Fish in a cat’s diet: what kind, how to cook and how much to give?

Most cat owners sooner or later face the question of whether they can give their furry pet fish. Cats belong to the category of carnivores. According to their physiological needs, the diet should contain dishes that enrich the body with proteins and fats. In addition, the animal requires the intake of the amino acid arginine, aminosulfonic and arachidonic acids. The listed substances help to establish metabolism in the mustachioed body and restore the normal functioning of internal organs.

Fish contains a high percentage of phosphorus. If you often feed your animal fish delicacies, there is a risk of triggering the development of urolithiasis. However, most veterinarians believe that not all pets are susceptible to this disease, but only those with weak immunity. The information presented below will help you figure out whether fish for cats will be harmful or beneficial to the body.

A fish delicacy for a pet can both strengthen and weaken the immune system.

How long does it take to cook pollock for a child?

Place the fish in a saucepan. It needs to be boiled for 15-20 minutes in salted water. You can do this in a slow cooker. Cool a piece of fish, then pass it through a meat grinder.

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What you need to know about canned food

Canned food was invented by mankind in order to preserve food supplies for as long as possible, for example, during travel or military campaigns. It is clear that this product is intended to lead to a feeling of satiety, and not to saturate the body with nutrients as much as possible. Although not the healthiest product, canned food perfectly serves the function of preserving food for the required moment.

Regarding their effect on the cat’s body, it should be noted that all of the above applies to canned food consumed by humans.

But there are special canned food for cats. They contain many specially added beneficial substances and can be fed to your domestic cat all the time without fear for its health. These canned foods are created for the daily diet of pets.

This product was specifically developed for these animals; all their needs were taken into account during production, so consumption will not irritate the intestinal mucosa.

These canned foods also have an appetizing aroma, which instinctively attracts animals to them.

Another significant advantage is that this method of feeding domestic cats is ideal for busy people.

Which fish is prohibited?

1. It is worth noting that all lake and river fish can pose a potential threat to your pet. Ordinary stray cats may be an exception. Ant. There are no problems eating such a product, however, for a pet, the best way to cut the fish is as possible. All bones must be removed.
2. Even fairly large carp and pike can pose a danger to any animal. Such fish also contains a large number of small bones. It is immediately not recommended to feed your cat saury, sprat, capelin, pollock and blue whiting. They lack any benefits, and pollock most often contains worms.
3. If you don’t have the opportunity to pamper your pet with noble-looking fish, then why not do it at all? It is enough to give vitamins to the animal in the form of nebula-3 and 6 acids. Consult a consultant at a pet store.

If you constantly feed your animal plain fish, soon harmful components and excess minerals will begin to accumulate in its body in large quantities. More often, it is only against this background that the pet develops urolithiasis. Due to an excess of histamine, the animal develops an allergic reaction. At the same time, hair begins to fall out, dandruff and itching appear.

What fish to feed a cat: the healthiest fish for cats

If you talk to breeders and veterinarians about the best fish to feed your cat, most will voice outdated opinions in veterinary medicine. It says: fish in a cat’s diet should only be low-fat. And most of the interlocutors will be horrified by the word “salmon” and will immediately name an argument against it: “This fish is too fatty!” However, modern zoologists who specialize in cat nutrition consider salmon (salmon, pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Chinook salmon, brown trout, whitefish, omul, char, grayling, taimen, lenok) to be one of the most useful varieties of fish.

Firstly, most salmon have a quite acceptable percentage of fat content, which increases their nutritional value: dry fish are much less nutritious. However, of course, you need to remember that the diet includes fillet, and not the fatty parts under the belly: there really is too much fat there. Although, if you add a piece to the meat, it can also come from the belly. And it is imperative to adhere to the total percentage of fat in the diet. Secondly, oily fish contains the most omegas.

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Harm of fish for cats

Despite all its usefulness, fish has a number of features that do not allow it to be the basis of the diet.

Calcium and phosphorus

One of the common problems when preparing a diet is the lack of balance between phosphorus and calcium, and this balance is the cornerstone of feline dietetics. The problem is that meat is rich in phosphorus and contains almost no calcium. In fish, the bias in favor of phosphorus is even greater. Meanwhile, a cat's diet should have a calcium/phosphorus balance of approximately 1.2-1.3:1 (minimum 0.8:1). When there is a bias in favor of phosphorus, various pathologies develop: read more at the link. Therefore, if you constantly feed your animal fish, but do not provide sources of calcium, an imbalance will occur. Moreover, by eating fish, this imbalance is created much faster: again, due to the increased phosphorus content compared to meat. For some breeds and outbred cats in good health, such periodic errors in nutrition are not so terrible, but cats with a tendency to pathologies of the musculoskeletal system and kidneys can react quite quickly to such errors. Read about how to prevent imbalance using the main calcium product here.

Increased fat content

When feeding your cat fish, you need to take into account its fat content. According to this criterion, three types of fish are distinguished:

• dry (low-fat) varieties of fish (up to 4% fat): flounder, cod, hake, blue whiting, sea bass, grenadier, pollock, navaga, haddock, pollock, roach, pike, river perch, ruffe, tench, pike perch, shellfish, crayfish;
• moderately fatty varieties (5-8% fat): horse mackerel, catfish, pink salmon, herring, sea bass, chum salmon, bream, trout (collective name for freshwater salmon), carp, crucian carp, carp, tuna;
• fatty fish (more than 9% fat): salmon, sockeye salmon, saury, mackerel, eel, toothfish, omul, herring, sprat, stellate sturgeon, chinook salmon, beluga, nelma, ivasi, sabrefish, burbot, silver carp, notothenia, sturgeon.

The percentage of fat content of the same carcass may vary depending on its part. Some fish tend to accumulate fat under the belly and on the back, while in some (for example, herring) the fat is evenly distributed. If the distribution of fat is uneven, then the fattest parts should not be given to cats. If the fat is distributed evenly, then it does not matter what part of the carcass the pet gets.

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Contrary to the prevailing opinion among many that dry varieties of fish are preferable for cats, in fact, nutritionists advise including fatty varieties in the diet as they are higher in calories and rich in omega acids. That is, fatty varieties, which include most salmon, are preferable.

However, when including fish in your diet, you need to monitor the overall fat content of the entire menu. If fish is served in a small piece daily as part of a meat mix or one serving per week, it cannot significantly affect the fat content of the diet. But you still need to know the fat content of the fish you are using so as not to upset the balance: fat in the cat’s diet should be at least 5%, recommended - 15%, but not more than 20%. Thus, if today you serve fish with 9-15% fat and there are no other products on the menu, this is a normal balance. If your diet contains meat of, say, 2% fat and you add a small piece of 20% fish, then you don’t need to worry about the excessive fat content of the dish. If you make a menu only from fish with 20% fat content or more, this is already too much. Likewise, if the menu includes fish with 18% fat content and, say, fatty parts of chicken, then this is too much. Let’s summarize the rule: you need to respect the overall percentage of fat in your diet.

Average percentage of fat content of different types of fish

Fat content depends on the part of the carcass, as well as the time of year.

Diet fat calculator

Salt

There is an established opinion that marine fish contain a lot of salt, and salt in large quantities is known to be harmful to cats. First of all, the kidneys will suffer. Is it so? The kidneys should not be damaged by moderate feeding of fish. Moderate feeding means 1 fish meal per week or the constant addition of a small piece of fish to the meat diet. The daily requirement of cats for salt is small, but it is there. This need is perfectly covered by meat products with blood or the addition of organs that represent a blood depot: liver and spleen (no more than 5% of the diet). Ocean and sea fish are saltier than meat, and this is one of the reasons why fish cannot be the only basis of the diet. However, if the cat does not receive meat through blood and does not receive liver and spleen, then the need for salt can be covered by adding fish.

Destructive thiaminase

Some seafood (especially shellfish, carp and Atlantic herring) contain the enzyme thiaminase, which destroys vitamin B1. Thiaminase acts in a similar way both inside the food and in the cat's intestines. If you feed your cat fish containing thiaminase for more than 2 weeks, you will see clinical signs of vitamin B1 deficiency. However, thiaminase is destroyed by cooking, so this concern is only relevant for raw fish.

Doubtful cod

Fish of the cod family, when consumed in large quantities (30-35% of the diet and above), can cause iron deficiency anemia and depigmentation of the animal's coat.

Helminths in fish

Fish can be a carrier of helminths, and this happens to them much more often than to meat. If fish from hatcheries are treated for parasites, wild fish are almost always affected. This is especially true for river fish and some varieties of sea fish. Thus, helminths are most often found in wild sea salmon, herring, hake and carp, less often in pollock, sturgeon, mackerel, tuna, trout and catfish.

Opisthorchiasis is especially dangerous. It most often affects representatives of the carp family (crucian carp, bream, roach, roach, verkhovka, ide, minnow and gudgeon).

This picture is familiar to food industry workers. Usually the fish are cleaned for buyers.

Worm eggs in fish are killed either by cooking or freezing. The first method is more reliable, since fish worms do not always die at the standard temperature of a household freezer -18 degrees Celsius. This temperature kills particularly resistant species in at least a week, but this cannot be guaranteed in 100% of cases. Therefore, this method of preparing fish for consumption is not considered the best.

Boiling destroys all parasites. How to cook fish for a cat? It needs to be boiled (note the time from the start of boiling) for more than 20 minutes. During this time, the helminths die. Or a more gentle option is baking for 30-40 minutes at a temperature of approximately 150 degrees.

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Heavy metals

The planet's environment is mired in heavy metals. Fish in the oceans, seas and rivers are part of the ecosystem and these metals actively absorb, and then, when they reach the table, they generously supply us. Predatory fish species are especially prone to the accumulation of heavy metals: herring, halibut, perch, eel, tuna, anchovies, hake, pollock, sardines, whiting, cod, haddock, catfish, flounder, trout. Moreover, the older the fish, the more heavy metals it has accumulated. Therefore, choose not large individuals, whose size indicates their young age.

Antibiotics

Fish raised artificially in hatcheries and on farms are often loaded with antibiotics. In this way, producers are trying to avoid the spread of infections and death of fish in their reservoirs. It is better not to buy such fish either for your cat or for yourself. Prefer wild sea fish to it. Or fish from farms you trust. For example, Norwegian producers claim that in recent years they have managed to almost eliminate the use of antibiotics on their farms.

Not the first freshness

Ideally, if the cats received relatively fresh fish, that is, immediately after catching it, it would be subjected to shock freezing and defrosted at home. However, in regions remote from the sea, everything is different. The fish is first frozen in briquettes, after which it is brought to warehouses, where it is often defrosted. Next, the fish is divided into smaller briquettes or each carcass is separated, after which it is frozen again and sent to stores. On the way, if transportation conditions are unsatisfactory, the fish may also defrost. In the supermarket it is either frozen again or sold as fresh on ice. The fact that it was defrosted and beautifully served did not make the product fresher. But it evokes the necessary associations in people, and therefore they willingly purchase such fish.

This is fish in briquettes

And this is supposedly fresh fish in the supermarket

During freezing and thawing, meat deteriorates, fish oil oxidizes and becomes not only useless, but also dangerous. Therefore, it is so important not to buy fish that has a rancid taste and rusty color, as well as other signs of staleness. Properly frozen fish will not taste rancid after thawing. Its meat does not spread, but retains its shape. It does not have even the slightest smell of staleness.

You are more likely to buy fish that has not been double or triple frozen when it is in a solid briquette. If this is a separate carcass, most likely it has already been frozen. And, of course, there is no point in buying “fresh” fish on ice in a supermarket in a region far from the sea, which is guaranteed to have already been defrosted at least once. Of course, this does not apply to fish that were pulled out of a store aquarium, killed and put on ice.

What about other seafood?

Crabs, crayfish, shrimp, lobsters, lobsters, rapana, mussels, and squid can also be present in a cat’s diet, but only as a treat. While fish is a light protein and suitable for regular addition to the menu, most seafood is not. In addition, the body of a cat that is not accustomed to such food may simply not accept them and return them back.

Shrimp and squid can accumulate heavy metals, so they should not be given often or in large quantities. If a cat eats a small shrimp with a shell, then there is no need to sound the alarm: most likely, it will pass through the gastrointestinal tract in transit, because... chitinous shells are not digested. Larger amounts will likely be returned via vomiting. Large shrimp should not be served in their shells. If eaten in large quantities, they can lead to intestinal obstruction. However, most often the cat simply vomits these shells.

When feeding your cat crayfish and crabs, you need to know that they also have helminths. Therefore, crabs and crayfish are either frozen or boiled. All of the listed seafood can be eaten by cats, but do not indulge in such food.

How to give fish to cats

Let's answer the main questions of this article. Is it possible to give fish to cats? Yes, you can. Is it possible to make fish the basis of the diet? No you can not. Cats should be fed fish only according to certain rules.

1. Fish can be served every day only as an addition to the meat menu in a mix in small quantities. Thus, by the way, fish is included in many factory feeds. Alternatively, you can have one fish meal per week. If desired, you can do one fish day per month. Usually, it is more convenient for owners to organize fish days rather than including small pieces in the diet every day, because... in this case it is more difficult to calculate the balance.
2. If you exclude fish from your cat’s diet altogether, this will not lead to negative consequences. The only point that needs to be taken into account is the intake of fatty acids (especially omega-3) into the cat’s body in the required amount. With a completely fish-free diet, it is advisable to periodically add fish oil to the menu (a few drops per dish). Moreover, buy it in sprays with a dispenser or in capsules and open each one immediately before eating, because. When exposed to oxygen, fat loses its beneficial properties and acquires harmful ones. Actually, this is why taking fish oil with spoons from a jar does not make sense.
3. We choose only high-quality fish, not spoiled. High-quality fish smells pleasant, its meat does not fall apart. If you take such a defrosted fish and place it in your palm, it will retain its shape and not fall off to the sides.
4. Under no circumstances should fish be given smoked, fried or as part of canned food. Natural nutrition involves serving fish raw or boiled (baked), and a piece of lightly salted fish is also allowed. If you give raw fish, it must be a product that has been frozen according to the above rules. However, keep in mind that omega-3 acid is greatly destroyed when re-frozen. Therefore, it is quite possible that if you purchased re-frozen fish, then it already contains very little omega.
5. If you find worms in fish, this is not a reason to throw it away. The most reliable option is to boil or bake. Then the worms will turn into harmless nutritious protein and will no longer pose a danger. Heat treatment has little effect on the content of beneficial omega acids in meat, which is largely why everything is started.
6. Fish bones need to be selected. It is allowed to leave only soft cartilage-like bones if you are serving raw fish. If the fish is boiled, all the bones need to be removed, because... They, unlike raw ones, are not digested in the cat’s stomach.

Breakfast

This meal is mandatory for all people, and it must be filling so that there is enough energy until lunch. For people who do not like porridge with milk, breakfasts with a side dish of meat or fish are great. Blue whiting is tender and cooks quickly. For breakfast you can simply serve blue whiting fried in batter. How do you most often cook fish?

• I fry 47%, 316 votes

  316 votes47%

  316 votes – 47% of all votes

• I bake 43%, 291 votes

  291 votes43%

  291 votes – 43% of all votes

• Carcass 7%, 48 votes

  48 votes7%

  48 votes – 7% of all votes

• Varya 3%, 20 votes

  20 votes3%

  20 votes – 3% of all votes

Total votes: 675

16.09.2019

• I fry 47%, 316 votes
  316 votes 47%

  316 votes – 47% of all votes

• I bake 43%, 291 votes

  291 votes 43%

  291 votes – 43% of all votes

• Carcass 7%, 48 votes

  48 votes 7%

  48 votes – 7% of all votes

• Varya 3%, 20 votes

  20 votes 3%

  20 votes – 3% of all votes

Total votes: 675

16.09.2019

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You can prepare the fish in the evening and leave it in the refrigerator until the morning, sprinkled with spices or covered in marinade. In the morning, all that remains is to dip the pieces in the batter and brown them in a greased frying pan. It will take a little time to fry the blue whiting, a few minutes on both sides. To prepare delicious blue whiting in batter, you need to know what batter is.

Batter is a salted egg-flour mixture with the consistency of thick homemade sour cream.

The batter protects the delicate fish flesh from moisture evaporation and envelops it with a piquant crispy crust. You can add as much mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, beer, mineral water, etc. to it as you like (to taste).

Cooking fillet

To quickly prepare boiled fish, there are several different recipes. With their help, the pulp will turn out juicy, tender and very healthy. The richness of taste and juiciness depends on the cooking time. If you overcook the fish, it will not be as juicy and the flesh will fall apart.

Cooked hake is prepared as follows:

1. Pour water into the pan. Place on low heat.
2. When the water boils, add the thawed fish fillet.
3. Add bay leaf, peppercorns, spices. Let everything simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes.

Place the finished dish on lettuce leaves. To make the taste brighter, you can pour freshly squeezed lemon juice on top, garnish with sprigs of dill, parsley, cilantro, and young onion feathers.

To prepare steamed boiled fish, place steaks or fillet pieces in a special container with holes. Add salt and spices, bay leaf. Cook in a double boiler for 40 minutes.

Yandex pictures

Blue whiting fish soup

Before you start cooking, you need to make sure you have all the ingredients for the soup:

• blue whiting – 400-500 g;
• 3 liters of water;
• 6 potatoes;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 onion;
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste;
• 2 bay leaves;
• 2 – 3 black peppercorns;
• 1 tbsp. sunflower oil;
• salt to taste.

Let's start preparing fish soup step by step:

1. The blue whiting is defrosted, cleaned of entrails and fins, and washed with water.
2. The pan is filled with water, the cleaned fish is immersed there and put on fire.
3. Carrots, bay leaves and peas are immediately added to the broth.
4. After boiling, reduce the heat and cook the ingredients for 10-15 minutes until the fish is cooked.
5. While the blue whiting broth is cooking, it's time to peel the potatoes and cut them into medium cubes.
6. Take the onion, peel it, cut it into cubes and fry it until golden brown in sunflower oil.
7. We return to the finished broth - the blue whiting and carrots are removed, the broth is filtered, the bay leaf and peas are discarded.
8. The finished carrots, which have had time to cool, are cut into small cubes.
9. Separate the blue whiting fillet from the backbone and cut into pieces.
10. Add potatoes to the strained broth, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to avoid strong boiling. When potatoes are cooked over high heat, which is accompanied by strong bubbling, the broth turns cloudy.
11. After boiling, add carrots and onions to the potatoes.
12. Tomato paste, slightly diluted with water, is poured into the broth. Bring to a boil.
13. The potatoes are tested for readiness - 3-5 minutes before the potatoes are ready, fish is added to the soup.

Why boiled fish must be added at the very end - ready-made fish fillets cannot be re-cooked. Otherwise, it will simply fall apart into small pieces, the flavor of the fish will be there, but the fillet itself will not be in the soup. The delicious blue whiting fish soup is ready, you can enjoy its great taste!

Individual reactions

Any industrial feed is a multi-component product. And sometimes it happens that one of the components causes an individual undesirable reaction in a cat (food intolerance, allergy). When you use both dry food and canned food, it will be doubly difficult to understand the reasons for this phenomenon.

If your pet is prone to allergies or has sensitive digestion, it is better not to experiment with its diet again.

For those who still decide to feed their cat dry food and canned food at the same time, it is important to adhere to the following rules:

• do not introduce two new foods one after the other and do not mix them in one bowl, the normal adaptation time to a new food is 7-10 days;
• Do not use products where protein sources are named in general terms, because it may turn out that some “meat products” include chicken, to which your cat is allergic.