This is how to ensure species-appropriate and healthy cat nutrition.

With 5 Tips for Species-Appropriate and Healthy Cat Nutrition - Here's How!

Your furry friend is not just your pet. She is your heroine on four paws, always purring by your side and making your life much more beautiful. No wonder you want to provide her with the right and species-appropriate nutrition from the very beginning - after all, feeding cats lays the foundation for a healthy and long life. Uh, we mean of course: for 7 long cat lives. For this, we give you 5 helpful tips on healthy and species-appropriate cat food and the way of feeding.

How do I feed my cat appropriately?

1. The Quality of Ingredients

If you want to feed your cat healthily and appropriately, it must first be clarified how →healthy cat food is actually composed. The quality of the ingredients plays a major role - and often the list of components in the food is so long that it is hard to keep track. Look for food that contains exclusively high-quality raw materials.

There are also some ingredients that should immediately make you alert. If the label states "animal by-products," what does that actually mean? This includes, among other things: claws & horns, fur & feathers, intestines & bladder, aged meat, meat from wild accidents, offal, waste from the food industry (e.g., food whose expiration date has passed). So when we talk about quality, we agree that the majority of such by-products have no place in healthy cat food.

Feel free to take a look at the ingredient list of our Pets Deli "Gourmet Pâté" and compare it with conventional cat food:

From this example, you can already see how it is with quality in cat food: vague declarations, low meat content, and above all one thing: sugar.

Is your house tiger rather a little gourmet? Every cat has an individual taste when it comes to the consistency of the food. Whether juicy fillet, plenty of sauce, or rather as a delicate mousse? Let your furry friend decide!

2. What belongs in species-appropriate and healthy cat food

You just saw that unhealthy additives like sugar, grains, and artificial color and flavoring agents should not be included in cat food. In addition to the quality of the ingredients, the actual components also play a role. Since cats are so-called obligate carnivores (meat eaters), the necessary main ingredient is self-evident: meat. Cats can only digest carbohydrates to a limited extent.

While one can still talk about →vegetarian alternatives in →healthy dog nutrition, it is in the nature of cats that they primarily feed on meat. Essential vitamins and amino acids (like taurine), which the body cannot produce itself, are obtained by our furry friends from meat. A →high meat content in the food is therefore a good indicator of a species-appropriate and healthy composition.

In addition to animal proteins, which make up the largest tier in the nutrition pyramid for cats, fats, fibers, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins are also included. Thus, ingredients like oils, optionally fruits or vegetables, and herbs belong in your furry friend's food.

Healthy food has never been so delicious! Grains, sugar, gimmicks? You will look in vain for those with us. Whether Pets Deli wet food, dry food, or BARF: We bring your favorite joy in the bowl!

3. The Right Feeding Method for Species-Appropriate Cat Nutrition

When answering the question of what species-appropriate and healthy cat food looks like, the →method of feeding is also relevant. In addition to wet food and dry food, there is also the so-called BARF and the option to cook cat food yourself. But which feeding method is right for your cat?

If you want to swing the cooking spoon yourself and cook for your cat, you should not do so without the necessary information. Get advice from trusted veterinary nutritionists about necessary additives of minerals and vitamins. An optimally balanced and planned menu represents a healthy form of cat nutrition, but it requires a lot of time for preparation as well as knowledge acquisition and carries the risk of under- or over-supply.

4. How often and how much should cats be fed?

Just put dry food in a bowl and your furry friend can help herself whenever she feels like it? While you can always provide your cat with a small "snack bowl," it is better to have multiple meals spread throughout the day. Unfortunately, the satiation feeling in house cats does not work as well as in wild cats, and some furry friends might indulge all day long. "Cats always know how much they need to eat" can thus be treated as a →fallacy in your feeding.

If your cat helps herself to her food when she wants and gets through the day well, you can certainly handle it that way. However, with wet food and BARF, it is important that food leftovers should not be left out throughout the day for hygiene reasons. Additionally, cats in the wild catch their prey fresh and are not scavengers. Many cats then recognize "stale" food as carrion and therefore do not eat it - a fresh portion is needed.

Keyword fresh...

In this case, the food must be portioned out. To do this, simply take the →feeding recommendations of the food, which amount your house tiger needs per day, and divide it by the desired number of meals. It is advisable to have at least two meals, but preferably 4-6 spread throughout the day - as many small meals correspond to the natural feeding behavior of cats.

5. Species-Appropriate Cat Nutrition Tailored to Age

You have found the optimal and healthy food for your cat and would like to feed it from young to old? Caution, as cats have different needs depending on their age.

When it comes to the →healthy nutrition of kittens, it is important to pay attention to suitable →junior food that is tailored to the needs of young cats and contains higher levels of proteins and nutrients.

The following →adult food from 12 months contains no increased protein content anymore, as your furry friend is fully grown and otherwise there would be an over-supply if the junior food were continued.

If your furry friend is already older and a true house senior, it is time to choose a →senior food. If you notice that your cat is less active in old age, she needs food with a higher content of vitamins and minerals and a →special diet for older cats. Additionally, the phosphate content is lower and the fiber content is higher, which is important for intestinal and kidney function.

My cat won't eat and refuses all food - what can I do?

If your beloved four-legged friend no longer touches her bowl and →refuses food, you are surely worried that she is not feeling well. If a veterinary examination has confirmed that your cat is not sick, but "just" picky and therefore not eating, so-called acceptance boosters like our →Acceptance Booster or the →switch to another food can help.

You have chosen the best food for your cat, and the little one shows no signs of warming up to it? Unfortunately, the sugar contained in conventional food is attractive to cats. Our house tigers do not know what is healthy and unhealthy, which is why we bear the responsibility for them. If your four-legged friend is picky about the healthy food, our →Acceptance Box can naturally and tastily help your furry friend to get used to the food.

Picky four-legged friend? More like a gourmet! Test out our various types of food now!