A healthy cat is a beautiful cat and we pride ourselves in having robust cats with shiny coats, a muscular physique and clear eyes. In order to achieve this, our cats are fed top quality, high protein food, as natural as possible. The most nutritionally balanced food seems to be day old chicks or home bred feeder mice but you might not find them readily available or have the stomach for them! There is much conflicting advice, some saying moist food rots teeth, some saying dry is bad for kidneys so we combine commercial dry and moist with home prepared and we’re always on the lookout for the most nutritionally balanced food. We become frustrated that we don’t have the same choice in UK available to American consumers. As such, we make the best of the complete foods available and often find online or direct shopping more productive, generally steering clear of food available in supermarkets, some of which can be nutritionally poor quality with low protein and suspect animal derivatives and chemicals.
It is always worth paying a little more to have a healthy cat. In the kibble, Crown makes Royal Canin and James Wellbeloved. The first has excellent protein content, and the second contains no nasty chemical preservatives. If they would preserve with Vitamin C& E as they do in USA, Royal Canin would get our unequivocal vote. Some of our cats will eat Arden Grange, Almo Nature, Autarky and Burns, which again contains no chemicals, but like most people, we’d prefer the convenience of all our cats on the same food. Our favoured moist foods are Denes and Nature's Menu but the cats don't always agree. Be aware that certain foods contain lots of colouring, preservative and flavour enhancers. Just because they like them doesn’t mean they’re nutritious. Must remind myself of that when I reach for wine or chocolate!
We often joke that our feline family eat better than we do, with chicken, salmon and coley regularly on the menu. We do not feed any commercial treats but occasionally give salmon or cheese as a treat. Note that we never feed milk to our cats, as many cats are lactose intolerant. Fresh filtered water is freely available and we find our cats prefer to ‘discover’ this in separate locations to the food.
The BARF diet is something we will look at more closely as it must be closer to what nature intended, but as yet we have been unsuccessful in getting our cats to eat raw meat (frozen first to kill bacteria) and uncooked bones, such as chicken wings. Perhaps with a grinder this could be encouraged but then the teeth-cleaning factor would be eliminated. Raw steak mince and rabbit is very good for bulking out an overly lean cat but again, as yet, no takers at Purfidelis.
Serious research into feline nutrition is better from a non-commercial source as otherwise there will always be a conflict of interest. Several websites have interesting information. One of our favourites is The National Academies, which has tables on minimum protein, amino acid, vitamin and mineral requirements for kittens and adult cats. Always ensure you are feeding a complete diet.
The website is: