Pets - an integral part of our lives. Their health and emotional state directly depend on what they eat. What is cat food so popular now being made of? How to feed them fluffy friends? We will answer these questions in detail.
A bit of history
The manufacture of pet food dates back to 1860. Then a simple American electrician by the name of Spratt invented a dog pie, which consisted of wheat, vegetables and beef blood.
Probably, from these times the myth that all cat and dog food is made of garbage: horns and hooves, as well as sawdust or soy (at best), has gone.
Now the variety of multi-colored bags allows you to choose for your favorite and pate, and jelly, and pieces in the sauce.
What is a natural cat diet?
Affectionate domestic cats are predators by nature. They are not suitable borscht and cucumbers as feed. The digestive system of tailed pets practically does not digest such food.
In order for the cat to please its owners with health and playful disposition, it needs to get high-quality protein every day. Meat, fish, offal should be the basis of the diet of any normal cat and cat. In addition, sources of vitamins are important for them. And these are vegetables, cereals and vegetable oils.
All this is quite difficult to give your pet to the day. When feeding with a normal meal, you will have to cook not only for a family, but also for a cat or a cat.
To facilitate the work of loving owners, and was invented wet cat food, which provides the animal with all the necessary substances.
What are they doing and how?
For the production of wet cat food, mainly by-products are used: liver, kidney, and lung. But the meat in the composition is not the cheapest feed necessarily present. Soy is added to cheaper options to replace expensive meat components.
In order to know the composition for sure, you should first read it on the packaging. However, many manufacturers hide the real facts of the presence of certain ingredients in the cat food.
It is believed that addictive psychoactive substance is added to many wet foods. Is this information true or is it just a “duck” launched by competitors, no one really knows.
The great advantage of wet food is that they add various vitamins and minerals. Lack of them in the diet of a cat can cause diseases. When feeding with natural food, it is almost impossible to choose a balanced diet so that it meets all the needs of the animal.
Wet food is made commercially. To do this, they grind meat and soy mass together in huge meat grinders. After the stuffing is passed through the holes to form sausages. They are cut into small pieces and then mixed with the sauce. After packaging, the feed is sterilized and packaged.
Rating
All wet canned food for cats can be divided into four classes: economy, premium, super-premium and holistic. It is clear that the content of meat in them increases in ascending order. But not all cat lovers can afford anything other than an economy class.
Popular brands of canned economy class: Kitekat, Whiskas, Night Hunter, Felix.
If we talk about the best wet food among the most budgetary options, then the “Night Hunter” is leading in terms of protein content, which is not surprising."Felix" - in second place.
In the premium segment, brands like “Sheba”, “Proplan”, “Gourmet”, “Royal Canin”, “Brit”. In “Sheba”, “Proplan” and “Brit” approximately the same protein content is 30–34%.
Super premium class is such feeds as Pronature Original, Gina, Bozita and others. If you choose them for your pet, then you can not be afraid of miscalculation - they are all about the same in composition and availability of nutrients.
The best feed of the holistic segment is Innova, Acana, Almo Nature, Farmina N & D, Pronature Holistic, Orijen. They are very expensive and contain a large percentage of meat in the composition.
How much to give per day?
Firstly, it is better to choose a cat food of the same brand and not to experiment further.
There is no need for a pet to have a constant change of food, since its stomach and intestines can negatively perceive such an experiment.
Secondly, to pick up the daily amount of such food to your cat, you need to check with the instructions on the pack. For example, for an average-sized cat weighing 3–4 kg, 3–4 sachets of 80 gram each are needed. And pregnant fluffy darling need 5 bags already.
Newly born pet need to be given special food for kittens. It is more high-calorie, and its pieces are smaller than regular ones. Each pack also has a recommended daily dose.
Wet food should not be immediately all spread in a bowl. It should be heated in small portions to room temperature, and an open jar or bag should be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a day. The unfinished food should be immediately removed to the fridge, as the pathogenic bacteria multiply very quickly in it.
How to wean the cat to eat wet food?
The owners do not always want a long time to feed their pets with liquid canned food. If there is a need to transfer the cat to regular food, then you need to act according to a special algorithm.
- Give more water. To remove various supplements from the body of a furry friend, he needs to drink more. This will be the first step in the right direction.
- Gradually mix in regular food. Let the porridge at first be 30%, and the remaining 70% - the usual food. Then the percentage of normal food should be gradually increased.
- Add vitamins to the diet. They are usually added to wet food, so when transferring to regular food, vitamins and minerals are best left as special supplements that can be bought at any veterinary store.
- Grow cat greens. All cats love to eat fresh cat grass. Grow it in a pot or even in wet gauze is not difficult at all. A pet will be satisfied and will experience less stress from the change in the usual diet.
See below for details on wet food.
