Our cats require a varied diet, including a mixture of canned cat food and dry food. Contrary to opinions that it doesn’t matter, buying only one form of food because of ease or price is a error, and can injure your cat’s health. When the cat is alone or unattended for a time, carbohydrate rich dry food should be left out for your cat with a supply of fresh water. Canned food is higher in protein due to the meat amount, and contains more water amounts. Both are needed for a proper diet, and a combination of both dry and canned food will ensure variety in the diet and keep the cat from looking for food elsewhere.

Dry food helps to ensure your cat’s dental health. As the cat chews the food, her teeth are also cleaned which slows the accumulation of tartar and exercises your cat’s teeth and gums. Cost is a big factor. Dry cat food is a lot less costly than canned foods often less than half as pricey. And your cat will eat proportionally less food which will make your feed dollars go even more.

Dry food is much simpler to store. If the storage box is air-tight and covered, the food should last until the expiration date listed on the package, usually months or years into the future. An opened can of cat food should be placed in the refridgerator and used within a day to prevent spoilage. Feeding dry cat food to your cats is easier. You may put the day’s supply of food in a bowl, and you don’t have to worry about food spoiling. You may even use automatic feeders in case you are not always consistently available to feed your cat at meals. Canned cat food can only be left into bowls for a short period of time.

You can check out the ingredient list, which will tell you the major ingrediants put in the food. This will also tell you if the ingredients are made from plants or animals. The first item that is listed is the main ingredient from which this cat food is made. If an animal product is listed first it is safe to assume this is the major ingredient in this food. However, it is not indicated as to what type of animal product they have used.

This may mean it is a by-product that may have been rejected by human food producers. It may not be something that should be used for providing the best cat food for your cat. That is why most cat owners are always looking for food that contains the correct vitamins and necessary nutrients to keep their cat healthy and more able to live a longer life.

When thinking on what type of food to feed your cat you should take into consideration what the needed nutrients are. Your cat will need a balanced diet that has meats, poultry or fish, grains from cereal, and vegetable protein. If you can’t find a food that contains all of these products, your cat is not getting the necessary vitamins and nutrients that he needs to be a healthy and happy cat.