FOOD & NUTRITION

Conduct an online search for how often a cat should be fed, and it will yield a surprising array of answers. While most sites agree that kittens need to be fed several times a day to meet their nutrient needs, advice for adult cats runs the gamut, veering from once a day to five times […]

More people are feeding their pets homemade diets today than a decade ago even though homemade meal plans for cats are often rife with nutritional inadequacies and imbalances. Researchers made the finding when they surveyed some 1,800 households with cats in the U.S. and several other countries. They also found that more cat guardians are […]

Perhaps you would feel more comfortable feeding your cat a diet you cooked up yourself rather than one you bought at the store. But you want to make sure that the diet you are making is actually healthful for her. So you don’t simply check the Internet for online recipes; the bulk of them are […]

  Kittens fed sub-optimal diets that do not meet the recommendations of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (wsava.org) are more likely to be taken to the veterinarian as adults for gastrointestinal problems. Researchers made the finding when they combed through questionnaires completed by owners of more than 1,200 cats. Cats younger than 4 months […]

Every so often, there is a media report about a pet food recall that occurs in the wake of animals becoming sick. The news may lead cat owners to worry that commercially prepared foods are dangerous for their feline companions. But the fact is that instances of commercially prepared food causing illness in cats are […]

Every cat food label contains a Guaranteed Analysis, a series of nutrient values listed as percentages or “milligrams per kilogram” with no instructions explaining their significance in a cat’s diet. Adding to the confusion is that every single number is listed as a “minimum”or “maximum,” and you can’t figure out whether you’re getting the least […]

our cat has to go on a weight management diet, or a prescribed diet to cut down on the risk for kidney stones, or a special diet for heart or kidney disease. You might think that all you have to do is stop feeding the food he has been eating and start feeding the new […]

Only a couple of health claims are allowed on cat food labels, including one for urinary health and one for hairballs. All other health claims are illegal (although you can say a food cleans teeth). So why do so many cat foods have claims like “promotes brain development” and “helps muscle function”? The reason is […]

Pet food is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the U.S., and companies spend no small amount of money deciding what words to put in large, bold letters on the front of their packages to get you to buy their brands. But many of the come-hither terms have no legal definitions. They mean whatever the manufacturer wants them to mean. Others do have legal definitions, but they do not match the popular definitions, so they can confuse consumers into thinking a food has a special quality that it doesnt. And some pet foods are simply misbranded. Heres a guide for which terms to ignore, or at least rethink, when choosing food for your cat.

Of 114 recipes for homemade cat food found on the Internet and in books, 40 percent did not provide any feeding instructions whatsoever (including how much to give), say researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Dogs might desperately plead with their owners for food, but cats tend to insist on it. And they insist often. Just google cats beg for food, and multiple entries will come up.

Health most definitely can be affected by a cats diet - in very important ways. For instance, the veterinary nutritionists at the Tufts Cummings Clinical Nutrition Service have seen: