I’ve gleaned some guidelines from
various places for this post. I’ve listed my sources at the bottom if you’re
interested.
Since I always wondered if I was feeding
my cats right, I thought I’d do some research and see if I could come up with
the proper way. Turns out, this depends entirely on how old your cat is.
First cat to consider, the one from a
shelter. They haven’t been starved, most likely, but they also haven’t been
overfed. There might be a tendency for you to overfeed once you’ve rescued your
little darling, but resist! Twice a day is plenty.
WebMD does not recommend dry food, but
we haven’t had problems with it for most of our cats. This site also stresses
that enough water is always available. The Cornell University site is not
against dry food, saying that some cats prefer it. Some dislike it, and some
like a mixture of dry and canned.
Everyone is against homemade cat food. They
need a specific, delicate balance of nutrients, and the cat food manufacturers
take care to achieve that.
Also, each cat is different. While the
guidelines below and elsewhere are good, you’ll probably want to tailor each
cat’s diet to her individual quirks.
Kittens. You should look for cat food
specifically for kittens since they need lots of protein, fatty acids, and
minerals, plus more calories than adults. Most experts disapprove of grazing,
saying to leave the bowl down only until kitty is finished, then picking it up.
Adult cats, one year old. They can still
be fed twice a day, but now you need to buy adult cat food. To transition, of
course, you can mix the kitten food, using less and less of it over a couple of
weeks.
Senior cats, over 8. Now it gets tricky.
These kitties are slowing down and need senior food, or just enough to maintain
weight and not increase it.
All cats! They need protein. Food with
grain added is fine unless yours has an allergy. As cats age, they also may
develop problems with kidneys or thyroid and require a special diet for that.
Don’t ever put your cat on a vegetarian diet! They’re not people, actually,
they’re meat eaters.
I always have fed my cats side by side,
but this is not recommended by the Cat Fancy article. Our sons cats cannot be
fed this way, or one would be obese and the other starving. I think you should
play this one by ear, depending on how your cats act.
Although I write the FAT CAT series, I
don’t recommend that you try to fatten up your cat! Overfeeding is the number
one mistake cat owners make. If your cat isn’t a working barn cat, he doesn’t
need a lot of calories as an adult. Sometimes you can’t prevent a few extra
ounces (or even a pound or two), but let’s not TRY to have fat cats.
Cat Fancy magazine September 2014
photos
from
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