Welcome to Healthy
Cat Food the site for cats, kittens and people too.
In this day and age of the mighty dollar masquerading as king, it becomes
more and more difficult to trust businesses who have a vested interest in
gaining your sale. As cats can't talk to us, or perhaps I should say, as we
can't hear what cats are telling us, we don't have that all important input to
know if we are providing our cats with a healthy cat food.
If you do a quick search on the internet, you'll come across practically
all pet food manufacturers proclaiming their brand is 'all natural', 'healthy',
'holistic', even 'organic', but in every single case they are selling dry food.
Just think about it for a minute. Dried food which contains any form of meat
just won't keep at room temperature. Try keeping your steak out of the
refrigerator for a few days and see what happens.
So how do pet food manufacturers keep cat food indefinitely at room
temperature? The only possible way to do this is to add preservatives. Despite
many claims saying there are no preservatives, logic tells you there has to be.
Cooking in itself may preserve meat a little longer than raw meat, but not
for weeks, or even years. So what, you may be thinking, I know there are
preservatives in some of the foods I eat and I seem to be OK. Surely a few
preservatives doesn't mean I'm not feeding my cat a healthy cat food?
I personally don't think any preservative is OK. It may appear to be
harmless in the short term, but in the long term there will be consequences.
But apart from my personal opinion, there are some laws, perhaps rather basic
or not well enforced, in almost every country around the world, that protects
human food. So all preservatives used in human food has to be considered
'reasonably safe' by some standards.
Unfortunately, there are no such safe guards in pet food. Or the laws are
even less effectively enforced than the human laws. So the preservatives used
in cat food can be the most toxic. Does cat food containing highly toxic
preservatives sound like a healthy cat food to you?
Ever heard of formalin? Embalmers use it to preserve dead bodies. Formalin,
also known as formaldehyde, is widely used in pet food to preserve it.
You probably haven't heard of ethoxyquin. That's a preservative used in the
rubber industry. It's in the tyres of your car. So what on earth is it doing in
your cat food? Lets look at ethoxyquin's history. When factory workers were
exposed to it, they exhibited side effects similar to those of agent orange:
Are you getting a bit concerned? Perhaps your cat is suffering from some
kind of organ damage? Here are a few other common preservatives used in cat food
to keep it at room temperature indefinitely;
No manufacturer can keep preservatives out of dry cat food if it has a long
shelf life. So, if you don't feed your cat a commercial cat food, what can you
feed her?
To my way of thinking, the only sure way of knowing you are providing a
healthy cat food is to prepare it yourself. Before you throw your hands up in
horror, saying you don't know how, you don't have time, that's where I come in.
I've done the research for a balanced, healthy cat food. I've made all the
mistakes and can show how not to fall into the traps I did. By feeding your cat
a healthy cat food, you'll have fewer trips to your veterinarian and your cat
will live longer.
If you liked this article, then I invite you to sign up for my free, weekly
ezine on how to improve your health and that of your family, including pets,
naturally. Included is a complementary ebook on how to have a healthy cat,
starting today. Visit http://www.naturallyhealthycats.com
Home-made cat food is one of the healthiest ways you can choose to feed
your cat, but only if you do it exactly right. Making nutritionally complete
cat food requires a great deal of information relating to what a cat's dietary
needs are and how you can best provide for them.
Providing your cat with proper nutrition goes a long, LONG way in
preventing so many of today's commonly seen feline diseases. There are many
inappropriate "cat diets" available on the pet food market, including
veterinary feline diets, and these inappropriate diets are largely responsible
for creating a myriad of the health problems that exist in our feline friends.
Cats are obligate carnivores: they are NOT meant to eat dehydrated diets,
they are NOT meant to be eating grains, they are NOT meant to be eating
significant amounts of carbohydrates, they are NOT meant to eat fruits &
vegetables, they are NOT meant to eat significant amounts of seafood, and they
are NOT meant to obtain their protein from soy! These unnatural ingredients in
dry cat foods (and some wet foods too!) are inflammation inducing and result in
a myriad of gastrointestinal disorders, skin reactions, and other health
problems in our pet cats.
Also, the dehydrated nature of dry cat food is responsible for the
production of highly concentrated urine formation in cats that eat dry diets;
studies have proven that cats who eat dry food do NOT drink the equivalent in
their daily water intake to cats who eat canned food and hydrate themselves via
their diets (canned foods are approximately 75% water content). Chronically
highly concentrated urine causes bladder inflammation (idiopathic feline
cystitis), kidney, ureteral, and bladder stones, urinary crystals, and
predisposes to urinary tract infections. Urinary crystal and stone formation
can cause sudden urinary tract obstruction which can be acutely fatal.
As mentioned at the beginning of this page, making your cat a nutritionally
complete homemade diet is the best way that you can feed your cat. However,
this is a somewhat time-consuming endeavor, and I recognize that not every
owner is able to provide their cat with this type of feeding regimen (including
myself at this point in time!). As such, I have decided to provide you with a
summary (below) of various cat-feeding scenarios from best to worst. If you are
unable to provide your cat with a homemade diet, as so many of us are, then
scenarios 2 and then 3 are the best ways to feed your cat(s):
FIRST - THE IDEAL CAT DIET
* Nutritionally complete (and plentiful in moisture content!) homemade diet
specifically formulated for the feline obligate carnivore: free of vegetables,
fruits, grains, soy, seafood, artificial preservatives & flavoring, and
toxic packaging contents.
* Owners are able to brush their cat's teeth to prevent plaque and tartar
buildup.
A CLOSE SECOND
* Owners are unable to do a homemade diet, but feed 100% canned cat food
that is devoid of soy protein, contains no de-hulled grains, no seafood, and no
significant amount of fruits & veggies.
* Owners are able to brush cat's teeth to prevent plaque and tartar
buildup.
Note 1: While many canned diets don't contain the unnatural grain and soy
products that most dry diets do, some wet foods do possess these ingredients...
you must read labels carefully!
Note 2: An alternative to a healthy canned food diet, is a nutritionally
complete raw diet (eg. Feline's Pride) that is partially cooked prior to
serving in order to reduce the bacterial load (zapped for 5 - 10 seconds in the
microwave: ensure that it's not too hot before giving it to kitty!).
A CLOSE THIRD
* Owners unable to do homemade diet and unable to brush cat's teeth, but
feed 95% of daily caloric intake through canned food (devoid of soy, de-hulled
grains. etc.), and feed 5% of daily caloric intake through dental kibble to
help minimize plaque and tartar build-up.
Note 3: If your cat has any gastrointestinal issues, including frequent
hairballs, or has any dermatological issues and/or other inflammatory problems,
you should consult your veterinarian and discontinue all dry food.
FOURTH - A POOR DIET
* Dry cat food diet, or mostly dry cat food diet.
* Not suitable for a feline (this includes grain-free dry diets as well!).
* You should consult your veterinarian and immediately begin to transition your
cat onto a wet food diet, and/or a homemade diet.
Note 4: Just because a dry feline diet is advertised as "grain
free" does not mean that it is an appropriate diet for your cat. There are
still many shortcomings in dry, grain-free diets, not the least of which is the
fact that they are devoid of moisture content!
HOMEMADE FELINE DIETS SHOULD INCLUDE:
* meat source (chicken, rabbit, duck, etc.)
* ground bone from meat source
* water (in addition to the water content in the meat
* fatty acid supplementation
* salt
* vitamin E supplementation
* vitamin B complex supplementation
* taurine (an amino acid) supplementation
Note: Taurine supplementation is crucial because taurine deficiencies lead
to serious health problems in cats, and taurine can ONLY be obtained through
diet. Cats are unable to create taurine endogenously by using protein building
blocks they possess from ingesting other amino acids.
*** Please note that there are many cat food recipes available online that
recommend including rice, pasta, or other such carbohydrate sources in homemade
cat food. I do not advise supplementing extra carbohydrates (meat already
contains carbohydrates) for healthy adult cat diets, particularly from these
types of sources because they are unnatural for cats (for instance, pasta is
full of wheat gluten) and will defeat much of the purpose of feeding a homemade
diet. ***
It is important to know that if you are embarking on creating a homemade
diet for your cat(s), it is essential that it be done correctly. Feeding cats
just cooked meat does not provide them with a nutritionally complete diet, and
will result in nutritional deficiencies. If you are going to feed your cat(s) a
homemade diet it must be done correctly. For the best cat food recipes
available please refer to the excellent resources listed below.
To read more of Dr. Ko's articles, please visit http://www.catdoctorko.com
The information provided in this article is for educational reference
purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice and care of
your veterinarian, nor medical diagnoses or treatments. All questions regarding
your cat's health should be discussed with your veterinarian.
Dr. Ko is a passionate believer in the importance of preventative medicine
and educating cat owners about its benefits for their cats. It was this ideal
which was the motivation for the creation of the Dr. Ko website.
catdoctorko.com is a brand new site dedicated to providing cat owners with
information to help them provide effective and preventative health care for
their cats. Within the site, Dr. Ko, a licensed veterinarian, has created
Know-How Videos, Cat Health Articles, Ask Dr. Ko tips (in which she answers
your cat health questions), information on toxic substances, product recalls,
dangerous household items and much more! In addition, the website houses a
store filled with products specifically selected for their benefits to
optimizing your cat's quality of life!
All of the topics that Dr. Ko writes about are provided by members of her
website. To suggest an article topic for Dr. Ko, please visit http://www.catdoctorko.com
and set up a membership - it's fast and free!
Cats Beware!
Human Foods That Are Toxic to Felines
There are many known foods that are safe for most humans to eat that are
very harmful to kitties!
It may come as a surprise that something as seemingly innocuous as an onion
or a chocolate bar can be toxic to your cat, but the reality is that many food
types contain compounds or have metabolites that are extremely dangerous to
cats.
(Metabolites are substances produced by the metabolism, or breakdown, of
the ingested food. So, in some instances, the food itself may not be toxic, but
once your kitty has digested and processed the substance, some of the resultant
products may be toxic to your cat.)
Why do these foods and their metabolites produce toxicity in cats? Every
species has different metabolic capabilities, but in general, the two main
routes of clearing substances from the body include liver (hepatic) and kidney
(renal) excretion pathways. Cat livers are not the same as human livers!
Cats, in particular, have very different hepatic excretion abilities from
humans, and are, in fact, considered to be deficient in one of the most
important enzymatic pathways that exists; therefore, there are many substances
that we humans can metabolise and safely clear from our bodies that cats
cannot, and so are highly toxic to cats.
We've put together a list of all of the common foods that have documented
toxicity in cats. These are foods that you should never feed to your cat, and
that you should be very careful to keep safely tucked away in cupboards and
refrigerators, well out of your agile kitty's reach.
Foods That Can Be Toxic To Cats:
Chocolate - The very worst culprit! Perhaps one of the most enticing and most
dangerous foods in your kitchen (to cats and human waist-lines). While dogs are
much more prone to ingesting chocolate than cats, cats do eat chocolate too,
and are unfortunately even more sensitive to its toxic components than dogs
are!
Chocolate contains both caffeine and theobromine, both of which are called
methylxanthines and are very toxic to cats. The amount of methylxanthines in
chocolate varies considerably depending on the type of chocolate, but the
general rule of thumb is that the darker and more bitter the chocolate, the
higher the concentration of the toxic principles.
Chocolate toxicity can cause diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy or hyperactivity,
elevated heart rate, tremors, and even death.
Coffee & Coffee Beans - As you have already read above, caffeine is
classified as a methylxanthine and is very toxic to your cat.
Symptoms of coffee toxicity will be similar to those listed under chocolate
toxicity, and so always be wary of where you have located your coffee mug and
your coffee beans! Don't let your inquisitive kitty try to achieve a caffeine
high, because it will have detrimental results.
Onions - While onions are extremely tasty and are quite healthy for human
consumption, the opposite is true for cats!
Onions belong to the plant genus, Allium. The toxic principle in onions is
N-propyl disulfide, and it damages cats' red blood cells. The destruction of
red blood cells in this manner results in hemolytic anemia, and it occurs if
cats eat onion in any form: raw, cooked, or powdered onion.
Clinical signs include vomiting, lethargy, and pale gums.
Garlic - Although garlic is a great asset to human health, the same cannot
be said for our kitties!
Garlic is also a member of the Allium genus, and has similar, although less
potent, toxic effects as its big brother the onion.
Symptoms of garlic toxicity are the same as listed above for onion toxicity.
Citrus (Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit) - Citrus fruit make a lovely
snack, and are also a tasty flavor addition to any human meal, but citrus is
toxic to cats.
Citrus fruits contain essential oils and psoralen toxins that cause vomiting,
sometimes light sensitivity (photosensitivity), incoordination, weakness,
depression, tremors, and seizures.
Moldy Foods - Moldy, spoiled foods are a danger to everyone in the
household, but cats that may snoop around in kitchen garbages are going to be
at higher risk for the ingestion of these toxins than human household members.
Moldy foods can contain toxins such as penitrem A, roquefortine C, and
verruculogen that are produced by fungi. These toxins can cause vomiting,
anorexia, tremors, incoordination, seizures, and possibly death.
Alcohol - Alcohol and kitties should never be mixed! Alcohol toxicity can
result in vomiting, incoordination, stupor, depression, and sometimes coma,
seizures, and death. Always make sure to keep your wine glass safe out of reach
from your kitty.
Avocados - While avocados are considered to be a miracle fruit for humans
because of their many health benefits, it is best that you not try and share
these benefits with your cat.
Avocados contain a toxin called persin; while persin can cause death due to
cardiotoxicity in birds, rabbits, goats, and even in dogs when avocado is
ingested in significant quantities, there is no documentation to support that
this occurs in cats.
However, there is evidence that avocados will cause gastritis in our feline
friends, which may result in symptoms of anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, and
lethargy. And since we cannot be certain that avocados do not cause cardiotoxicity
in cats as well, it is advisable to keep these fruits and all guacamole far far
away from them!
Grapes & Raisins - While there is not yet any evidence of grape and
raisin toxicity in cats at this point, it has been recently discovered that an
unknown toxic principle in grapes and raisins can cause acute kidney failure in
dogs.
Even though there is no documentation of similar occurrences in cats at
this point, since there is much to learn about grape & raisin toxicity, it
would be wise to keep your cats away from these tasty little fruits. Until we
know more, it is best to err on the side of caution.
To read more of Dr. Ko's articles, please visit http://www.catdoctorko.com
The information provided in this article is for educational reference
purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice and care of
your veterinarian, nor medical diagnoses or treatments. All questions regarding
your cat's health should be discussed with your veterinarian.
Dr. Ko is a passionate believer in the importance of preventative medicine
and educating cat owners about its benefits for their cats. It was this ideal
which was the motivation for the creation of the Dr. Ko website.
catdoctorko.com is a brand new site dedicated to providing cat owners with
information to help them provide effective and preventative health care for
their cats. Within the site, Dr. Ko, a licensed veterinarian, has created
Know-How Videos, Cat Health Articles, Ask Dr. Ko tips (in which she answers
your cat health questions), information on toxic substances, product recalls,
dangerous household items and much more! In addition, the website houses a
store filled with products specifically selected for their benefits to
optimizing your cat's quality of life!
All of the topics that Dr. Ko writes about are provided by members of her
website. To suggest an article topic for Dr. Ko, please visit http://www.catdoctorko.com
and set up a membership - it's fast and free.