Cat treats should be chosen with care. A healthy cat treat makes a healthy cat and there are many things to be closely looked at when it comes to choosing from a wide range of varieties and ranging from ingredients to caloric information. Herein, we provide some tips for buying healthy cat treats and which foods to avoid for them:

1. Must-have ingredients
A healthy cat treat should be made of real meat and not by-products of meat or fillers like corn, soy, and oatmeal that are to be avoided. Cats are carnivores and their system requires a diet high in proteins, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. So, one should look out for combinations of shrimp, salmon, beef, chicken, along with some healthy fruits and vegetables mixed in small quantities. Any food that has wheat, corn, soy, and carbs should be avoided.

2. Preservatives
Some cat treats add preservatives and dyes that are deemed fatal to cats. Some of them are:

• BHT and BHA
• Glycerin
• Artificial dyes

3. Ingredients to avoid
Labels and ingredients should be carefully read and cat treats with these listed should be avoided. Other important tips for buying healthy cat treats are:

• Avoid foods with grains
  It’s advisable to not include foods with grains like wheat, corn, oats, and rice if the cat has grain allergies.
• Include tartar-control cat food
  Helps to control plaque and tartar, an example is Royal Canin Veterinary Care Nutrition Feline Dental dry food.
• Foods for hairball prevention
  Hairballs are tufts of loose, shed hair that the cats swallow and gets into the digestive system. While some of the hair is excreted through stools, some may cause problems. CANIDAE Grain Free Pure Control Hairball Control is an example to prevent this.

4. Dry cat food
It mainly contains fish meal, beef, chicken, vitamin and mineral supplements, these are hard and crunchy, provides exercise for the cat’s teeth, and mainly removes tartar, so if there is tartar buildup and if one needs to remove it, dry cat food would be the best option. With dry cat food, one needs to provide the pet with a lot of water as there is very less water content in dry food and this may lead to blockage.

5. Wet cat food
Wet cat food has a combination of lamb, turkey, duck, and chicken, but it has 70-75% water content that a pet needs, so it is necessary to alternate between the wet and dry food based on the requirements of the pet.

6. Top brands for cat treats
Among our tips for buying healthy cat treats, we recommend the following foods for your cat.

• Blue Buffalo: They do not have fillers in their cat treats, they are wholesome in meat, especially chicken coupled with fruits and vegetables. This cat treat has a dark brown piece within it, which is termed as “LifeSource Bit,” which contains a whole lot of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants necessary to build the cat’s immune and muscular system.
• Wellness Complete health wet food: It is provided in different flavors that one can choose from and is a combination of usually specific and healthy proteins like chicken, beef, shrimp, turkey, sardines and salmon along with 70% water content. The other important characteristic feature of this brand is the antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids required to boost the cellular health of cats.
• PureBites Freeze-Dried Cat Treats : It consists of 100% pure meat, which consists of chicken breast, turkey breast, ocean fish, and duck liver. These are just freeze-dried and not cooked to preserve the nutritional integrity and would provide all the proteins that the cat’s system might need.

Feeding your cat with the above brands may serve as great tips for buying healthy cat treats who are looking out to feed their pets with the best treats ever.