What kind of cereal can you feed your cat?

In order for cereals to become part of the menu teach the cat to eat cereals little by little and from childhood. Let cereals be a nice addition and even a "treat" to the main diet.

5 Recipes for choosing the right food for your cat

Scientists estimate that cats need a set of 22 amino acids to stay healthy for many years. But only 12 of them can be synthesized in their bodies, the rest should come with food (especially taurine and arginine). Thus, whiskers need relatively large amounts of complete animal protein.

By weight, the daily food allowance for an adult cat is about 5% of its body weight. Pregnant and nursing females, breeding cats, animals recovering from prolonged hunger strikes, and active youngsters require more food. Growing kittens consume up to 10% of their weight.

Homemade natural food

Most veterinarians recommend a high-protein diet for cats that contains about 75% protein. In addition to meat, offal, and fish, a pet mini tiger's diet also includes cereals, eggs, lactic acid products, and some vegetables. Raw meat and fish are frozen for 48-72 hours before serving, or boiled to avoid infections and parasites.

• Raw veal or lean beef (fed daily);
• Chicken or turkey meat (3-4 times a week, if no allergies are present)
• Beef offal: liver, lungs, kidneys, heart, udder (fed raw or boiled 3-4 times a week);
• Chicken and turkey livers and hearts (fed raw or boiled 2-3 times a week, if no allergies)
• broiler chicken heads and necks (fed raw 2-3 times a week as a source of natural minerals and to train the chewing muscles);
• fillet of low-fat sea fish (fed raw or boiled 2-3 times a week);
• oatmeal or rice porridge boiled in water (two teaspoons daily);
• Yolk of a chicken egg (fed raw or boiled once a week) or whole quail egg (fed raw 1 to 2 times a week)
• low-fat cottage cheese (fed 3-4 times per week)
• Soft unsalted and low-fat cheese (to be given as a delicacy 2 to 3 times per week)
• Dairy products (unsweetened yogurt, kefir, sour milk, ryazhenka) – if tolerated well, fed 2-3 times a week;
• Vegetables: carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumbers (fed a little bit in raw or boiled form, pureed or mashed).

Such a variety allows you to replenish the body with the necessary nutrients and ensure the excellent appearance of the pet.

What gruel is forbidden for cats

All cereals are beneficial, but some varieties of cereal are undesirable for cats. Thus, in the cat's diet, such porridge is undesirable:

• Corn – Corn porridge in many cats causes indigestion, stool problems (constipation) and severe gas formation. But it should be noted that some cats are crazy about all corn products: porridge, boiled cobs, crunchy sticks, canned food;
• Manuka – This cereal made of wheat grain should not be given to cats because of its high gluten content, which often acts as an allergen and also damages the digestive system;
• Millet – Millet porridge may cause constipation in cats. It is especially undesirable for cats with colon problems (e.g. colitis);
• Pea – Porridges made of boiled peas are undesirable for cats, since they provoke digestive problems, and are hard on the kidneys and pancreas.

What gruel is good for cats

So, we have found out what cereals should not be given to cats. But these cereals in the diet of animals are very desirable:

• Buckwheat – Buckwheat porridge can bring a lot of good things: strong immunity, healthy skin and coat, normalization of digestion and circulatory system, stomach and pancreas. It is rich in vitamins B, E, PP, iron, calcium, phosphorus, copper, iodine, cobalt. In addition, buckwheat is very nutritious because of its high protein content;
• Rice – Rice porridge for cats is considered a source of B vitamins, PP and E, it has selenium, potassium, iodine, iron, calcium, zinc. Animals that regularly consume rice porridge have a strong heart and nervous system, stable immunity, a beautiful coat and healthy skin. In addition, rice helps to normalize stools. Such a product is also suitable for cats prone to allergies, since rice does not contain gluten. As a rule, cats like porridge of uncooked rice with meat cooked in meat broth.

Buckwheat and rice are probably the most suitable cat cereals. What about oat and barley porridge? There are many benefits for the cat's bodies but we should note that Such porridges have contraindications..

• Hercules – Oat porridge because of the antioxidants in the composition is reasonable to give cats suffering from bacterial and viral infections. Hercules has B vitamins, PP, E, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus. Such a product strengthens the bones of the animal, prevents the development of anemia. Usually liquid oatmeal is well digested by the cat's body, normalizes the stool in case of diarrhea and relieves stomach pain. However, do not give it to the cat too often since oats contain gluten, which may negatively affect the cat's health;
• Barley porridge – We are talking about barley and barley, which are rich in vitamins A, B, D, E, PP, selenium, potassium, calcium, iron, copper, manganese, molybdenum, strontium. They can also be given to cats, but not more often than 1-2 times a week, provided that the pets have no gluten intolerance. Barley porridge in the diet relieves the condition of cats suffering from stomach problems, it is also good for bones and eyesight, nervous system and fur of purrs. But with caution, pearl barley and yatchka should be given to animals suffering from chronic constipation.

Age and condition

Armed with information about what's good for your kitty and why, you're still faced with the important task of what food to choose.

Before you buy cat food, talk to your veterinarian to make sure you consider a few things, such as the age of your pet. Remember that kittens need special foods because they need certain amounts of nutrients to grow healthy and strong. Adult cat food may not contain the nutrients that are most important to a growing body. As cats get older, their metabolism slows down, so the amount of nutrients and calories that stimulate kitty growth can cause weight problems in older cats. Cat products such as Hill's Science Plan are specifically designed to meet your cat's needs at different stages of life. If your cat has a health problem, be sure to consult with your veterinarian about a food that will help keep him or her healthy.

As with any dietary change, you should gradually introduce a new food into your cat's diet (usually over seven days or more), especially if she is picky eaters like many of her congeners. It takes a little research time to find a healthy food for your cat, but this informed choice will help keep her well and ensure longevity.

Contributor Bio

Christine O'Brien is a writer, mom, and longtime owner of two Russian blue cats who are the mainstay of the house. Her articles can also be found at What to Expect Word of Mom, xoJane, Fit Pregnancy and Care.com, where she writes about pets and family life. Subscribe to her on Instagram and Twitter @brovelliobrien.

How much gruel to give a cat or cat?

By nature, all felines are carnivores, so the basis of the diet is undoubtedly meat, however, cereal is also important for your pet's body. Its percentage in the diet of a domestic animal should not be more than 20%. If the rules are not followed, the cat may suffer from intestinal microflora disorders and acquire the following health problems:

Cereal dishes should be given especially carefully to neutered or spayed pets, as they are more prone to gastrointestinal problems and obesity. The optimal mode of introducing cereals into the diet of a cat or cat is three times a week.

Thus, it is very important to find the right balance when balancing your pet's menu. Do not feed it only meat, because it leads to constipation, bloating, and the abundance of special food can actually kill the animal, rewarding him with cirrhosis of the liver or peptic ulcer.

So, when planning the diet of your cat or cat, do not forget to include several healthy cereals, such as buckwheat, rice and oatmeal, which not only contribute to good digestion, but also bring the body of the animal a lot of useful vitamins and minerals.

Can a kitten be fed semolina porridge?

Babies need to eat well in order to grow and get stronger faster. Manna is a caloric product that helps kittens gain weight. However, it can be harmful to adult cats, causing a feeling of heaviness in the stomach, nausea, and with regular use – obesity.

Animals can be given any kind of porridge from a month and a half of age. Babies are recommended to cook porridge of rice or hercules with milk. There is an opinion that semolina will help the baby, who has grown thin after an illness, to quickly recover and gain weight. However, it is better not to give semolina to kittens, especially when combined with sugar or fish. The only exception may be isolated situations in which there are no other cereals at hand, and the baby needs to be fed. At the same time, there is no need to add sugar to the dish, and the consistency of the porridge must be liquid. Thick, sweet semolina with milk is so harmful that it may even kill the baby.

It is not recommended to offer kittens herkules, rice or buckwheat at the same time as cooked food. Such a combination is dangerous for the animal's stomach and disrupts the balance of nutrients.

Recipes for meat and fish porridge for cats

A dish for a cat will be much tastier and healthier if it combines cereals and protein products. This rule especially applies to adult animals. It is not recommended to cook cereal dishes every day, cooking them 3-4 times a week is sufficient.

For cooking cereals it is better to use the broth left after cooking fish, beef, chicken, by-products. Cooking a dish, you must follow the proportions: 50% of meat or fish should be no more than 35% of the groats. It is allowed to add vegetables to the mixture: zucchini, cauliflower, carrots. Breeders often turn to the following recipes for healthy porridge:

• Rice porridge with salmon. Prepare the dish no more than 2 times a week. Salmon is cooked in water, then rice is poured into the broth and boiled for at least 35 minutes. Boiled fish is freed from the bones, kneaded with a fork and mixed with the cooked porridge.
• Mixed porridge with vegetables and meat. Take 1 kg. beef, chicken or rabbit. Boil it, take it out of broth and cool it down. Immerse in it 0.5 kg of vegetables, which the pet prefers, and pour 50 g of a cereal mixture (rice, buckwheat and oatmeal). Boil the porridge together with the vegetables, drain off the excess water, mix it with the meat, chopped into pieces. This porridge is cooked for ready, it can be divided into portions, put in the freezer and defrost for a week.

Read also: What kind of fish can be fed to cats and why they love it, do they give it to neutered cats?

• Buckwheat porridge with meat. It is recommended to add chicken or chicken hearts, veal, turkey or rabbit to the side dish. A glass of cereal should first be processed by cleaning it from debris, then for a few minutes to heat it in a hot pan. Then rinse, pour into a saucepan with 3 cups of water or broth. Simmer the porridge on low heat for half an hour, stirring occasionally. At the end of cooking, add a tablespoon of olive oil and add the meat pieces. The porridge can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.
• Rice porridge with Chinese cabbage and green onions. Pour 2 cups of water in a small saucepan, boil and pour the groats. While the porridge is boiling, shred the cabbage and fry it in a frying pan with vegetable oil. Add green onions and pieces of chicken fillet. Stew. Mix the cooked porridge with the contents of the pan and stew the mixture for another 10 minutes.

How do I feed pregnant and lactating cats?

Pregnant and lactating cats can be fed natural foods and special foods for pregnant and lactating cats. Prepackaged foods are designed to meet the needs of the female.

Manufacturers indicate on the packaging how to feed the cat properly, depending on the period of pregnancy and in the postpartum period. With the natural way of feeding, certain rules must be adhered to:

• In the second half of pregnancy, increase the number of cat meals and the caloric content of food. The nursing female should be fed 4-6 times a day in small portions.
• Make sure that the cat always has clean water.
• Vitamin supplements intended for pregnant and lactating females should be added to the food.
• Increase the amount of meat and fish in the diet. Products should be steamed or boiled.
• Dairy products should be offered daily, but after the main diet.
• In case of constipation, add 0.5 tsp. vegetable oil to the portion.
• Offer vegetables in boiled chopped form.
• Several times a week one meal should be replaced with lean meat broth.
• Milk can be given to the cat during the lactation period in 3 days after delivery, if it does not cause diarrhea and flatulence.

Read also: Food Grandorf for adult cats and kittens: composition and types, advantages and disadvantages, comparison with other manufacturers

Diet of a cat with urolithiasis

The line of some foods includes products for sick animals. However, the manufacturer can not completely abandon the use of preservatives, which are harmful to cats with urolithiasis. In this regard, most veterinarians advise transferring the cat to natural food. In the pet's food, there should be no products that provoke inflammation and exacerbation of the disease:

The disease also progresses if the pet's food contains large amounts of calcium. The basis of a sick pet's diet should be boiled lean meat. When choosing vegetables, preference should be given to those in which the amount of calcium is reduced. Feeding a cat with urolithiasis should follow the following rules:

• reduce the intake of fermented dairy products;
• Exclude eggs from the menu;
• Limit the consumption of vegetables to pumpkin, beets, carrots and Brussels sprouts;
• Avoid monotony in your diet;
• avoid by-products, because they contain purines and oxalic acid;
• Eliminate meat broths.

What porridges are recommended to feed to cats

Given the physiological characteristics of the gastrointestinal tract of carnivores, dietary easily digestible cereals, namely buckwheat, rice, oatmeal, are most suitable for the diet of the feline tribe.

Buckwheat porridge is rich in vitamins B, E, PP, folic acid, and also contains minerals – iron, calcium, phosphorus, copper, iodine, cobalt. The high content of vegetable protein provides its high nutritional value, and the saturation of fat-like substances called "lecithins" causes its use in diseases of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas.

This is the only porridge that can be safely fed to cats suffering from diabetes. It is also suitable for animals suffering from gastritis and colitis. Regular consumption of buckwheat has good effects on the immune system, hematopoiesis, skin and coat.

Rice grits is considered as a source of pantothenic acid, choline, folic acid, biotin, as well as selenium, potassium, iodine, iron, calcium, zinc. The usefulness of rice for the body is determined primarily by its ability to form a large amount of mucous decoction when boiled, which has a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

Regular consumption of rice gruel normalizes the stool in gastritis and colitis, as well as a beneficial effect on metabolism and the condition of the hair coat. This porridge is excellent for cats with gluten allergies. The soft, neutral taste of rice cooked in meat or fish broth with an added protein component (muscle meat, by-products, fish) usually pleases even the most capricious murky cats.

Oatmeal made of flaked oatmeal is also very popular with kitties. It digests well and is considered suitable even for feeding small kittens. However, some cats may be allergic to gluten in oats, which results in indigestion, diarrhea and inflammation of the intestines (so-called "celiac disease").

Characteristics of other cereals

In Soviet times, semolina was considered the best cereal for children's and dietary nutrition because of its high digestibility and rapid digestibility of nutrients. Young animals fed on semolina are excellent weight gainers. In addition to high protein and easily digestible carbohydrates, semolina is rich in iron and gallium, which make up the shell of red blood cells and is a permanent element in the blood.

However, many modern nutritionists question the usefulness of this cereal because of the high content of wheat gluten, which is the most well-known allergen.

Wheat gruel – One of the cheapest cereals, and therefore a traditional choice for the most economical dog owner. For cats, whose digestive tracts are traditionally adapted to meat, wheatgrass has a greater ballast function and is more difficult to digest due to the high level of crude fiber. Allergenicity of ground wheat porridge is another significant disadvantage.

Barley porridge (barley and barley groats) are also rich in fiber and have a low digestibility for meat-eating cats. The value of the composition is determined by the significant content of iron and folic acid, which is important for hematopoiesis. Barley gruel can be included in the menu of cats for obesity and constipation if it is thoroughly digested, but it is contraindicated for animals with delicate stomachs.

Corn grits Causes indigestion and flatulence in cats. However, strange as it may seem, many whiskers adore this cereal, as well as – boiled corn directly from the cob and crispy extruded product called "corn sticks". It is noteworthy that many producers of ready-to-eat pet foods add corn to their dry foods on a massive scale. Note that corn is a natural source of trace elements (iron, molybdenum and nickel), helping to replenish the body.

Millet porridge is not recommended for cats for a regular diet because of the high probability of intestinal problems: fermentation, constipation, diarrhea. Especially undesirable is the consumption of millet in animals suffering from chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. However, the product contains quite a lot of nicotinic acid, copper, manganese and zinc. While storing millet fats quickly oxidize, and porridge gets a bitter, rancid taste.

What's the best choice?

Based on all the parameters of porridge and the recommendations of veterinarians, we would like to advise making buckwheat the main type of porridge in the diet. If the pet has no contraindications (diabetes, autoimmune, allergic and cancer), then it will be the best option. In this case you can alternate it with other porridges according to the scheme:

• Monday – buckwheat groats;
• Tuesday – buckwheat;
• Wednesday – rice grits;
• Thursday – buckwheat;
• Friday – buckwheat;
• Saturday – buckwheat or oatmeal;
• Sunday – rice or oatmeal.

AND NOW ABOUT WHAT A CAT DOESN'T NEED

She doesn't need gruel. A cat is the strictest carnivore of all those who live next to humans, its metabolism is protein-fat (unlike, for example, a dog). That's why nature has not thought it necessary to equip a cat with enzymes to break down carbohydrates. Thus, incoming carbohydrates (in the form of porridge) are at best simply not digested and, in the worst case, create favorable conditions for the development of pathogenic intestinal flora.

We begin the transition gradually, and always under the cover of probiotics.
To avoid upsetting the gastrointestinal tract during the change of diet, half an hour before meals, a pinch of Vetom 1.1 powder is given directly on the cat's tongue. It is good if you already know which product your cat will eat with pleasure. Start with it, completely removing dry food from the diet.

Prepare for the worst. A cat may refuse a new food for a long time at all. Be patient and do not indulge her. Offer meat over and over again. According to our observations, no one has gone longer than 5 days, and 5 days of a starvation diet will not affect her health in any way.

Case in point (just don't try to feed your cat buckwheat, it's just a joke!)

A cat comes in for supper and they put buckwheat porridge in his bowl. He looks at it and says:
– Ew! Buckwheat. Nasty.
And he left. The second day he comes back to the bowl and there's buckwheat again. He smells it and says:
– Yuck! Buckwheat. It's disgusting.
And went away hungry again. On the third day he comes back – the menu is the same. He sees the porridge and says:
– Oh! Buckwheat! Yum, yum.
And he ate all of it.

After a couple of days of making sure that the cat eats the proposed product well, and with the stools of the cat all in order, you start gradually, in small pieces to add to the plate something else. After a couple of days, the next food item. And so on.

Liver can be chopped in a blender and mixed with fermented milk and added to the meat mixture.

Don't despair if the cat categorically refuses to eat anything you suggest. The recipe is universal, all products are interchangeable. If she doesn't eat beef she will eat turkey, if she doesn't eat chicken heart she will eat pork heart, etc.

Many cats don't like butter. In that case, you will have to give oil from a syringe without a needle. Catch the cat, lift her lip and pour 1 ml of oil. We would also like to notice that cats are nocturnal hunters and often at night they will eat everything left in the bowl, although they categorically refused to eat it during the day.

Concerning vegetables we would like to say that zucchini is the most harmless. It has no smell and the cat may just not notice it among the whole mass of meat products. Although many individuals like pumpkin, carrot and cauliflower.

If a cat absolutely refuses to eat raw foods, you can get her attention with canned saury oil, for example, or tuna or cod liver. Many cats like this smell and are happy to eat foods "marked" with it: you need to drop a couple of drops on the food offered to the cat.

In conclusion, it should be added that the above described ration satisfies all the needs of a healthy cat. If you see a change for the worse in your cat's condition – see a good doctor immediately to find out the cause of the ailment. Do not change the type of food to a sick or weakened animal!