Cats like to be clean.  Did you know that cats spend up to 50% of their day cleaning themselves?  That’s a lot of cleaning!   If your cat is excessively cleaning themselves to the point of losing hair, this could be a sign that your cat food needs a change.

Why Does My Cat Lick All The Time?

Cats lick themselves for various reasons, including cleaning themselves.  Sometimes cats will lick because they have fleas or even because they are bored!  If you have indoor cats, make sure they are getting enough exercise and interaction on a daily basis.

Cats will also lick themselves when they are not digesting something well that is in their food.  A food intolerance can have many different symptoms, including excessive licking and chewing.  Cats eating a diet that isn’t right for them will often develop skin and coat problems.

Cat foods that use artificial color can cause problems for your cat’s system.

When Good Isn’t Good Enough

Not all cat foods are created equal.  The picture on your cat food might look good but if you haven’t read the label, you don’t really know what your cat is getting.  Sometimes even a label can’t tell the whole story.  Get to know your cat’s food company to make sure you know where your ingredients are coming from.  Ingredients sourced from China have the potential to cause problems as do ingredients that are used as filler, and grains.

Changing Your Cat’s Diet May Be The Answer

Changing your cat’s food to a high quality, limited ingredient diet can make all the difference in the world to your cat’s system.  Look for foods with limited ingredients.  Most of the time, when there is a problem with food, it’s related to the protein in the food.  Feeding a food with single protein is a good idea so that if your cat does not improve, you can switch to a different protein easily.  You may even want to keep a food journal so that you can keep track of what proteins your cat has tried and what effect it has had on your cat.

Interested in trying a new diet?  Check out the full line of limited ingredient, novel protein cat foods at Addiction Foods.