Finding the right food for your cat can be a real challenge, particularly if you haven’t owned a cat before! With so many different foods and brands available to purchase it can be confusing and difficult to work out exactly what is best for your cat. First and foremost it’s important for you to understand… Read more »
Finding the right food for your cat can be a real challenge, particularly if you haven’t owned a cat before!
With so many different foods and brands available to purchase it can be confusing and difficult to work out exactly what is best for your cat.
First and foremost it’s important for you to understand what cats would eat out in the wild so you can best replicate that at home.
Cats are carnivores and thrive when eating a meat based diet.
Traditionally, out in the wild, cats would hunt alone and being quite little animals themselves they would only be able to catch a much smaller animal, for example a mouse.
This would be a very tiny meal, consisting of only about 30 kilocalories. This would mean that cats would need to catch a total of around ten mice a day to meet all their daily nutritional requirements!
“Little and often” is a phrase usually used at Veterinary Clinics when used to describe the best way to feed your cat, however as owners simply leaving handfuls of biscuits in a cats bowl for them to snack on throughout the day isn’t necessarily ideal either.
If cats have food readily available to them throughout the day they can fall into the trap of over-eating and if they don’t need to exhaust themselves physically to get their meal (a short walk to their cat bowl isn’t much of an exercise routine!) they can become over-weight.
We have a few suggestions on how best to feed your cat, helping stimulate them both physically and mentally, whilst also providing them with all the important nutrients their body needs.
- Invest in something like a cat food maze! They can be excellent stimulation for your cat, making them work a bit harder for their food which can mean meal times aren’t quite as easy as they used to be! Have a little search online and see what you can find! There are many different options, varying in price so we are sure you will find something that works for you!
- Discuss with your vet what brand of cat food they would recommend. Your vet will have a good understanding of your cat’s age, weight and dental health and so they will be able to give you advice on the most suitable diet.
- Be patient! Like humans, cat’s tastes can evolve and change throughout the years so it’s important to be aware as a pet owner it is our responsibility to work with our pet rather than forcing them to eat food they don’t like.
