Cat Food Buying Guide: How to Choose a Safe, Nutritious and Cat-Friendly Cat Food?

Cat Food Buying Guide: How to Choose a Safe, Nutritious and Cat-Friendly Cat Food?

For most cats, cat food is an indispensable part of their daily lives, just like human staples. A good cat food can help cats build a strong physique, while a bad cat food can damage their health. Therefore, cat owners must be cautious when choosing cat food, and choose it according to scientific standards. Don't just look for cheapness.

Two Key Dimensions to Choose Cat Food

1. Pay Attention to the Ingredient List

The ingredient list is the key to understanding the ingredients of cat food. It usually lists the raw materials and additives of cat food. According to the marking rules, ingredients with a higher proportion are listed first, while ingredients with a lower proportion are listed later.

Meat-Based, Low-Grain

Cat's digestive tracts are better suited to digesting meat, so a good cat food should be based on meat ingredients, with meat proportions listed in the top three on the ingredient list.

At the same time, it is better to choose cat food that does not contain grains or contains a small amount of grains. Grains are a sensitive ingredient for cats, and excessive intake of grains can increase the risk of feline obesity. Common grain ingredients include rice, oats, corn, wheat, rice bran, etc.

Choose Cat Food with Natural Preservatives

Cat food, as a food with a longer shelf life, is more likely to contain preservatives. However, excessive intake of preservatives is harmful to the health of cats, so it is recommended to choose cat food with natural preservatives and avoid cat food containing chemical preservatives.

Common natural preservatives include vitamin E, vitamin C, tea polyphenols, rosemary extract, etc.

Common chemical preservatives include butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), propyl gallate (PG), tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), etc.

2. Pay Attention to Nutritional Components

The nutritional components of cat food are a key indicator of its quality. A reasonable nutritional mix can meet the nutritional needs of cats and help them grow healthy.

Observe the Four Major Nutrients and Calcium-Phosphorus Ratio

To judge the nutrition of cat food, mainly observe the four major nutrients, namely crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber and crude ash, as well as the calcium-phosphorus ratio of cat food.

Crude protein content: About 35%~45%.
Crude fat content: About 15%~20%.
Crude fiber content: About 3.5%~5%, not exceeding 5%.
Crude ash content: Should not exceed 10%.
Calcium-phosphorus ratio: The reasonable range is about (1:0.8) or (1.2:1).

Pay Attention to Third-Party Testing Reports

In addition to paying attention to nutritional components, you also need to pay attention to the third-party testing reports of cat food to ensure that it meets AAFCO standards, GB/T standards and other feed standards.

Several Cat Food Pitfalls

In addition to the two key dimensions mentioned above, there are some cat food pitfalls to avoid:

Do not buy cat food with opaque ingredients, undisclosed or unavailable test reports;
Be cautious about buying cat food with a high proportion of plant ingredients;
Do not buy cat food with an unbalanced calcium-phosphorus ratio;
Do not buy cat food that contains BHT and BHA, be cautious about cat food that contains PG and TBHQ;
Be cautious about buying cat food made from grain ingredients.

Tips for Choosing Cat Food

Avoid cat food pitfalls and choose a safe, nutritious and cat-friendly cat food based on the two key dimensions mentioned above.

Conclusion

Cat food is crucial to the health of cats because they eat cat food every day, and its quality will have a profound impact on their health. To avoid buying poor quality cat food, it is recommended that you choose cat food according to the above methods, allowing your cat to enjoy healthy and delicious food.

This article is original, please keep the link when forwarding:https://www.5zo.net/showinfo-4-86221-0.html

Previous: Can Cats Eat Bananas? Which Cats Should Avoid Bananas? A Detailed Explanation of the Impact of Bananas on Cats


search