How to Feed a Cat to Prevent Illness

Naturopathic veterinarians believe that many illnesses we see in older cats can be headed off at the pass with good nutrition. Here are three steps to give you some starting guidelines.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fresh chicken or turkey
• Wheatgrass juice
• Medicine dropper
• Fresh mail-order dry food

1. Feed your cat fresh meat. Cats are carnivores and do best on a diet of about 80 percent pure meat. Interestingly, cats tend to prefer poultry over beef or lamb. Your cat might enjoy fresh fish.

2. Give your cat wheatgrass juice two or three times a week. Many juice bars sell it in one-ounce plastic containers. Feed it to your cat through a medicine dropper. They seem to really like the taste of it. Wheatgrass juice is loaded with immune-system boosters.

3. Buy mail-ordering dry food from companies that cook it up from a mash they make fresh each day. They'll send it to you by UPS. It costs about the same as designer cat food you can buy in a pet store. But this is much better for your cat friend than dry food that's preserved to sit on retail shelves for months at a time. There are several very good mail-order pet food companies, and they're easy to find online.

Tips & Warnings

• Cook your cat's meat for them (without salt or extra oils). Raw meat, especially poultry, can expose your cat to parasites.
• Best to stay away from canned tuna fish. Tuna is often cooked right in the can, and may absorb some of the metals.

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