Is homemade cat food the best option?

Homemade cat food lures a good number of pet owners toward it for their willingness to provide the best possible nutrition for their cats. But is homemade cat food really the right way to go? Let’s review some risks and benefits of going the homecooked way.

Benefits of Homemade Cat Food 

With homemade cat food, you have the advantage of controlling ingredients. Additionally, you get to choose high-quality, fresh ingredients and keep off fillers, preservatives, and synthetic additives found in most commercial food for cats on the market today. You can also alter your ingredients to make cat foods specific for urinary tract issues, such as adding more cranberry or for kidney health maintenance, such as adding more chicken broth. A home-prepared diet also provides an opportunity for a variety of protein and vegetable sources, which can potentially yield much better overall nutrition if the diet is well-balanced.

Potential Risks 

Even though homemade cat food has many advantages, there exist great risks that are posed by the complexity of meeting the full nutritional requirements of a cat. Cats need specific nutrients in their diet, such as Vitamin K, Arginine, Selenium, Choline, etc. which are very difficult to measure by yourself at home and provide in appropriate quantities in every meal. Plus, consulting a trusted nutritionist is not always feasible in order to formulate a cat food recipe, and sourcing amino acids and various vitamins and minerals can also prove to be challenging. In addition, contamination from foodborne illness could occur during the preparation and storage of homemade food. That’s why it’s important to find reliable commercial cat food brands like Smylo, where all the necessary supplementation is thoughtfully calculated and packed into one complete and balanced meal pouch so you don’t have to do the running around and hard work to formulate your own meal at home!

The Role of Veterinary Guidance 

Hence, it is important that the pet owner works in close consultation with a veterinary nutritionist before settling on a home-prepared diet in helping design an all-around balanced diet that will meet a cat’s full nutritional profile and make the diet safe and healthy. Freeman (2013) posited that in order to reduce such risks, pet owners should not attempt to make food themselves, and must work with vets and nutritionists to create a balanced meal plan to ensure safety and maximise  benefit.

Therefore, homemade cat food can have advantages with control over ingredients and customisability but doesn't make it a better choice than commercial unless balanced properly with guidance from professionals. For most people, a high-quality commercial diet is going to be more practical and safer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------References

Case, L. P., Daristotle, L., Hayek, M. G., & Raasch, M. F. (2011). Canine and Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals (3rd ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences.

Freeman, L. M. (2013). Homemade diets: attributes, pitfalls, and a call for action. Topics in Companion Animal Medicine, 28(3), 137-142.

Zoran, D. L. (2002). The carnivore connection to nutrition in cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 221(11), 1559-1567.