"What greater gift than the love of a cat?" - Charles Dickens
Diet is the basic foundation and structure of good health.
Did you know that disruptive behavior patterns and difficult training issues can sometimes be traced back to nutritional deficiencies? Once these deficiencies are addressed, remarkable improvements in the animal's behavior, and thus in the animal-owner relationship, can be seen. Owners who believed they had no recourse but to give away their difficult pets have been surprised and delighted at the changes in their companions after putting them on a healthy diet.
Of course, energy, strength, mood, flexibility, dental health, and coat condition are all affected by an animal's diet. Feed your pet the best food you can afford; for their health, their life, and your peace of mind.
And speaking of peace of mind, since the massive 2007 pet food poisoning that killed thousands of American cats and dogs, a great deal of previously generally-unknown information about
pet food manufacturing and ingredient sourcing has come to light.
Itchmo is a forum that keeps up with ongoing pet food recalls and
problems (even those not publically announced) and the Petfood Products Safety Alliance tests foods and posts
the results. These are two sites you should visit often.
Cats
Cats are obligate carnivores and require a meat-based diet. They cannot completely digest grains and should be fed a diet with little or no grain-based products. Wet food is generally better than dry, both because it typically has a better meat/grain ratio and because cats are descended from desert animals with a low thirst drive and remain better hydrated on an all-wet diet. Cats on free-fed dry diets are often overweight and chronically dehydrated; a bad combination that can lead to diabeties or urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Also, fish-based foods should be fed rarely, as a diet high in fish can promote UTIs, especially in cats already prone to them.
The myth that dry foods are better for your cat's teeth than wet foods has been around so long it's been incorporated into "general knowledge" but it is just that, a myth. Raw food, fed correctly, may met feline nutritional needs even better than wet, and is a diet well worth researching.
Go to catinfo.org and catnutrition.org for detailed information on your cat's nutritional needs. The Dog Food Project is, obviously, a canine site, but has an easy to understand and in-depth analysis on pet food ingredients and labeling that can be applied to cat foods as well.
Dogs, birds, rabbits, horses and other animals all have their specific diet needs. Information on these will be posted soon, but in the meantime, you can likely get your questions answered on one of the Forums.
Online Resources