Cat food quality significantly affects feline health and welfare. Understanding the connection between cat food formulation, ingredient sourcing, and cat welfare helps owners make more welfare-informed feeding choices.
Cat food welfare involves both the welfare of cats consuming it and the welfare of animals used in its production. For cats, food quality directly affects health: inadequate protein, inappropriate moisture content, and nutritional imbalances cause disease that produces sustained welfare harm. High-moisture diets that better match cats' natural hydration through prey consumption support urinary and renal health. The sourcing welfare dimension of cat food is often overlooked: fish-based cat foods draw on aquaculture and wild fisheries that have their own welfare implications. Meat-based cat foods involve welfare conditions at the farm and slaughter stages. Consumers who prioritize welfare for their cats have an interest in the welfare of animals used in their food production as well as their cat’s nutritional welfare.