Cat food (CAC Edition)
Created | Updated Mar 19, 2006
Commercial cat food comes in three different forms. Dry, moist and canned. I will leave out all the other types of food or non-food a cat may eat. (mice, birds, the steak left out on the counter for only 30 seconds while you turned your back, the cold cuts off your sandwich, etc)
First, the dry food. Comes in boxes or bags. Common flavors are beef, chicken, fish, tuna, salmon, poultry, heart, liver, etc. For some reason I never see any pork flavored catfood. No, there is no mouse flavored cat food either. Dry food keeps well, although it does get stale when the bag or box is left open too long. It is also good to feed because it helps keep the cat's teeth clean. On the other hand, too much dry food in cats, especially neutered males, can cause kidney problems unless it is a special diet food.
Second, moist food. Usually comes in small, one-meal bags. Available in several flavors, beef, fish, chicken, but since it is less common than either dry or canned food the variety in flavors is also less. I kinda fail to see the usefulness of this. Most cats do like it, but since it is too moist to clean a cat's teeth and doesn't contain enough moisture to be really much of a help to cats with kidney problems, I think it is not very useful. Adds variety to a diet but I wouldn't feed a cat on moist food only.
Last of all there is canned food. This varies greatly in quality. Some has chunks, or even whole recognisable pieces of fish and meat, other cans just contain a greyish mass that doesn't even remotely smell like meat or fish. It is available in any flavor the dry food comes in, plus some. Many cats like canned food better than dry food, but when only fed canned food they can easily get teeth problems. Opened cans should be kept in the refrigerator to prevent un-scheduled biological experiments and the creation of new life forms.
That was the boring part. Now, how to buy the right kind of cat food for your cat.
Cats, on the whole, are picky. If you have a cat that gulps down everything you put in his food bowl, you should check the following two things:
1) is the animal indeed a cat, and not an undercover dog spy posing as a cat and
2) has it been more than a week since the cat has last seen food.
While there are always exceptions, a cat that is not picky about his food is a rather rare occurance.
Once you find a brand, type, and flavor your cat likes, be careful not to buy too much. Another thing cats do well is change their mind. The food that was quite acceptable last week may not be acceptable today. Some cats like one brand and flavor and will eat nothing else for years, others want variety. My cat is among the last; sometimes a whole can or bag of one flavor is too much, he will eat the first bowl, leave most of the next, and happily have another bowl again a week or so later.
The cost or the brand name of the food makes little difference as to whether your cat will like the actual product. Neither do fancy tv commercials. We may be impressed by a beautiful, sleek cat leaping over a high fence; the cat most definitely is not. He either likes the way it tastes, or he doesn't, and a tv commercial doesn't make any difference.
Tuna flavored cat food can cause some cats to be more picky about their food, refusing all other food that does not have the strong tuna flavor. This is called a 'tuna junkie'. Not all cats that are fed tuna will become addicted to the flavor, but some caution is advised.
Last of all, diet food can become necessary when a cat is too fat, or has specific problems with bladder or kidneys. It is very expensive and I must express my doubts as whether it is really that much more expensive to make; I guess as with many things you pay twice the normal price when it says 'diet' or 'health' on the bag. But it does have some special ingredients that do help the cat, so I pay up anyways when needed.
First, the dry food. Comes in boxes or bags. Common flavors are beef, chicken, fish, tuna, salmon, poultry, heart, liver, etc. For some reason I never see any pork flavored catfood. No, there is no mouse flavored cat food either. Dry food keeps well, although it does get stale when the bag or box is left open too long. It is also good to feed because it helps keep the cat's teeth clean. On the other hand, too much dry food in cats, especially neutered males, can cause kidney problems unless it is a special diet food.
Second, moist food. Usually comes in small, one-meal bags. Available in several flavors, beef, fish, chicken, but since it is less common than either dry or canned food the variety in flavors is also less. I kinda fail to see the usefulness of this. Most cats do like it, but since it is too moist to clean a cat's teeth and doesn't contain enough moisture to be really much of a help to cats with kidney problems, I think it is not very useful. Adds variety to a diet but I wouldn't feed a cat on moist food only.
Last of all there is canned food. This varies greatly in quality. Some has chunks, or even whole recognisable pieces of fish and meat, other cans just contain a greyish mass that doesn't even remotely smell like meat or fish. It is available in any flavor the dry food comes in, plus some. Many cats like canned food better than dry food, but when only fed canned food they can easily get teeth problems. Opened cans should be kept in the refrigerator to prevent un-scheduled biological experiments and the creation of new life forms.
That was the boring part. Now, how to buy the right kind of cat food for your cat.
Cats, on the whole, are picky. If you have a cat that gulps down everything you put in his food bowl, you should check the following two things:
1) is the animal indeed a cat, and not an undercover dog spy posing as a cat and
2) has it been more than a week since the cat has last seen food.
While there are always exceptions, a cat that is not picky about his food is a rather rare occurance.
Once you find a brand, type, and flavor your cat likes, be careful not to buy too much. Another thing cats do well is change their mind. The food that was quite acceptable last week may not be acceptable today. Some cats like one brand and flavor and will eat nothing else for years, others want variety. My cat is among the last; sometimes a whole can or bag of one flavor is too much, he will eat the first bowl, leave most of the next, and happily have another bowl again a week or so later.
The cost or the brand name of the food makes little difference as to whether your cat will like the actual product. Neither do fancy tv commercials. We may be impressed by a beautiful, sleek cat leaping over a high fence; the cat most definitely is not. He either likes the way it tastes, or he doesn't, and a tv commercial doesn't make any difference.
Tuna flavored cat food can cause some cats to be more picky about their food, refusing all other food that does not have the strong tuna flavor. This is called a 'tuna junkie'. Not all cats that are fed tuna will become addicted to the flavor, but some caution is advised.
Last of all, diet food can become necessary when a cat is too fat, or has specific problems with bladder or kidneys. It is very expensive and I must express my doubts as whether it is really that much more expensive to make; I guess as with many things you pay twice the normal price when it says 'diet' or 'health' on the bag. But it does have some special ingredients that do help the cat, so I pay up anyways when needed.
