Should I feed my cat dry food or is homemade food healthier? Why are dry foods harmful?

Today, dry food is perhaps the most common food for cats. It can be found not only in any pet store, but also in the vast majority of supermarkets. But many people are concerned about the question: is it really worth feeding your cat dry food? Let's try to figure this out together with the specialists of the Murkosha shelter.

1) Which is more natural - dry food or food from the table 2) Classes of food 3) Advantages of dry food 4) Accustoming your pet to dry food 5) Let's summarize

How to feed dry food to a pregnant cat

It is recommended to feed a pregnant cat dry food intended for kittens. This statement is based on the fact that during the period of bearing kittens, the female should receive a large amount of calories and protein components.

They can only be found in food for small kittens. A correctly selected diet for a pregnant cat will allow small kittens to adapt more quickly after switching from mother's milk to solid food.

The amount of dry food consumed by a pregnant cat increases as the kittens grow in the womb. On average, pregnant cats at the end of gestation eat 50% more than their standard daily amount.

In order to transition your cat to a new food as smoothly as possible, it is necessary to gradually increase the new type of food over the course of a week, correspondingly reducing the old food.

It is important that a pregnant cat has free access to fresh water and food.

Pregnant cats eat often, but in small portions. A specialist will tell you after an examination and consultation how to properly feed your cat dry food while bearing kittens.

Your pet may need to add vitamins and minerals to its diet. It is recommended to feed your cat kitten food for the first 4-8 weeks after giving birth. This is due to the fact that the female is the only source of nutrition for newborns.

Find out also what and how to feed a one-month-old kitten >>>

And yet, yes or no?

As a result, we will answer the question once again and briefly emphasize the most important points.

1. Any cat, starting from the age of several months, can be transferred completely to dry food, supplementing it with plenty of clean drinking water.
2. It is better to avoid the cheapest dry food: it is not beneficial and can cause many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, and the flavorings it contains can cause allergies.
3. If your pet's health is really important to you, then it is better to purchase food in at least the average price range - they will not cause harm.
4. It is best to choose the type and taste of food taking into account the recommendations given on the packaging. That is, if the manufacturer says that this is food for kittens, it will not be suitable for an adult cat in terms of the balance of composition, although it may well like the taste.
5. If you are in doubt about constantly feeding your pet only “crunchies”, some of them can be replaced with liquid food from the same manufacturer.
6. When feeding, follow the recommendations on the package. They are always compiled taking into account the calorie content and composition of the mixture.

By following these simple rules, you can prolong the life of your furry friend and significantly reduce the risk of various diseases.

Feeding a cat with kidney failure dry food

Feeding a cat with kidney failure is necessary with special types of food - holistic. They allow you to reduce the amount of protein and urea in the body, reducing the load on the kidney structures.

The basis of feed for kidney failure is corn grits and soy protein. Feeding a cat with chronic kidney failure leads to the onset of intoxication as a result of incomplete removal of protein breakdown products.

The nutritional and energy value of this type of food is due to the vitamin and mineral complexes contained in corn flour, sugar beet pulp, fish oil and chicken extract. It is recommended to feed a cat with this food so that it gains weight if it is underweight or exhausted.

Natural food

If the owners decide not to use food, but to prepare food for their pet themselves, then they need to know that it differs from “human food”. It should not contain spices, salt, oils and other components familiar to people. Self-preparing food for your animal, rich in vitamins, increases your pet’s life expectancy by 30% when compared with cats eating dry food. The main disadvantage of the method is the complexity of preparation and the fragility of the feed.

To prepare natural food for cats, use: beef, poultry, oatmeal, vegetables. Soups are prepared using meat broth. By-products can be given raw, but they should be pre-treated with boiling water and chopped. To prevent your cat from becoming constipated from natural food, you need to dilute the diet with vegetables and cereals. You should not feed your animal fish, especially if you have urolithiasis. It is better to mix milk with water or remove it from the cat's menu, as it can cause diarrhea. Also, you should not give foods that contain bones; they can get stuck in the throat or injure the mucous membrane. Chicken skin has a bad effect on the stomach; it can stay in it for a long time without being digested, and fatty pork can cause upset. Feeding an animal warm food irritates the mucous membrane less than cold food.

Feeding a cat with dry food for pancreatitis

Inflammatory processes in the pancreas require immediate treatment with medications and special diets.

In the acute phase, it is necessary to feed a cat with pancreatitis fully, preventing exhaustion of the body, which is often diagnosed with inflammation.

The composition of dietary food for pancreatitis includes proteins from chicken meat, fish oil, egg powder, a complex of vitamins and minerals, as well as plant extracts of medicinal plants.

Thanks to its enriched composition, the food is able to neutralize the negative effects of the internal secretions of the liver structures and the pancreas itself. In addition, high-quality food from the medicinal line, intended for cats with inflammation of the pancreas, promotes the rapid healing of tissue structures in the intestines, irritated as a result of the action of enzymes.

How to plan a diet correctly?

The cat can be fed mixed, using natural food and food at the same time. But this method is considered the worst. You should not mix natural food with wet or dry food, except in cases of transferring the animal to another type of food. The animal’s body gets used to a certain feeding option and produces the necessary enzymes for breakdown. You can mix dry and wet food, but preferably the same brand.

So, whether dry cat food is harmful for cats depends on the brand and its composition. For your animal’s diet, it is better to use premium products that contain meat rather than food waste, or prepare natural food yourself. You can combine meals, but with extreme caution. In any case, you should not save, as this affects the cat’s health.

Dry cat food for gastritis

Inflammation of the stomach in cats is common in the practice of veterinarians.

It is recommended to feed a cat with gastritis ready-made dry food in order to reduce the increased secretion of gastric juice.

Cat food for gastritis contains a large amount of easily digestible fiber and is low in protein and fat. It is proteins that provoke increased secretion of gastric juice, and fats that slow down the possibility of a food coma moving from the stomach to the intestinal tract.

In addition to the main nutrients, granulated or wet ready-made food for gastritis includes prebiotics, rice and beet pulp. And also acids - eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic, which play a special role in normalizing the condition of the digestive tract.

It is not recommended to feed your pet only wet food, as this can negatively affect the water-salt balance, and there is also a risk of developing dental diseases if there is insufficient load on them when chewing food.

Meat, fish, milk for cats: natural diet

Feeding your cat natural foods requires some knowledge.

Meat is the most important component of a cat's diet. It is recommended to feed it to your pet raw (to prevent invasive diseases, it is better to freeze the meat). Give cats lean beef, lamb, horse meat, and rabbit meat. It is not recommended to feed your pets pork. Poultry meat can be given after removing the skin.

By-products can also be included in a cat's diet, but they should not completely replace meat, as they have less nutritional value. Heart, kidneys, liver and other offal are given to cats raw or cooked.

In case of individual intolerance to any type of offal, manifested in stool upset or vomiting, it is completely excluded from the diet.

It is advisable to give your cat sea or ocean fish, which must be frozen. It is recommended to include it in the diet 2-3 times a week, replacing meat or offal. It is impossible to completely replace meat with fish in a cat’s diet - this can lead to a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1).

Raw fish can be given either as fillets or with small bones. If you want to feed your pet boiled fish, be sure to remove all the bones first. It is not advisable to feed your cat fatty fish, pollock. River and pond fish can be given only after thorough heat treatment.

Dairy products should also be included in your pet's diet, as they are a source of protein and calcium. Cats usually do not tolerate fresh milk well, so it is better to give them low-fat fermented milk products: cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt. Meat and dairy products should not be mixed.

Vegetables and grains are a source of fiber and vitamins. Vegetables should be given raw, finely chopped or grated, separately or mixed with meat or fish.

Buckwheat, wheat groats and rice should first be boiled in water and mixed with meat or fish. It is not recommended to give legumes and oatmeal to cats. Many experts advise including bran in a cat's diet.

Overeating is just as dangerous for cats as it is for people. It leads to digestive problems and obesity.

Cat and dog in the house

Domestic cats and dogs get along well together. But when feeding your pets with dry food, problems may arise, since “drying” for cats and dogs differs significantly in composition, taking into account the peculiarities of their physiology.

The cat's food is placed on a raised surface, making it inaccessible to the dog. With dry dog ​​food the situation is more complicated.

I want to, but I can’t

Cats are ubiquitous and prone to theft; dry dog ​​food has an attractive smell for them, but is unsuitable for the cat tribe for the following reasons:

• contains few fatty acids;
• there is no essential amino acid taurine, which is responsible for visual acuity and the health of the nervous system;
• there is no egg white, which is good for cat hair and joints;
• the composition contains grains that are harmful to cat digestion;
• insufficient amount of protein.

Friendship is friendship, but food is apart

The insidiousness of dog food for cats is that the disastrous results become noticeable only after a few months. In this case, the following are possible:

• impaired visual acuity;
• development of joint disease;
• the appearance of urolithiasis and cystitis.

The situation can be aggravated by mixing cat and dog diets, which require a different set of enzymes to digest.

Which food to choose

The shelves of cat food stores 2021 are lined with many packages of dry food from different manufacturers, and online stores are full of photos of food, but the choice of food must be approached with all responsibility. Reviews from veterinarians will tell you which dry cat food is best.

Many companies that produce quality products offer separate foods adapted for feeding castrates, kittens, sick cats, and so on. That is why, when choosing food, it is important to take into account all the nuances, as well as know what the difference is between different classes of food and study the rating of dry cat food.

Economy class

If the owner loves his pet and wants to keep him healthy, he needs to stop feeding economy class dry food. All economy class cat food products are of very poor quality and are not suitable for feeding several times a day.

As a rule, the composition of such food will not please the cat with meat, but will offer it processed meat waste and a high percentage of grains and various harmful substances, which give the product an attractive appearance and aromatic smell. For economy class, this attitude to quality is the norm. These same substances are highly addictive, which subsequently interferes with the transition to a healthier diet.

The most advertised economy class foods are represented by the following brands: Kitekat, Whiskas, Friskies, Felix, Perfect Fit, Darling and other brands. However, you shouldn’t be fooled by cute photos of kittens on cheap packaging. Expensive food shows the same beautiful photos, but the quality of the product turns out to be much higher.

Premium class

The line between economy class and premium class is quite thin, but in the second case, along with a slight increase in price, the quality of the product also increases. IN

The composition of premium dry food for cats still includes many preservatives and other not very useful substances, however, the proportion of meat content in the product is slightly higher than that of economy class food.

Among the manufacturers of premium dry food, the following companies are known: ProPlan food (produced by Purina), Eukanuba, Brit food, Royal Canin, Hills, etc.

Despite the fact that Royal Canin and Hills are usually classified as super-premium cat food for the presence of a line of medicinal food, today not all veterinarians recommend feeding their pets Hills or Royal Canin, because they began to be produced in Russia, which is not the best way affects the quality of the product.

Super premium class

To the question “What is the best dry cat food according to veterinarians?” we can answer one thing - this is super-premium or holistic food.

Super-premium dry food is made only from high-quality ingredients and contains practically no substances harmful to the health of the cat.

A significant advantage of this category is that many manufacturers have specialized lines of food for different groups of cats.

For example, some companies produce dry food for sterilized cats, for kittens, for older cats, as well as a medicinal line of food for cats with various diseases.

Manufacturers of super premium dry food include the following manufacturers: ProNatur Holistic, Arden Grange, Royal Canin (Royal Canin medicinal line), Hills (Hills medicinal dry food line) and others.

Pros and cons of feeding pellets

Positive sides

• Balanced diet.
• Supply of essential nutrients.
• No need to waste time cooking.
• The shelf life in most cases is 1 year.
• Saving money.

What are the disadvantages?

• Lack of water in granules.
• The formation of plaque and tartar on the teeth is possible.
• Poor quality food contains a large amount of carbohydrates.
• Adding flavorings characteristic of a bad manufacturer.

Carbohydrates

It is impossible to make dry food without using carbohydrate components, because without them it will not be possible to create the dense mince that makes up each granule of food. Another question is that technologically there are not so many sources of carbohydrates required, and if the feed consists mainly of them, then the manufacturer simply decided to save money. Most often, wheat is used for this purpose, which is the most difficult for cats to digest and in large quantities contributes to excess weight gain and can even cause the development of diabetes. It is best to avoid this component in feed.

Supplements

Dry food must contain sources of fiber - plant fibers that are not absorbed by the body, but are necessary for intestinal motility. Supplements in the form of vegetables, fruits and berries are good sources of fiber, although some foods also contain cheap cellulose, which is too rough for a cat's intestines.

An important and useful addition to the diet are probiotics and prebiotics, which have a beneficial effect on digestion, Yucca Schidigera extract, which reduces the odor of excrement, and fennel, which reduces gas formation.

Convenient food bowl

Next, you need to make sure that the bowl is comfortable for your pet. A classic mistake is to feed your cat from a “human” plate or salad bowl. You also need to be careful with bowls that are too deep and narrow: your pet’s muzzle will, of course, fit in there, but its whiskers will touch the edges. Some cats are so unnerved by this that they completely refuse to eat.