How to properly feed a cat?

[freemotion]

My dogs will only eat liver cooked. Go ahead and cook it, and try cooking hearts and gizzards only lightly for him at first. If you fast him before introducing those, he will be more inclined to eat them, then will likely get a taste for them. Only a little at first if he has a delicate constitution. My dogs get a full plate of veggies/kefir twice a week, not tablespoons, but they have been on raw for a while. He probably needs time for his body to heal. Try upping it in a few weeks and see what happens.

I have been feeding chicken only as the meat for my older dog as he gets sick on other stuff. Maybe a small beef bone on occasion. He is doing great. Officially now living longer than predicted, and quite healthy in spite of the knee surgery.

 

[abifae]

mine gets Taste of the Wild and for canned food I use Avoderm. Both are grain free. I still haven't managed a homemade that they'll eat. LOL.

 

[Dace]

Ok, thanks for the clarification Free

Now if you were feeding raw, what exactly would that consist of? Does it HAVE to be ground with some bone for calcium? That might just cross the ick line for me.

As for the dog, I will try cooking some innards for him. I am due to make another batch of cooked veg for him too, so maybe I will try to up the amount....it needs to be cooked and pureed right, not just cooked?

 

[bibliophile birds]

as many of the other's have said, grain-free is the way to go- raw or bagged, whichever is easiest.

i can tell you more about the intricacies of a cat's digestive process and grain sugars in urine than pretty much anyone not in "the business." believe me, you don't want to go down the road that makes you know all that stuff. it's EXPENSIVE. like, seriously expensive. grain sugars do BAD things to cats, especially males. avoid avoid avoid.

as for "urinary health" foods, i'd suggest avoiding those too. as free mentioned, Iams and Hills (Science Diet) are BAD foods. so is the Pedigree Urinary Tract Health. i've been there, done that. those feeds choose to remove Magnesium, which is necessary for healthy brain function, rather than remove the grains (which keep their costs down). magnesium is what the grain sugars react with to create struvite crystals (which cause blockages and UTIs). so the choice they make is cost over health, which doesn't even work in the long run because the struvite crystals are replaced by oxalate crystals...

in short, just go grain free.

eta: we use Taste of the Wild too, but there are several options. we actually spend less $$ on cat and dog food by buying the more expensive feed- to the tune of probably about $20 a month saved (that's for 5 cats and 3 dogs- a small, a medium, and a large).

 

[tortoise]

What the heck do I feed a kitty????

Mice. Get a boy and a girl mouse from a pet store and get breeding mice!



That's not really a joke. I did it!

 

[Dace]

What the heck do I feed a kitty????

Mice. Get a boy and a girl mouse from a pet store and get breeding mice!



That's not really a joke. I did it!

Maybe we don't need a cat......

 

[savingdogs]

Too funny!

My cats get RID of all mice, no worries there!

 

[FarmerChick]

my cats get whatever dry cat food is the cheapeat on sale then they get all the meat scraps from the house when I have them

barn cats mainly along with one cat that is "kinda" my friendly cat, Lil Kitty lol

my cats also live well into their older teens with no problems on this feeding

 

[Rebecka]

Taste of the Wild for ours too. It was hard to spend that kind of money at first. Then I realized we weren't buying cat or dog food near as often. I thought maybe they didn't like it then I noticed that they weren't asking for tidbits from our plates anymore either. As for people food, I allow them to dictate what they want and how much. We don't keep junk around for us so thats never an option. Merl , my 19 year old has been eating a green olive daily for about 10 years now. Recently he has decided the ones out of my martini glass are better than the ones out of the jar in the fridge

 

[SKR8PN]

"How to properly feed a cat?"



Depends on what it is you are feeding it to.



Sorry, but I just couldn't resist.

I don't hate cats, really I don't. Some of my best friends are cats.