Notice: Due to current bird flu concerns, I suggest avoiding raw poultry in your cat’s diet until the risk subsides.
Recent headlines warning about the potential dangers of raw feeding for cats, particularly concerning H5N1 avian flu, have caused significant concern among pet owners. While these concerns are valid, they also deserve careful scrutiny to avoid hasty decisions.
When it comes to evaluating the quality of cat food ingredients, we’e all heard that protein is important. Beyond that, however, it’s vital to know the actual source of that protein.
A good deal of the narrative about “life stage” foods for cats is based more on marketing imperatives than actual nutritional science. Here are a few basics to keep in mind.
Many or most vet clinics feature and sell cat food with “prescription” labels. This creates the dangerous mis impression that these diets are closely scrutinized and tested the way human prescription medications are.
Ingredient splitting on pet food labels is a way to include a lot of grain sources, each listed separately – and which may appear at first glance to be a minority ingredient.
Hone your pet food label reading skills by learning a few tricks of the trade that pet food companies use to describe the ingredients in their formulations.
Many of us have been conditioned to take comfort in pet foods that meet “AAFCO industry standards.” Once you know what those standards are, you may not be taking so much comfort in that.
Admonishments about homemade food, especially raw food, for pets imply that commercial food is safe. Is that true?