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Read The Label

thecatsmeowffx

Picking the right cat food for your kitty can be daunting. You want to feed nutritious food. You want the food to be affordable maybe even convenient. There are 100’s of choices with each company claiming their food is the best, most nutritious. The best thing you can do is educate yourself on cat food labels. I’ll provide you with examples of the bad and good.


Cats are obligate carnivores. This means that cats need a protein to survive. Protein is the most important ingredient in a cat’s diet. A named protein, such as chicken, beef or turkey, should be the first ingredient listed on the ingredient panel. At a minimum cat food should have at least 30% protein. Something to look for is the word “by-product “ . If you see that in the ingredient list it is bad. By-product is another word for slaughter house trash. It is not human grade. If you see organ meat, that is good. Heart, liver, spleen, lung are all very good ingredients. Taurine is also a very important ingredient. Cats need amino acid taurine. Cats can only get taurine from their diet. Taurine is found in meat, especially in heart and liver. Cats also need good fats, Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids: linoleic acid, DHA and arachidonic acid. Animal based fats are more beneficial than plant based. Salmon oil and chicken fat are the most common. No more than 10% is a good amount in the food. Cats have no nutritional requirements for carbohydrates. A very small amount of digestible carbs is ok but not necessary. Bad carbs or grains in food are: corn, corn gluten meal, rice, oats and wheat or wheat gluten meal. It’s best to get fiber from other sources such as fruits and vegetables. Pumpkin, peas, green beans, spinach, celery and beetroot are examples of good ingredients in cat food. Salt is a necessary ingredient in cat food. If you see salt on the list that is ok.


You should avoid at all costs foods that contain artificial colors, artificial flavors and synthetic preservatives and all artificial additives. BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin and propylene glycol, red 40, yellow 5, blue 2 are some examples of bad artificial additives. Another ingredient to avoid is added sugar. In cat food sugar shows up as corn syrup, this is a bad ingredient. Below is a photo of an ingredient list from a popular cat food brand. There is nothing remotely healthy or beneficial to your cat listed. This is an example of very bad, low quality cat food.



The next photo is an example of a near perfect cat food.

The differences in the food labels is quite obvious. The top one is mostly fillers, artificial ingredients, and 4D meat. The bottom one is natural ingredients with no artificial ingredients.


Another thing to look for on your cat food packaging is whether it says human grade ingredients versus not suitable for human consumption. Many pet food companies use 4D meat. 4D meat is defined as, diseased, dying, disabled or dead before processing. It could be expired meat, euthanized animals, slaughter house floor scraps. It is not legal however it is also not enforced so many pet food companies list the 4D ingredients as: poultry meal, meat and bone meal, meat byproducts, animal digest or any unspecified animal source.


The bottom line is, read the labels on your cat food. Do your research and learn about the different ingredients. You want a happy healthy cat. Feed them so they thrive.






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