What Can You Feed Your Cat If You Don’t Have Cat Food?
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Unfortunately it sometimes happens that you have forgotten to buy your weekly cat food and it’s too late to go to the store. Your cat is meowing and hungry, what do you do? Luckily, there are other options of food suitable for your cat other than traditional store-bought cat food. Your options range from human food to homemade cat food recipes, easy to make with common items from your fridge.
In this AnimalWised article we will tell you what you can feed your cat if you don’t have cat food.
What can cats eat?
Cats are strict carnivores and have very specific nutritional requirements. For these reasons, their diet should be composed mainly of protein and fat, as well as vitamins, fatty acids or minerals [1]. Although some cats can eat rice or cheese without any problem, not all cats accept this introduction of new foods to their diets.
There are also some "picky" cats that refuse to eat any new food which they have not previously tried. This is very common if a cat is not socialized and lacks the desire to experiment. For this reason, in some cases, it can be very difficult to replace the pellets or canned food that our felines are used to.
Luckily, there are options!
Homemade food for cats
Did you know that more and more people are feeding their cats homemade recipes? Specifically if their cat is suffering from a pathology. This type of homemade diet has become very popular in the last couple of years as it gives owners the opportunity to control what their cat is eating in turn allowing them to make sure their animals are receiving all the correct nutrients.
If you have not yet experimented with homemade recipes, this could be your opportunity. There are two common homemade diets which you can follow:
- Raw diet or BARF: also known as the ACBA diet, this diet focuses on offering raw food to felines, either chopped or passed through a mincer. It is important to emphasize that it is very important to freeze food before giving it to your animal, to avoid possible parasites or pathogens.
- Homemade cooked or semi-cooked diets: Some owners choose this diet over BARF in order to prevent our cat from contracting any virus or parasite. As in the previous mentioned diet we can choose to cut the food into tiny cubes or crush all the food to facilitate intake.
Human food for cats
Have you ever wondered if cats can eat cheese? Or if cats can eat rice? There are many foods that our cat can eat, however, this does not mean that they are always suitable for their bodies. In general it depends on each cat as each cat has a different body and therefore and different digestive system. In some cats the food might not cause a problem, whereare in others it could cause diarrhea, gas or discomfort.
If you do not have enough time or raw materials to make homemade recipes, you may be interested in knowing some human foods that cats can eat:
- Meat without salt
- Fish without salt
- Sliced turkey
- Slices of ham York
- Chicken slices
- Skimmed yogurt without sugar
- Egg
- Cheese without lactose
- Mussels
- Prawns
Remember that canned tuna is not recommended for cats and that any of these foods should be offered in a timely manner, since in most cases they contain preservatives, salt or other components that are not recommended for cats. The adequate food for a cat, whether based on recipes or commercial food, should be supervised by your veterinarian.
If you want to read similar articles to What Can You Feed Your Cat If You Don’t Have Cat Food?, we recommend you visit our Diet problems category.
- Nutritional guides for complete foods and supplements for dogs and cats- European Federation of Food Manufacturers for Companion Animals (FEDIAF)
