Cats are not small dogs   There is a tendency to believe that our lovely feline creature is pretty much like a dog.  The reality is, that they are quite different.  They think differently.  For example, behavior modification techniques for dogs are nearly identical for those of children.  The husbandry of the cat, influencing it's behavior, is very different.  Speaking of that, Dr. Tony Buffington at The Ohio State University has an excellent web site for the cat owner to visit.  It is the Indoor Cat Initiative .  Check it out.

Not only do cats think differently, they should eat differently.  Dogs, for example are omnivores.  That is they eat both plant source food and animal source food.  Just like people.  Cats on the other hand, are exquisitly adapted to eat meat.  They are top preditors catching and eating other animals for food.  They are not known to attack a wheat field.  Unlike us and the dog, their enzyme systems and liver pathways are uniquely unable to deal well with the carbohydrate found in plant source foods (soybeans, wheat, barley, etc).  Consequently, cats eating typical carbohydrate laden commercial foods quickly become overweight leading to a high risk of type II diabetes.  In the last two decades, diabetes in the cat has increased dramatically.  When I first started in practice, feline diabetes was a rare thing.  These days one or two new cases are diagnosed every month

What Should Cats Eat

There are several goals in feeding a cat.  The first important goal is to teach you cat to like everything.  One of the traits of cats is that they are easily habituated.  It happens early in their life that they identify their surroundings and their food and tag these things as normal.  Once they imprint on their enviroment and their food, it is very difficult to make them comfortable in different enviroments and to get them to eat different foods.  As an example, I adopted a Siamese kitten at 6 weeks of age, and already at that young age it would only eat Purina Cat Chow because that is all the previous owner had ever offered to the kitten.      There a many things to do for young kittens to ensure that they will be vibrant, happy and healthy.  For example, take your baby kittens for rides in the car often.  We're a mobile society and our cats often need to go with us.  Get them accustomed to the car early so that when the grow up they'll enjoy the ride as an adventure rather than be in a state of panic.  If you live in the city, it is not adviseable to let them out doors.  Way too many death dealing hazards out there in the big bad world  that they'll never learn to avoid.  If they're to be indoors, they'll be quite bored.  Read Dr. Tony Buffington's The Indoor Cat Initiative to create a meaningful life for them.      Your kittens should be offered anything and everything to eat and taste (even dry food, which I'm going to tell you not to feed on a regular basis).  They must develop a gormet palate.  I've had kitty patients who eat tomatoes and pickles.  Cats are not finicky eaters by nature, They'll eat about anything.  They're just habituated easily and very early in their lives as to what they define as food, and once habituated to a food, it is almost impossible to get them to eat anything else.    Feed them meat, not cereal.  Cats should consume around 210 Kcal per day (Greco), which works out really nice, as a can of Fancy Feast has just about that many kilo-calories.  Dry foods, and canned food with rice and/or gravies have way too many carbohydrates for the cat.  Diets high in carbohydrates result in our cats becoming obese.  When the cats get fat, they develop osteo-arthritis, heart disease and diabetes.  Diabetes is the big one.  Diabetes in cats is becoming an epidemic.  What is becoming really interesting is that about 90% of cats, diagnosed early with diabetes, can be eventually be cured and not need insulin, if they can be switched to a meat diet and get rid of the carbohydrates they've been eating.  So, why not feed them meat in the biginning and skip the whole diabetes scene.    Besides, fat cats aren't cute, they're pathetic.  Worse they're a living testiment the their owner's stupidity.