A good diet for our cat is basic for the maintenance of its health. For this reason, it is so important to follow a balanced diet, based on distinctive factors such as age, gender or level of physical activity.
Cats are reputed to be highly “fickle” animals when it comes to food . This, as Roger Catalán Bravo, Purina ONE’s veterinary consultant, explains, is due to a bad eating habit that not only affects cats, but also any animal. If you do not accustom your animal to eat well and in a balanced way, you will cause its eating habits to be not correct and the animal will tend to be quite special and demanding with its meals . Many times, in that desire to pamper them, we do not realize that perhaps we are creating capricious behaviors in their feeding that are not healthy for the animal. With this we do not mean that it cannot be pampered or indulged from time to time, but its nutritional base must be healthy, balanced and consistent with its distinctive factors .
There are a series of recommendations to feed a cat in a balanced way and thus prevent it from falling into that capricious eating attitude:
- Mark an eating routine. This includes schedules, specific foods, and amounts. Catalán Bravo emphasizes this: ” To avoid whims, it is better to choose some routine habits and maintain them .” If we do not follow certain schedules, the animal can become suspicious and be the one who tells you when it is hungry or when it does not want to eat. Likewise, these schedules may vary due to temperature factors, weight gain or loss, and operations or illnesses. But, if these variations are determined, they should always be done under veterinary supervision. Any variation in the diet of the animal should be done gradually and never suddenly.
- Avoid human food. We must avoid drawing their attention by giving them food “for humans .” They are extremely eye-catching to them but it may not be the best fit for them. They can gain weight very quickly and turn into a very capricious attitude showing that they no longer want their food but yours .
- Make a food more palatable. If your cat is “capricious”, it is difficult for him to follow a habit and you feel that he has a lower appetite, a highly recommended advice is to change (especially in summer) his dry food for a complete wet food . If it still doesn’t whet your appetite, Catalán Bravo suggests not giving the wet food fresh out of the fridge, but rather temper it. “A cold, wet food does not smell and a cat does not eat what it cannot smell. You can make food more palatable by heating it until it is tempered so that it gives off its aroma and provokes your cat’s appetite ”, recommends the expert.
- Privacy. It is positive that we leave a certain “privacy” to the animal when it comes to eating. Cats prefer to eat quietly and without an audience. Therefore, when he is eating it is better that you leave him alone.
- Feeder always clean. Cats are highly neat animals, so their feeder and drinker must be completely clean for them to eat since, on many occasions, if there are remains of previous food, they will choose not to . So get used to washing the feeder after every meal. “Bacterial remnants are not good for cats or humans. Think about what you would do instead.”
- Vary your diet if necessary. Every living being must have a daily intake with specific percentages. If your cat has problems eating or you notice that he has a lower appetite, try feeding him some other recipe equivalent in quality to the one he is used to eating, but always keeping in mind his preferences over dry or wet food. For Catalán Bravo, “it is possible that a new formulation, a change in recipe, will stimulate your taste buds again”.
Catalán Bravo recalls that cats give up their food when they feel that they are no longer hungry and, like humans, the behavior of cats varies according to the weather : on the hottest days such as summer or spring their appetite decreases.
What happens if the cat still does not eat as it should? Well, have you ever considered that your cat may have a problem? Eating imbalances are usually the first sign that the animal is not well. Maybe something is stopping your appetite. But … what can it be?
First, look at your cat’s gums. Perhaps she has a dental problem, red or sensitive gums that cause your cat a discomfort when she tries to eat. This will make the animal see the food as something “negative” and “painful”. Likewise, if we observe bad breath or swollen gums, we could be facing an oral problem that interferes with its intake. If this happens, it is best to visit the vet to have his teeth looked at.
What if, even with good gums, you still don’t eat as you should? Well, as Catalán Bravo tells us, if we observe that our cat goes 24 hours without eating, we must go to a veterinarian since the animal may reject the food due to some type of allergy or other disease. It is true that it may be a simple whim of the pussycat (caused by a non-positive eating habit) but, it is better to discard. We must understand that the cat will not tell us if it is sick, but its behavior will tell us. Just as a cat that sleeps excessively is showing us a possible maladjustment that can lead to illness, with excess or rejection of food it can show us the same. Therefore, do not forget: care, observation and professional diagnosis whatever the change in behavior of the animal .
