Choosing the best cat food for your awesome cat

bestfood_forcat1-300x275 Choosing the best cat food for your awesome cat

Things I hear a lot:

  • “I don’t know which food to choose–such conflicting information out there”
  • “My cat is too stubborn” “My cat only likes dry food”

The goal of this page is to help you with these problems so you can prolong your cat’s life and keep them out of the doctor’s office.

I’m a believer in the power of food choice to do this because:

  • I hear so many stories of cats’ health problems disappearing, coats getting silkier, and energy and playfulness brightening after a food change (I have seen this with my own cats too).
  • Before I realized how important cat food is and how to convince my cat to switch, I lost a cat to intestinal lymphoma, which I later learned can originate from undetected intestinal bowel disease. My hope is that food choices can help prevent bowel disease.

Getting your cat onto the healthiest food you can afford

  1. Start by selecting from the  Today’s best cat foods list. I carefully researched these foods.
    (Note: In a pinch, picking a low-carb, grain-free dry food to use on occasion or in rotation with wet meals is a decent compromise.)
  2. Gradually introduce the food, with enticements, as diagrammed in Introducing new foods. Understand that cats instinctively reject food that has unfamiliar smells. That doesn’t necessarily mean they inherently hate that food, they are just following their biology. That’s why the gradual mix-in with enticements works in so many cases–they get used to the smell with something they trust.

Sometimes, even when you properly gradually introduce the food cleverly, your cat still says “no, that’s not right for me.” For example, some cats won’t eat beef ever. In those cases, you’ve got to just try a different food. Tip: Often pet food stores will let you return packages your cat rejected.

Wondering how on earth I selected food for the “Today’s best” list? I synthesized the best cat food advice I could find from Jean Hofve, DVM, Dr. Karen Becker, TruthAboutPetFood.com, PetsumerReport.com, Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins’ leading-edge book, Your Cat, the Feline Nutrition Education Society, and others. Based on that research, I went through just about every natural cat food I know of and checked it against specific criteria that I list here.

Saving money by making your own homemade cat food?

A  reader sent me a follow-up to a conversation we had earlier on the blog.

After spending 45 days of trying to resolve her 3 shelter kittens’ chronic diarrhea (included vet visits), she finally bought some raw cat food and fed it to them. She was astounded by the results–they had normal stools by the end of the day, and the diarrhea disappeared for good. They regained weight they’d lost while they’d been sick, and developed softer coats.

The food she feeds them actually costs less per day than good canned food! But the shipping adds cost, and you can often can save even more money by making homemade cat food.

Tips for getting started:

Remember: Don’t attempt to make homemade cat food without adding proper supplementation as instructed by resources like the two above. Cats have very specific nutrient needs that can cause serious problems if not addressed.