First of all, catnip is an herb. Not necessarily an herb that you want to mix into the spaghetti sauce, but its usefulness in the human world is exactly what made it quite so obvious that it also had a usefulness in the feline world. A perennial, which means it pops up year after year for all you brown thumbs out there, which is technically known by its Latin name, Nepeta cataria and produces an aroma that cats are strongly attracted to. It can be quite the source of entertainment to watch a kitten with their first ball of catnip. However, don’t be too disappointed if your kitty just treats their specially designed catnip toy like all his other toys. Not all cats lose their minds. In fact, only about 30% of all the kitties in the United States and Canada completely forget their manners in the face of catnip.

Catnip has been proven useful in the human world. It has some interesting health properties that are unique and some say overwhelmingly remarkable. Soft tissue infections caused by specific agents such as Staphylococcus aureus have been proven to respond to catnip. Toxic Shock Syndrome, a serious illness caused by leaving a tampon in for too long causing a serious infection, has also been known to respond well to catnip as a treatment. It can double as a sleep aid or an antifungal agent. Scientists and experimental herbalists are now trying it out as a natural insect repellant with some success.

Catnip is a hairy plant that is related to mint. Enthusiasts of the herb can grow it in their windowsills in little herb pots if they wish, purchase it from the store in a dried form, or of course, buy the toys stuffed with it to be discovered in a sudden moment of euphoric serendipity. The herb was originally native to Eurasia, and what makes cats so bitey for the nip is actually an oil secreted by the plant. This is why cats seem to go a little more ga—ga over the fresh version as opposed to the dry version. Technically speaking, there is enough of this precious oil remaining in the dried version to have an impact until the cat experiences the fresh stuff. Then watch out.

So, what is catnip to cats? For some, it’s really not much. But for those who find it intoxicating, it is the equivalent to chocolate made from real chocolate or a bottle of the world’s best ranked wine for the connoisseur. It is completely and totally that absolute most precious delight that makes your cat dream pleasant dreams and make nice with the entire family. It is that one moment of absolute bliss amidst an otherwise ordinary day. For cats who respond to catnip, there is little else that can compete with it. In fact, a few informal studies were conducted that proved a cat’s preference to catnip over just about anything. Cats were given choices between catnip and their food, catnip and broiled fish, and even catnip and chicken livers. 93% of the cats involved chose the catnip over everything else. This in itself is a pretty strong testimony straight from the mouths of kitties.

Despite its association with marijuana, which was dubbed by people with a particular fondness for the drug by the way, catnip is not a drug. In fact, it doesn’t affect a cat the way a drug would. Drugs work through receptors in the brain while catnip stimulates olfactory responses in cats. When Fluffy is hurtling himself about and acting as though you just injected him with a Super Steroid, he is really just a bit…aroused. Catnip gives off a synthetic pheromone that some cats just find completely dandy. Not all cats will respond to this particular pheromone, just like not all people respond to the same pheromones. Some cats will find it relaxing, which is why people decide that cats can become “stoned” from catnip. They are not stoned. They are satiated and calm, like their mother just paid them a visit and rocked them into a comforting state with her sweet perfume providing the best comfort in the world, despite the fact that they are in fact 36 years old.

Catnip can elicit a grand response from some cats, but just like all other primal sexual urges, cats can not maintain this level of excitement indefinitely. After about 5 to 15 minutes, the cat will begin to lose interest, and their arousal can not be once again piqued for at least an hour, sometimes 24.

So, what is catnip? It’s just an herb. It’s an absolutely wonderfully amusing herb delight for kitties who are in need of a little jousting in their day. It is not habit forming, addictive, mind altering, or otherwise related to controlled substances. Catnip can be used by humans for specific ailments and illnesses, and it is also used in certain spells of practicing witches. However, those spells are guarded rather heavily and we are not clear on which ones they are used.

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Fortunately, through careful treatment and management, cats with diabetes can go on to live happy, normal lives. Quick diagnosis, aggressive early management and especially by using special diets for diabetic cats, many cats diagnosed with diabetes can be easily maintained with their disease, and in some cases may even go into a diabetic remission.

Approximately 80% of cats that develop diabetes will develop type-2 or sugar diabetes. In humans, as well as animals, diabetes is the inability of the hormone insulin to balance glucose levels in the blood.

The food animals ingest is converted into glucose in the body, traveling through the bloodstream, feeding cells and creating energy. Insulin in the body is the vehicle that allows cells to get their energy from the bloodstream. In normal circumstances, after the glucose enters the body, cells in the pancreas release insulin, and it is then distributed to cells in the body, allowing them to “capture” the glucose for their own use.

The pancreas are responsible for the amount of insulin produced in the body- just enough to carefully balance the glucose level in the blood, to avoid them rising too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). However, in animals with type-2 diabetes, the body’s cells stop responding correctly to insulin. This results in excessively high blood glucose levels, as the body is unable to process the excess glucose.

The early signs of diabetes in cats are weight loss, an increased or even voracious appetite, and increased water drinking and urination. As the inability to process glucose progresses, the brain begins to send signals to eat more, to take in more glucose. Glucose levels in the blood rise, but are unable to be utilized due to the lack of insulin, and the starved cells of the body turn to breaking down fat and muscle protein to convert into sugars by the liver. As the cycle progresses, the glucose build up in the blood leaks into the urinary tract, and draws water from the cells in, causing the cat to urinate frequently, leading to a constant state of dehydration despite increased water intake.

Your veterinarian can make a diagnosis of diabetes based on a physical exam of your cat, and a description of your cats recent behavior and clinical signs. Most importantly, blood and urine samples can help to make a definitive diagnosis on your cat, and allow treatment to begin.

Treatment of diabetes is multifaceted, and often relies on a combination of long-lasting insulin injections, specially prepared diets for diabetic cats, and careful blood level monitoring.

Diets for diabetic cats are the cornerstone for treating feline diabetes. Research has shown a link between the development of diabetes in cats and regular commercially prepared dry-food diets. Dry food is typically comprised of a high level of carbohydrates, flooding the pancreas over time with a constant high-sugar intake. By feeding a low-carbohydrate diet, the amount of insulin needed is reduced, and the variations in blood-sugar levels are kept small and easy to predict and follow.

Your veterinarian can help you to select an appropriate low-carbohydrate diet for your cat. While canned, low-carbohydrate preparations are preferable (canned foods naturally have lower levels of carbs than dry, as well as higher levels of digestible protein), cats that will not eat wet food can be fed specially prepared prescription dry food diets. Diets that have between 3% and 9% of their calories from carbohydrates are reccomended to be the best choice for managing diabetic cats.

In addition to their great benefit in helping regulate blood sugar levels and lessen insulin requirements, lower-carb diets will help overweight cats loose weight. Many diabetic cats are overweight, and reducing their weight to a more normal level can have many health advantages, both directly and indirectly to the diabetes.

Diabetic cats should be fed their prescribed diet only, without additional treats or food changes. Once a diabetic cat is regulated on a particular food, changing that food can completely change their insulin requirements- so it is important that any management program ensure that the diet a diabetic cat is the only one that is fed.

A stable diet is especially important for the second phase of treatment- insulin injections. While a small number of cats may be controlled diabetics with diet changes alone, most cats require supplemental insulin to regulate their blood levels. In most cases, a single slow-acting dose of insulin, administered via injection twice daily, along with the special diet will act to keep the blood sugar level at the optimal level all day.

While the prospect of giving insulin injections to your cat is often a daunting one, your veterinarian will help to show you the proper method and location for the injection, allowing you to become comfortable with the procedure before having to do it at home. Most cats do not even notice the tiny insulin needle, and make drug administration a breeze.

Finding a balance between diet and insulin dosages can be the trickiest part of trying to manage a newly diagnosed diabetic. Your veterinarian may run several “glucose curve” tests, where blood sugar levels are monitored at several points throughout a day to ensure that they are not dipping too low or going to high after meals or insulin injections. You may be asked to test your cats urine at home periodically with Keto-sticks, which can indicate an excessive amount of glucose in the urine, a sign of uncontrolled diabetes.

Often good diabetes management can be accomplished in just a few weeks, and once the diabetes has become well controlled, monitoring blood work may only be needed every 6 months or so to ensure insulin requirements are not changing, and to ensure the cats other body systems (kidneys, liver, etc) are not having any problems.

Although a diagnosis of diabetes in your can be a intimidating prospect, by working carefully with your vet to carefully diagnose and estabilish a treatment plan, your cat can continue to live a long and virtually normal life, unaffected by his diabetes. Through insulin and diets for diabetic cats, diabetes can be managed, and sometimes even reversed.

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Just as there are benefits to people when they eat a nutritious diet full of quality foods, there are benefits to cats when they are fed a high quality diet. Some foods that claim to be of premium quality are actually just low quality food in a pretty package. Therefore, being knowledgeable about what makes a great quality cat food is the second step in making sure your cat has a healthy diet. The first is understanding your cat’s nutritional needs.

What a Cat Needs

Cats, like people, have certain nutritional requirements. While any food that tastes reasonably good may be enough to satisfy hunger, that doesn’t mean that those foods offer proper nutrition. Some cat foods should be considered an equivalent to the fast food that so many people eat. Yes, it will fill you up. Yes, it tastes good. But it does NOTHING for you in the way of benefiting your health – or your waistline.

Cats need several things to be present in their food in order to have a proper diet. There are certain amino acids that are necessary for good health that cats do not produce on their own. Because these amino acids are not produced naturally, they must be included in the diet. High quality proteins, such as those found in fish and meat, provide all of the necessary amino acids. A deficiency in essential amino acids can lead to health problems in your cat including heart problems, deficient immune system, blindness and a host of other health issues.

One of the essential amino acids required by cats is taurine. Taurine is found in only tiny amounts in plants, but is abundant in many fish and birds. This is one reason that a vegetarian diet is not appropriate for a cat.

Fats and fatty acids are another requirement for a healthy feline diet. A cat’s diet can include a higher percentage of fat than a human’s diet without any known negative effects. For maximum health benefits, a cat food should contain a minimum of around 10% fat. The omega-3 fats that are so important to a human diet are also necessary in a cat’s diet. A lack of these fatty acids can cause problem with a cat’s nervous system, vision and lead to a host of other problems.

While not essential to a feline diet, carbohydrates provide fuel for the energy that your cat requires to complete normal daily activities. Kittens and cats that are pregnant or nursing have different energy requirements. Check with your vet about the best diet for kittens and pregnant or nursing cats.

Several vitamins and minerals are needed for the good health for your cat. All of the required vitamins and minerals will be present in a quality cat food. Keep in mind that too much of a certain vitamin can also be harmful, so gross overfeeding is also detrimental to the health of your cat. One advantage of buying premium cat food is that all of the items required for a healthy feline diet will be found in one place.

Even if you use the best cat food available, under or over feeding your cat can lead to health problems. An underweight cat is more likely to get certain bacterial infections and could suffer damage to their organs. An overweight cat is susceptible to diabetes and heart problems.

If you can feel your cat’s bones, the cat is likely underweight. You should feel a thin layer of fat over the ribs in a cat of ideal weight.

Now that you are familiar with the dietary needs of your cat, you are better prepared to select a well-balanced nutritionally appropriate food.

How to Select a Premium Cat Food

Learning to read the label on a bag or can of cat food is the key to choosing the best food for your cat. While cheap cat food can be found at any supermarket, what you are often paying for is a bag of empty calories that will not provide your cat with a balanced diet. Here is what you need to look for on the label of a cat food product.

• Look for the words “complete and balanced”. These words can only appear when the food meets certain criteria established by AAFCO (The American Associate of Feed Control Officials).
• A protein source that is named (i.e. chicken, beef) rather than just “meat”.
• Ideally, the protein source will be the first listed ingredient.

You want to avoid fillers, so if you see the words “animal by-products” “bone meal” or “animal digest” on the ingredient list, you should choose a different food. Preservatives should also be avoided, so do not select foods that contain BHT, BHA or propyl gallate. Excessive fillers, especially corn meal fillers, should be avoided as well.

Below is a list of some of the benefits of purchasing a high quality food.

• A healthy, shiny coat
• All of your cat’s nutritional needs will be met without the need for supplements
• It will be easier for your cat to maintain a healthy weight
• Your cat will have a higher energy level
• Your cat will be hungry less often, because all of his nutritional needs will be met
• Just like a human who eats a healthy diet, your cat will have fewer problems with illness and will be an overall healthier pet.

While a high quality cat food may cost a bit more, the advantages of buying premium cat food are well worth it for the health of your pet.

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There are several varying opinions out there regarding the type of diet cats should maintain. These diets include all canned food, raw food diets, dry food diets, and a diet that combines dry and canned commercial pet food. The diet that you chose may depend on personal preference, or your cat may need up choosing it for you. Cats with chronic digestive or other such illnesses may benefit most to a change in their eating habits, namely changing what they are fed. This can be an easy solution to a difficult problem, but it is ultimately your choice.

Most domesticated housecats have been introduced to a diet of commercially prepared dry kibble. Although unnatural to the feline digestive system due to its high content of carbohydrates, high number of plant proteins, and lack of water, the dry food diet is most common in the United States, with most cats tolerating it quite well. The available choices of dry cat food have increased dramatically, so finding a formula that suits your cat’s needs has become easier. If you find that your cat is experiencing problems, a change may be in order. You may also find an apparently healthy cat will thrive and even enjoy an even longer life if their diet is altered.

An all canned cat food diet is becoming more popular. Cats are an obligate carnivore, which means that they were designed to garner their nutritional needs from a mainly animal-protein diet. Cats lack the metabolic means necessary to derive nutrition from plant-based proteins. Canned foods that are specifically designed for cats have a higher quality protein, while dry foods are often heavily plant-based proteins that cats cannot digest. In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content, meat-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only approximately 3-5 percent of her diet consisting of carbohydrates. Canned foods do not contain the ultra high levels of carbohydrates that are found in dry foods, which cats do not need nor can they tolerate.

Canned foods also contain high amounts of water, which cats are meant to ingest with their meals. Most wild prey contains 75% water, making canned foods much more natural to the cat. One of the most common ailments that cats suffer from are kidney and bladder problems. A high water content diet can help alleviate these problems.

A practice that is gaining popularity among cat owners is providing an all raw meat diet for their cats. This can be accomplished by purchasing a pre-made version of this product, or by making the food at home. Raw meat diets are similar to the nutritional needs supplied by canned foods, yet they contain lower levels of the toxins from grain that commercial dry and canned foods have, as well as less bacteria. While raw meat does can bacteria, cats enjoy a much shorter transit time through the intestines, so bacteria does not have time to grow and multiply there.

Whether you engage in making the product yourself, or buying a prepared raw food, it is important to do your homework. Cats cannot thrive on meat alone, so be sure to add supplements or bone meal to enhance calcium. There are a number of recipes that your cat will enjoy. If you decide to buy a pre-made product, be sure to inspect the ingredients, allowing for no more than 10% vegetable matter. Also be aware of what the meat source is, as organs such as liver do not contain the necessary nutritional sustenance that cats need.

If you are experiencing problems with your cat, consult your veterinarian, who may be able to help you decide on an adequate diet for your feline companion. Experimenting with different diets may also be of great help in determining which is best for your cat.

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While the widespread panic of the pet food recall has abated, the event brought to the surface many concerns about the content and ingredients in cat food, and now more than ever determining what constitutes a healthy diet for your cat is a confusing and daunting task.

Cats have very specific nutritional needs, and to ignore these needs will adversely affect your cats health. Compared to dogs, cats require a much higher amount of protein in their diet, stemming from the cats inability to regulate the break down of liver enzymes. If a diet is not high enough in protein, the body will begin utilize and attack protein in the cats own muscle.

The amino acids taurine is essential for the formation of bile, as well as eye and heart health, however the feline body is extremely limited in how much taurine it can produce itself. Arginine is another essential amino acid that is essential in the eradication of ammonia from the body. Cats require diets high in both taurine and arginine for proper body functions.

The average cat diet should contain at least 30% protein, compared to 22% in dogs. Taurine is not present in most dog foods, and the amount of arginine needed in cat food is more than double that in dog food. Because of these and many other unique nutritional requirements, it is essential to feed your cat a proper, balanced diet.

It is for this reason that understanding the label on your cat food is so important. Labels can be confusing, but if taken apart, you can decipher much of the hidden meaning in the nutritional value of your cats food.

What’s in a name? When it comes to cat food, quite a bit. If a food is named specifically for it’s main ingredient, such as “Chicken Cat Food”, the named ingredient, chicken, must make up at least 70% of the total weight of the food. If a food name contains the word “dinner” or “formula”, such as “Beef Formula”, the named ingredient must only be at least 25% of the total weight of the food- and filler is frequently used to make up the rest of the content.

By-products are ingredients found commonly in many poorer quality cat foods. Meat by-products are the parts of the animal that is left over after slaughter, unfit for human consumption. In poultry, this can mean the feet, intestines, organs, and diseased animals.

“Crude Protein” is generally made up of the hair, hooves and tendons of animals, as well as beaks and feathers of poultry. The cat may not be able to digest all of this crude protein, leading to a protein deficiency. .

Cereal grains, referred to as “meal” (wheat meal, corn meal) are the leftovers of grain processed for human use, and have very little nutritional value.

“Glutens” such as the wheat gluten found in the tainted pet foods, are a byproduct of human food processing, and used mostly as a binder in the food.

On the ingredient label, there are often more than twenty ingredients listed. Ingredients are required to be listed on the label in order of weight content- so the first few ingredients listed are going to be the major components of the food.

For example, the first ingredients of one food might look like this: “Corn meal, ground wheat, meat meal, chicken fat, wheat gluten”. Another brand might read “Turkey, chicken, chicken meal, barley, brown rice”. In this example, the first food is made primarily of corn and wheat, with a meat source as the third largest ingredient. The second food has true meat as a much greater proportion of its content. Because protein in the form of meat ingredients is the most important component of a cats diet, between these two labels it becomes obvious that the second food is of much higher nutritional value.

Once you have been armed with the knowledge to decipher a cat food label, it’s time to take a look at what you’ve been feeding Kitty. Maybe it’s time to do some more research, and find a different food? If so, keep in mind a few other food choices while you are at the pet store.

Foods that claim to be “organic” can fall into two categories. A food advertised as “made with organic ingredients” is required to contain only 70% of actual organic ingredients. True “organic” labeled cat food contains at least 95% organic ingredients.

Although vegetarian dog foods have been steadily gaining popularity, vegetarian options are not a healthy choice for cats. Because cats are true carnivores, they rely on meat protein for their survival.

Another unique consideration for cats is the water content of a food. In nature, a cats diet would be made up of as much as 70% water, requiring little supplemental water intake. The average dry cat food can contain as little as 6% water, and studies have shown that cats do not drink enough additional water to make up for the lack of moisture in their food. As a result, feeding dry food exclusively may have a detrimental effect on cats health, and it has been linked to a higher incidence of chronic dehydration, urinary tract disease and renal failure.

By contrast, commercially prepared canned food typically contains 40-45% water- still not the same amount as the cat would get in the wild, but a great improvement over dry food.

Providing a healthy diet for your cat is dependent on your understanding of the unique nutritional requirements of the feline body. By carefully researching the ingredients in your cat food, and through consultation with your veterinarian, you can find a food that can give you peace of mind, and provide your cat with the nutrition to support a long and happy life.

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When you start feeding cats table scraps you are in essence training him to be fed from the table. Of course, then you’re going to blow your stack at the sweet kitty when he jumps on the Thanksgiving table and helps himself to the turkey that hasn’t even been carved yet while you’re out back gathering the clan for a meal that would have been to die for. At least the cat thought so. More often than not, when you give cats the human leftovers, they begin to take liberties that you had never intended to give them. Some cats will take them even if you never feed them the tiniest morsel that falls on the floor. Other cats will take their cue from you, determining that if it’s good enough for you to give it to them, then it’s good enough for them to take it. Somehow they miss our human logic that denies them the ability to help themselves.

Some veterinarians believe that table scraps are the healthiest treat you can give a cat, or a dog for that matter, while some believe they should only ever be given cat treats. Most fall somewhere in between. In some cases, feeding a cat table scraps is healthier than some cats treats out there. If you are giving a cat undoctored healthy meat scraps, some vets will insist this is healthier than treats with the main ingredient of wheat or “byproduct” and “meal.” These are code words for “not the real thing.” Fish byproduct means a product derived from fish, not the fish we think of sitting steamed to perfection on our plates.

Some experts say that it can be okay to feed the cat pieces of fresh meats provided that this isn’t carried out at the table. This way you can offer your cat the best of the proteins and crude fats that are healthy for his digestive system and fur while regulating his behavior. Cats can be trained to eat only what is served to them at their dish. However, these same experts warn that dishing out the goodies regularly can cause your little fur ball to become rather fickle, turning his nose up in disgust when you feed him his regular cat food.

Cats need some form of regularity for their digestive tracts to work well. Despite your best efforts, unless you are eating the same thing every night, giving your cat random scraps can make his little tummy revolt on occasion, leaving you with a highly unattractive mess that hopefully made it to the litter box.

Cats do not ingest milk or other dairy products well at all. Despite the cute cartons which feature milk as a main staple for cats, it is one of the fastest ways to give them explosive bowel issues. And cats can not always make it to their litter box when they are ill. While it is true that cats love dairy products, and will often break the rules to grab a few precious licks of the ice cream you left in the bottom of your dish when you ran off to the bathroom, dairy is a terrible treat for cats. In some rare cases, dairy can actually cause serious health problems, and on even rarer occasions it can cause deadly health problems. As rare as this may be, it won’t matter how often or how little it happens if it happens to your kitty.

For those of us who still live without the convenience of a dishwasher, having a cat around to clean up some particularly unattractive left over meal remnants can seem like a handy idea. And it is handy. Nobody can deny how much easier it is to wash a plate that has been completely devoured by a cat with a mission. If it wasn’t for the tell tale kitty slime of their saliva all over the plate, you could just stick it back into the cabinet and no one would be the wiser. Expect your cat. Your rather obese cat that can no longer jump up onto his favorite perch to watch the birds outside or the cat you now have to heft up onto the bed for a cozy night of cuddling.

The number one health issue facing cats today is obesity. Fat cats are not cute, they are dangerously unhealthy. Fat cats have all the same troubles as obese humans, plus a few extras that we don’t have to contend with. When you allow your cat to become morbidly overweight you are robbing him not only of the length of his life, but the quality of his life as well. How much fun is life for a cat who can’t creep around his favorite places because he can’t jump any more. How much does he really enjoy sleeping on the floor because you are not home to pick him up on command? How horrible is it to watch your cat struggle with back pain knowing that you had a direct hand in his current condition?

Feeding a cat table scraps can lead to this situation faster than you might think. The best protection for your cat, whether you are concerned with his health or his behavior, is to regulate his food intake, give him plenty of exercise, and substitute that slice of fish with those dangerous choking hazard bones hidden inside with an extra helping of loving attention. Your cat will most definitely live a healthier, happier, and longer life and you will be pleased with the lack of kitty paw prints on the kitchen counter.

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In their more natural environment, cats are carnivores. Left to their own devices that make incredible hunters with the stealth of a missile when they find their prey. This is what their bodies are made to thrive on. This is what keeps them healthy. Thus, in any cat food, the one thing you are looking for is meat. Not a meat by-product. A by-product is just that, a substandard filling material that may have come from meat, but isn’t meat. It’s like trimming all the fat off of a luscious piece of prime rib and serving only the fat to your family. Certainly not the healthiest meal you could give them, if they could even choke down all that undissolved gristle.

If you don’t see something familiar, that you would eat, at the very top of the list of ingredients, then pass up the food. You should see words like “chicken,” and “salmon” and “turkey” without any additional verbiage surrounding it. Something simple that you would put in your mouth. “Chicken by-product” isn’t going on my plate any time soon.

Wheat is not healthy for cats. Cats don’t graze. In fact, cats don’t get any nutritional value from wheat. It is just a cost effective filler that allows for more volume of cat food with a less expensive price tag for the company. They’ll still charge you $15 for a 5 pound bag.

So how does this help you solve the debate between serving your kitty wet or dry cat food? We have to look a little deeper into the natural behaviors and dietary needs of the feline companions to answer that. Just as they are stealth hunters, cats of any type are also very efficient and thorough eaters. Perhaps it is a bit unpleasant to think about, but cats really don’t waste much of their prey. The flesh of their prey can often serve not only to feed their hunger, but the natural fluid also helps to keep them hydrated. Soft cat food most closely resembles this. However, cats will eat the bones, or at least a good portion of them, before they consider their prey to be waste material. The crunchiness of the hard texture is very good for their teeth. While you should not give your cat chicken bones, despite the fact they would consider you the best human in the world if you did, you do need to pay attention to the ease which cats rely on their diet to keep them both nutritionally and hygienically sound.

Cats that live on primarily wet food are typically healthier in their protein consumption but offend their human counterparts with particularly foul breath. You should get their teeth cleaned regularly, but between cleanings, cats require natural ways of keeping their mouths healthier. Kittens especially use the hard crunch to help establish new teeth as their baby teeth disappear.

Cats that live primarily off of dry cat foods tend to have healthier mouths but are lacking nutritionally, even if the difference is marginal. If you are trying to offer your cat the healthiest food possible, you may want to consider blending both dry and wet cat food. This gives them the best of both worlds.

Of course, there are down sides to this. For starters, cats generally don’t eat all of their food at one sitting. They are more nibblers by nature. Some will, but they are the rare sort. Leaving wet cat food at their disposal is not only an attraction for germs, but bugs and rodents as well.

One of the most convenient aspects of owning a cat is that a simple weekend away doesn’t entail the same hardships as it does with dogs. There is no need to find a cat sitter or to take them to a cat kennel. You have the option of leaving extra food down and disappearing for a couple of days. Having to contend with wet cat food, even a mixture of wet and dry, makes this sort of thing more difficult.

Ultimately, the choice made not be made by you, especially if you have adopted an older cat that is stubborn about keeping their diet the same. A test of wills can be difficult to endure when switching a cat’s food to something new, even when you try to adjust them slowly. The upset stomach, the constant mewling, and of course the beady eyed glare you receive as he waits for his usual food might be more than you can bear, even if it is for his own good. It often takes several tried to switch a cat from one food to the other.

When choosing your cat’s food, the ingredients and the nutritional levels are more important than whether you choose between wet or dry cat food. If your lifestyle can handle it, a mix is always preferable. Most cat owners who travel even just a bit opt for dry. The most important factor is that your cat is offered food that is nutritionally sound to allow him to live a full and healthy life.

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Over the next couple of weeks, Ken could coax Berkley into taking a few bites of food, but that was it. Ken kept waiting for her to come back around, but that didn’t happen, and Berkley almost died.

While the reason that Berkley stopped eating probably was related to the trauma of losing her sister, what Ken didn’t know was that when a cat stops eating – for any reason – it can turn deadly very fast.

When a person stops eating for a short period of time, their body can handle it. Yes, there will be some changes, the stomach may shrink, blood sugar levels will shift etc….but in general, a healthy person can go without food for two weeks or even longer with no long term effects.

But a cat’s body functions differently from a persons. A human liver is pretty efficient at processing fat. A cat’s, however, is not. When a cat stops eating, the body begins to send fat cells to the liver. Because the cat’s liver cannot process these fat cells a disease called hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) can result.

Once the cat has this condition, eating will become increasingly difficult until the cat is not able to eat at all. This can happen rather quickly. Because cats are not, by nature, complainers, a cat with hepatic lipidosis may not even appear to be ill. But there are some signs to look for.

• Cat is not eating
• Excessive and rapid weight loss
• Vomiting
• Lethargy
• Jaundice (yellowing on the skin or around the eyes or mouth)

Unfortunately, once these signs are clearly noticeable, the disease will likely have been present for quite some time. While treatable if caught early enough, the best thing to do is take notice immediately when your cat stops eating. If your cat stops eating for more than 24 hours, the safest course of action is to get to a vet.

In Ken’s case, by the time he took Berkley to the vet it was almost too late. She had to have a feeding tube inserted, but even with that drastic treatment, Ken was told that there was only a 25% chance that she would survive.

The low odds were due to the fact that the fatty liver disease had begun to cause liver failure. Because Berkley was on the verge of liver failure, there was a good chance the treatment would not work.

Hepatic lipidosis is the result of not eating. Once the disease takes hold it becomes the reason that the cat cannot eat. In Berkley’s case it is likely that trauma was the reason she stopped eating. There are some other common reasons a cat will stop being interested in food.

A move to a new house, the addition of a pet or a baby to household or any number of medical conditions are some of the more common causes. Obviously, if the cause is a medical condition, a vet’s assistance will be required to alleviate the problem. Even if the cause is psychological, it is important to find a way to get the cat eating again as quickly as possible or it will quickly turn into the medical condition described above.

Berkley was hospitalized for two weeks. Once she came home, she had to be fed through a tube for several weeks before she began to again show interest in eating on her own. Had she been brought to the vet sooner, the treatment may have been less drastic and she could have been coaxed into eating by simpler measures.

Getting advice from the vet is always going to be the best course of action for a cat that is not eating. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and at the very least your vet will be able to give you advice on how to best stimulate the cat’s appetite as well as providing follow-up care in the event that all of your efforts to get the cat to eat fail.

Don’t take any chances. Yes, there is advice on the internet about how to get your cat to eat, but by waiting to get to a vet, you are gambling with your pet’s life.

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Recently however, studies have shown that dry cat foods might not be the best choice, and that feeding dry food may actually have a detrimental effect on the health of cats eating it exclusively, for long periods of time. In fact, diets of dry cat food have been linked to a higher incidence of chronic dehydration, urinary tract disease and renal failure.

Today’s cats are descendants of true carnivores. Having evolved on the deserts of Africa, cats adapted to their environment by having their moisture requirements met solely by the moisture found in their prey. This natural diet contained at least 65% water- commercial dry food contains no more than 10% moisture.

You may be wondering, but what about supplemental water intake? We all provide free-choice water to our cats- but how often do you see your cat actually drinking water. Obviously, he drinks some, but because drinking water is a learned behavior, not a natural one, it cannot be relied on to make up the difference between what you cat needs, and what he gets from his dry food. Over 40 million years of evolution, and until recently, the cat has not needed to rely on a supplemental water source.

As we mentioned before, the natural diet of cats would contain as much as 70% water. In order to consume that much moisture out of a commercial dry diet, the cat would have to eat seven times as much food, or chronic dehydration may result.

By contrast, commercially prepared canned food typically contains 40-45% water- still not the same amount as the cat would get in the wild, but a great improvement over dry food.

In addition to the low moisture content of dry food, once ingested the kibble will absorb moisture from within the stomach, causing further dehydration. Fed over the long term, this chronic dehydration can cause urinary tract diseases and renal failure.

While problems in the lower urinary tract of cats is not a recent problem, it has been documented as occurring more frequently, especially in cats fed a primarily dry food diet. Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) is caused by the formation of struvite or calcium oxalate crystals in the urine, which then cause blockage of the bladder. Decreased moisture content in the food decreases the volume of urine, increasing the amount of crystals present in the bladder at any given time. Treatment of cats with crystals is aimed at increasing their volume of urine, which can be accomplished with prescription diets, or often by simply changing the cats diet from dry to canned food. Cats who are switched to wet food also have a much lower incidence of recurrence of bladder obstruction problems than those who remain on a dry food diet.

In addition to urinary tract problems, long term reduced water intake and chronic dehydration can lead to chronic renal failure (kidney failure) in cats. Renal failure is a progressive and ultimately terminal condition, for which there is no cure, only supportive care. The kidneys have several primary functions in cats, including filtering waste products from the blood, regulating electrolytes, and the production and concentration of urine. As kidney failure progresses, each of these functions gradually decreases as well. Signs of kidney failure are increased water intake, increased urination, and weight loss-however, because only 30% of kidney function is needed for normal renal function, often symptoms are not present until 70% or more of kidney function is already gone.

In addition to the increased load that decreased water intake adds to the kidneys, grain proteins found in dry food release a greater amount of waste upon digestion, once again causing extra work for the kidneys in order to expel the waste material.

Aside from the above problems, dry cat food has been linked to greater incidence of obesity in cats. In the wild, a cats natural diet would consist of approximately 1-2% carbohydrates as part of the daily diet. Used in commercial dry foods as a source of calories, and to increase bulk and structure of the food, carbohydrates often make up as much as 45% of a dry food diet. Cats metabolize fat and protein almost exclusively for their energy- and as a result, most of the carbohydrates are converted by the liver into body fat. Obesity, as well as increased amounts of fat being stored in the liver (a condition called hepatic lipidosis), results.

Despite all the potential problems caused by commercial dry food diets, should you be throwing out that 20lb bag of food and buy up the canned food section at the pet store? Not necessarily, though some adjustments to your cats feeding program may go a long way to promoting their long-term health.

If your cat already has certain kidney or urinary problems, dry food may not be the best choice to feed him, and canned food might even be a valuable tool in treating their condition. In normal cats, a mix of wet and dry food may provide a sensible “middle ground” between convenience, expense, and health. In the end, if you are concerned about the use of dry cat food, or have any other nutritional questions, your veterinarian will be the best resource you can have to selecting the best long-term diet for your cat.

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