How to choose the best cat food

Healthy food keeps a living being free of health related problems and they enjoy their life to the fullest. If you are a pet lover and have a cat as your pet, you should be well aware of the foods that help your cat to grow and remain healthy. Proper nutrition should never be ignored when you take care of your feline mate. Cats require protein, taurine, certain vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fatty acids as their nutritional intake. Good nutrition keeps your cat in a good shape with beautiful grown furs, supple movements of its joints and well functioning internal organs. Listed below are the tips to choose the best food for your cat:

1. First you need to know the cat’s age to decide the nutrition level and prepare a food chart. Generally a cat’s age can be described as: Kitten, Adult and Senior. All you need to do is to consult the veterinarian to know the required amount and nutrition for your cat.

2. There are four types of cat foods based on various nutrition levels and requirements of the cat. Those are: Dry, Wet, Raw, Fresh. You can choose any of them or a combination of them according to your cat’s health needs. Dry food or Kibble is prepared from animal products with only 10 percent of water in it. Wet food or Canny comes in the flavors of tuna, chicken, lamb, duck, turkey etc. Raw cat food is nothing but meat and fish.

3. You should always keep in mind that cats do not require carbohydrates, but feeding the cats with rice, wheat, corn and related products are considered to be the fillers.

4. Every time you need not go for cheap brands of cat food as it might hamper your cat’s health. You should go for mediocre priced brands instead. But it should be of good quality and balanced as far as nutrition is concerned.

5. Choose a good brand of cat food for your cat but do not repeat it every time you buy cat food as cats get addicted to the same brand and this creates problems.

6. Before you buy any brand, you need to check out some specification and quality of the product.

7. On the label of the product, you should search for “balanced and complete”. All the products are regularized by the Government agencies.

8. It would be better if you get a product that shows, it meets which life stage of the cat. So that you need not consult any veterinarian.

9. Animal proteins should be listed in the product specification. It includes chicken, lever, fish, beef etc.

10. The amount of dry weight protein needs to be 26% for the adult cats and more for the kittens.

11. Find the contact information of the manufacturer such as phone numbers, email id etc. It might help you if your cat faces some problems with the product.

12. Look for the AAFCO statement on the product. The statement signifies that the food has gone through rigorous quality checks.

13. Do not buy the product if it has added chemical preservatives, animal digests, by products, sugar and more carbohydrates in it.

14. Always check for the expiry date of the product to save your cat from falling sick.

15. Always buy reputed brand products.