According to a magazine survey I’m interested on the diet of our four-legged friends, “one in two cats is overweight and one in three is obese”. Does this mean that the industrial food for animals is not suitable?
“Not necessarily, because all the same the life expectancy of our companions has increased a lot in recent years. Today, it is less rare to have dogs of 15, 16, 17 years old, which was not not the case 20 or 30 years ago”, specifies Frédérique Boursicaut, journalist at I’m interested.
In fact, it all depends on their physical activity. “The problem is that indeed, when you keep a cat inside, inevitably, it easily becomes plump because i1 extra kibble is enough per day and after a few years, he will inevitably be his big one”, she adds.
“Now, indeed, there are quite a few whistleblowers who denounce industrial food, who say that it is risky for animals, that it could promote certain pathologies, overweight and possibly also diabetes”, also says Frederique Boursicaut in Here we are!
The croquettes “hold better to the stomach”
“It’s really hard to be categorical because the mashso-called ‘all wet food’, it is very rich in proteinit is often less caloric and especially the animals love it”, notes Frédérique Boursicaut who also recalls that the mash is “four times more expensive” than the croquettes.
However, with the mash, the cats are “more difficult”. They like “the mash very much, but if it has aged for two hours in the bowl, they will not touch it”. “While the croquettes for once, not only are they very stable, so you can leave them in the bowl all day. But, they are also less expensive, they fit better in the stomach as they contain carbohydrates.
“So ideally, there are a lot of vets today who advise to combine the two. So you just have to be careful not to give too much. And if you give mash, you have to reduce the amount of kibble”, summarizes Frédérique Boursicaut.
Do you have to change mash brand regularly?
“There are really no rules in fact”, explains the journalist. “If your animal is fine and you give it the same kibble every day for ten years and it suits it (…) There is no reason to change. Now, today, we want with our animals to do a bit like we do, that is to say vary our diet, but it is not an obligation”, she continues.
You can also feed them exclusively with homemade, “but it can’t be improvised. You have to find out a little bit, otherwise the animal risks being deficient. This is the advantage of industrial food, it is that it is complete”, specifies Frederique Boursicaut. Also know that the cats love zucchini. As for leftovers (fat from ham, for example), “they absolutely do not constitute your animal’s ration. And it is often not suitable, there may be onions in it and these things are not good for the animals” ,
Frédérique Boursicaut also recalls foods you should never give to your animals: avocado which is “toxic for cats and dogs”, chocolate which contains “a molecule similar to caffeine which can cause fatal poisoning”, all vegetables from the leek family, onions garlic and chives “because it can cause anemia in them”.
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