Freeze Dried Cat Food

Freeze dried cat food is raw meat and organ with the moisture removed under vacuum at low temperature, so it stores in the cupboard and rehydrates with water at feeding time. Two things make it particularly useful for cats. It is the easiest way to move a cat onto a raw diet, because the dry pieces feel familiar to a kibble-fed cat in a way that a thawed patty does not. And the protein is high and the carbohydrate low, which is the shape of diet an obligate carnivore is built for.

Add the water. Cats evolved to take most of their fluid from prey and have a weak thirst drive, so a cat eating rehydrated food drinks less from the bowl and is better off for it. Feeding this category dry, day after day, gives up the main advantage of feeding wet at all.

Check complete against complementary before you plan meals around a product. The full feasts — Feline Natural and The New Zealand Natural Meow among them — are complete diets. The boosters and toppers are not: they are designed to go over other food, and a cat fed only on those will be short of nutrients over time. Introduce it gradually; cats reject sudden change more stubbornly than dogs, and a week of mixing beats a refused bowl.

• Freeze dried dog food and raw toppers
• Freeze dried cat treats
• All dry cat food
• Wet cat food
• Feline Natural, The New Zealand Natural, Kiwi Kitchens