Eating is an integral part of life.
As a matter of fact... how and what you eat is directly related to the quality of your life. Diet will determine how you look and how you feel physically, which reflects how you look and feel about yourself psychologically. Those who ignore the links between food, physical well-being and psychological/emotional confidence are doomed to a life of denial and ill health. With this in mind, one should select the foods they put into their bodies with careful consideration, including spending quality time researching where food comes from and how it is produced.
What about your cat? Shouldn't the food you select for her get the same kind of consideration and scrutiny?
All life depends upon a good diet to perpetuate itself. Fuel in = energy out. It's that simple. Food goes into the body which then converts that food to energy and we recognize that conversion as the animation of life itself. Cats over the eons have developed very specific dietary needs based on their lifestyles as hunting carnivores and the environment they evolved in, which were desert lands. Cutting right to the chase, cats:
- Prefer to eat freshly caught prey. All cats, from their sharp, pointy teeth to their short, efficient digestive tracts, are designed to consume and process flesh in its whole, raw state.
- Derive a great deal of their water intake, and all of the nutrients necessary for survival from the body parts and fluids of their prey
- Are not scavengers except in dire circumstances
- Have a very refined and successful hunting instinct
- Have a "nose" for the vitamin, mineral and protein nutrients needed for survival. Their sense of smell is developed to identify nutritional sources
- Since becoming associated with people, cats have been spoiled by our inclination of processing our environment for ease of use. Consequently, their natural instincts are confused by the seduction of domestication and its accruements
Now, this doesn't mean that you should look for a can or bag of cat food with stubby little legs that can be stalked, caught and opened by your cat. That isn't going to happen but you have probably already noticed your cat will continue to stalk and even capture prey though she may be well fed and satisfied with the feeding routine you have developed for her. Therein lies the potential for delusion.
In case there is any question... like all businesses, cat food producers have to make a profit in order to stay in business. Not that making a profit is bad. It's the basis for economical survival in civilized communities and replaces anarchy as a way for people to get along. But, there's a difference between making a profit for the sake of greed and abrogating any moral responsibility, and making a profit with concern for the well being of everyone involved, including your cat. This is where a person has to step up and use their reasoning abilities, and make proper choices; to determine what foods are good for cats, as well as what foods should be avoided. This is best accomplished by learning to interpret ingredient labels. Discovering ingredient labels and what is really in a can or bag of cat food is easy once you learn the basic math behind the recipe formulations.
With a little more effort, though, it's possible to provide cat food that more closely resembles food cats have long supplied for themselves in the wilderness. But, in the market place, it can become really confusing. They'll usually come under classifications such as the following:
- Natural Cat Food
- Raw Cat Food
- Holistic Cat Food
- Organic Cat Food
Having made an unscientific study of these classifications, I came up with some simple definitions for understanding what is meant by each one:
- Natural Cat Food - Here is the official AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) definition for "natural" as the term relates to pet food: "NATURAL... A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices." This seems to be nothing more than a statement that the 'Natural' label on a food means that it wasn't chemically derived in a laboratory, can be anything from a prime cut of meat to the stuff swept off the floor of that same meat processing plant, and in any case it can contain chemicals to shelf stabilize the product until consumption.
- Raw Cat Food - There's not much to equivocate here. Raw food is not cooked or processed in any way... except with the use of a good, sharp knife. Raw food can be organic and raised on a 'free-range', or full of hormones and other chemicals used to increase the weight of the animal in a fast time period.
- Holistic Cat Food - Holistic is an approach to life-style rather than a specific product. It's a "whole" approach to health, focusing on prevention rather than an after-the-fact cure of disease or illness. The approach incorporates an understanding of the roles that diet, nutrition, water intake, exercise, environment, sleep and emotional well-being play in maintaining good health.
- Organic Cat Food - Here is a great and concise definition from the Organic Trade Association: "Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. Organically produced foods also must be produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering and other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Cloning animals or using their products would be considered inconsistent with organic practices. Organic foods are minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation to maintain the integrity of the food"
As for 'Raw' cat food, care has to be taken that the product is fortified with all the special nutrients that a cat needs for good health. Being raw alone does not guarantee complete nutrition. If you decide to make raw cat food yourself, special care has to be taken to produce a product that meets all the nutrient needs a cat has to maintain a life free of disease. And, if you purchase it through the mail, be certain that it is shipped frozen and is in the frozen state when it arrives in your mailbox. There's nothing worse than opening up a stinky ole package dripping with whatever. Of course, Fido would begin to show a lot of friendly interest in the mailman after the arrival of such a package.
The bottom line is to warily scrutinize the wording of the advertising on any can or bag of pet food. And, to learn how to interpret pet food ingredient labels. Now that we've brought our cats in from the cold... we don't want to kill them with our convenience oriented lifestyles.
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