Choosing the Best Food for Your Kitty

[Tony Avisato]

Choosing the best cat food for your kitty is one of the most important cat owner decisions you can make. Here are some key points to help you decide which cuisine is the right one. Making sure your cat gets adequate nutrition is the primary concern, so feeding foods that meet AAFCO guidelines is generally recommended.

Pick a food type

Are you going to feed dry food and allow free choice for your kitties? Or, are you going to feed canned, wet food at specific feeding times. Some people do a mix of the two.

Choose "healthy"

Generally, pricier foods will have better quality ingredients. So, the best cat food is probably more expensive than your house brand at the grocery store or super store.

More expensive isn't a guarantee of quality by itself, though, on a case-by-case basis. Check ingredients and try to choose a healthy food. Healthier cat foods are made with wholesome ingredients, and tend to avoid the use of artificial preservatives like BHA and BHT, or ethoxyquin.

Choose "natural"

If you can't find an organic food that your cat likes, you can go with some of the cat food offerings on the market that avoid artificial ingredients, and include real meat from free range cows and chickens.

These are often marketed as "natural" products. Although the term "natural" doesn't have the meaning attached to it that "organic" does, these pet food companies will sometimes state that the ingredients come from human-grade sources. Keep in mind that once incorporated into pet food, the product is not technically human-grade; it's just that the source of the meat, for example, might be cows that are slaughtered for human consumption as well.

Choose specifics and learn to read labels

When selecting a cat food, specifics on the label are better than something more general. So, the term "meat" is not desirable, but "beef" is. Learn the terms used on the labels. For example, how much chicken must be in a "Cat Food with Real Chicken" product? You might be surprised to learn, not much.

Choose a manufacturer

When possible, it may be better to choose a product line from a company that makes its own food.

Listen to your cat

Pick a food type and a feeding schedule, and then choose the healthiest food you can find. Learn to read labels, and look for a product that lists specific ingredients rather than more general ones. If possible, choose a company that makes and packs its own food, or has control over the manufacturing.