Overall Cat Nutritional Needs and Cat Health
Cats! Who doesn’t love cats? Well surely there are those that prefer other pets than cats but for those that have a soft spot for cats, there is nothing quite like the love a cat offers. Over the last several thousand years, cats have wiggled their way into the hearts and minds of nearly every culture. Just look at all those cat memes, pictures, and jokes on the internet! It’s no secret, cats are popular!
Whatever your reasoning for liking (or disliking if that’s your thing) cats are very common as pets. As a cat parent, it is important to know all the things every feline family member must have. Food, water, shelter, entertainment, and of course immeasurable love are the most important things to offer your furry companion. In this article, we will delve deeper into the important things to offer any cat you welcome into your home. To begin let’s briefly look at the history of the modern cat.
The Cat’s Cradle
Cats are believed to have first been domesticated or began living alongside people some 12000 years ago. Over thousands of years, these predatory animals grew accustomed to the harsh conditions of desert life. Being a desert animal, the conservation and retention of water became a very important part of the common cats’ lifestyle. It is because of this that cats are inherently poor water drinkers.
Cats are known as ‘obligate carnivores’, which is a fancy way to say that they are designed to hunt and eat living animals. Being obligate carnivores, cats receive nearly all their water needs through the consumption of living animals. Getting your water needs through eating is a great way to avoid having to drink from a water source. While there are bound to be exceptions, as a general trend, cats are not great at hydrating through drinking water. This leads to a hydration issue, an issue that is extremely common in pet cats.
Proper hydration is vitally essential to consider when ensuring your feline family member is healthy and well cared for. Unfortunately, due to the nature of cats and their habits, drinking enough water is often a challenge. Fortunately, you can ensure your kitty gets its daily water intake through food! More on that later.
Cat Water Intake and the Dangers of Dehydration
It should come as no surprise that cats need water, after all, nearly all life needs water in varying amounts. There’s a reason we are the water planet! Cats that eat mainly, or entirely dry food, are not receiving the correct hydration they require. Feeding wet cat food or raw cat food will help keep your feline family member hydrated and healthy. Alternately, if an all wet food or raw food diet is not feasible, adding water to dry food before feeding will keep your kitty hydrated.
Dry cat food is one of the simplest diets to feed your kitty because of the convenience it offers. This convenience comes at a price, that price is very low water intake. Dry cat food is baked at high temperatures to create the familiar kibbles everyone is familiar with. Due to the baking process, nearly all the moisture in the food is evaporated away. It is because of this that most dry cat food diets will be around 10% moisture, which is simply not enough to keep your feline family member healthy.