Eating habits and nutrition.

If you give your cat a well-balanced diet, it will radiate good health. Not only this, it will be contented, alert and active with bright eyes, glossy coat, and moist nose. Regular feeding and a variety of textures and flavours may also contribute to a contented and healthy cat.

Touched upon several times before, the diet of the cat is predominantly meat. This is because in the wild, cat's are carnivores which mean that they hunt for prey to eat. Thee cat's teeth and whole dietary adaptation are geared towards the consumption as well as digestion of entire insects, small rodents, birds, amphibians and fish. While cats do eat some plant matter, they have specific requirements for certain nutrients that can only be found in animal tissues. For this reason, meat must form atleast part of a cat's diet. Imposing a vegetarian diet on a cat would be considered very cruel.

Nutrients are the parts of the food that provide energy or raw materials from which the cat builds or replaces it's muscle tissues. Unless cats are provided with the correct quantity and balance, the cat will not be able to maintain a normal and active life. Of course, nutritional requirements will vary at different stages of the cat's life cycle (as they do in a human's) and this is why commercial cat foods are now available for kittens, adults, and senior cats.

The belief that feeding a cat well makes it less likely to bring its prey into the house, or, that keeping the cat hungry will make it become a better mouser, is frankly wrong. A cat does not need the incentive of hunger to hunt; the healthier it is, the more successful it will be as a hunter.