Young Arthur
This past weekend Puddy brought in a rodent and Arthur’s brother Pinegar played with it for awhile. Then I found that Arthur had gotten ahold of it and was eating it. His very first rodent. I was so proud of him. I worry about feeding my cats, because it’s very expensive feeding eleven cats raw meat. Will I be able to feed them as well in the future now that my business is closed?
Rodents are the natural dietary of cats, so I’m always pleased when my cats feed off the land. I know they’re getting the nutrients nature designed for them. I’ve even thought of raising my own rodents and rabbits to feed the cats, but the killing part would take some serious determination.
My Results with Dry Food
When I move out of this house I’ll have to transport eleven cats, and feeding them raw meat wouldn’t work well on the long drive. I bought some high-quality dry food with no grain fillers made with antibiotic-free venison. I added a little to their raw meat mixture and two cats vomited several times. All the cats began drinking large amounts of water. I have one water bowl out for the cats that I refresh daily, but never refill. It’s always full. The cats get enough water from their raw food diet and don’t need additional water to flush toxins. But after eating just a small amount of dry food, they had emptied the bowl.
Of the last batch of kittens that I fostered three remained that I couldn’t take to the shelter because of chronic diarrhea: Minky, Babette and Boy. They had diarrhea for almost three months and would empty two bowls of water daily. The shelter gave me drugs to treat them for parasites and intestinal bacteria, but nothing worked. I finally put all three on raw meat and within a day their stools hardened. They hardly touched the water after that.
Consider the amount of work the kidneys are put through in consuming dry food and then all that water. No wonder cats die so young of kidney disease. I know feeding cats dry food is very convenient and inexpensive. But your cat relies on you for its diet, so please consider switching to a quality canned food, such as Wellness Cat Food. It contains human-grade ingredients and has no grain fillers. Look at the first six ingredients: Turkey, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Chicken Broth, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots. Now compare that to a can of Friskies: Meat By-Products, Poultry By-Products, Water Sufficient For Processing, Salmon, Brewer’s Rice, Guar Gum.
Pet Food Byproducts
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is a commercial entity that regulates pet food in America. Their definition of byproducts is:
The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.
There’s nothing wrong with a cat eating these ingredients, because they would eat all these in the wild. But they wouldn’t subsist on them alone. They would also eat muscle meat. I’ve heard that zoo lions fed only muscle meat failed to procreate. So it’s important cats get both in their diet.
And from About.com:
What AAFCO doesn’t mention is that meat byproducts may also legally contain: “4D animals (dead, dying, diseased, down), road kill, euthanized cats and dogs, including their collars. These source products are rendered, the fat is siphoned off to be used as “animal fat,” and the remaining material is extruded to form “meat by-product meal.”
The bottom line is that most commercial pet foods use the cheapest ingredients possible. They use meat products from diseased animals. Pets consume low quality meats that humans never would. And the manufacturers use grain as a cheap filler. Carnivores do not eat grain and it can cause all sorts of problems, typically allergies. Or, hey, melamine from China! Then they enrich and stabilize the food with synthetic vitamins, additives and preservatives.
So belly up to the bar and shell out a dollar to feed your cat a quality canned food. Maybe go without that iced coffee drink a few days or that six pack of cola that’s leeching the calcium from your bones. You can improve your health and your pet’s health at the same time.
Additional references:
The True Horrors of Pet Food Revealed
Excerpt of Foods Pets Diet For
The Urban Carnivore
