Page 29 - Complete Cat Care: How To Keep Your Cat Healthy and Happy

Dry food Wet food Home-cooked food

nibble at throughout the day—a △ Dry, wet, and home-cooked food
great advantage for owners who Offer your cat a variety of prepared and
home-cooked foods to keep him interested in his
cannot always be home at regular meals. Make sure all his dietary needs are met.
times. Some owners feed their
cat exclusively on dry food, but any disease-causing organisms. Cut
it is better to provide a little meat into pieces that your cat can
variety by offering the occasional eat easily, and remove any bones.
meal of wet food instead. Dry food If you are not confident that home- 27
gives a cat something to chew on cooked food will provide your cat
and helps keep teeth and gums in with the right level of nutrition, △ Clean water
Provide freshwater in both house and garden so
good condition. ask your vet for a diet sheet. that your cat can drink any time he wants. Keep
Moist or “wet” food, which the water bowls scrupulously clean.
comes in cans or sealed pouches, Titbits and supplements
looks appetizing and is usually Offering a titbit now and then A balanced diet
enjoyed by the majority of cats. does no harm, but if you hand
Moist food keeps well until out treats too often you may find Harmful foods
opened, but any left uneaten that your cat is putting on extra
in a food bowl should be thrown weight. Commercially made cat ■ Milk and cream can cause
diarrhea because most cats do
away. This could prove expensive treats, which are nutritionally not have the necessary enzymes
if your pet is a fussy eater and balanced, are preferable to possibly to digest dairy products. Special-
rejects one flavor after another. unhealthy scraps from the table formula “cat milk” is available
(see box, right). ■ Onions, garlic, and chives
Fresh food A healthy cat on a well-rounded cause gastric upsets and may
If you prefer to give your cat diet should not need additional lead to anemia
■ Grapes and raisins are thought
home-cooked food—and avoid vitamins and minerals. Dosing to cause kidney damage
the preservatives found in your cat with supplements without ■ The alkaloid theobromine in
commercial products—you should veterinary advice is not a good chocolate is highly toxic to cats
apply the same standards for idea, and may even cause illness. ■ Raw eggs may contain the
buying and preparing it as bacteria that cause food
you would for your own meals. Water poisoning. Uncooked egg white
However, great care is needed to Your cat needs constant access disrupts vitamin B absorption in
cats, leading to skin problems
provide a balanced diet because to clean water, both indoors and ■ Raw meat and fish may contain
your cat has highly specialized outdoors, especially if he eats harmful enzymes and also cause
dietary requirements and could mostly dry food. Keep water bowls fatal bacterial poisoning
quickly run into health problems well apart from food bowls to avoid ■ Small splintery bones in cooked
if his diet is deficient in, for contamination from scattered food, food can become lodged in
example, taurine. Whether you change the water frequently, and the throat or farther down the
digestive tract, causing blockage
use red meat, chicken, or fish, remember in particular to check and tearing the intestinal lining
obtain it from a reputable source that water bowls left in the garden
and cook it thoroughly to destroy are not full of debris.

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