Good food is key to cats health or the health of anyone. That may take you a little time to get your head around, but learning is all in the desire. And if you're reading this, then you probably have a strong desire to do just this.

If you're feeding your cat from a can or packet, you may feel this is good food.

However, nothing could be further from the truth.

For the most part, all animal feed, and I mean all, is made from waste food from the human food industry. Yet it's packaged as healthy, balanced, etc, etc.

All empty words.

Cats are carnivores. That means they eat meat. Exclusively. Not just some of their diet. ALL of it.

Ever seen a tiger picking and eating berries?

Cats evolved on a healthy, natural diet of raw, very fresh, meat and bones.

This supplies ALL their nutritional needs.

There aren't any cookers in nature. There aren't any supplements in nature. The raw food supplies it all.

Converting anyone’s diet is not without difficulty. Learning new ideas is just the beginning. We seem to be reluctant to let go of old ideas. Or perhaps it’s just the routine that we have difficulty in letting go. With the additional being of your cat in the equation, and therein lies another potential difficulty.

Just like children, cats on a diet they have been on for years, may rebel against anything new. They're junky cats, now.

However, good food is key to cats health. Your cat will be much healthier than is the norm, by feeding good food. So all the early hurdles are worth it. More than you may ever realise. It will save you much heartache and a truck load of moola.

The best diet for cats is not found in the commercial cat food your vet may be advocating. Or in any other commercial cat food. The manufacturers of this food are only interested in their profit. The health of your cat is immaterial to them.

The rather sad thing is that these same manufacturers are the only influence on veterinary students regarding diet. You could say the vested interest is rather high.

That means you have to look elsewhere to get the information you need.

The answer to almost any complex question is normally easy and simple. The hard bit is implementing it.

But first, let's look at how cats evolved. And in how wild cats still survive.

The genetic make up of cats is firmly rooted in their evolution. Their immune system can only work well when they consume the same food they have eaten from the dawn of time. NOTHING we have done can change that.

What is good food? How do you define it? 

It’s all natural food for cats, what they would eat in the wild – mice, birds, reptiles, whatever is around in plentiful supply.

Raw. All of it. Meat, organs, bones.

That’s not something most of us want to feed our cats. It offends our sensibilities. However, cats are carnivores. We can't get away from that.

So we need to feed them as carnivores. Or keep rabbits. Who are great as pets and don't eat meat.

Keeping a cat healthy is all about keeping their immune system healthy. And that can only come from the right food for the species, minimum exposure to toxic chemicals and living a stress free life.

In addition, cats have not evolved to deal with the alkaloids and such found in plants. So plant based food is not suitable for cats.

Just as drugs based on alkaloids are harmful to cats. Or drugs, period.

Having started to get your head around the idea of feeding your cat a healthy diet, now you have to work out what to feed them to keep the diet in perfect balance. Keeping in mind that you are probably busy, have other concerns to juggle, maybe work all day, and so forth.

You also have to convince your cat that this is the way of the future.

When you appreciate that good food is key to cats health, when you discover that conversion may or may not be easy for either you or your cat, when you appreciate how much anxiety and hard earned moola you save, you'll wonder why it took you so long to find this essential part of health.

It's never too late to start....