Cat Nutritional Requirements. What to feed?

When it comes to dog or rat food, I could go on and on and on. I've had, rescued and fostered more dogs and rats then I can count and have studied their diets in depth.

Cat, however, I only know the basics. What do I look for in a "good" cat food. Obviously I want corn, by-product, wheat, and soy free. But what are other features to look for? Grain-free? Is it better to have fish or not? What about hairballs and urinary tract health?

It's been a while since I've had a cat and I want to get Allie on the food that will benefit her the most. Her current owner has her on Pro Plan, which I will keep her on for a few weeks until she is settled. No point in switching her while she is stressed out. But, once I feel comfortable switching (her current owner said she takes to new food well) I want to know what to look for in cat food.

My dogs eat Canidae because of the high fiber content. Both have softer stools on other foods. My rats (I no longer have any rats) ate a home made diet that was formed around their specific needs and nutritional requirements.

I just want the best for this cat, but don't really have much of a starting point.

I'm sure some will be along soon with some details for you, but I know that Felidae is a great cat food. Some others are California Natural, Merricks, Innova Evo, Wellness and there are many others. Most of us agree that its best to feed a combination of wet and dry food both.

There are a lot of threads in this forum about food, so you might have a look through some of them while you wait for posts here.

Welcome to the world of cats!

Here are a couple of websites for you to check out. Now, I will say that they mostly suggest a raw diet, and the information is mostly based on this thought process, but they do give a pretty good idea of what it is that cats would be getting in the wild and what they need as far as nutrition. Whatever else you want to put in it (iow, whether you want to feed a commercially prepared food or whether you want to feed a homemade diet, or what type of commercially prepared food) is completely subject to your interpretation.

www.catnutrition.org and www.catinfo.org

also on the list with some research done about ingredients... http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/dryfood.html (for dry foods)

commercial canned foods, and some information on how to figure out the ingredients and weights: http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm

and another link about commercial pet foods which may be a little colored given that it's a commercially prepared raw food website, but was still pretty informative.. just keep in mind that indeed, it might be a little one-sided.
http://www.felineinstincts.com/succe...petfoods2.html

sharky is the resident nutritional expert. I'm sure she'll be along soon. She's very knowledgable about nutrition.

A RAW diet is not an option in my house. I have fed RAW to fosters before and won't do it again. My husband and I plan on having children in the near future and don't want the bacteria in the house. I would feed Evo, if it would be a good choice for Allie though.

Some great foods listed in this thread http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=137404

Originally Posted by Rescue Mom

A RAW diet is not an option in my house. I have fed RAW to fosters before and won't do it again. My husband and I plan on having children in the near future and don't want the bacteria in the house. I would feed Evo, if it would be a good choice for Allie though.

Click to expand...

Well, actually, I'm not advocating a raw diet here. No where in my post did I say I think you should feed a raw diet. What I was saying, with my post is... you wanted information on nutrition. Those sites give you information on nutrition, and what kinds of commercial foods have what in them. Those links are *very* informative, regardless of what type of diet you want to feed.

Now, having said that, you don't bring any more bacteria into your house feeding a raw diet than you do feeding yourselves a non-vegetarian diet. You do need to be careful about it, but that whole "it's a bacteria ridden diet" is rather inaccurate. It can be, certainly, but not if you take caution.

Hopefully you'll find the links useful, regardless of what diet you decide to feed them.

Originally Posted by CatsAreBetter

Well, actually, I'm not advocating a raw diet here. No where in my post did I say I think you should feed a raw diet. What I was saying, with my post is... you wanted information on nutrition. Those sites give you information on nutrition, and what kinds of commercial foods have what in them. Those links are *very* informative, regardless of what type of diet you want to feed.

Now, having said that, you don't bring any more bacteria into your house feeding a raw diet than you do feeding yourselves a non-vegetarian diet. You do need to be careful about it, but that whole "it's a bacteria ridden diet" is rather inaccurate. It can be, certainly, but not if you take caution.

Hopefully you'll find the links useful, regardless of what diet you decide to feed them.

Click to expand...

I understand you aren't advocating it, I'm just adding to the info I already gave by including that I can't feed RAW.

As for the bacteria, I mean on the dogs and cats. I know that if you take necessary precautions in cleaning everything, then it won't make your house bacteria ridden. It's the animals themselves. I've done extensive research on feeding raw diets because of my dogs issues, and one thing that I noticed was brought up a lot is the risk of the animals carrying the bacteria on them for a while after eating. It's never been proven (to my knowledge) either way, but the risk isn't worth it to me.

I did check out the sites and they are very useful. I will be looking through them some more later, after visiting the store again and seeing exactly what is available in the area.

The link will give you ideas on what others feed ...

If the dogs like Canidea maybe try Felidea( I am assumeing the store would have it )... I like the chn and rice formula ....

some good brands

Wellness - has a gr free
Nutro - has basic one meat to one grain. two meat one grain
Natural balence- some grain free wets
Merrick( wet cat only)- grain free
Eagle pack( I will only use wet but they have dry)
Timberwolf ( sergetti is the cat ) - cat dry is grain free
Solid gold
Orijen- grain free
Innova
Evo - grain free
California Natural - one meat one grain
Natures Variety - grain free dry and canned