Every food manufacturer claims that their product is “good cat food”. But can you really tell if a food is good or bad? Have you ever questioned what you feed your cat?
Have you briefly 15 Minutes to read this article? Then become an expert in cat nutrition now! Learn to judge for yourself whether it is high-quality cat food or whether it is so unsuitable that it could even make your cat ill.
Why good cat food is so important
Cats can only stay healthy and active into old age with the right diet
“>The health of your cat is very dependent on its diet. It’s like us humans: only if we eat healthily can we stay healthy and fit in the best case.
With a poor diet, on the other hand, cats are threatened with all kinds of things Diseases:
Overweight Kidney disease Hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) Diabetes and other metabolic diseases Feed allergies Dental Diseases Hyperactivity Skin irritation Liver diseases Weakening of the immune system Weakening of the immune system Cancer “>You see, when it comes to cat health, diet is extremely important.
Cats have recently had 20 years, a sharp increase in “civilization diseases” such as allergies, heart and circulatory problems, obesity, diabetes and Kidney disease.
These diseases are definitely largely due to poor nutrition!
Because you definitely If you want your cat to enjoy a long and healthy life, you should look into cat nutrition. Take a closer look at your cat’s food. You can get all the information right here, on this page!
Do you want your cat to stay healthy for a long time?
Bad cat food makes cats sick – give your cat something better – our test winner:
Species-appropriate cat food from ANIfit – 99% Meat in Swedish food quality, without harmful additives. Try the feed change package now!
Exclusive 10% discount voucher for new customers:
11cat stuff Code Copied!
Chapter 1: What is good cat food?
“>The question “What is good cat food” can basically be answered quite easily:
The best cat food is a mouse.
Mice are the number 1 prey animal for cats, far ahead of birds, rats, blindworms or squirrels. Now it is quite expensive to feed your cat completely with mice, especially if it is kept indoors. A high-quality cat food should therefore Get as close as possible to the mouse as a prey animal.
So let’s take a look at what a cat food has to bring with it in order to enable cats to receive optimal nutrition:
Cats are carnivores Not just “cuddly cat”! Cats are master hunters and absolute carnivores “>When you deal with cat nutrition, the first question is probably: What type of nutrition are cats assigned to?
A distinction is made between three groups:
Carnivores Omnivores (onivores) herbivores Cats are clearly assigned to the carnivores, even more so than, for example, the dog, which from predator wolf.
Carnivores can be recognized by two main features: their teeth and their intestines.
You’ve probably looked into your cat’s mouth before, for example when it has to yawn. Their teeth consist of fangs and fangs. The back teeth are also good at breaking bones.
Like other predators, the cat’s teeth are designed to kill and crush prey . What she completely lacks are molars. These are typical of omnivores and herbivores. With them, the food is carefully chopped up – cats, on the other hand, swallow their prey without chewing much.
The length of the intestines also makes it very clear that cats are extreme carnivores : Their intestines are extremely short in relation to their body length. This suggests that the cat’s digestive system is designed to process high-calorie foods: meat and offal.
In comparison, the omnivores have humans and dogs a significantly longer intestine than the cat. So they can also get good energy from plant-based food. The length of the intestines of pure herbivores is particularly blatant. Here the food moves particularly slowly through the intestine so that as many nutrients as possible can be extracted.
“>The term “carnivore” is a bit misleading: because carnivores like cats don’t eat meat, but whole prey animals. And that’s also important, because that’s the only way to provide them with everything they need:
Calcium from bones Fat soluble vitamins, Minerals and trace elements from the organs Essential fatty acids from body fat Sodium from blood
And even the indigestible parts of the prey, such as the fur, have an important function: they stimulate the intestines motion on.
Conclusion: Cats need food with a very high meat content. In the best case, this should be over 86% lying and made up of (muscle) flesh and high-quality innards.
Good cat food contains food grade meat and offal…
This is what mini tigers need: fresh meat and valuable offal “>… and no unspecified “animal by-products”.
Important: Animal by-products are not automatically bad. In the best case, they are, for example around chicken hearts, beef liver or beef lung.
Animal by-products can also be extremely unappetizing:
Feathers Bristles Chicken Claws Beaks Pig snout Urine Blood a-pm-slice=”1 1 “>Mostly Category 3 slaughterhouse waste is used for cat food. This is not suitable for human consumption – but it should be OK for cats…
Same thing By the way, this also applies to fish: It makes a big difference whether fish fillets are processed or bones and fish heads. Waste can also be hidden behind the term “fish and fish by-products”!
Conclusion: A healthy, high-quality cat food consists of food-grade meat and valuable offal ical by-products” hides disgusting meat waste, the same applies to fish.
As you can tell which cat food uses high-quality ingredients, you will learn this in Chapter 2 Item
Cereals and other herbal ingredients in cat food
“>Let’s get back to the mouse, the natural food for cats. How many plant-based ingredients does a mouse contain? The answer: between 1% and 5%. It’s the contents of its stomach. In other words, what it ate itself before it was killed by the cat.
Because mice are omnivores, they feed mainly on crops, seeds, kernels, grasses and herbs in addition to insects .
A good cat food should also contain a small proportion of plant-based ingredients, but it should not be more than 5%.Cats definitely need those in plants The dietary fiber contained in it for digestion, and you also get various vitamins.
Unfortunately, most manufacturers see it very differently: Here, wheat and other cereals are mainly used added to the food in large quantities. Corn and soy are also used. Often the cat owner does not even know which herbal ingredients are in which r amount in the feed is. Because often the list of ingredients only says “vegetable by-products” without an indication of the quantity.
This can be grain, soy or corn, but often also various plant residues .
The problem: Plant-based food contains too few nutrients for cats. Even if wheat and especially soy contains a lot of protein – it is very difficult for cats to digest it.
With a food with too high a vegetable content ingredients threatens malnutrition. The risk that the cat will develop a food allergy is also much greater.
Conclusion : Vegetable ingredients should only be in small amounts in cat food. Grains, soy and corn are unsuitable sources of protein for cats. Unfortunately, the information about the herbal ingredients is often very vague when it comes to bad cat food.
Is there good dry food for cats?
“>You find this question funny? Well yes – it may be a bit brash. But the fact is: dry food can neither be species-appropriate nor close to nature. This is due to the processing and the lack of liquid (like the name “dry food” already says).
In comparison to wet food, dry food is really bone dry:
During wet food between 70 and 81% moisture content, is it maximum for dry food 10%.
Of course you could think: “My cat has a nice drinking fountain, so she has to drink more!”
Unfortunately, cats are naturally very lazy about drinking. After all, our domestic cats, all breeds, are descended from the wild cat. The wild cat comes from the Middle East and is therefore adapted to a desert-like climate.
As a result, cats are very lazy about drinking. By nature, they cover their fluid needs with their food: their prey is also too 70% and more from liquid. Cats only drink sporadically, regardless of whether they are fed wet or dry food. In addition, cats need more liquid to digest dry food – the animals cannot drink that much!
The problem: the permanent lack of liquid promotes in cats Urinary tract and kidney diseases . While urinary crystals are annoying and painful at worst, kidney disease can be potentially fatal.
Did you know that kidney disease is the leading cause of premature death in domestic cats in Germany?
Due to production, it is also not possible to order more than 60 % meat content in dry food. Otherwise, the small croquettes would simply not hold up and lose their shape. This means that vegetable ingredients, mostly cereals, have to go into the feed.
In addition, dry feed is industrially highly processed and usually contains preservatives and antioxidants in order to keep for a long time when the packaging is open. Flavor enhancers and artificial flavors are also often used here, otherwise cats would not even recognize dry food as edible.
Conclusion: Among the different types of food, dry food is definitely the worst choice. Good to know, because you can rule out dry food for your cat right from the start and don’t even have to take a closer look at these products.
Cats can’t taste anything sweet – so why the sugar in cat food?
Good cat food should not Case contain sugar.
It is bad for the cat’s teeth, provides them no usable are energy, makes you overweight and increases the risk of diabetes.
But why is there sugar in cat food at all from many manufacturers? After all, cats can’t taste anything sweet!
Nevertheless, sugar in cat food acts as a flavor enhancer. In addition, sugar is suspected of making the cat’s metabolism downright dependent. Thus, sugar is one of the so-called “acceptance improvers”. Many manufacturers want to ensure that cats eat their food, even though it would actually be completely unsuitable for them. In addition, sugar should ensure that cats only want to eat THIS one type of cat food. This makes it very difficult to switch to a sugar-free cat food.
But sugar in cat food has other purposes: the food should look nice and appetizing to humans leave: With a little caramel even the inferior, otherwise gray slaughterhouse offal get a nice brownish colour. In addition, the food has a pretty shine due to the addition of sugar.
So the cat owner is ge sends manipulated: The food looks great – and the cat is crazy about it! If Miez thinks the cat food is so great, it must be something good, right?
Often it’s not so easy to tell if cat food contains sugar contains or not. Because the feed manufacturers are very inventive when it comes to declaring sugar on the packaging. Sugar can have many different names here:
Beet pulp, dried beet pulp or beet molasses pulp Beet greens or beet leaves caramel, caramel syrup Sucrose Glucose Rafinose Molasses Farin Fructose Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) Maltose or malt extract Sorghum Corn Gluten Feed Info: This list is far from complete!
Conclusion: Sugar is unhealthy for cats. However, because it makes the food really tasty for the cat, sugar very often ends up in the can. On top of that, sugar improves the appearance of cat food: even the lowest quality offal looks just like high-quality meat.
Additives in cat food: The chemistry kit of the feed manufacturers
“>It would be so easy: Proper meat, selected offal, a few useful vegetables and a few vitamins and taurine. You would already have a healthy cat food. Simple and natural ingredients, no artificial additives. Of course, that would be a little more expensive than 30-49 Cent per can like the discount store stuff.
But unfortunately, many manufacturers just want to earn a decent amount of money and don’t care a whit about the health of the animals that eat their food.
It will be like that cheapest ingredients used. Slaughterhouse waste, category 3 spoiled meat, waste from the food industry or gastronomy. But we’ll go into more detail about what unsavory ingredients cat food can have in a moment.
Only that much: Your cat should actually wrinkle its nose in disgust and then turn its back on the bowl.
To ensure that it eats the inferior food anyway, we have to dig deep into our bag of tricks :
All sorts of artificial or natural additives make slaughterhouse waste and cereals a popular food for cats.
Important: This refers to “technological additives”, not to be confused with nutritional additives. These are vitamins and minerals that are added to cat food.
Preservatives – Make the food last longer. especially in dry food there is hardly any without preservatives. It is often stored in the supermarket for weeks and even then has to remain edible for a long time after it has been opened. Sorbate in particular (usually potassium sorbate) is suspected of triggering food allergies in cats. Antioxidants – these are also often included in dry cat food. It ensures that the fat it contains does not go rancid over time. However, natural antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) are harmless. Dyes – Should improve the lining optically. Are primarily intended for the human eye. Probably have no negative effect, but are completely superfluous. Colorings can also contain sugar (caramel colour). Thickening agents, emulsifiers, gelling agents – On the one hand, they visually enhance the feed, because they can be used to easily transform liquid into an attractive sauce or a nice jelly. But they are also often cheaper Filler. These substances are mostly of plant origin and offer the cat no advantages at best. Thickeners should also ensure that cats do not get diarrhea from the food… Artificial Flavors and Flavor Enhancers – Some cat food would not even be eaten by cats if the taste was not improved. Artificial flavor enhancers such as monosodium glutamate are used. But “natural” flavor enhancers such as yeast extract or protein hydrolyzate should make the food tastier and make the cat really dependent. And why do many feed manufacturers resort to such tricks?
Quite simply, they want to make more money. Instead of investing in good ingredients, they prefer to invest in expensive television advertising. The prices for high-quality cat food and “cheat food” hardly differ.
So the cat owner gets an absolutely inferior food from many brands that his cat but eats with gusto. Attractants also ensure that the animal only wants this one food!
Conclusion: Technological additives are intended to improve the look and taste of bad cat food. Even the most unappetizing slaughterhouse waste can be transformed into a feast that is popular with humans and animals with these remedies. They can be harmful to cats, triggering allergies, for example.
Do you want your cat to stay healthy for a long time?
Bad cat food makes cats sick – give your cat something better – our test winner:
Species-appropriate cat food from ANIfit – 99% meat in Swedish food quality, without harmful additives. Try the feed change package now!
Exclusive 10% discount voucher for new customers:
10cat stuff Code Copied!
Chapter 2: Recognizing good cat food – see through the tricks of the manufacturers
“>In order to be able to determine whether a cat food is good or not, you have to learn to correctly interpret the manufacturer’s information on the can or on the packaging. This is the only way to make a targeted selection of cat food.
The EU feedstuffs regulation regulates the declaration of cat food. It is therefore stipulated throughout Europe what information the manufacturers must provide on the packaging, i.e. what they must “declare”.
Here is an overview of the mandatory information that cat food products must have:
Indication of whether it is a complete feed or a supplementary feed Composition (ingredients) Analytical components Additives (but not all…) Net mass Name of the producer Contact details Best before date Batch number Feeding recommendation “> Above all, you should take a close look at the composition. But the analytical components, the additives and the feeding recommendation are also a help to evaluate a feed.
The declaration of the ingredients
“> Good ingredients are the be-all and end-all of good cat food and are essential for whether a product is healthy and recommendable – or whether it can even potentially make the beloved pet sick.
Therefore, the first thing you should look at is the content of a cat food.
Manufacturers of cat food have to adhere to certain guidelines: You must list the ingredients used. The ingredients must be listed in a specific order: the more of an ingredient is included, the further up the list it must be listed.
There are two different variants of the declaration:
Open declaration / partially open declaration
“>Here all processed ingredients are listed individually. In the case of the open declaration, the proportion of the respective ingredients is stated as a percentage. In the case of the partially open declaration, this is only the case if an ingredient was particularly emphasized in the advertising of the product (e.g. “With valuable salmon”).
That may seem very transparent at first glance – but it also offers manufacturers the opportunity to sniff you as a consumer An example of a partially open declaration for a dry cat food:
“> Dried poultry meat, whole grain corn, greaves , corn flour, beet fibre, corn gluten meal, poultry fat, rice gluten meal, hydrolysed poultry protein, minerals, dried poultry liver, salmon oil (0,50%)
“>Here comes an animal component first. The customer then thinks, “Oh good, a high percentage of meat!”.
In truth, the main ingredient in this example it will most likely be corn, except that it will be listed later in the declaration disguised as “whole grain corn, cornmeal, corn gluten”.
Will also I like to use and list many different herbal ingredients, which are further down the list of ingredients – but in total they are often the main ingredient.
“>Here the individual ingredients are summarized in groups. For example, “oats and barley” becomes the group “cereals”. Which groups exist and how they must be named is specified by law.
The closed declaration has the advantage that you can see at a glance whether a cat food contains more meat or more plant-based ingredients. ) “>Meat and animal by-products, Vegetable By-products, cereals, sugar, minerals
“>The big disadvantage is of course: The individual ingredients remain completely hidden with this type of declaration.
Examples: This is how you read the declaration for cat food correctly
“>Let’s get down to practice. Learn to assess the quality of a product. Is it quality cat food? When comparing different types of food, you should always start with the ingredients.
So let’s discuss a few wet cat food declarations, because you can read about why you should rule out dry cat food in the first place.
Let’s start with a mass product that you can find in every supermarket and every advertising brochure:
“>Meat and animal by-products, Vegetable By-products, cereals, sugar, minerals
The feed does not have a very high meat content of only 34% The “snacks” contain 4% beef, so that the variety can be called “with beef” The feed contains vegetable protein extracts. These are not good for cats to use, they also serve as “acceptance improvers Which animal species other than cattle were used? What meat sch and what animal by-products are in the feed? What is the proportion of “Appetizers”? What percentage of vegetable protein extracts are included? There are hardly over 60% vegetable protein extracts (then the ingredient would also come first stand) – is the rest water? “>Since the manufacturer keeps quite a secret about the ingredients used in this wet food and the meat content is very low, we would not recommend KiteKat. Vegetable protein extracts also have no place in cat food.
Purina Gourmet “refined ragout with chicken”
“>Meat and animal by-products (of which 4% chicken), vegetable protein extracts, fish and fish by-products, vegetable by-products, minerals, sugar
Fle Meal and animal by-products are the main ingredient 4 % of them are from chicken, so that the type of food can be called “with chicken” It contains vegetable protein extracts Fish and fish by-products are among the animal ingredients and are good for cats In addition to vegetable by-products, it also contains sugar How much meat is What by-products were used What kinds of animals other than chicken are processed What are the amounts of the other ingredients Which parts were taken from which fish “> Unfortunately, the declaration tells us very little about this wet food. And so we have to assume that the best ingredients were not used here. Other negative points are the vegetable ingredients and unknown type and quantity as well as the sugar they contain.
“>Meat and animal by-products (65% Poultry + Poultry Broth 32%)); minerals (0.5%); Egg shells, dried (0.5%)
The meat content is 100% if you add the broth produced during cooking Only poultry was used There are no herbal ingredients Which poultry was used? Chicken? Turkey? Pheasant? Duck? Goose?… Which parts were used? Muscle meat, liver and duck necks – or rather beaks, feathers and claws?
“>It is good that this product does not contain any unnecessary plant-based ingredients (but it could have been 1-3% useful). This wet food also did not contain any sugar. The declaration of the animal-based ingredients was apparently deliberately kept vague, so that one can always fall back on cheap ingredients.
MjAMjAM delicious beef with sautéed pumpkin
“>Beef, -lung, – hearts (53%), Meatsoup (23%), chicken liver (17%), pumpkin (4%), minerals (1%)
The meat content is 95% Only beef muscle meat, beef lung, beef heart and chicken liver were used, all high-quality ingredients Pumpkin is the only vegetable ingredient, in moderate amounts ( 4%) Only the individual quantities of beef, beef cutlets and beef hearts we do not know exactly. However, the ingredients are sorted according to their proportion. “>The declaration for this wet food is already very neat. Here you can see that it is a good product. The manufacturer has nothing to hide here and can proudly present the ingredients. In our cat food test, MjAMjAM failed above all the excellent price-performance ratio.
Chicken Muscle Meat 64% Turkey Muscle Meat 11% Bovine Lung 11% Chicken Liver 6% Total Meat: 100% Shares 1% Total: 105% The animal ingredients are all named exactly, as well as the respective amount The meat content is 99 % A minimal amount of salt has been added, an important and natural carrier of important trace elements The exact amounts of the ingredients below 1% – with such small amounts pretty much irrelevant “> This wet food is not just a high-quality cat food – it is even the test winner in our comparison! ANIfit specifies all the ingredients in an exemplary manner, you can find out exactly which meat and which offal are in the can and in what quantities. The high meat content and the choice of raw materials from Swedish agriculture positively set ANIfit apart from other brands.
Recognize additives in cat food
“>Often it is not so easy to see whether and which additives are contained in cat food. Because:
Not all substances have to be specified at all!
Because the following applies to many technological additives: They only have to be declared if there is a legally specified maximum amount.
According to the Animal Feed Act, over 335 Substances for use in animal feed, i.e. also permitted in cat food.You can find a complete list of these substances here federal amt t for consumer protection.
Straight Flavor enhancers and aromas , whether artificial or natural, are happy to be sent by the manufacturers hidden in the ingredients list.
“>Artificial Flavor Enhancers such as glutamic acid are usually only available with the E numbers from E620 to E625.
There are also mixed products such as potassium chloride or salts, which also have the function of flavor enhancers. They have E numbers with E3XX and E5XX
Yeast or Yeast Extract naturally contains glutamate and is therefore a flavor enhancer.
Vegetable protein can be a flavor-enhanced ingredient in cat food, this applies especially to wheat protein and soy protein.
Bad ingredients that don’t attract cats to the food bowl ? A little sugar works wonders! Sugar can hide behind a number of names, see the list above!
Cats are supposed to go really crazy for the cheap food? Then manufacturers access protein hydrolyzate. These split proteins create the smell of strong meat broth. In particular, cats would not even recognize dry food as edible without this additive.
Aroma and “natural aroma” is available in various designs. In this way, appetizing flavors can be created even with ingredients of inferior quality.
As I said, not every additive has to be specified. BUT:
If a manufacturer states that an additive is NOT used, then it must not be included!
If the packaging says, for example, “Without coloring and preservatives”, then this must also be true.
Conclusion: Unfortunately, cat food can contain all sorts of additives. Some of them are even bad for cats’ health. Not all additives have to be specified. Therefore, buy products from brands that advertise that they don’t use any additives – because they have to stick to that!
The amount of feeding as an indicator
“>The mandatory information for cat food also includes the recommended feeding amount. Although this is often given very vaguely, conclusions can still be drawn here as to whether a cat food is good or not.
Because:
A cat has to eat less if it gets high-quality cat food.
The better the feed, the lower the feeding recommendation
The explanation: Cats can use meat and high-quality offal much better than, for example, grain or slaughterhouse waste.
Conclusion: Also pay attention to the feeding recommendation. But be careful: taken on its own, this indicator is very inaccurate! There’s no question: the best thing for your cat’s diet is food with a high meat content, or something similar without grain, without sugar, without additives. So pay particular attention to the declaration of the ingredients!
Bonus Knowledge of Cat Food
“>If you’ve read this article carefully up to this point, you should be able to tell the difference between good cat food and bad. You’ve already learned a lot about healthy cat nutrition – and if need be, there’s also ours detailed cat food test.
You want to learn more?No problem!On this page you will find even more information about what cats need for a healthy life in the bowl :
“>Using various analysis methods (see: Extended Weender feed analysis), each cat feed is examined in detail. It is broken down what the feed consists of:
Crude Protein Crude Fat Raw ash Crude Fiber Moisture (whereby this only from 14% must be specified, so not for dry food…) “>The analytical values of a cat food can only be used to determine to a limited extent whether it is good or of high quality. The values should be treated with caution: For example, a high protein value is not not so great if it is mainly not meat, but is achieved through inferior animal or even vegetable proteins.
“>This value indicates how much protein the cat food contains. For wet food, the value should be between 5 and 14 Percent for dry food between 22 and 45%.
“>However, it is important to note whether the proteins come from animal or vegetable ingredients – you have to take a close look at the ingredients (if they are listed in detail). With animal protein, the percentage value can also be higher.
“>The content of raw fat in wet food should be between 2 and 7 percent for dry food between 8 and 28% Animal fats are preferable to vegetable ones, so you have to pay attention to the ingredients!
“> Crude ash is the amount of inorganic substances contained, i.e. minerals. The value should be between for wet food 1.5 and 2 percent , with dry food less than 5.4%.
“>Crude fiber roughly corresponds to the amount of dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is indigestible, but it is also important for the function of the intestines in cats. In wet food, the proportion of crude fiber should be as low as possible below 1 percent Dry food below 4.5%.
“>Cats are known to be lazy about drinking, which is due to their descent from the desert. It is all the more important that they obtain sufficient moisture from their food: cats’ natural prey such as mice and birds contain around 70 Percent moisture This should also be the case with good cat food: 70 until 80 Percent Moisture should be included at least.
Unfortunately, carbohydrates are not specified
“>How many carbohydrates a cat food contains is unfortunately not directly apparent from the analytical components. With a so-called NfE calculator (just google it), you can easily calculate it yourself.
“NfE” means Nf free extractive substances and can be equated with the amount of carbohydrates contained. For cats, an NfE amount below 10% in dry weight recommended.
Particularly in diabetic cats, care must be taken to ensure a low NfE value.
“>Like humans, cats need various vitamins for countless bodily functions. These are organic substances that are only required in small amounts. A distinction is made between water-soluble (e.g. C, B complex) and fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D, E, K).
With a complete food for cats you don’t have to worry about the supply of vitamins during the cooking process during production some vitamins are lost, but these are supplemented appropriately.Food manufacturers have their food analyzed to see whether they offer cats all the vitamins they need.
An oversupply with fat-soluble vitamins is problematic, they cannot be easily excreted and can lead to organ damage.For this reason, for example, the addition of vitamin D must be indicated on the packaging.
“>Minerals are inorganic substances. A distinction is made between bulk elements (e.g. calcium, magnesium, sodium) and trace elements (e.g. iron, iodine, selenium).
Of course Minerals contained in meat can be destroyed during the cooking process.For this reason, they are usually supplemented so that the finished food for cats is suitably mineralized.
For cats is The calcium-phosphorus ratio is also important. It should be between 1.2 and 2 to 1. A non-optimal ratio can be tolerated if both minerals are in the feed in the absolutely required amount.
Calculations of calcium and phosphorus are given on the packaging of many types of cat food.
“>Taurine is an amino acid that cats cannot produce themselves. They must therefore obtain all of the taurine from their food. Taurine plays an important role in maintaining fertility and eyesight in cats.
Taurine is found in meat, and the amount varies depending on the type of meat or offal.
Taurine in cat food can be destroyed by the cooking process during manufacture, so taurine is often added to the food to ensure cats are getting enough taurine.
“>Important: The package states how much taurine added – not how much total included Some self-proclaimed “cat food testers” on the internet (e.g. the Kölner Express🤣) don’t know the difference and then complain that the taurine content is allegedly too low.
Do you need special food for kittens?
Think about it? Are there special mice out in nature just for kittens? no So why would they need any different cat food than adult cats?
A quality cat food with a lot of meat will provide a growing baby cat with all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that she needs.
Types of food such as “kitten food, senior food, diet food” are advertising inventions of the feed industry and absolutely unnecessary.
The cat food test by Stiftung Warentest
“> You hardly hear a good word from cat experts about the wet cat food test by Stiftung Warentest. In our opinion, many points were simply ignored in the test.
These criteria were given by Stiftung Warentest:
Nutrient
Feeding Instructions
Toxic content
germs
It didn’t matter at all:
What were used for raw materials
A species-appropriate composition ( meat or grain? All the same!)
Whether it contains additives
In the reviews one can only shake one’s head:
Rating “Very good” for KiteKat (despite vegetable protein extracts and lousy declaration). And the test winner “K-Classic” from Kaufland consists of undefined “meat and animal by-products”. Wow, this has to be the best!”
We can’t take any of this seriously – it’s just a shame that there are so many cat owners looking for good food , trust the judgment of Stiftung Warentest.
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Hello! My name is Dominik Hollenbach, I am the founder of Katzenkram. I’ve lived with cats since I was a child and have always been intensively involved with these fascinating creatures.
The topic of healthy nutrition for cats is particularly close to my heart. There is just way too much bad and unhealthy cat food on the market.
That’s why I test a lot with my five cats PonPon, Bella, Tequila, Azrael and Lori different varieties and evaluate them according to ingredients, declaration, analytical components, acceptance and tolerability.
As a nutritionist for cats, I know exactly what is important for good cat food . Our cat food test should help everyone to find the best cat food quickly and easily!
13 Answers
Hello Dominik,
Compliment for this great article. Really well researched and helpful! It’s nice to see that someone put a lot of effort into it! Keep it up : )
Thank you for pointing to my blog. I am very happy if I can make a small contribution to this with my information on the subject of barfing : )
In addition to your information, perhaps the information on the subject can be used Cat nutrition from the veterinarian Anita Kapahnke. I was able to do a 4-part interview with her on fello.
Other than that, thanks again for your article. I also think the visual representation is great. Nice and clear, so that you can quickly find what you are looking for!
Best regards and continue to enjoy blogging.
Gaby
Thanks for the compliments Gaby, I’m really happy about that!
Hello Dominik, that is a very nice text…. I also have 2 cats… Luna and Stella
Hello Dominik,
a really great article… I have a question, how do you make the opened canned food that I keep in the fridge suitable for feeding again, i.e. how do you get it to room temperature. I’ll use hot tap water…do you have any other ideas or is there another way to store an opened can until the next morning without having to heat the contents?
By the way, my cat’s name is Nele, 7 years old, it’s a tortoiseshell, a mixture of house cat papa and Carthusian mother
Hello Birgit,
I also put warm water in the sink and put the can in there – I can’t think of anything else spontaneously. But I rarely have opened cans, as the number of cats is fine.
Best regards, Dominik
Hello,
this feed post is really good
It would be helpful to give the kittens a hint, because the “Lucky-Kitty Premium” is not yet for the little ones… according to the statement just received on the phone.
Thank you very much!
Greetings Kirsten
Whoo,
Your article is really great and can give beginners a good overview. I even caught myself comparing my cats’ food with the numbers you listed here and was surprised that it was above average – so good things don’t always have to be expensive, as I was able to find out 🙂
I would like to point out something though: In one paragraph you even printed the following in bold: Stay away from e-substances. I find this statement fundamentally misleading, after all the E numbers are nothing more than a nomenclature for food additives. There is (unfortunately) a widespread prejudice that E-substances are only unnecessary (sometimes even incompatible or even toxic) synthetic substances, such as dyes or the other examples you have listed. At this point allow me a few additional examples:
E285 is ascorbic acid and is – roughly described – with other Substances summarized under the term vitamin C, citric acid has nothing to do with it. E2 is iodine, E5 is manganese, E6 is zinc and E8 is selenium – important trace elements, not only for cats 😉 (I chose these examples because they are included in the food I bought are)
I would wish that you would not feel attacked by my criticism, especially since I think the article is very good, as I wrote at the beginning. I also know that the E number system has its pitfalls and that only a few consumers find it easy to take a close look at the E list.
Instead of completely rejecting the system and thus the substances summarized under it, we encourage you to lie We encourage you to take a critical look at the E-substances in cat and cat owner food.
“Not only look at what’s inside and then be disgusted because the name sounds so chemical, but also see if ‘this mush’ might not even important to me.” (Quote from a chemistry doctor at my university)
Best wishes,
Pebbles
Hello Pebble,
Thanks for your valuable comment!
Hello Dominik!
Your contribution is very good. I found it by accident. I’ve only been feeding my cats wet food for about 2 years. Ever since I was at a feed lecture and until then I thought I was in good hands with Royal Canin.
Advantages of high-quality wet food with meat without grain: It has been found that cats cannot digest grain and it is only waste from our flour – namely shell residues.
+Cats reach their personal ideal weight (some gain weight where they were too thin, others lose weight, and others with a light belly convert that into muscles around and are fitter and more flexible)
+less hair is lost (so they excrete toxins from the “food”)
+Stool smells less, (with jelly it’s terrible)
+The fur becomes much softer everyone. (Even with brown tigers, they have a different hair structure.)
+And get fewer secondary diseases such as kidney failure, intestinal tumors, etc. They live longer healthily .
Because dry food is coated with industrial cooking fat that it falls out of the pack so easily. Otherwise the fat would be hazardous waste.
This information, dear cat lovers and owners, take this to heart. BARF is definitely the best but not feasible for everyone. And the more expensive one pays off when you calculate how much the alleged chunks of meat weigh from a food packet and compare them to a 400 g can without juice.
This info, s I always give the new cat owners as a foster home with documents on their way. And also which feed can be bought at our Fressnapf on site. Just look at the cans yourself. But for some, take a magnifying glass with you to read. The industry is mean. Oh yes. Sheba recently started promoting real chicken. Is there really a wrong one?
If you are interested, you are welcome to receive information. Book tips: Cats would buy mice (excerpt on the net)
and dogs would live longer if….. by Jutta Ziegler (also for cat owners)
In the name of the velvet paws.
Greetings Manuela
Hello,
I can only confirm the previous posts.
Your report on quality cat food is very informative and helpful.
Got the page Found by accident after spending hours searching for all analytical constituents and additives in cats googled food. Your report is well and clearly explained. If only I had found your site sooner! LG, Marina T.
Will be the Also like this page on Facebook!
1655149481640 Hello Dominik,
we also only feed high-quality wet food, as described by you (really great and simply written down) was before also confused about the many articles on the net. Unfortunately, our Trixie only eats dry food and cooked chicken breast fillet. But
we buy the dry food from Real Nature Wilderness and it is very high quality without sugar and grain and with a lot of meat as well as the wet food of this variety, our Paula gets that and likes all varieties, which are very diverse
from Real Nature Wilderness. As you have already described, these varieties, which are only available in pet shops, are more expensive, but you need a lot less and the veterinary costs that you save as a result must also be considered, and last but not least, the small fur tigers really good.
Thank you very much for your cat blog and the time and work you put into it. Nice that there are such People like you exist. With this you help many cat owners who only want the best for their little tigers.
Kind regards and keep it up Marita
1655149481640 In front 10 years my Norwegian forest tomcat is with 18 years passed away. He has up to his 12. Age out of ignorance Kitekat wet food and some dry food, I don’t remember the brand anymore. After he 2004 I got kidney failure, even without me inform, on recommended by the vet, Royal Canin order. The types of food were definitely not optimal for a cat and yet my tomcat has grown so old. On the other hand, one could argue that perhaps the kidney failure with the high veterinary costs would not have been the case. But you don’t know. A person can eat very healthily for half his life and still die with 49 years of cancer. Nevertheless, my current cat only gets high-quality wet and dry food. I watch very carefully what I feed him. I would like to keep Trofu from him, but he likes it so much, which is why I use it as a treat and to keep him busy. Luckily he’s good at drinking. I think we also like to eat things that are less healthy, such as cake, red meat, chips and the like, so I don’t want to restrict my animals like that. I can still say about my old cat that he had beautiful fur all his life and that he hardly shed any hair. However, this could also have been due to the mainly black fur, since the intensity of hair loss also has something to do with the fur color, as a breeder explained to me.
Greetings Kathrin
