FEEDING BEHAVIOUR IN THE DOMESTIC CAT

The study of an animal’s trophic behaviour is understood as the search for, selection and consumption of food.

The domestic cat, without access to the outdoors for hunting, depends on the food provided and therefore does not decide, select or spend as much time searching for food as its ancestors.Most of the time it receives the food that is eaten the best or most quickly, or for which it shows the greatest interest or expectation, or that which has the best perception at the level of the chooser.Therefore, feed intake will be conditioned by many more domestic factors than simply physiological or the animal’s own desire.

The objective of good petfood will be to provide the animal with the quantity and quality of nutrients necessary, determined by its requirements according to its genetic condition, age, breed, and activity among others, calculated according to the indications of nutritionists.The type of petfood consumed by the animal during its early life will have a significant influence on its preferences as an adult and it will only prefer new petfoods if it finds them really palatable.

Within the wide range of petffood that we can find on the market, perfectly formulated by the different commercial companies, we can choose the one that satisfies both the animal’s needs and the one that is most appealing thanks to its flavour, one of the factors that undoubtedly inclines animals to opt for one type of petfood or another, either because of a memory or because it makes the petfood more appetising, as cats’ senses of taste and smell are fundamental in the choice of petfood.According to a survey conducted by SPF (2011), the human perception of the smell of the feed is the third most valued factor in petfood choice.

Therefore, the addition of a flavour to the petfood facilitates attraction, ingestion and preference for a petfood and, at an early age, facilitates the process of adaptation to a new environment.

At Norel, we have been working for more than forty years with thearomas and such as APETENZYMA 2508, or APETENZYMA 2526 with meat aroma, are an example of how to make food more appetising and guarantee its acceptance by domestic cats.