General > Pets Corner

Feeding cats

(1/3) > >>

Borlotti:
Was listening about a raw food diet for humans on radio, and thought I would look to see what I was feeding my cat.  Am trying to get some information on sachets of cat food, thought it was tuna/prawn etc.  But seems to say on the packet that it is 4% prawn, and heavens knows what else, no wonder he wanted our prawn cocktail.  Cats used to get left over food, so until I find out what rubbish is in the brands of cat food think he will have to catch more mice and birds (which on the internet is the ideal diet), or I will buy liver, fish etc. He is too fat, so maybe that is what they put in the processed food. I think it is all a marketing ploy but I may be wrong.  I always gave my cats some raw mince before I was using it to cook with, and cut up some raw cooking steak for them if I was making a stew.  Perhaps the whole world has gone mad and should go back to the old days.  He has got chicken tonight but I have cooked it, in fact chicken legs are cheaper than buying cat food.  Anyone on here with expert knowledge.

Obelixx:
A great deal of research goes into the content and nutritional value of pet food so, as long as you're buying a reputable brand such as Whiskas or Felix or even supermarket own label it should be fine.   It seems that the dry biscuits are better than wet food for their teeth but that the fancy snacks are not good - just like fast food is high fat and bad for humans.

If your cat is too fat, switch to the low fat version of cat biscuits.  do not simply cut out his food or he'll go elsewhere or risk ingesting parasites and so on from eating mice and birds if you force him to hunt.

Silverleaf:
I love cats, but I think that domestic cats have a significant negative impact on the numbers of small songbirds. Please don't leave your cat hungry so he has to eat more birds - so many once-common species are now struggling.

That said, I don't see anything wrong with feeding pets with a diet lower in all the fillers and rubbish they put in commercial food. My rabbit mostly eats grass, dandelions, herbs, whatever edible green stuff I can find and hay, with a small amount of pellets as a treat morning and evening. Apart from having to have his molars trimmed occasionally due to malocclusion, he has no health problems at all because his diet is much more like the natural rabbit diet would be.

Silverleaf:
Cats are obligate carnivores - they HAVE to eat meat and aren't adapted to eat significant amounts of non-meat foods. It amazes me that cat foods in general are mostly non-meat rather than mostly meat.

Sinbad7:
I always thought overweight animals were overfed animals, just like humans in fact.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page