All cats have the same nutritional needs: they are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat to survive and cannot obtain nutrition from plants. The healthiest food to feed your cat is a balanced carnivorous diet. All cats must eat meat to survive, and they do not get nutrition from plant matter. Nutrients found in meat and only meat are essential for their survival. Understanding the Bengal cat diet is essential for pet owners who want to maintain their optimal health. Let’s discuss the key considering factors one by one –Â
Cat’s Digestive System and Raw Meat
A cat’s digestive system is specialized for handling raw meat. Its parts remain smaller compared to the human digestive system because protein and fat are highly digestible for cats. A small digestive system helps cats process food very quickly. Food transit time is 12-16 hours, compared to 35-55 hours in humans!
Does a wild cat that catches mice in your yard first cook the mouse over fire? No! It eats it raw, and a Bengal cat is no different.
Notably, dry food that sits on shelves for months or even years is much more likely to be filled with harmful bacteria than fresh pieces of raw meat!
Occasional grass nibbling provides extra fiber and enzymes to help maintain maximum efficiency of the cat’s small digestive system.
Cats as Natural Predators
Your small sweet cat is a meat-eating predator. Yes, cats are very beautiful, we share our lives and homes with them, and the word predator sounds a bit extreme. But reality cannot be ignored:
A cat’s entire structure is like that of a predator. Hunting is their favorite activity. Their senses are designed to track prey, their excellent night vision, retractable claws, extraordinary capability for their size, teeth designed for tearing meat, and a spiky tongue for extracting every bit of meat from bones.
A cat’s digestive system is specialized for handling raw meat, as we reviewed above.
A cat burns protein for energy. Unlike omnivorous animals (like humans), cats continuously burn protein for energy. Omnivorous animals will only burn protein when their diet contains abundant protein. If a cat doesn’t have sufficient protein, they will be forced to break down their own body’s protein for survival energy. Death from protein starvation can happen very quickly in cats.
Diet Options from Best to Worst
Homemade Raw Food with Balanced Nutrition is the best option.
Two great aspects of making your cat’s food at home: you have complete control over ingredients and it’s very economical compared to canned food or pre-made raw food (for reference, pre-made raw food costs about $10/pound and you can make your own for $2/pound). Balance is key to this diet. To start, this means homemade raw food should have the right ratio of muscle meat to bones and organs, proper fat/protein/carb ratios, and plenty of taurine.
Commercial Balanced Raw Food is a great option.
These are typically found in the freezer section of your small local pet store. They should be labeled as complete food, not just a supplemental feed. Darwin’s, for example, allows you to buy pre-made raw food online and have it brought to you.
Dehydrated Raw or Commercial Cooked Food is a very good option.
Dehydrated raw food is less fresh than frozen raw food and just as expensive, but it’s a convenient alternative. It’s shelf-stable – you just need to add water. Commercially cooked food can be found in pet store freezers.
Canned Food is also good.
If you don’t want to prepare raw food and pre-made food is beyond your budget, you’ll want to opt for canned food. Canned food comes in varying qualities. Any canned food will be better than dry food due to moisture content.
Dry Food options
Not fresh, heavily processed, and sits on shelves for weeks or months. The primary issues are excessive carbohydrates, lack of adequate protein, and insufficient moisture.Â
Essential Nutrients and Components of a Bengal Cat Diet
A good diet for Bengal cats should have the right mix of:
1.Muscle meat
2.Organs/parts
3.Bones
4.Specifically, muscle meat is a good source of taurine – one of the amino acid’s cats cannot synthesize themselves, so it must be eaten.
5.Organs (heart, liver, kidney) provide essential nutrients and vitamins, for example (in small amounts) liver is a good source of vitamin A.
6.Dietary bones add essential calcium.
Simply put, Bengal cat food should contain the right types and amounts of protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.
Protein and Fat:
1.Protein must come from animal sources to provide all essential amino acids. It’s a cat’s primary energy source.
2.Fats and fatty acids serve various roles including supplying some of a cat’s energy needs, transporting fat-soluble vitamins, and being components of cell structure and function.
Cats need arachidonic acid, which is only found in meat. Cats also cannot make vitamin A from plants – they must get it from other animals (meat). And cats need taurine, which is present in meat but not in plants.
Considerations and Challenges of Raw Diet
Not just in terms of source (chicken, turkey, rabbit etc.) but also where it came from. For example, thigh muscle meat is considered preferable to breast due to higher taurine content.
Some meats contain more bones than others, so you may need to add or remove to get the right amount. Some raw recipes suggest bone meal which is easier to handle, but this is not just an extra purchase, your Bengal will also miss out on the nutritional marrow.
You may need to buy equipment ranging from a meat grinder (especially if using whole bones) to proper and multiple storage containers and even kitchen scales.
Time: Removing bones, weighing everything, grinding, portioning, and cleaning takes more time than just opening a can.
To save time, raw food is often made in bulk, but this means having or finding adequate freezer space.
Buying organic meat will be more expensive than non-organic and you’ll need to consider recurring supplement costs and initial equipment expenses.
Your Bengal may be used to raw cat food, so it might take time and patience and some wasted food (if any) before your cat adapts.
Raw meat can contain various parasites that can be harmful. However, this risk can be significantly reduced by buying high-quality meat for human consumption and freezing it once prepared.
Bacterial Infection: Feeding and handling raw meat carries infection risks for both cats and humans. This is why the Centers for Disease Control does not recommend feeding your cat raw food.Â
Benefits and Results of Raw Diet
Feeding cats raw meat is the most logical, natural option. And as expected with humans, when a cat is fed what it’s designed to eat, notable differences can be seen. You’ll notice:
1.A shiny, smooth coat
2.Less shedding
3.More energy
4.Much less smelly stools!
Most veterinarians don’t support homemade raw food because they’ve likely seen the consequences of an unbalanced diet. Feeding an unbalanced diet can create serious health problems. You should take time to learn properly and know what you’re doing. But once you learn, it’s not too much work and it’s a great option for feeding your cats.
Why raw meat versus cooked? Cats can properly handle raw food, as we emphasized earlier. Cooking meat destroys some enzymes and nutrients, so feeding raw is ideal, which a cat typically eats without being served by their human servants.
Before diving into making your own food, you’ll want to be fully prepared and educated, but don’t let fear deter you from that option. Once you learn, making your own cat food is easy. It’s not particularly enjoyable, but the fun part is seeing how much the fur-babies love it and thrive on it.