Homemade cat food is gaining popularity among dedicated pet owners for good reason. While there are multiple benefits to homemade cat food, there are a few essential ingredients that can be forgotten. So what are the best supplements to a homemade cat diet?
In this article, we’ll dive into the common ingredients that homemade cat food is lacking, and the best supplements for homemade diets in cats.
Homemade Cat Food Supplements
To ensure that our cats are getting everything they need in homemade cat food, we may need to offer a few dietary supplements.
To help your feline friend achieve overall health, let’s discuss the homemade cat food supplements that you should consider!
Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid that is found within the building blocks of protein. Taurine is critical in assisting with normal bodily functions, especially when it comes to cardiac health.
While animal tissue will provide your cat with taurine, many homemade cat food enthusiasts offer an additional taurine supplement. Taurine supplements can come in the form of chews, powder, liquid, and even gel.
Vitamins
To ensure that our feline friends receive the daily vitamins needed for overall health, many cat owners offer a daily multivitamin.
These Vetriscience cat multivitamins often include Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, and more. These multivitamin supplements often come in the form of chews, powder, liquid, and more.
Oils
Oils and beneficial fats are key in maintaining skin health, joint health, and even offering immune support.
While fish can offer your cat some of the omega fatty acids they need, they can also benefit from additional supplementation. Most omega fatty acids supplements will come in the form of pills, chews, oils, and more.
RELATED READING: What Is the Best Fish Oil for Cats?
Calcium
Before we discuss calcium supplements in cats, it’s important to speak with your vet about this supplement before offering it to your cat. Too much calcium can be dangerous, so you always want to be sure that your cat actually needs it.
Though most store-bought diets have enough calcium for our feline friends, some homemade cat foods can be lacking.
Insufficient calcium can cause our furry friends to fall victim to hypocalcemia, which can impact multiple aspects of their overall health. Because of this, many homemade cat food enthusiasts offer a daily calcium supplement. Calcium supplements for cats can come in the form of powders, syrup, oils, and more.
The best way to ensure that your cat is getting everything they need in homemade cat food and additional supplements is by discussing it with your veterinarian. A professional can help to lead you in the right direction in terms of your cat’s diet, and offer any additional pointers along the way.
Other Beneficial Supplements For Cats
Now that we’ve discussed the must-have supplements for cats eating homemade cat food, you may wonder if there are any other supplements you should offer.
Since our cats deserve the best chance at a long and healthy life, let’s discuss a few other supplements that we recommend for our feline friends.
- Probiotics: Probiotics offer our cats beneficial bacteria that can improve digestive health, and prevent the overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut.
- Glucosamine: Glucosamine can help to improve joint mobility and help to repair damaged cartilage.
- Chondroitin: Chondroitin is often paired with glucosamine in joint supplements, as it offers additional inflammation control and joint support.
The Benefits Of Homemade Cat Food
So what are the benefits of homemade cat food for our feline friends?
With so many cat food recipes available on the market, you may wonder why you would ever ditch the store-bought options in the first place.
So many in-store diets claim to offer your cats well-rounded nutrition, but is that really the case? To help you understand the many pros of a homemade diet for your cat, let’s discuss the benefits!
Having Control
One of the main reasons so many cat owners have switched to a homemade diet is the power of having control of what goes into their cat’s food bowl.
A homemade diet allows you to be aware of each ingredient, be involved in the production process, and have full transparency on what your cat is consuming each day.
By offering homemade cat food, you will never have to wonder what’s hidden between the lines of the ingredient label.
Digestive Benefits
While many store-bought diets claim to improve digestion in our feline friends, so many ingredients are contraindicative of this.
Multiple store-bought kibbles include ingredients that are challenging for cats to digest, as well as contribute to irregularity in their litter box habits. A homemade diet can be tailored to fit your cat’s specific taste, offer food your cat is known to tolerate, as well as promote healthy digestion.
A homemade diet is known to improve litter box habits, increase energy due to ideal gut health, and encourage excitement around mealtime.
Skin & Coat Benefits
Skin and coat health is extremely important for our feline companions.
Poor skin health can lead to irritation and fur loss, while a dull coat can take away from your cat’s natural beauty. Though some store-bought diets claim to offer oils that nurture your cat’s skin health, they are still lacking in many cases.
A homemade diet allows you to include quality protein that offers healthy fats for skin health, as well as add additional oils that can help your cat thrive.
Preventing Allergies
Similar to cat allergies in humans, cats can struggle with allergies to common items found in their daily diet.
Ingredients like wheat and corn can cause inflammation in our feline friends, while mystery meats can lead to potential food allergies.
Homemade cat food can allow you to offer safe protein that your cat can tolerate, as well as avoid common inflammatory agents that can cause your furry friend harm.
Preventing Obesity
obesity is a common problem in the indoor cat population. Due to indoor cats living a sedentary life in many cases, it’s important to offer them a nutritious diet that wards off weight gain.
RELATED: Top Tips for Keeping an Indoor Cat Active
Since so many store-bought kibbles include dietary fillers, this can cause our feline friends to put on extra weight. Because of this, many indoor cats struggle to maintain a healthy weight range.
Offering homemade cat food can allow you to avoid unhealthy fillers, shy away from unnecessary carbs, and offer protein that builds lean muscle.
Homemade Cat Food May Be Lacking
Though homemade cat food has a list of benefits to offer our feline companions, it can lack beneficial nutrients if the diet is not tailored correctly.
Store-bought cat food can be filled with unhealthy ingredients, but they do often meet the core dietary needs of our cats due to certain regulations.
Since our homemade diets do not have to go through a review process before we feed them to our cats, it can be easy to miss some of the key ingredients that our cats need to thrive.
To help you ensure that your cat has everything they need in your homemade cat food, let’s discuss the main ingredients that every cat needs in their diet.
- Protein from animal tissue (taurine)
- Essential fats (omega fatty acids)
- Vitamins (Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3)
- Antioxidants
- Minerals (Iron, Calcium, Magnesium)
Each of these essential ingredients allows our cats the chance at healthy development and offers the nutrients needed to carry out normal body functions each day.
By offering your cat quality protein from animal tissues, approved carb sources, beneficial fiber, and some type of healthy fat, you can meet your cat’s dietary needs.
Final Thoughts On Homemade Cat Food Supplements
Offering your cat a homemade diet is one of the best ways to be in control of their overall health and happiness.
Be sure to review the information we discussed above on supplements for homemade cat food, and you can offer your cat the best diet going forward!