, which is about eight percent carbohydrate.

To get you started, there’s an excellent website, Janet and Binky’s List, that has a listing of the protein, fat, carbohydrate and calorie contents of canned and dry foods :  http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/canfood.html

I’m often asked by clients to look at various cat foods and am surprised that some “holistic” brands contain blueberries, mushrooms, etc.  These were never part of the cat’s normal diet.

Canned foods I recommend include Wellness, Evo, Fancy Feast and I also like Nature’s Variety organic raw frozen diet served lightly cooked (three medallions on HI in the microwave for 45 seconds). 

If you want to homecook for your cat, an excellent website is http://www.balanceit.com, which will provide a balanced, home-cooked diet for cats for a small fee ($20).

Michele Gaspar,DVM, DABVP (Feline)