Feeding cats: How to feed them correctly
Feeding cats with high-quality food
As a prey eater, you need Feline mainly animal protein and fat as a source of energy, but also certain vitamins and minerals. Cats only need carbohydrates in small quantities. You should adapt the cat food to the natural needs of the animals. It should be of high quality and consist of selected raw materials. To prevent deficiency symptoms or oversupply, it is best to use a so-called complete feed. Look for this designation when buying. Its composition is tailored to the cat's daily requirement of energy and nutrients.
Important: You should be extremely economical with treats. These often have a lot of calories and can lead to obesity. Weigh your cat regularly and consult your veterinarian to detect and avoid obesity.
Feeding many small meals per day
To cover their daily requirement, cats naturally catch up to 15 mice a day. Therefore, the stomach of domestic cats is also designed for several small meals per day. You can certainly offer your cat food throughout the day if it is not prone to overweight. This works especially well with dry food. Wet food should not be left for too long. The rations should always be divided into as many small portions as possible per day (at least 5 portions).
The playful development of food (for example via fiddle boards, food puzzles, food balls, hiding/throwing food, clicker training) is a good way to accommodate the cat's natural eating behaviour and at the same time to keep the animals mentally occupied.
When giving dry food, it is essential to pay attention to theadditional water intake. If the cat likes to eat wet food, it makes sense to feed at least part of the ration in the form of wet food.
A guideline for how much food a healthy, adult cat needs in total can be easily calculated with the following formula: 1.4 x (body weight in kg x 30) + 70. The result is the calorie count. For example, for a cat that weighs two kilograms, this means that it has a requirement of 154 kilocalories per day.
Formula for calculating food for cats:
1.4 x (body weight in kg x 30) + 70
Sufficient fluids
Cats that eat only wet food can usually cover their daily fluid requirements through food intake alone. Cats that eat dry food need to drink additionally.
However, cats are not always easy to encourage additional sufficient water intake. For example, you can encourage them to do so with a drinking fountain or set up several water bowls in the home. It should be noted that drinking fountains must be dismantled and cleaned regularly. We recommend offering at least parts of the ration as wet food every day,1 through which they already receive valuable fluids. This prevents urinary tract problems. Cow milk on the other hand, they do not tolerate well. It also does not replace water, but counts as food.
Cooking cat food yourself is possible
If you want to prepare the food for your pet yourself, you should plan a lot of time for it. It is important to read up well and seek veterinary advice. Veterinarians who specialize in nutrition draw up a scientific ration plan and adjust it regularly. Then the cats get everything they need. Without professional support, there is a risk that the ingredients will be selected incorrectly or unbalanced. Then there is a risk of a nutrient deficiency or surplus, which is usually only noticed late. This can lead to growth disorders, especially in growing animals.
SPECIAL FOOD FOR KITTENS AND SICK CATS
In order to be able to offer sick animals, pregnant or lactating cats and their kittens the food that is optimal for them individually, you should consult a veterinarian for more information. Especially with young animals, it is important to know that kittens get used to special cat food in the first months of life. Then it can happen that they do not accept any other feed later. You should be familiar with this so-called food embossing from the beginning. Because it sometimes makes it impossible to change the diet of her animals again later. It therefore makes sense to offer young cats as many different foods as possible (wet, dry food, different manufacturers and flavours, home-cooked).
This is what you should avoid when feeding cats
As pure carnivores, a vegan diet is by no means suitable for cats. With purely plant-based feed, the animals lack certain nutrients that they need for the growth of bones and muscles or their eyesight.2
Make sure there is enough distance between the feeding place, water point and litter box. If both are right next to each other, the cat may refuse the food. Or, conversely, she ignores the toilet and relieves herself elsewhere. It is also best to put the drinking water in a third place.
Cat food should be at room temperature. If it is too hot or comes straight from the refrigerator, digestive problems can occur.
Raw meat is not suitable for cats. Otherwise, there is a risk of infection for animals and humans. Raw pork, for example, can contain dangerous pathogens of Aujeszky's disease in the worst case. This rabies-like disease leads to death in cats within a short time.
Seasoned leftovers are not suitable for cats because they are often too spicy and do not contain the nutrients your cat needs.
Cats should not eat bones, as they can cause significant injury and constipation.
Cow's milk is taboo for cats because it contains too much lactose, which adult animals cannot digest properly. As a treat, you can offer your cat designated cat milk that is lactose-free.