Cats are carnivores, they are meat-eaters. More precisely, cats are obligate carnivores; this means that they are meat-eaters out of necessity, not because of some lifestyle choice. Eating meat is not optional for cats the way it is for humans.
Cats do not have the ability to make certain essential nutrients (amino acids and vitamins, such as vitamin A) in their bodies the way herbivores and omnivores do. The only way they can get those essential nutrients is directly from meat (beef, chicken, fish, etc.)
Therefore, whatever food you buy for your cat, make sure that it says “grain-free” or “no grain” or something to that effect on the package. In any pet store you will have dozens of choices of brands and types of food. I cannot recommend anything in particular, but any good quality food will be grain-free.
Vegetarian cats
Cats cannot be vegetarian or vegan. To repeat, they are obligate carnivores, which means that they need meat, period. Human beings are omnivores. Humans can choose to eat meat or not and be perfectly healthy either way. If you have chosen to be a vegetarian or vegan, I applaud you and I totally support your right to choose what you eat.
But cats don’t have that choice, and it is completely unfair to a cat to try to force that choice on them. I mean, if someone tried to force a vegan person to eat meat, we would be outraged and rightly so. Why, then, is doing the opposite, forcing an obligate carnivore to not eat meat, acceptable? It shouldn’t be, not to anyone who cares about animals. Indeed, this “opposite” case is arguably worse; a vegan person still has digestive and metabolic systems which are equipped to handle meat. Whereas the digestive and metabolic systems of a cat are not equipped for the cat to be healthy without meat.
Please, if you are a vegan and you feel so strongly about it that you are unwilling to feed meat to a cat, don’t get a cat as a pet! Perhaps consider a rabbit or some other herbivore.
Wet vs. dry
This can be a controversial topic. Some people believe that you should only feed your cat wet ( canned) food because it’s healthier. Others believe that dry food is better because it helps keep the teeth clean. And there are, of course, many other reasons to believe one is better than the other. Some people believe that it’s best to feed your cat both.
In my opinion, the most important thing is that your cat gets enough to eat to keep it healthy, and not too much to eat such that it gets overweight. And the convenience of you, the cat owner, is also important.
Raw food
There seems to be a growing trend to feed raw food to pets. In general, there is probably nothing wrong with this. Whether it has particular benefit over traditional packaged food is questionable. I have not researched this topic, I plan to in the near future, but I suspect that it’s just another aspect of the appeal to nature fallacy. If you want to feed your cat raw food, go for it, just please make sure it’s mostly meat. But if you’d rather feed your cat commercial packaged food, go ahead and don’t let anyone make you feel bad or guilty about it.
Kittens
Kittens are growing, and they expend a lot of energy. Kittens have nutritional needs that are different than the needs of adult cats.
It is important that you feed your kitten a food that is labeled as kitten food (whether wet or dry) until she is about a year old. Some brands of cat food do not differentiate and have just one type that is labeled as “all life stages.” These are probably fine to give to your kitten, but in my opinion, why not just go with kitten food where you know there are no compromises? One answer to that question could be that you have both kittens and adult cats in your home, and it’s easier to feed them all the same food. That’s a fair answer. But otherwise, go with kitten food for a kitten.
Free feeding
Free feeding is when your cat has access to food all the time (or most of the time) and so can eat whenever she wants, as much or as little at a time as she wants.
Jackson Galaxy is very much against free feeding. I have total respect for Jackson Galaxy, he knows more about cats than I do. So who am I to disagree with him? Nevertheless, I do, at least in part.
For one thing, I believe that generalizations seldom apply to all cases. Sure, in general it’s probably better if you can avoid free feeding. Feeding time can be a bonding time, especially if you follow Jackson’s full recommendation and first play with your cat and then feed her. But in the real world this is not always practical for all cat owners.
For another thing, not all cats will have a problem with free feeding. I had a cat (indoor only) who lived to be 19. She always had dry food available, 24 hours a day. She never got over weight or had any weight problems.
Why do cats try to bury their food?
You may notice that sometimes, when your cat has finished eating, she paws at the floor around the bowl as if she’s trying to bury the unfinished food. What is that cat doing?
Well, she’s trying to bury her unfinished food. But it’s not a statement on the quality of the food; she’s not trying to bury it because she doesn’t like it. She’s not trying to bury it because it’s gone bad. And she’s not trying to bury it in order to save it for later.
It’s an instinctive behavior carried over from the cat’s wild heritage. She’s burying the food to cover the scent of it, so that it doesn’t attract predators or alert possible prey.