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Got confused with cobweb of cats' feeding? An expert will help you to distinguish corn from weed, facts from myphs.
If you ever have been to cat's exhibition then you could probably
hear selectionists and cats' fancy discussions concerning the best way of their feeding. The number of opinions on this point was almost equal to cats' number presented at the exhibition. Perhaps you were
standing ever among cats' owners by the cats' food stall and discussed the question of ideal cat's diet yourself.
During last 50 years volume of cats' food information increased dramatically. Today cats' dietitians are well aware of the cats' food main components and a necessary volume of each of them in a daily ration.
It is not unlikely in the future scientists will find some other important cats' food ingredients.
Then why does not everybody feed his cat in the same way even if there is such a determined level of cats' food knowledge established? An answer to this question can be formulated as follows: there is a science about cats' food but there is an art of cats' feeding. Science indicates main nutritious components of cats' diet while art of cats' feeding singles out cat's needs and forms of its satisfaction, in other words types of products every cat's owner chooses himself.
Only facts
Main requirements to cats' food are the same as to other living creatures: energy, minerals, water and protein in the form of amino acid.
However cat has some special requirements to food comparing with other domestic animals.
Research has brought to light single way to satisfy these unusual cats' needs is to keep a cat on a meat diet.
Facts listed below prove cat to be a real carnivore
Fact 1. It is typical and unique for cats to require taurine, similar to amino acid matter contained only in products of animal origin.
If to keep a cat on a vegetable or milk diet it can suffer from taurine lack that may lead to blindness, heart diseases and reproduction problems.
Fact 2. Cats require vitamin A obligatory. It's a fat dissolving vitamin necessary for normal development of eyesight, bones and skin as well as reproduction abilities. Many other animals can work out vitamin A from beta-carotene
Contained in all green and yellow vegetables compound. Usually animals produce more vitamin A then necessary and keep excesses in a liver or other organs. As for cat it is not able to turn beta-carotene into vitamin A. When in natural conditions cats usually get vitamin A from the liver
and other organs of prey they catch.
Fact 3. Cats require very important arachidic acid they get in natural conditions from fat reserves of a caught prey. In contrast to cats many kinds of animals can produce this acid from linoleic acid being a kind of fat acids and contained in corn oil and other vegetable oils.
Fact 4. Cats require more volume of protein then other animals. Eating small animals when in natural conditions satisfies a need in protein. They usually neglect vegetative food.
Above mentioned facts prove that unusual cats' requirements can be satisfied with the meat diet.
Live myths
After mentioning some facts let's consider myths concerning cats' food existing in the society.
Myth 1. Cat requires milk. This myth is probably most widely spread and has deep historical roots. When bringing a homeless cat to their houses people tend to pour some milk to its dish first of all. They have been doing this in the past so as they do the same now.
Is it true that milk contains many vitamins? No, it's not really so in cats' case. Even though there are a lot of nutritious matters such as protein, calcium and energy in milk but there are no iron and taurine.
Many cats are likely to assimilate milk but some of them cannot digest lactose and that's why milk is causing diarrhea.
Myth 2. Cats require fish. We got accustomed to cartoons, advertising and illustrations picturing licking cat with a fish skeleton next to it.
As a result all the cats' owners are sure that fish is a necessary component of a cats' diet. This belief is expressed in ready-to-eat cats' food composition sold at specialized stores for animals. Many of them include fish as one of the component. Have you ever seen a dogs' food containing fish? For sure you have not as dogs do not require fish.
Cats do not require fish too. This myth has a scientific background.
As said before cats require taurine and vitamin A and fishery products are known to be a good source of both.
However many meat products contain enough volume of taurine, vitamin A so that an opinion stating fish is an obligatory product for cats is not right.
Some kinds of fish are harmful for your cats. If fresh fish has begun to spoil (according to trading inspection reports almost all fish in Moscow is like that) some ferment appear which
Destroys tiamine i.e. vitamin B existing in a fish. Cat eating spoiled fish begin to suffer from tiamine lack that can lead if ingored to death. Feeding a cat with fatty fish may cause another fatal disease - steatit. When stored in a wrong way fat fish located under the skin penetrate into muscle substance, fish become poisonous and this poison cannot be removed even by boiling.
Feeding the cats with fish is a dangerous practice but if you cannot refuse from fishery food it is advised to purchase it in the form of ready-to-eat well-balanced cats' food but not in cans made for people and not in a "over-frozen" condition when it is unknown how much time and under what conditions it was kept.
Myth 3. Several kinds of yeast, especially beer yeast can improve quality of hair and prevent from flea infection. During last years this belief occupied humans minds. Even though yeast preparations contain protein, ferments and some B vitamins there is no objective data on their wholesome influence to cats' hair , health and state of mind.
As for fleas, specially made researches have proved that feeding the cats with yeast does not influence vermin's attitude to cats in any way.
Myth 4. Feeding cats with so-called "natural products" is based on this myth. Some firms speculate on idea that additions included to complex foods are harmful for cats. They produce food which is called "natural" and "not-containing any additions". Actually these foods contain some additions, e.g. vitamins and small quantity of minerals.
There is a single addition absent in "natural cats' foods". It's a fat preservative that is added to ordinary commercial foods on purpose of preventing fat contained in those foods from spoiling.
Due to rank fat ability to cause steatit, dieticians consider including of such preservative essential.
Opinion that "natural foods" are better then ordinary complex cats' foods is not confirmed by objective scientific research.
Galina Starostina
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