What is the best meat to feed a cat?

Question

for the majority of the time I want to feed my cat the best food ever. I heard raw meat is the best. my cat is around 6 months old, male orange domestic short hair tabby.I want my cat to live to be the oldest cat ever so nutrition is the best thing I can do for him. I heard the longest was 36 years old. I wonder if I can beat the record, jus because I'd die to ever see my baby go:-(

Answer 1

Hi there...consider visiting the both the cat nutrition website http://catnutrition.org/ and the holisticat website to learn more about raw meat diets for cats: http://www.holisticat.com/rawdiet.html

Holisticate includes ideas for healthy recipes and supplements that cats require as meat alone is enough to meet a cat's nutritional requirements.

EDIT: Vet endorsed raw diet for cats: http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/sampleraw.htm plus many more facts and information about the truth about commercial cat food products.

Answer 2

Best Meat For Cats

Answer 3

What should you feed your cat to make sure he or she will have the necessary nutrition? What is the ideal mix of food to help your cat live to the limit of it's life span?

To answer these questions, one should look at the diet of a feline in it's natural habitat. In the wild, a cat eats almost exclusively animal tissue. However, they would normally eat the entire body of the animal,
including it's stomach contents, which has many nutrients that are simply lacking in an animals muscle tissue.

Another question many cat owners have is: Is fresh meat the best possible food for cats? Not necessarily. Fresh meat will not provide a balanced diet for a cat, as they are extremely protein dense while being very low in vital nutrients such as calcium.

Alternately, some cat owners have asked, "Is it O.K. to feed my cat an exclusively vegetarian diet?" The answer to that question is a clear cut no. Cats cannot produce the nutrients it needs from an exclusively vegetarian diet in the same way that humans can.

Being a highly specialized hunter, it has simply lost that ability during the course of it's evolution. Major skin problems are often the result of a deficiency in certain essential fatty acids which can be found in animal flesh alone. Another problem is that a deficiency of the amino acid taurine, a vital building block for proteins in the body, which can cause both blindness and heart failure. Cats are simply born carnivores.

Is it o.k. to give a cat only dry food? According to petshub, the answer is yes, providing that you ensure that fresh water is available at all times.

Dry food is generally more convenient, hygienic, and affordable than canned or fresh food. It also exercises the teeth and reduces the buildup of tartar, which can grow into a severe problem in cats that are fed a soft and mushy diet.

Answer 4

Feeding your cat dry cat food is not BAD, it's just not as good as wet food. Cats have been eating meat for centuries and most prefer it over commercialized food. Fish has too much sodium in it so don't feed her that. Chicken and Turkey are better options but make sure you boil the meat and let it cool down before giving it to her.

Answer 5

Cat food is best for cats...noy just raw meat. In the wild a cat will eat all of its prey including the stomach contents which gives it some vegetable matter. Its complicated but anyway....cat food that you buy is formulated to include everything your cat needs. Plain raw meat does not. So if you want your cat to be healthy you need to keep the raw meat for a treat now and then and buy the best commercial cat food you can find.

Answer 6

Whatever meat you choose, the leaner the meat is, the better. Cats often do well on liver in particular. Chicken and lamb are good as well, as long as the bones are removed. Another product that is good for cats (if you don't have the time for preparing fresh meat every day) is a product called Zupreem; it was recommended to me by my vet for my Abyssinian cat, and is a product originally intended to feed "big" cats in a zoo setting.

Answer 7

Wysong's Plain Canned Meats Plus Supplement: (www.wysong.net) Several of Wysong's regular canned diets have undesirable grains in them but the plain canned meats do not. You must add Wysong's "Call of the Wild" product to ensure that the meals are properly balanced. These products are relatively expensive. Sold at Animal Lovers.
Wysong's Archetype: This is not a canned food. It is a cold-processed grainless diet, containing high quality meats, bones, organs, probiotic cultures, and other supplements. You add water to hydrate this food and then serve. This product is relatively expensive.
Wellness: (www.oldmotherhubbard.com) Wellness is the only grainless canned diet on this list other than the Wysong Canned Meats. It also has the highest taurine level - matched only by Innova and PetGuard. Sold at Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies.
Innova: (www.naturapet.com) Sold at Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies.
Felidae: (www.canidae.com) Sold at 7 Dog Heaven, Pet Care Co., Animal Lovers, Centinela, etc.
Pinnacle, APD, Avoderm: (www.breeders-choice.com) Sold at Kritter Korral, Animal Lovers, etc.
PetGuard: (www.petguard.com) Sold at Whole Foods Market.
Precise: (www.precisepet.com) Sold at Whole Foods Market.
Active Life: (www.activelifepp.com) Sold at Pawfect World, Buzz's.
Natural Balance: (www.naturalbalanceinc.com) Sold at Petco, Pet Care Co., 7 Dog Heaven, Buzz's, etc.

Answer 8

Feed it good quality dry catfood (e.g. Iams). Not all dry food is equal. The dry food can help keep down tartar on teeth and provide some of the vegetable & fiber nutrition which is lacking in just meat-protein.

Meat proteins are best digested by cats raw - you don't see Tabby roasting the mice, eh? However ......

Cats eat much more than the flesh off of their pray. My cat would eat mice whole, or sometimes just the heads (a little morbid to find on the front steps). Feral (wild) cats will be much less picky, since they don't get free food. It isn't just a matter of being picky - a cat cannot live on a single source diet any more than we can. That is, you cannot live on protein alone --- neither can your cat.

Good food and regular visits to the vet is the prescription for a healthy cat. Keeping the cat indoors will increase the expected life span, even if it decreases the quality of life (in my opinion). Cats going outside are more likely to get into fights (resulting in injuries) or catch infections from other cats. My cat had both problems, both of which nearly killed him.

You need to look at more than just the life span of the pet -- and ask yourself what will give him the best quality of life for the longest time. My same cat died after 11 years, and absolutely broke my heart. Taking on the responsibility of a pet means taking on the responsibility of grieving for it, since it likely won't out-live you. Your cat might live for 20 yrs.; maybe only 10. Decide up front what sort of risks are acceptable to you and your pet.

Answer 9

Mice and Bird!
----------------------
WHAT SHOULD YOU FEED A CAT?
Cats, unlike us humans, obtain food satisfaction less from carbohydrate than they do from protein intake. Give them a high protein mouse and they are as happy as can be. One mouse would make a good meal for an average sized cat. A typical mouse is made of 20% Protein and 9% Fat and lots of moisture. And now that you know that the cat is a true carnivore, that its metabolic pathways have been set by natural evolutionary processes to efficiently utilize meat protein as a major component of the diet, you understand why a carbohydrate rich diet simply does not make sense for felines. Cats are not plant-based grazers; they are hunters of other animals and to reach an optimum state of health they must comply with what nature programmed them to be. There are no vegetarian diets for cats. No matter what your own personal preference is regarding the ingestion of meat, by Nature�s own rules the cat requires meat in its diet. One small aspect of this need for meat is the cat's requirement for ingesting preformed Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin)... preformed in another non-feline mammal.

Answer 10

Don't. Domestic cats are NOT wild animals. They don't NEED fresh meat. They do however have very specific needs for ingreidients due to being domesticated. Fresh fish often contain mercury, which is dangerous to cats, raw meat often can carry bacteria or the like that becasue they are raw are not killed. Your domestic cat's stomach doens't have the means to cope with that.

ONLY feed your cat nutritionally high cat food (not the cheapest stuff you can buy), and dry is the absolute best. You con't have to buy science diet, but look for meat meal to be the first couple ingredients.

If you want to treat your cat pop open a can of cat food every so often. Mine two LOVE beef chunks in gravy, but they only it it once in a blue moon.

So I gues the answer is - stick to cat food. Those who promote raw diets are not vets, guaranteed.