Is A Grain Free Diet Better For Cats
Many pet companies claim that food which is free from grains is beneficial to those cats that have allergies. This is because those diets that are free from grains closer resemble the diet of a cat in the wild. In certain grain free foods there are larger quantities of proteins such as chicken and fish.
Purina Fancy Feast Grain Free Pate Wet Cat Food
The Pruina Fancy Feast wet cat food comes in packs of thirty with three different flavors beef, chicken and turkey. The grain-free, protein-rich formula features real beef, chicken, turkey and giblets, making sure your cat gets the protein they need to help keep their muscles strong so they can stay as active as they can. Also included are essential vitamins and minerals to take care of their whole body health, with every ingredient having a purpose and not just there to fill the ingredients list.
The tender pate form offers a great texture and is easy to eat, making this food perfect if your cat is not big on their food and youre try got get them to eat more. Without grains, these food cans are made to support your cats overall health with each serving delivering 100% complete and balanced nutrition. The food is manufactured in the US to give you confidence that the food is safe and of good quality too.
Key Features:
What Kind Of Grain
Here at zooplus we offer a broad range of grain free cat food dishes, including both wet and dry food and in a range of hearty flavours. Grain free cat food is available from a number of well-known feline nutrition brands, as well as lesser-known names providing equally high quality and satisfaction for your cat. Choose the ideal grain free cat food option to keep your feline happy!
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Factors To Consider Before Buying
1. Wet or Dry Food:
Before anything else, its important to determine what kind of diet you want to feed your cat. Dry and wet foods have pros and cons, with wet food being more palatable and dry food being much easier to serve and store. Another thing you want to consider is the diet youve previously been feeding your cat. If your cat is more accustomed to dry food, switching to wet food will be easy. But when you make the opposite switch, you might have to tempt your cat by offering some wet entrée on top of the dry kibbles.
2. Nutrient content:
Pay attention to this part. Just because grain-free cat foods are free from grains, it doesnt mean they contain fewer carbohydrates. Some manufacturers switch those grains with high-carb vegetables such as sweet potatoes. But your goal should be to buy cat food thats high in protein and has less than 15% carbohydrate content. So while purchasing grain-free cat food, make sure that the nutrient ratio is well balanced. An average cat requires food that contains 40-60% proteins, 30-50% fat, and less than 15% of carbs to maintain weight and live an active lifestyle.
3. Ingredients:
Instinct Original Raw Coated Natural High Protein Cat Food
- 19% vegetables and other wholesome ingredients
- Provides better nutrition with raw composition
- Contains 81% real animal ingredients
- Kibble coated in freeze-dried raw
- Features cage-free chicken
Instinct grain free cat food is one of the best products featuring raw ingredients that taste well. This high protein food contains 81% real animal ingredients and high nutrition oils. Also, it comprises 19% fruits, vegetables, and other wholesome ingredients. This meals best thing struck us with raw coated kibbles. Every piece of kibble is finely coated with freeze-dried raw for more excellent nutrition and taste. And it is this feature that made us feel that this dry food is better than many other foods for the pet. No doubt, it offers an appetizing and delicious flavor that every kittens taste buds would crave for.
Made with probiotics, this best dry grain free cat food helps kittens in a healthy digestion process. It also aids in enhancing skin and coat as it is equipped with omegas that serve well for the purpose. Without any grains, corn, soy, potatoes, artificial flavors, and preservatives, it becomes harmless to be used for all age cats. Featuring raw ingredients, this organic kitten food is made from real meat that offers rich protein and lesser processing. Containing cage-free chicken as its first ingredient, it helps to provide healthy nutrition and diet for overall pets growth.
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Delicious And Nutritious Options For Your Feline Friend
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The Spruce / Sabrina Jiang
Choosing cat food isn’t always a straightforward process. It’s a cat owner’s responsibility to provide for a cat’s basic needs, including its nourishment requirements, which can change over time.
“Cats are what we call obligate carnivores, meaning they must have protein as the majority of their diet,” Dr. Lewis Singleton, a veterinarian at Banfield Pet Hospital in South New Jersey, explains. “Cats are not able to naturally make certain amino acids and vitamins such as taurine, arginine, vitamin A, vitamin D3, and other B vitamins, and therefore they must be included in their diet.” Wet cat foods typically contain satisfying meat blends packed with amino acids, but what about dry kibble?
With Dr. Singleton’s guidance in mind, here are the best premium dry cat foods.
Weight: 10 pounds| Form: Dry | Flavor: Chicken & Salmon | Life Stage: Adult
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Expensive
Meow Mix Grain Free Dry Cat Food
- Provides essential vitamins and minerals
- No preservatives or artificial flavors
- No corn, wheat, or fillers
- Made up of real chicken
- High-quality protein
Feeding your cat with a protein-rich diet becomes necessary for its overall body growth and muscle building. To provide the same, Meow Mix grain free dry cat food is an ideal fit that might fulfill your needs. This 13.5 pounds bag of dry cat food is made with real chicken offering a protein-rich diet. Getting through it deeply for its features, one major thing that fascinated us the most was that it delivers high-quality protein from savory chicken. We could not find any artificial flavors or preservatives in the Meow cat food, making it safe to use without any health issues.
This grain free cat food heart disease does not contain any wheat, corn, or soy and is free from any added fillers. To provide your pet with an everlasting taste, it is formulated with flavors of chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, and beef making it more delicious. It comes in a diverse variety that would help you pick a suitable product for your kitten or an adult cat. Supplying your kitten with all the essential vitamins and minerals, it becomes the best cat food grain free. A balanced nutritious diet that is vital for your pets growth can be assisted by feeding this best and cheapest grain free cat food.
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Purina Pro Plan True Nature Natural Adult Canned Wet Cat Food
Quick Summary
For those cats that prefer to eat a wet food, Purina Pro Plan is the perfect product. It is free of both gluten and grain, and does not have any artificial preservatives, colorings, or flavorings in it.
The recipe includes liver and chicken as the main sources of protein, which help to keep your cat in good health.
Other nutrients within the food include essential minerals and vitamins, which help to make it a complete and balanced product.
It also means that there is no need to give your cat any supplements, as everything they need is in this food.
This is because it has been made more than 400 vets and nutritionists at Purina. Not only is the food made in the United States, it is also good for cats that are overweight or even diabetic.
PROS
What Makes A Good Grain
Very few cats truly need a grain-free diet. It has become a popular trend, but its not a necessity for most cats. The problem with many grain-free cat foods is that manufacturers will remove grain fillers, which is a good thing. However, they often replace them with other unnecessary or unhealthy ingredients.
If you decide to try grain-free food for your cat, you should first check with your veterinarian to see if its a good choice. Then, make sure the food you select has chicken, turkey, salmon, or another type of meat as the primary ingredient. The food should be high in protein and contain as few ingredients as possible. You also want to make sure the food is free from artificial colors because these can be bad for your cats health.
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The Perfect Wholesome Nutrition For Sensitive Digestions
Many cats find it difficult to digest grains, as the feline digestive system is not used to high cereal content. A grain-free cat food can be a great way to alleviate this issue, saving your cat from uncomfortable digestive issues, as a number of standard cat foods use grain as a cheaper way to bulk up food. Dietary intolerance and allergies can be painful for your cat, resulting in lower quality of life, so switching to a grain free cat food diet could be the perfect solution.
Specific Protein Source In Ingredients
With so many cat food brands offering and advertising high protein formulas, you need to make sure theyre being clear about where that protein comes from.
Simply saying that its sourced from meat is not sufficient, its best to look for products that explicitly list the source such as salmon, lamb, chicken.
Bonus points for those brands that list even more specific organs, liver for example.
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Final Thoughts On Starting A Grain
The list above contains the best grain-free dry cat food you can get thats appropriate for every cat from kitten to indoor lounger to long-haired princess to sensitive senior. Finding the right grain-free dry good depends very much on your cats age, lifestyle, and individual preferences and sensitivities.
When it comes to grain-free dry cat food I prefer a recipe that is high in protein that insures that my cat is getting most of her nutrients from meat, and not only avoids grains but also other hard to digest carbohydrates such as potatoes and peas. Instinct Ultimate Protein is 47% protein from quality meat sources and uses tapioca as its carbohydrate, and Blue Wilderness High Protein Grain-Free is 40% protein and also uses tapioca.
A grain-free diet should include a mix of wet and dry food, just like any other cat diet. Dry food can sit out all day without spoiling, allowing your cat to indulge their grazing instincts. In addition, the roughness of the kibble is essential for their dental health. The smell of wet food is important for your cats hunter instincts and gives them the hydration that they need and often struggle to obtain through drinking water.
Hopefully, you now have all the information you need to have a happy, grain-free cat in only a few weeks.
Orijen Dry Cat Food Grain Free Premium Freshbest For Kittens
Kittens need more nutrition than any other growing stage in a cats life. ORIJEN Dry Cat Food provides the nutritional requirements to help a kitten develop strong and healthy.
Fresh and raw ingredients from the most nutrient-dense, succulent parts of the prey such as animal meat, inner organs, bones, and cartilage all go to make a healthy balanced diet for growing cats. Selected oils and vital amino acids complement the gaps that the animal protein misses in the food.
As picky and messy feeders, kittens can refuse good food for various reasons. This product offers 15 fresh and raw ingredients in every recipe, so your cat is almost eating raw food, which is tasty and nutritious.
Pros
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Wellness Complete Health Natural Grain Free Dry Cat Food
With no grains, this Wellness Complete dry cat food gives your cat only complete and balanced everyday nutrition. The main source of protein in this food is high-quality salmon and herring, helping your cat to maintain strong and healthy muscles. Blended with fats, this protein will give your cat the energy they need. Prebiotics, probiotics, chicory root extract and healthy fiber combine in this food to help support healthy digestion, while guaranteed levels of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin A support healthy teeth and gums. Also included are omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, found in flaxseed, to help with any shedding problems and maintain your cats shiny coat.
Your cats immune system is enhanced by vitamin E and vitamin A and there are no by-products, wheat, corn or soy that could upset their stomach. The cranberries in this dry cat food are vitamin C rich and a natural source of tannins, helping to prevent harmful bacteria from thriving in the urinary tract and rosemary is a highly effective natural preservative high in antioxidants. This food has no artificial colors or flavors and also comes in a chicken flavor.
Key Features:
Blue Buffalo Freedom Indoor Adult Fish Recipe Grain
Top 5 Ingredients: 1. Whitefish, 2. Fish Meal, 3. Peas, 4. Flaxseed, 5. Potatoes
Blue Buffalo Freedom Dry Food takes a more selective approach towards choosing ingredients to create a highly digestible cat food that even the most sensitive cats love. It uses high-quality whitefish meat as the primary source of protein to aid muscle nourishment and heart health. The cat food uses sweet potatoes and peas instead of grains to fuel your cats body with carbs.
The cat food utilizes natural fibers to improve digestion and strengthen the digestive system. Moreover, Blue Buffalos LifeSource Bits supply antioxidants and essential vitamins to help fulfill the nutritional requirements of indoor cats.
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The Benefits Of Buying Organic Cat Food
So, why should you buy organic food for your feline friend? Were going to list the benefits that this type of food has to offer.
- Generally healthier- Organic cat food tends to be made from very healthy ingredients, particularly those that have not been contaminated by toxins such as pesticides. These organically grown ingredients are less likely to damage your pet, have unexpected side effects or cause an allergic reaction.
- No byproducts from animals- Many cat foods can be made from parts of animals that are unhealthy in some way. Perhaps the animal was sick or injured, as PamperedPetUSA.com suggests, and those health problems can pass onto your cat or at least affect it negatively. Its always better to go organic and avoid the potential problems that other types of cat food can pose.
- Balanced weight- Organic foods often contain healthy ingredients that are excellent at balancing out your cats weight. Other types of cat food often contain fattening filler and unhealthy items that can cause your cat to become overweight, which is a serious problem for domesticated cats these days. Instead of sticking your cat on a diet or limiting how much food you give them, you can just use organic food.
What To Know About Buying Organic Cat Food
Organic cat food is made from ingredients that are grown on farm land where pesticides have not been used for at least the past three years. This means that the product is made without pesticides involved, and there is a good chance that the end result is a food that is less likely to contain allergens or toxins.
Thats the strictest definition of organic food, but it also carries a connotation with it of a food that is made from fresh, nutritious ingredients and that is designed to be healthy for the cat and provide a balanced diet. Of course, consumers need to do their own research and find out which brands of organic cat food go the extra distance to provide wholesome, balanced cat food that does more than just tick off the basic requirements for being classified as organic.
You should keep in mind that not all foods that carry the organic label contain only organic ingredients. They may only contain some ingredients that can be classified as organic, according to Purina.com. We will cover some of the best organic cat food options for you later in this article so that you have some choices when it comes to healthy food for your cat.
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Controversy And Misconceptions Surrounding Grain
Though theres theoretically nothing wrong with grain-free cat food as long as it provides for your cats nutritional needs, theres still a great deal of controversy and misinformation surrounding the issue.
Until recently, grain-free diets were primarily found in veterinary offices and marketed as specialty diets for cats with food allergies and certain health problems. During the early 2000s, low-carb and gluten-free diet fads became popular and, along with them, a rise in the popularity of grain-free diets for pets.
The million-dollar question is this: do cats need grain-free food? No.
It may be true that you wont find a lion munching on grains in the wild, but grains can be used as a natural source of vitamins, minerals, and energy in a nutritionally balanced commercial cat food recipe. As long as the recipe meets your cats needs for protein and doesnt go overboard on carbohydrates, theres nothing terribly wrong with it.
Is Dry Or Wet Grain
Both dry and wet food have significant benefits for your cat. As a cat parent, you need to understand the nutritional needs of your pet. That way, you can decide how to balance between dry and wet food.
Also, your financial budget can dictate how you feed your cat. Wet food is usually slightly higher in price than dry cat food. All the same, find a way to mix the two for greater vitality.
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