Sam, Lucy, and Olive would like a minute of your time

And now a break to talk about a sponsor…

The lovely people at the SHEBA® brand – who are a sponsor of this site – asked me to talk about kitty health. Here’s what I’ve figured out about keeping cats healthy:

1. No free feeding. This one took me a while to learn. I used to leave dry food out all the time, figuring they should have access to food whenever they wanted it, just like we do. But Sam is a 25-pound cat (for comparison, Lucy weighs 11 pounds – so that’s a lot), and while that’s partly because he’s big-boned, he could stand to slim down. As could most house cats. So now they get fed on a schedule and that’s it until the next feeding. And speaking of dry food…

2. Wet food is better. It turns out that cats need a lot of hydration in their diets – and dry food has nearly none, while wet food has a lot. Cats on dry food diets usually don’t get enough water and can become dehydrated, which contributes to problems like urinary crystals, renal failure, and other things that you do not want.

3. Many commercial pet foods use ingredients like grain, which contribute to a whole range of feline health problems. (After all, cats are designed to survive almost exclusively on meat in the wild.) But if you look, you can find grain-free cat foods, which more closely match cats’ natural diet.

And that brings us to SHEBA® cat food. All SHEBA® Patés are meat first, meaning that they start with real beef, poultry, or seafood as the first ingredient. They’re formulated without corn, wheat, soy, or gluten, and never have artificial flavors or preservatives. That’s not true of any of the other big mainstream wet cat food brands.

What’s more, all SHEBA® seafood entrees are made with responsibly sourced seafood and fish that follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommendations. The biggest brands don’t guarantee that their seafood is sustainably sourced.

If you have a cat, give SHEBA® cat food a try. If your cat doesn’t love it, they promise that you’ll get your money back.

This program is sponsored by SHEBA® Brand and BlogHer. I was compensated for my writing but all opinions are my own.