My Open Book

A smart diet is vital to your kitty’s longevity and health. I believe you should understand why the proper cat food diet plays such an important role in responsible kitty ownership.

It isn’t a surprise that the pet food industry has grown to be a billion dollar cash cow. Retail pet food sales by themselves accounted for around 3.1 billion dollars for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 27, 2007. And this figure, for some reason, excluded Wal-Mart sales. Thus it is unfortunate that some of the top-selling pet foods may be doing cats an injustice, and in some cases, may actually be harming them.

When Ann Martin’s dogs became ill back in 1990, she discovered through independent lab tests that the zinc content of the food they had been fed was twenty times higher than the recommended daily dose, and twice the level considered toxic for dogs, according to veterinarians she consulted. Ann started research to find out exactly what goes into commercial pet food. Her subsequent book, “Food Pets Die For” shook the pet food industry, and shocked and dismayed the consumers who support that industry.

Now we know far more about our pet’s feeding care and we have far more options.

Yet learning to read cat food labels can still be an intimidating task, especially with how so many of those ingredients seem completely unknown.

So let’s start with some basics. If you weren’t already aware, you should know that ingredients are listed in order, by weight. I encourage you to compare an organic cat food to any of the main brands off the shelf of your mainstream grocery store. You will be stunned.

Ideally the protein source should be the first listed ingredient in a bag of dry cat food in a maintenance diet, followed by secondary protein sources, then whatever carbohydrate fillers are included, oils or fat, other ingredients, such as fruits and vegetables, a form of preservative, and added vitamins and minerals, including taurine.

When you become more advanced in your natural cat food knowledge, you might consider learning about a raw food diet for cats.

I hope this provides you with a better fundamental understanding of your cat’s food label.

DISCLAIMER: I am neither a nutritionist nor a veterinarian. This blog post exhibits my own opinions developed as a result of years of personal research of cat foods. I urge readers do their own research to form educated opinions. You should always work with a cat health professional before following advice found on the World Wide Web.

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