cat food

[den_the_cat]

hmm. Having been discovered with her head in my mug of hot chocolate yesterday I've just come back into the room and found one of the kittens lapping up my curried pumpkin soup.

I'd say the little gits will basically eat anything.....

[red]

If you feed them meat then they won't go after vermin as they'll have had the meat quota, give em nuts & keep them hunting.

IIn my experience if you dont feed them they either find some sucker who will or hunt and eat their kill, if you do feed them they hunt anyway just present it to you to swap for whiskas.

[red]

hmm. Having been discovered with her head in my mug of hot chocolate yesterday I've just come back into the room and found one of the kittens lapping up my curried pumpkin soup.

I'd say the little gits will basically eat anything.....

yes - anything that they are not sposed to

[Ranter]

Just discovered that my contrary beast likes raisins.

[eeksypeeksy]

I always think catfoods should be more, authentic- I mean the chances of my mog bringing down a tuna is somewhat small. Maybe you should think on the lines of squirrel, rat and blackbird flavours-you could corner the market and rid some vermin (esp rats) at the same time...

Kind thoughts
Deb

That's right. If you want to feed your cat something natural, try raising mice and rats. The Cat Survival Trust says:

The diet of the European wildcat consists mainly of rodents, lagomorphs and other small mammals, but it is likely that small birds are also taken when the opportunity is there.

[k9 jane]

If you feed them meat then they won't go after vermin as they'll have had the meat quota, give em nuts & keep them hunting.

I feed my cats a raw diet. They get chicken necks (no, they're no more dangerous than anything else your cat could choke on, only cooked chicken bones splinter. Take an uncooked chicken bone and try to break it, nigh impossible.), heart, liver, kidney, beef chunks and mince, rabbit mince, sardines, mackerel. They turn their noses up at tripe for some reason.

And I have to say they still go and hunt. I'm forever finding mice, rabbits (dead and alive) and moles in the house.

Dry food is not good for cats. It causes dental problems. Imagine eating a digestive biscuit - think how it gets stuck between your teeth - a lot of vets are now recommending a wet food instead. It is also not good as cats don't drink a lot and get a lot of moisture through their food, so kidney disease has also been linked to dry cat food.

It can be hard to convert an older cat, but we've got 3 cats that have been on raw from kittenhood and a 12 year old we inherited who will take some bits and otherwise gets tinned / sacheted food.

Cooked meat is not a good idea as cats can't use frying pans! Seriously it takes out all the nutrients that are essential for cats. Why waste your time cooking when they prefer it raw. And that is what is in commercial cat food - processed "food. "

And as for handling it, I'm a vegetarian but my dogs and cats aren't. I care about what I eat so try to do the same for my animals.

Regards

Jane

[Thymepasses]

One of my two cats has just had the second bout of cystitis this year. I was feeding them dried food with lots of water available. Now they have tinned food so that Minx gets more liquid in her diet. I have been looking at the possibility of raw food and found this thread really useful!

I can see me at the butchers buying all sorts any minute now!

Thanks folks!!

[Ranter]

Mine had a bout of cystitis last year, but just will not eat wet/ tinned food. So many other cat owners around here that she'll just go elsewhere for food she does like, so I have to stick to dried. Occasionally I buy a tin, just to try, but always the same: she licks up the gravy but won't touch the meat.

Should probably try serving her a dish of gravy...

[k9 jane]

Mine had a bout of cystitis last year, but just will not eat wet/ tinned food. So many other cat owners around here that she'll just go elsewhere for food she does like, so I have to stick to dried. Occasionally I buy a tin, just to try, but always the same: she licks up the gravy but won't touch the meat.

Should probably try serving her a dish of gravy...

Hi

Why not try her on some real meat, eg next time you have beef or chicken, put tiny bits in her dish. Make sure it's warm - lots of cats won't eat cold food as their prey would normally be at room temperature. You could even try mince or get some frozen mice from the pet shop. They sell them for people who have snakes and the like.

Good luck

Jane

[Milims]

Ours have quite a mixed diet of, shrews, mice, birds (One got a wren this morning, but have gone as far as young crows before), baby rabbits (got one off them but it died from shock the next day), pinch ham if it's available, been known to rip bread bags open to go for a slice or two, olives, potatoes and even gone for the exotic, MANGO!!!
The funny thing is they turned their noses up at freshly cooked salmon though, weird eh?

Chris and Helen

[eeksypeeksy]

One of our cats likes veggies: tomatoes, cucumbers, kohlrabi, mushrooms, and pickled olives are his favorites. The other cat, on the same standard cat food diet (canned and crunchy), won't look at greens except for grass, which she likes to nibble.

[Thymepasses]

Milims! One of my cats absolutely loves olives...I thought he was unique!

[Milims]

We can now add to the list of odd stuff the cats like - gerbils!! My daughter came in yesterday with a black gerbil hanging from her thumb by its teeth. She'd been very kind and rescued it from Dio - only to be thanked by the little monster sinking its teeth into her delicate flesh!! So now we are the proud(ish) owners of the worlds most complicated gerbil cage (courtesy of my mate) and a black fluffy thing called Monster. I wanted to call the beasty It - short for "you vicious evil little G.....It" We are now training it with whip, chair and Tea tree oil!!
PS - The Tea tree is for bitten fingers!

[Christine]

This thread has prompted me to test out my cat's preferences more thoroughly and this may - who knows - be of interest to those of you who are trying to persuade your mog to eat real meat.
I cooked a bit of lamb on Sunday and the cat turned up as soon as it warmed up and started to smell. I fished it out of the oven, still effectively raw, and chopped up a bit of the fattier bits for her and she wolfed it down. I repeated this a few times as it cooked with the same positive feline feedback.
However, when on Monday I trimmed up a bit for her she simply turned her nose up, which confirms my suspicion that it's all about smell rather than raw/real or not. I've always thought she won't touch big lumps in her food but she tackled the biggish pieces of warmed lamb in her bowl with gusto.

[den_the_cat]

I think its a temperature thing as well. Warm is always best for cats, mine won't eat anything straight out of the fridge except ham and cheese.