How cat food changed: from mousers to the modern food bowl

Cats fed themselves for a long time

For most of their shared history with people, cats were not really fed. They were tolerated, or welcomed, because they caught mice and rats around grain stores, farms, ships and houses. Their dinner was whatever they could catch, plus scraps if someone was kind.

That diet shaped them. A mouse is mostly water, protein and fat, with very little carbohydrate. Cats evolved to run on that kind of food, which is why they are called obligate carnivores.

Scraps, cat's meat men and the first packaged food

In 19th century London, "cat's meat men" sold cheap cuts of horse meat on skewers, street to street, for people to feed their cats and dogs. It was common enough that the job shows up in plenty of accounts of Victorian city life.

Packaged pet food arrived around the same time. James Spratt's meat biscuit, launched in England around 1860, was made for dogs. Spratt's company later added foods for cats too, towards the end of the 1800s. Tinned pet food became common in the 20th century, and dry food took off after the Second World War.

What changed most: knowing what cats need

The big shift in the last fifty years has been science. Researchers worked out that cats have some unusual needs compared with dogs and people:

• They need taurine in their diet. Cats fed without enough taurine can develop serious heart and eye problems. This was a key finding in the late 1980s, and it changed how commercial cat food is made.
• They need a lot of protein, and they need preformed vitamin A and certain fatty acids, because they cannot make enough from plant sources.
• They need arginine in every meal. Plant proteins contain arginine too, so the issue is not that it only comes from meat. It is that cats cannot make enough of it themselves, and missing it even briefly can make them very unwell.

Getting all of that right, in the right balance, is hard. That is the main reason complete commercial diets exist.

Feeding your cat today

For most cat parents, the safe choice is a commercial food labelled "complete and balanced" for your cat's life stage. In Australia, look for food made to the Australian Standard for pet food (AS 5812), and ask your vet if you are unsure which suits your cat. Wet, dry or a mix can all work. Your vet can help you choose based on your cat's age, weight and health.

A few plain habits help:

• Keep fresh water out all the time. Some cats drink more from a wide bowl or a fountain.
• Change foods slowly over a week or so, mixing a little more of the new food each day.
• Measure portions rather than topping up the bowl, and check your cat's shape every few weeks.
• Treats should stay a small part of the day's food.

What about homemade food?

We do not share homemade cat food recipes, and we suggest you skip the ones you find on blogs. A homemade diet that looks healthy can easily be short on calcium, taurine or other nutrients, and the problems may not show for months.

If you want to cook for your cat, talk to your vet first and ask about a referral to a veterinary nutritionist, who can write a recipe that is complete for your individual cat.

Foods to keep away from cats

Some everyday foods are toxic to cats. Keep these out of reach:

• Onion, garlic, leek and chives, in any form, including powders, gravies and many stocks and broths
• Chocolate, coffee and anything with caffeine
• Grapes, raisins and sultanas
• Alcohol
• Anything sweetened with xylitol

If your cat eats something worrying, call your vet or an emergency animal hospital straight away.

Food as part of the bond

Mealtimes are still one of the nicest parts of living with a cat. Feeding at regular times, in a quiet spot away from the litter tray, gives many cats a sense of routine. Some enjoy puzzle feeders or a few biscuits scattered for a gentle "hunt". That little bit of effort echoes the mouser they used to be, without changing what goes in the bowl.

This article is general information, not veterinary advice. Your vet knows your cat and is the best person to ask about diet.