Am I feeding my cat junk food?
Most vets recommend not giving your cat only dry food. It is dessicated, plus most, if not all, dry cat foods have some type of starch in it, which is necessary as a binder. So wet food is better. But there are so many choices. And if your cat is like mine, well, my cat likes junk food.
Toby wonders about cat food
photo by shari smith dunaif © 2017
What is cat junk food
If wet cat food is better than dry food, what makes it junk food? Some canned cat food is cheap, and the cheaper it is, the less protein it has and the more carb based it is (and other undesirable ingredients) things that are unnatural in a cat’s diet. The proportion of protein and carbs (and other fillers like ash) shifts with the more expense cat food. Ideally, your cat’s can of wet food contains high quality protein, possibly a select variety of vegetables, in small quantities, and perhaps some minimal supplements and not much else. Read labels!
and to learn about cat food labels, read this: how to interpret cat food labels
less healthy wet cat food
photo by shari smith dunaif©2017
My cat likes junk food
So do my cats. They happen to like Fancy Feast, which is bad, but not terrible as far as cat junk food goes. But like any junk food, it’s OK sometimes, but not as a steady diet. So I bought some expensive cans of high quality protein wet cat food, in a variety of brands.
They didn’t eat it. Any if it.
I ended up tossing the rejected food just about every time.
Then I finally figured it out – my guys needed a gradual transition.
Healthy and not so healthy wet cat food
photo by shari smith dunaif © 2017
I started by serving dnner that was mostly Fancy Feast with a little bit of the good quality cat food mixed in. Each week, I’d change the proportions, increasing the good stuff and decreasing the junk food, very slowly.
Now they’ll dine on just the high quality wet cat food. Most of the time.
Toby eating mixed wet food
photo by shari smith dunaif © 2017
Toby sometimes eats the good stuff photo by shari smith dunaif © 2017
Then I resort back to mixing the good with the junk.
My cats still like cat junk food, but now they also dine on better quality fare.
