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Cat Diet

Cat Food:

Our pets require special foods to meet their nutritional needs.



Just as humans require their daily amount of nutrition, pets require theirs too. Cat food is specifically designed to meet the nutritional requirements of pet cats. Though animals are able to survive by eating leftovers and scraps and are even able to hunt for their own food, our pets hold a special place in our life and most people like to take care of their pets in the best manner possible.




Cats being primarily carnivorous, enjoy eating animal material. Most cat foods however contain both plant and animal matter in addition to added nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Cats require taurine, which is an amino acid derivative required to maintain the health of their eyes.



Normal home cooked food may not contain the optimum amount of taurine as required by our cats. Therefore, packaged cat foods contain added taurine which helps keep their eyes healthy and keeps them from going blind.
Just like dog food, cat food is also of two kinds. One is dry cat food and the other is the wet one. The dry food, which is vastly preferred over the wet canned food, is made of grain based proteins and animal byproducts. The dry foods are made by the method of extrusion and are after wards sprayed with artificial flavors and nutrients in order to increase both nutritional value and palatability.

The best cat foods, also known as premium cat foods, contain very little grain protein. In some of these premium foods, grain protein is completely absent. They however, contain large amounts of animal matter which makes them not only more nutritious and tastier but also more expensive. Since something is required to hold the shape of the dry food, the premium brands contain starches from tapioca and potato. Otherwise, the cats do not have any dietary need of carbohydrates as they synthesize glucose from ingested protein.

Dry cat food is much preferred over the canned one because the dry food is easy to store and lasts longer than the wet cat food. However, since the dry food is sprayed on with taste enhancers like fat, they do have a danger of turning rancid and therefore distasteful. These days there has been an increasing incidence of cats becoming obese because of which it is important to keep a check on the cat’s diet. A lot of people are in fact switching to organic cat food which contains no additives and chemicals and can be easily assimilated into the cat’s body.

 
  Submitted on July 13, 2010