Scottish Fold cats are a breed we all know and love, but do we know enough about what food they’re supposed to eat? Don’t be fooled by the cute button ears and the adorable squished noses, these fancy felines are actually fierce predators, and their diet should reflect that.
An ideal diet for the lovable Scottish Fold includes tons of protein and very little carbs. It should be a mixture of wet and dry food, and you’d be better off investing in good quality food bought in bulk – otherwise, you might end up giving those savings to the vet sooner or later.
It’s not that your feline friend has bought into the “low carbs” diet trend like everyone else in the universe. They have been going “low carbs” for long before we even knew what carbs were!
Read on to find out more about feeding your Scottish fold, what to look for, what to avoid, and the absolute best foods available online!
Why diet matters for the ferocious Fold
The Scottish Fold cat is, as one might guess, a breed of cat whose origin can be traced back to Perthshire, Scotland in 1961. They are, for sure, the most adorable thing to ever come out of Scotland, sporting small button ears that are folded over to the front.
Together with their round faces and large eyes, this gives them the overall appearance of a wise old barn owl.
They are hugely popular cats, partly due to their spectacular looks, and partly due to the fact that they make incredibly loving companions and get very attached to their human family. However, not all kittens of a Scottish Fold couple will be true Scottish Folds.
The mutation that causes their ears to fold is due to a dominant gene, however, as many as 40% of kittens will have straight ears instead. Make no mistake, they are still adorable! But this means that if you want a Scottish Fold cat, you can expect it to be on average more expensive than other breeds.
This does mean that you have a particular responsibility to take excellent care of this rare and special breed, and that includes making sure that you fully understand what their dietary requirements are.
The main reasons why you need to be especially careful with the diet of a Scottish fold cat are these:
- As a breed, they are actually still very closely related to their wild cousins the panthers.
- While visually different, their digestive systems are almost the same as their ancestors.
- They have sensitive stomachs and often react badly to carbs
- They need to eat mostly meat, organ meat, cartilage, and bone
- They don’t get as much exercise as they used to in the wild
The danger of feeding your Scottish Fold the wrong food – such as lots of carbs – is even higher when you consider that they now live a comparatively sedentary lifestyle inside the home.
Obesity is a serious risk, and you may be late in detecting the problem since the Scottish Fold is a naturally round, soft-edged cat.
It can also be very hard to get a Scottish fold cat to lose weight without spending a fortune in specialized foods, so you need to focus heavily on prevention rather than cure.
The best dry food for Scottish Folds
Let’s take a look at the best dry food for your Scottish Fold cat. Dry food is a great resource because it keeps well, takes up little space, can be used easily, is less messy and doesn’t smell as much as wet food – but it does come with a few cautions.
Dry food cannot be the only food you feed your Scottish Fold. Chances are, like most cats, that she doesn’t really want to drink water much. Cats are used to a wild diet and get most of the moisture they need out of fresh, raw meat, so they just don’t have the instinct to go to a river and drink very often.
Ideally, you should use a combination of dry food, wet food, and fresh meat and organs to feed your Scottish fold.
When you do use dry food, the absolute best thing you can possibly do is to treat it like a sort of Ramen for cats – add a bit of hot water to the kibble and let it cool down. It will turn into a nice, soft, moist food that will be much more appetizing and will keep your Scottish Fold hydrated!
The best dry food should have:
- As much protein as possible, ideally over 30%
- The less carbs it contains the better.
- Named meats and organs as the first few ingredients
- Not much or any of filler ingredients such as grains or potatoes.
- All the essential vitamins and minerals cats and kittens need particularly taurine.
- Grain-free options are ideal
Taste of The Wild Grain Free
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An amazing option that you can buy here online is this dry food from Taste of The Wild. It’s not really the cheapest cat food out there, but it is certainly among the best, and when you consider how long a 14lb bag will last you (If stored properly) it isn’t a huge expense for your little critter.
Roasted venison and smoked salmon round out the flavor profile of this food and should cover the tastes of even the more picky cats. While the main protein is actually chicken, the ingredient list does genuinely contain roasted venison and smoked salmon.
This dry food has a whopping 42% protein content, which you will have a very hard time finding in any other commercial brand. As a comparison, a plain chicken breast would have about 31% protein, and ground beef would be around 28%.
Add to that the fact that this recipe is grain-free, and you can’t get much better than that. Sure, it still contains some filler ingredients, such as sweet potato and peas, but they are the most harmless variety and are unlikely to cause any problems with your Scottish fold.
Reviewers are thrilled with this food, and for some reason, most of them mention that it came with the added blessing of reducing the stink in the litter-box. If your cat has slight digestive issues or any odor problems, it might be worth it to take a look at this brand.
It does look like the benefits continue long-term, and there are reviews from cat owners that have been using this brand as a stable diet for many months.
Blue Buffalo Blue Wilderness Adult Salmon
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Another great grain-free dry cat food is this choice from Blue Buffalo (you can get it here). At an impressive 40% protein, you can be absolutely sure that your Scottish Fold won’t be lacking in that department.
It’s no surprise, considering that the first three ingredients are salmon, chicken, and turkey! The fillers that they do use are healthy fillers rich in vitamins, such as tapioca root and Flaxseed.
Doesn’t that sound almost like the recipe to a super-trendy, healthy, organic, Instagram-worthy human meal?
This food features healthy antioxidants and vitamins and contains no poultry by-products, no corn, wheat, soy, and absolutely no artificial flavors and preservatives. It’s definitely not junk food, but the Salmon should still make this dry food extremely appetizing to picky cats.
There are several flavors of this brand, but the Salmon is particularly appreciated. The kibble is small and contains little vitamin-packed “life bits” which are processed separately at a lower temperature in order to preserve the potency of the vitamin mix.
Reviewers are happy with this food, and notably, some of them claim that it has helped with their cat’s dandruff problem, a problem which can also affect the Scottish Fold.
It makes sense since Blue Buffalo claims that sweet potato provides this kibble with complex carbohydrates which help with coat health and shine.
The budget option: Purina ONE Indoor Advantage
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While we know that you will always try to get the best food available for your Scottish Fold, we also know that gourmet meals aren’t always an option.
While it may not have the most amazing of ingredient lists, this choice of dry food from Purina will still do a good job at a very reasonable price. You can get it here.
It is by no account a bad food, and certainly much better than any supermarket brand. The first ingredient is Turkey, and this particular variety contains 38% protein, which is a great number in such an economical food.
You can get a 16lb bag for as low as 10$ if you keep an eye out and buy it at the right time.
Reviewers are really happy with this food, especially given the price. In a multi-cat household, or if you are fostering cats, or just going through a financial rough patch, having this link handy can be a real life-saver.
The other advantage of this food is that Purina tends to be a very stable brand, so you can expect to find it pretty much anywhere, at any time, and more or less at the same price. There shouldn’t be any major surprises and it actually is the go-to brand for most cat owners.
The best wet food for Scottish Folds
Nothing will get your Scottish fold to pay attention to you like cracking open a nice, smelly can of wet food. Wet food should be a part of her daily diet, especially if you’re not feeding her any fresh home-prepared meat.
It will go a very long way towards keeping your cat happy and hydrated and most closely resembles her natural, wild diet.
Our advice for wet food is to look for more or less the same high-protein contents you’ve come to expect from dry food. Don’t expect to reach the same high percentages, since the moisture content completely changes the proportions of the ingredients.
Aim for quality over economy whenever possible, and consider these tips:
- Buy in bulk whenever you can. Shelf life for canned wet food is longer than you expect
- Wait for the best offers. Prices fluctuate a lot over the span of a month
- Take advantage of deals – big brands like Purina will put out offers quite frequently.
- Feed less quantity of good quality food rather than more of an inferior one
Here are our favorite choices:
NUTRO Perfect PORTIONS Grain Free Pate
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The superstar of wet foods may seem a bit expensive at first, but considering the fact that this pack actually contains 48 portions, and you would feed one portion a day to supplement dry food and homemade food, you actually end up spending 95 cents a day on super premium, top of the line wet food.
This price will even go down significantly if you keep an eye out for offers! You can get it here.
A grain-free wet food is hard to find, but this food from NUTRO Perfect contains no corn, wheat or soy. In fact, the ingredients are pretty spectacular, the first few being Turkey, Chicken Liver, Pork Broth, and Turkey Broth.
It really doesn’t get much better than that. There are no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives in these perfect portions, and the protein to fat ratio is the best out of all of the canned wet foods we’ve seen.
This food contains about 12% protein, which is great for a wet food. There’s also a wide variety of other flavors you can try if your cat is particularly picky. Salmon and Tuna might be a great option for fussy eaters, as fish is usually quite irresistible to most cats.
IAMS Perfect PORTIONS Grain Free
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Another great grain-free option, very similar to the first, and slightly cheaper, is this wet food from IAMS (get it here). It also comes in duo packs, and 48 portions will cost you about 30$.
The trade-off for the slightly cheaper food compared to the more expensive version above is minimal, you’re only getting about 2% less protein.
The ingredient list in this food still starts off strong, the first three ingredients being Chicken, Chicken Broth, and Chicken Liver. They contain no grains and no artificial preservatives and are sure to provide your Scottish fold with the nutrition she needs.
Reviewers are very happy with this choice, and most of them claim that their cat loves it and can’t get enough. The other advantage is that owners love the packaging, which is easy to use and mess-free.
The budget option: Purina Fancy Feast Classic Pate
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Purina makes an appearance yet again on our list, but we can’t help it. When it comes to economical food that is still much better than anything you can get in a supermarket, they nail it every time.
This category should really be called “people’s choice” because Purina’s Fancy Feast wet cat food appears, in various flavors, no less than 20 times in the top 100 most purchased wet cat foods on Amazon. You can get it here.
You can get 24 hearty large cans for around 17$ – less if you’re willing to buy even more and wait for a better offer. The cans are much larger than other wet cat food options, and it’s great that they offer a variety pack with 3 flavors.
Picky cats tend to be happier when they can vary their diet a little.
The ingredients are actually much better than you would expect, the first three or four in any of their wide range of flavors being named meat. The protein content is great too, standing on an average of 11%.
The only reason why this wouldn’t be considered a premium, good quality food is because it also contains some artificial flavors and colors and some filler.
However, it also contains essential vitamins and Taurine which your Scottish fold absolutely needs.
Reviewers are absolutely raving about this range of food, claiming everything from coat shine to reversing diabetes. The range of flavors is insane, and there’s no way you won’t find a few that your Scottish fold enjoys.
There’s really no reason not to give this good, budget-friendly option a try!
The best food for Scottish Fold Kittens
If you’re considering getting a Scottish Fold kitten, then you probably know by now that kittens have special dietary requirements and that you should feed them extra-nutritious kitten food for as long as they are still growing.
While kitten foods are generally more expensive than adult cat foods, a lot of adult health problems can be prevented and mitigated by having an excellent diet during that crucial development phase.
Here are some great choices for kitten food your Scottish fold will thank you for!
Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain Free, Natural Dry Kitten Food
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We’ve seen Blue Buffalo on our recommendation list before, and it’s safe to say that the kitten variety is just as good as the adult cat variety. It’s not cheap, 5lb will easily set you back around 20$, but then again kittens do also eat quite small amounts.
That means that everything going into your kitten’s diet is extra important!
The first three ingredients in this dry food for kittens are chicken, chicken meal and turkey meal, which is great. It’s got 40% proteins and contains a host of vitamins and minerals that growing kittens need.
Notably, it contains DHA and Ara, important fatty acids found in mother’s milk, along with choline, which supports the healthy development of cognitive learning and retinal function.
Reviewers say that their kittens love it, and yet don’t over-eat, which is usually a sign of food which is nutritious and filling. You can get this food here.
IAMS Perfect PORTIONS Grain Free Wet Kitten Food
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IAMS actually came up with this kitten formula which is, if anything, even better than their adult cat food offer. It’s a high-quality meal in a perfect, albeit dainty, portion which you can have for under 85 cents a meal if you buy a pack of 48.
That’s not a bad deal for kitten wet food. Get this food here!
The chicken pate for kittens contains Chicken, Chicken Broth, and Chicken Liver as the first three ingredients, but there are plenty of other varieties to choose from if you’re not that into chicken.
The portions are great, and though they come in duo packs there’s a perforated edge between them if you only need one portion.
Reviewers love this wet kitten food and say that their kittens come running and meowing as soon as they hear the cabinet door open. What more could you ask for?
The budget option: Purina strikes again – Purina ONE Healthy Kitten
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We’re honestly not surprised at all to see Purina back on this list for the third time. We’re not biased, we’re just very observant: there’s no getting around the magnificent reviews and the thousands of happy customers.
At the moment, you can get a 16lb bag for around 22$, which is an amazing value for kitten food, but we’ve seen this brand go even lower during sales. However, it doesn’t compromise much in terms of quality!
It is a budget option, so it does contain some filler in the form of corn, which is not ideal. However, for that price, you’re getting a whopping 40% crude protein, and all of the vitamins and extras that growing kittens need. Get this food here!
You can use this food, well moistened in warm water, from about the age of 4 weeks to well past the one year mark with confidence. Reviewers love it, and most of them cite that their veterinarians are also happy with the food and the state of their kitten’s health.
The kibble is small and not very hard, and a little bit goes a long way – in fact, the recommended daily dose is on the excessive side and you may want to take a closer look at the amount you should be feeding your kitten from other sources.
The best treats for Scottish Folds
Scottish fold owners are blessed with one of the most beautiful and affectionate cats in the cat kingdom. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to ignore those beautiful round eyes and button ears for long.
No matter how hard you try to resist, your Scottish Fold will eventually train you to give her treats on command, so it’s better to be prepared for when that time comes.
All jokes aside, treats are a surprisingly useful tool to have in your arsenal, whether you’re bringing home a kitten or adopting an older cat. They can be used in training, to coax ill or reluctant cats back to food, to learn tricks, and just for general fun and shenanigans.
There are few things a cat wouldn’t do for a truly delectable treat, and you might find that the caloric intake is worth it.
Here are some of our favorite treats that are guaranteed to work every single time:
Feline Greenies oven roasted dental treats
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Here’s a treat that you almost don’t have to feel guilty about. The ingredients may be closer to junk food than a healthy meal, but they still heavily feature protein as well as essential vitamins and taurine, so they are surprisingly good for your cat – think of them like gummy vitamins.
Even more importantly, and pleasantly, they provide a bit of nice teeth cleaning action for your cat and refresh her breath in the process.
Those of us who wake up regularly to a loving whiff of fish breath at 5 in the morning have already taken out our credit cards by this point – you can get these treats here.
Those of you who aren’t convinced yet, just read the reviews. If anything, you should be concerned that your Scottish Fold, loving as she is, may end up loving these treats more than she loves you.
Temptations Classic
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Classics are classic for a reason, and that holds true for Temptations Classic. I’m not sure how many other products online manage to keep a 5 out of 5-star review out of over 5,000 reviewers, and by the sound of it many of them would have been willing to give far more stars were it an option.
I’m not going to bother to list ingredients, because we all know it’s junk food. Absolutely, under no circumstances use these treats as anything other than occasional treats.
You wouldn’t have a whole meal of potato chips, would you? However, it is important to mention that these treats are quite heavily laced with catnip. In fact, this particular variety is Chicken, Catnip and Cheddar flavored.
The reviews say it all: this is crack for cats.
It should be used sparingly and with great caution, but there’s nothing else in the universe that will get your cat to run to you faster than these amazing treats. Get them here!
Delectables Lickable Wet Cat Treats
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This curious treat may seem unusual at first. It’s a creamy wet pate that you squeeze out of a little tube straight into the happy snout of your loving cat! It comes in multiple flavors, and according to the producers, hand feeding your cat like that is supposed to be a fun bonding experience.
Reviewers rave about this treat for entirely different reasons though. Apparently, not only is it delicious and delectable, but the wet treat actually entices cats to eat who normally wouldn’t.
People have used it to help cats gain weight, to nurse sick cats back to health, and to convince fussy eaters to finally eat a healthy bowl of food just by squeezing some of this treat on top of it. It seems to be a particular favorite among elderly cats.
While it might not be the right treat for all situations, it certainly seems to have saved a few lives, and that alone deserves an honorable mention.
While it’s not complete cat food, it does an amazing job as a delicious treat and you should keep it in mind if you ever need to add extra oomph to your cat food. Get these treats here – happy squeezing!
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