Too Much Cat Food? NEVER!

Your cat may be fat and happy, but it may also be in danger.

It's the picture of contentment . . . your favourite furry four-legged companion, curled up on the floor in a patch of warm sunlight, snoozing with a belly full of the steak scraps left over from last night's dinner. Oh yes, he's content. But is he healthy? Not likely. Ensure your cat's health goes beyond resisting the sad eyes and whimpers that plead for leftovers. Ignoring the content of your cat's food and his need for exercise can lead to dangerous health habits that may haunt both you and your cat in the future.

Improper diet for your cat's can lead to health problems serious enough to endanger their lives. Diarrhoea can result from allergic reactions to foods, sudden changes in diet, sickness, or dietary indiscretions (such as eating rubbish). If not treated, these reactions can lead to dehydration and weight loss. Extra kilos on an overweight dog can be associated with heart and respiratory ailments and skeletal stress, and obese dogs and cats are more prone to diabetes. A poor diet in your cat can result in urinary tract infections, which can block the ability to urinate. As a result, your cat could become critically ill within as little as 24 hours. And just one treatment to clear a cat's urinary tract can cost several hundred dollars.

Controlling your cat's diet and being aware of what to look for in the food you buy is as important for your cat's as it is for your two-legged family members. As many as 89 percent of dog and cat owners feed their animals table scraps occasionally. But unfortunately, not only is people food often too high in fat for an animal to appropriately metabolise, but your cat may become a more finicky eater, refusing healthier cat food when the table scraps are gone.

But table scraps are not the only pitfall when it comes to nourishing those four-legged friends of ours. Many cat foods also have a high fat content, which, of course, Fluffy and Fido love. The more they eat it, the more they love it, and many eventually refuse to eat anything else.

So what should the concerned cat owner look for in buying acceptable food for cat's? High fibre foods are nutritionally balanced and complete. It usually takes a 10 to 20 percent fibre diet to change the weight of an obese cat. But a lower-fat food will probably not taste as good to your cat as his regular, fatty canned food, and he may refuse to eat it at first. Gradually changing finicky Fido's diet over a few weeks should solve the problem.