5 Reasons to Feed Dry Cat Food
With all the types of cat food available today it can be a challenge to choose the best one for your furry family member. We’re here to take the guesswork out of choosing the best cat food type for your kitty. We are going to be looking at 5 reasons to feed dry cat food. Before we begin, let’s cover some basics.
First off, let’s look at what ‘dry cat food’ really is. Dry cat food, commonly called kibble, is a form of cat food that has been fully cooked and resembles little pellets. These kibbles contain all the necessary nutritional components your kitty needs to be healthy. Dry cat food is one of the most common types of cat food pet parents offer their furry family members, let’s take a closer look at why so many pet parents choose dry cat food. Dry cat food can be broken down into two basic forms, ‘grain-free’, and ‘grain-filled’.
Here at the Pet Domain, we recommend grain-free dry food diets as they include more meat and fewer filler ingredients. Dry cat foods with grain are not ideal for your cat because cats have a hard time digesting most plant material. Cats are obligate carnivores and need very little plant material to keep them healthy. In addition, most dry cat foods that are loaded with grains are cheaper because the manufacturer uses grains instead of animal meat, grains are much cheaper and so the quality of the product is inferior, but the cost can be attractive. Luckily, there are many brands that offer quality grain-free cat formulas.
Before we begin, a very important announcement. If you feed dry cat food exclusively, make sure your kitty has access to clean, fresh water at all times. As an alternative, you can soak your dry cat food before serving it to promote healthy water intake in your precious loved one. Dehydration is a very serious condition and it can become life-threatening to male cats.
Reason 1: Dry Cat Food is Convenient
When it comes to dinner time, sometimes making an extravagant meal just sounds exhausting. Instead, the convivence of a premade meal is much more enticing. The same can be said when it comes to meal prep for your furry companion. Dry cat food offers a convenience that is hard to match, simply open the bag or container you store your food in (we recommend an airtight container like this to keep food from going stale), pour a serving into your pet’s bowl and just like that you are done. Your pet will waste no time devouring the crunchy morsels.
While dry food is convenient that doesn’t make it without drawbacks. The biggest drawback of dry food is the lack of moisture. This lack of moisture comes from the processing dry food undergoes and plays into why it’s so convenient. Always remember to provide your kitty with plenty of clean, fresh water at all times. Rotating the type of cat food you serve can help increase water intake. In addition, soaking your cat’s dry food in water before mealtime can also increase water intake.
Reason 2: Dry Cat Food Offers Balanced Nutrition
Another benefit of dry cat food is that it is a complete and balanced diet. This means you can feed dry food diets (as long as they are from established companies) for your kitty’s whole life and their nutritional needs will be met. While this is something that many pet parents do, we strongly encourage offering different types of cat food from time to time to increase water intake and limit the occurrence of allergy formation. If you plan to feed dry food only, be sure that you offer the right dry food for each life stage.
While dry cat food diets offer complete nutrition, they do have differences that are important for different life stages of your kitty. Dry cat food diets formulated for kittens have higher protein and calories to help your kitty grow. Senior formulas offer reduced calories and probiotics to help reduce weight gain and limit digestive issues. Grain-free formulas are especially important for senior cats, due to their aging bodies the digestive efficiency of seniors is reduced, as a result, processing loads of plant material is very taxing on their bodies.
Orijen is one of the best brands available for pet food for both quality of ingredients and nutritional benefit to your pet.
Fuel your adult cat with this high-quality dry cat food from Nature's Variety Instinct meant to offer your kitty the high protein diet an adult cat needs.
Treat your senior kitty to dry cat food that is low in calories, includes probiotics, and is made with high-quality ingredients with this Nulo senior recipe.
Reason 3: Dry Cat Food is Very Cost-Effective
Dry cat food is much more cost-effective than any other type of cat food. Pound for pound, dry food is vastly cheaper than either wet, raw, or dehydrated cat food. It is because of the reduced price that so many pet parents choose to feed dry food to their pets as their only food type. Dry food is great if your financial situation is tight but, it’s important to be wary of low-quality dry cat food brands when looking at the cheapest options available.
Reason 4: Dry Cat Food is Very Safe
One of the biggest risks pet owners worry about when it comes to pet food is contamination by bacteria. Many pet owners are wary of raw pet food because of the idea that their pet might become sick from bacteria on the raw meat. Dry cat food has been thoroughly processed and cooked so the risk of contamination by bacteria is nearly non-existent. Whether you are feeding dry cat food straight or dry food soaked in water, feeding dry cat food is one of the safest types of cat food to feed.
Reason 5: Dry Cat Food Offers Several Novel Protein Sources
Pet allergies are a real concern to many pet parents. It can be hard to deal with your furry family member having a food allergy, choosing a dry food and having your cat be allergic to it is not an experience anyone wants to have. Most traditional dry cat food formulas include chicken and or grains, this is a problem because both chicken and grains are common allergens for cats. In order to get around common pet allergens, choose a dry cat food that is made from animal proteins that are ‘novel’.
Novel proteins are those that an animal does not have much interaction with on a regular basis. Kangaroo for example, is a novel animal protein for cats. Many grain-free dry cat food formulas include novel proteins such as kangaroo, lamb, and turkey. As an added bonus, most brands that make these grain-free, novel protein dry cat foods use high-quality ingredients. Check out some of these excellent grain-free dry cat food formulas that are novel and are a great choice for kitties that have food allergies!
While chicken is a common allergen for cats, other fowl such as duck, turkey, and quail are just fine to feed to a chicken sensitive kitty. This food is excellent for allergy cats because of the limited animal meat ingredients.
Let your kitty feast on this novel protein-filled extra high-quality dry cat food from Champion Pet Foods. This formula is loaded with novel animal proteins your kitty won't be able to resist!