Feeding cats

I bought drumsticks, carved the raw meat off with great difficulty (unlike the ease of so doing after cooking), kept the meat to stir fry for a salad, and gave the drumsticks to my cat and kitten. Suspicious and hesitant at first, they soon fell in love with the things. The only problem was that they carried the bloody bones about the living room, leaving them in random places after they were done, and I had to go looking for them so that I wouldn’t discover them a week later :astonished: . Plus, they left raw chicken juice on the floor here and there, and bits of bloody raw meat or bone or cartilage stuck in the cat’s nap box’s liner rug, which I then had to wash. Oh, and one day I came home to find that Maya had actually broken one of the big thigh bones in half – how, I do not know.

It was a good idea, the raw, meaty bones, and the cats loved them, but it is a tad messy if you don’t have a restricted, non-carpeted area like a balcony to feed them on.

On another note, scientists have supposedly found a flawed gene in cats which prevents them from tasting sweets. They then surmise that this is what makes them finicky eaters, and even go so far as to claim that this drove them toward a purely carnivorous diet, although this logic is flawed; it could be that once already purely carnivorous, the mutation of this gene was not selected against as it would be in an omnivorous population; i.e., not all traits are adaptive – they merely have to genetically paired with an adaptive trait, or not be counter-adaptive, or occur in a nonselective environment (low threat), to survive.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/25/feline.sweet.gene.ap/index.html

[quote=“Dragonbones”]IOh, and one day I came home to find that Maya had actually broken one of the big thigh bones in half – how, I do not know.
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The standard cat procecure for doing that is for one of them to hold the bone at a 45 degree angle from the floor while the other one jumps down from height onto the mid section of the bone. That’s why cats are so good at landing on their feet. They’ve got years of practice in two cat bone breaking.

Really? I’ve never seen that, although I did see Ginger hold a bone while Maya did a frontal snap kick on it.

:smiley:
And here I always thought it was because cats are ninjas. :wink:

I only give my cats canned tuna from cat food cans. You should not feed them tuna from human edible food.

Now, why didn’t I think of that? :doh: Probably too much sodium. :laughing:
Thanks for the tip.

Kitty (a bit over one year old) gets the adult formula of Science Diet in the morning, and a mix of the Science Diet and canned cat food in the evening (she LOVES the canned stuff). Shadow (five months old) gets the kitten formula of Science Diet in the morning, and a mix with the canned food in the evening. The last time I went to the vet, though, he suggested that I get the Royal Canin stuff instead. They don’t seem to like the Science Diet stuff too much, so maybe I’ll try the other next time. I gave them Friskies once (a small bag I bought at Carrefour just to try) and they seemed to like that alot.

I just feed my cat whatever is on sale. If he doesn’t like it he doesn’t have to eat it.

Durins Doesn’tofferamenu

Having lost a cat due to kidney stones many years ago, my vet at that stage told me no canned cat food, nor Tuna, or any other human food. I’ve had my two boys here for 9 years and only fed them dried food. Low and behold, my one cat developed kidney stones as well. After doing a bit of research, they are both now on the very expensive Hill’s Science Diet, and looks fantastic. For a pair of nine year olds, they are playing silly buggers like kittens again, and really have a new zest for life. In my house I do not offer a menu, they have to eat what they get or move back to the street! :noway: I can really recommend the Science Diet, albeit a little expensive.

One of my cats can only eat something called S/D someting-or-other or he gets urinary tract problems. So that’s what both of them get. I’m pretty sure they also eat a fair number of lizards, snakes and birds, though – the little bastards. I found a few inches of banded krait in the yard the other day :fume:

Here’s the ingredient list, for Stray Dog’s critique, of “Holistic Recipe For Cat below 7 years, Chicken Meal & Rice contains Green Tea”, which a Donghu vet recommended:

Chicken meal, corn gluten meal, brewer rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, source of vitamin E, citric acid, and rosemary extract), whole ground corn, natural flavor, powdered cellulose, fish meal, brown rice, tomato meal, brewer yeast, canola oil, dried egg product, salt, sodium bisulphate, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, etc., etc., followed by a long list of vitamins and minerals.

And here are the ingred’s of the cheapest cat food at Costco, “Kirkland Super Premium Maintenance formula for cats”: chicken meal, ground yellow corn (21%), brewer’s rice, corn gluten meal (16%), chicken fat with anti-oxidant (mixed tocopherols (16%), poultry digest (chicken livers, necks, backs), then salt, calcium sulphate, calc. carbonate, etc., and a long list of vitamins and minerals.

I realize there’s quite a bit of filler in these, but wonder whether they’re still suitable – our cats appear healthy, with attractive coats. But in particular, I’m curious about the standards, if any, for chicken “meal”, and poultry “digest”. And would feeds such as these be suitable solo, or in combination with occasional or frequent raw chicken (which ends up a mess in our living room, since the cats won’t eat it where I put it, but instead carry it around and hide it); or do I really need to switch to a more expensive feed, and where is it available?

Thanks!

I’m having problems with amount of feeding, as my cats seem to be getting fat. I know how to follow the Science Diet instructions, but that seems so boring so I like to add a bit of canned food. However, nowhere does it tells you how much kitty canned food a cat is supposed to get.

Do those little cans mean one day of food, one meal?
I tried feeding raw chicken in the beginning, which they loved, but it made the Persian vomit. However, she had a cheesecake experience and she was fine.
Funny…my cats don’t like human food since I never allowed them to eat it, particularly Western food. The only thing they might lust after is the Yoshinoya veggies. So I left a cheesecake chunk next to the sink and when I came back into the kitchen they were going to town on it. The only other time since then that I’ve seen them so excited about food is when they went for the blue cheese on my crackers.
Blue cheese!

I give my cats a quarter of a can of canned food per day, mixed with their Science Diet. They’re very picky, so they won’t eat the Science Diet unless it’s mixed with some of the canned food.

As for the fat part, I’ve had trouble with that one. My older cat (about 14 months) has gotten to be a little porker, but my younger one (the devil incarnate) needs to fatten up. However, cutting back on the older cat’s portions doesn’t help, because she just steals the younger one’s food. :s

Haven’t had time to post on the cat’s diet yet, but you may find this news story very interesting.

It’s about the oldest living dog in the world, a mixed breed that has only ever eaten kangaroo, rabbit, and emu and scraps from the table. Not dog food (processed commercial food).

The previous holder of the title was a beagle that was brought up on a farm, and the oldest dog ever was living a good few decades before “dog food”.

It seems that a natural diet, plenty of exercise, and lots of fresh country air are the keys to a long and healthy life for your dog.

I thought we were talking about feeding cats … :wink:

Dogs are a kind of cat.

:laughing: You need a holiday, mate! :loco:

Dragonbones is a great guy.

Who cares about a “long and healthy life” for a dog? I just want my dog to live for as long as I want to stay in Taiwan, because then I can dump it with those suckers at Animals Taiwan! :wink:

Our cat died at 18 having lived on Pamper canned food, Epol dried food and loads of other oh so bad stuff. I think genetics play a big role in terms of what a body can handle.
However, animals sooo enjoy a bit of meat and variety. Whenever I used to feed them real meat they used to get all excited and play for way longer than if they just have to keep on eating the same old thing.