What should a balanced diet for cats consists of?

Cats need six basic nutrients to thrive: water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. In order for everything to function as it should and for the cats' physical and mental well-being, they must also receive them in the right proportion. That is why it's necessary to buy high-quality food and why our cat companions should not eat our leftovers (among other things).

Cats also have quite a specific metabolism; they cannot synthesize some substances and need to receive them through their diet. You may have read something about this in the article titled The differences between dog and cat food, where you can also read that they eat small portions throughout the day (and night). If an absence of food exceeds two days, there may even be irreversible changes in some organs of their digestive system.

You should also remember the fact that a cat's nutritional requirements change throughout their life.

For example, kittens have a greater need for protein and fat, as well as vitamin E and phosphorus. Old, pregnant, obese or sick cats will also need different nutrient ratios.

But let's get back to the basic nutrients. It's a known fact that every animal needs water. After all, we're mostly made of water. It has many different tasks in the digestive process. It acts as a solvent for some substances, helping with digestion and excretion. It also serves as a transport medium and a temperature regulator, it's an important participant in hydrolysis (in simple terms, the decomposition reaction in which water is consumed; this is a basic biochemical reaction in the body).

Protein is the main building block, and it also provides energy. Proteins also include a number of enzymes, hormones and transport proteins that are necessary for the proper functioning of the body (e.g. insulin, collagen, immunoglobulins).

Although a cat's body can gain energy from the aforementioned proteins, its main and most efficient energy supplier is fat. Needless to say, it also acts as internal organ insulation and thermal insulation for the entire body. A certain type of fat is also one of the elements of cell walls and membranes.

Digestible carbohydrates (such as starch in cat food) are easily available sources of energy; indigestible carbohydrates (fiber) ensure the proper functioning of the digestive system and positively affect peristalsis.

Vitamins maintain proper functioning of the body; they are catalysts of biochemical reactions.

They are involved in the metabolism of protein, fat and sugar. Cats, unlike dogs, are unable to synthesize vitamin A and therefore need to receive it directly in their diet (most often in the form of liver).

Minerals have no energy value, but they are involved in all reactions in the body. They participate in the growth and formation of tissues, regulate metabolism in the body and participate in the conduction of nerve impulses (zinc, for example, is essential for skin regeneration, selenium for the body's defenses, iron for oxygen transfer and calcium for bone building).

 As you can see, each nutrient plays a vital and irreplaceable role in cat nutrition. Preparing high-quality food for them may seem like complicated alchemy, but all you really need is enough information, expertise and the right technology. So let's be glad that someone has already done the work for us, and all we need is basic knowledge to select the right cat food and a bit of time to read the writing on the packaging :).