Hi, I’m Saloni Nagar, founder of Bark & Meow Tales, a website dedicated to helping cat parents better understand feline nutrition and make more informed feeding decisions.
My interest in cat health comes from my own experience as a cat parent, my love for animals, and a loss that changed how I think about caring for cats. That experience taught me how difficult it can be to understand what is happening when a cat becomes unwell—and how important it is to seek reliable information and veterinary guidance.
I created Bark & Meow Tales to make feline nutrition easier to understand, without unnecessary jargon, fear, or confusing explanations.
How Bark & Meow Tales Began
In 2021, I adopted three cats: Simba and Shadow, who are male, and Grace, who is female. They became an important part of our family.
Like many cat parents, we wanted to give them good care. Their food included dry kibble, wet food, chicken, eggs, and lamb. At the time, I did not fully understand how specific cats’ nutritional requirements are or how much there is to learn about feline health.
Then Shadow became ill.
Shadow’s Story: A Lesson I Carry With Me
In 2023, Shadow began losing weight, hiding, and becoming unusually quiet. When he stopped eating, we took him to the veterinarian. Tests identified tick fever, and he improved with treatment, although he did not seem to regain his earlier energy fully.
In February 2024, his health deteriorated again. He developed a high fever, lost more weight, and stopped eating. Our veterinarian diagnosed a liver infection. He survived that episode, but remained weak and less active.
At the time, I was also pregnant, and life was changing quickly for our family. Like many people balancing competing responsibilities, I was trying to understand what Shadow needed while managing a demanding period of life.
On December 31, 2024, Shadow experienced seizures and lost consciousness. The veterinarian told us he had severe hypoglycemia and jaundice. Despite seeking veterinary care, he was too unwell for treatment to help.
We lost Shadow on January 1, 2025.
I still carry the sadness of that loss. I also recognize that, as a pet parent, I did not understand everything I wanted to understand about his health. I cannot say that knowing more about nutrition or noticing particular changes would have changed the outcome. What I can say is that the experience made me take the importance of reliable information, careful observation, and timely veterinary care more seriously.
I wanted to turn that experience into something constructive.
Why I Created Bark & Meow Tales
After losing Shadow, I wanted to learn more about feline nutrition: what cats need from their diets, how nutrients work, how to evaluate cat food, and how to distinguish well-supported information from claims that may sound convincing but lack strong evidence.
That curiosity became the foundation of Bark & Meow Tales.
Today, the website focuses on four areas of feline nutrition:
- Nutrition Basics: Essential nutrients, hydration, digestion, energy needs, weight management, and feeding behavior.
- Cat Food & Ingredients: Food labels, ingredients, wet and dry diets, raw feeding, additives, manufacturing, and food safety.
- Special Diets & Health: Therapeutic diets, food sensitivities, supplements, life-stage nutrition, and nutrition-related safety.
- Advanced Nutrition Science: Personalized nutrition, research, feeding approaches, longevity, and the evidence behind common nutrition claims.
My goal is to explain these topics in clear, practical language so cat parents can better understand what they read, evaluate feeding information more carefully, and ask more informed questions when speaking with their veterinarians.
How I Approach Cat Nutrition Content
I am a cat parent and content creator, not a veterinarian. My role is to research feline nutrition topics, organize relevant information, and explain scientific concepts in a way that is easier for readers to understand.
I aim to:
- Use relevant veterinary guidance and scientific research when developing content.
- Explain the difference between established findings, emerging evidence, and uncertainty.
- Avoid presenting a symptom, ingredient, or nutritional theory as a diagnosis.
- Make the limitations of general feeding advice clear.
- Update or correct content when credible new information or an identified error warrants it.
Nutrition advice must also be understood in context. A diet that suits one cat may not suit another, and an online article cannot determine the cause of an individual cat’s symptoms.
For concerns such as persistent appetite changes, unexplained weight loss, or other signs of illness, I encourage readers to seek advice from a veterinarian rather than relying on an article or calculator alone.
Veterinary Review and Editorial Standards
Accuracy matters when discussing animal health. Where veterinary review is undertaken, we identify the medical reviewer and explain the review process through our editorial information.
Medical reviewer: Dr. Jimisha Shah, B.V.Sc. & A.H., PGDAW
Organization: VSPCA Hospital
Medical review is intended to support the accuracy and responsible presentation of relevant health information. It does not mean that website content can replace an examination, diagnosis, or individualized treatment advice.
Learn more about our Editorial Team, our Trust & Editorial Policy, or contact us if you have questions.
A Personal Commitment
Simba and Grace remain an important part of my life. Losing Shadow did not make me an expert in veterinary medicine, but it gave me a deeply personal reason to keep learning and to approach cat-care information with greater care.
Bark & Meow Tales is my way of sharing that learning with other cat parents. I hope it helps you understand feline nutrition more clearly, approach online claims thoughtfully, and feel better prepared to discuss your cat’s needs with a veterinary professional.
You do not need to know everything about cat nutrition at once. Start with a question, explore the evidence, and keep learning as your cat’s needs change.
Thank you for being here.
Saloni Nagar
Founder & Content Creator, Bark & Meow Tales