Should my cat's food be all meat, or include grains and veggies?

As long as the minimum Crude protein percentage is above 26%, it should be adequate for cats. However, you rarely need to worry about this, because cat foods have to meet this requirement in order to be approved by AAFCO standards. Here is a link to a short article that further explains how to choose the right cat food: https://www.petcoach.co/article/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-your-pet-s-food/ You are right that cats are carnivores, so the higher the percentage of protein, the better the food likely is for them. Grains are OK for cats and make contain some essential nutrients, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. Grain-free foods usually substitute the grain with some other source of carbohydrate, so it really would not make much of a difference which food was eaten. I, like many other veterinary professionals, find the grain-free movement quite misleading and unsupported by the facts. It's essentially just marketing and should not be taken seriously at this time. I hope that helps.

Great question! I actually recommend a food with grains in it. Grains are good for cats, and they provide a lasting source of energy and fuel. Grain free is a marketing ploy and fad, and there is no proof at all that grains are bad for cats. Having a diet with grains in it will provide Kitty with more fuel for his high energy life. Brands I recommend including Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Purina ProPlan, or Iams. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

I think a cat's diet should consist of mostly protein but you shouldn't eliminate all carbs. I think a mixture of canned and either freeze dried or dry food is healthiest. I would stay away from raw diets as I have seen many cats get really ill from salmonella and similar bacteria that can contaminate raw diets. I hope this helps!

People food is just that – food for people. Cats are obligate carnivores, and as such, have a delicate balance of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and vitamins and minerals that must be maintained. Cats should eat a balanced high quality diet in order to meet all of their nutritional needs. Unbalanced diets with vitamin/mineral imbalances risk a variety of health problems. Home cooked diets are not as commonly recommended, but are preferred by some cats and pet owners. If you opt to go down this road, a carefully crafted recipe by a specialist in veterinary nutrition should be used with proper vitamin and mineral supplementation. Even with a commercial diet, occasional treats of boiled white meat chicken, turkey, salmon, or tuna can be perfectly fine in small quantities.

I personally prefer giving a cat dry food, or a mixture of dry food and wet food. Cats have extremely specific dietary needs, which is very hard to achieve in a homemade diet. For example, cats cannot convert certain animo acids into essential ones they need to be healthy, and they therefore must be present in the diet for the cat to meet the important dietary requirement. There are four brands of food that have a veterinary nutritionist on staff to make sure the recipes for the food meet the cat's nutrition needs, and they are Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I recommend feeding your cat from those brands. If you really want to do to a homemade diet, I will put two websites below that have recipes for homemade balanced diets for cats. As for chicken and ham, chicken is fine as an occasional treat as long as it's boiled white meat chicken with no bones. I do not recommend ham because it's too fatty. I hope this helps! https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com

As a general rule of thumb, I find Science Diet, Purina ProPlan and Royal Canin foods to be of a high quality. These companies thoroughly analyze their foods, run controlled clinical feeding studies and carefully source their ingredients. While there are plenty of other good food brands available, I find these three to be quite consistent. As a male cat, I typically recommend feeding a mix of both wet and dry foods. Neutered male cats have a risk of developing urethral obstructions, and increased water content in the wet food can help to slightly decrease this risk. Anytime you make a change in diet, be sure to do so gradually by mixing the old and new foods together over 5-7 days.

The problem with feeding cats a homemade diet is that it is very difficult to get the correct balance of nutrients cats need. They are obligate carnivores, meaning they have to eat meat in order to survive, and their diet has to provide essential amino acids as their body cannot make them on it's own. I can put links below to websites that provide recipes for homemade diets for cats, and I would check that out if you want to try making a homemade diet for Orieo. I hope this helps! https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com