Choosing the best treats for your cat can be a tricky job with the wide variety available in the market. Even if you give the best treats, your cat can be fickle about the snacks it wants to eat. While you may be guilty of not providing enough treats for your cat, great care should be taken not to overdo it.

It’s advisable to discuss with your vet before feeding your cat any treats. While some of them seem healthy, they can be pretty risky due to the ingredients. Feeding your cat the right treats is all about trial and error under the supervision of the vet. It’s important to consider the essential tips while heading to buy the best treats for your cat.

Say no to added sweeteners, artificial flavors, and preservatives
An innumerable variety of cat treats contain corn sugar and other added sweeteners & sugars to enhance the taste. However, they’re the prime causes of diabetes in cats, and they cannot taste these sweeteners. Always check for the ingredients on the pack and avoid those that have these artificial ingredients in them.

Likewise, artificial preservatives are very common in most cat treats that help enhance shelf life. The risk is that these treats that are not regulated by the food industry can contain harmful chemicals. BHT and BHA can wreak havoc on your cat’s immune system. Most of these ingredients are carcinogenic to your pets, and glycerin contents can cause methanol contamination in cats. Stay away from treats that have artificial dyes that can cause life-threatening complications in cats.

Moderation is the way
Like humans, your cat can also develop a liking for treats and start avoiding their regular food. Hence, it’s important to feed cat treats in limited quantities like twice to thrice a week. In other words, it should include only 10% of the total calories and food. However, you should concentrate largely on feeding your cat high-quality and nutritional food regularly.

Go green
Catnip and cat grass are exceptional cereal grass-like wheat or oats that are free from felines. These products are grown in a sunny environment that is enriched with natural vitamins. However, if you find your cat not adjusting well enough to kitty grass, feed her only catnip. But, make sure to check the plant-based ingredients with your vet to ensure they’re not toxic-causing plant sources.

Avoid added sodium
Sodium and salt are not suitable for a cat’s health and cause severe dehydration. Treats that contain sodium can lead to cats developing kidney stones that can be very painful and life-threatening.

Check before feeding overweight cats
Cat treats mostly add only calories and nothing else. Regularly feeding your cat treats only adds to the weight and leads to common to severe health complications. While you should limit giving treats to your cat, it’s crucial to discuss a safe and effective diet with your vet. Rapid weight loss in overweight cats can lead to severe liver disease. This condition is called hepatic lipidosis.