HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES

Trying to provide a healthy diet can be difficult for the average pet owner who depends on the pet food industry to provide them with accurate nutritional information. To date there are few, if any, regulations put on the pet food industries on what they are allowed to put into our pet foods. Many ingredients used are just cheap fillers with no nutritional value and can cause more harm than good. Many ingredients are by-products that are deemed non-fit for human consumption, which means they also non-fit for animal consumption.

Many skin conditions, behaviour problems and other health concerns can be linked directly to poor diet. Kidney failure, liver damage, diabetes, dental problems, allergic reactions are becoming all too common.

Cats are obligate carnivores, which means that they require protein from quality muscle meat to maintain optimum health.

Reducing the risk of Struvite Urinary Crystals

Urinary crystals are caused by poor quality diets. Foods made with plant food (grains) as a main ingredient create alkaline urine. When magnesium is added, it will react in the alkaline urine and form crystals. Many preventative foods have reduced the amount of magnesium to prevent this reaction. Magnesium is an essential nutritional ingredient that helps maintain the nervous system. Research shows foods with grain as the main ingredient can result in kidney damage. Foods made with muscle meat as the main ingredient create acid urine. When magnesium is added, it does not precipitate into crystals. Adding cranberry powder to the diet will help maintian a healthy urinary tract. There are products on the market for pets that will provide the proper doseage amount per weight.

Urinary infections can be caused by bacteria, or stress. A common source of bacteria comes from using plastic food and water bowls, so avoid plastic and use stainless steel, porcelin, or glass. It is not uncommon for cats to have an allergic reaction to plastic. Provide lots of fresh purified water and avoid tap water.

What is the best food to feed?
There is no perfect man-made food that will provide your obligate carnivore with all the necessary nutrients. Dry kibble is nothing more than convenient junk food for us to feed our cats. Feeding a combination of more than one food will help to provide better nutrition.

Find a quality base food and blend in two or three other quality foods on a rotating basis. Your cat will require smaller portions of quality food and even though you will pay per bag for quality food, you will pay less per serving.

Look for foods that have several sources of human grade meat as main ingredients. Avoid foods that have grains and by-products as the first or second ingredient- you want those as far down the list as possible.

Feed quality canned foods daily and/or supplement the diet with a variety of raw ground meat that has been frozen in serving portions for at least a week and thawed over night in the fridge. There are good books available making home-cooked meals for your pets.
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