[Thamar]

I suppled my cat Sapphy with a dry cat food diet and she seamed quite happy on it. I've not come to realize that the rats and mice she would catch from feed deport next door were the reason for her contentment with the food.

I've moved from that area and gone some where more healthy and Sapphy now has no more rats/mice to eat. I was tempted to do something crazy (which the vet told me not to do...he said that I need to get her out of her feline tendency.) I was wondering if that was right/good. I started buying canned cat for her and that has helped.

Today I went online and looked up feeding cats and got this link in which the author feels that a cat needs a meat diet and even more so a raw meat diet. What do you guys think?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Home-Prepared_Diets

[Jeffrey]

I'd check with your vet. Cats are built for a raw meat diet, but they also were made for an environment free of chemicals. It may become very expensive, very quickly as you seek healthy meat sources. However, a great deal of current cat food may be contributing to domesticated feline health problems here in the States.

Cats were domesticated because they ate the rodents and insects around our domiciles. Let us know what your vet recommends.

[Thamar]

I check with the vet's office and he was very busy....someone else at the office suggested giving the cat canned good as well as the dry cat food and de-worming it and see what happens...... Interesting.

[Thamar]

An other link gave me this reason for not letting the cat eat her catch.

In nature cats usually are expert hunters, and they balance their diets by catching and eating every morsel of their prey. They catch all kinds of small rodents, birds, lizards, and snakes and often proudly bring them home to demonstrate their hunting prowess. Eating wild prey exposes your cat to several disease states --especially toxoplasmosis and internal parasites-- and you should prevent this habit. The only way to stop the hunting habit in a cat is to keep it confined...

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Thamar

An other link gave me this reason for not letting the cat eat her catch.

That's certainly true. In the wild, felines die all the time from parasites and other ailments. If your goal is, obviously, to keep it alive, be careful what it catches. However, you may be on to something about raw meat. I wonder if there's a way to feed cats live prey as one does a snake? Obviously those mice for snakes are carefully chosen.


p.s. Is she named Sapphy because of Sapphire, or Sappho the Greek poetess?

[PontiusPirate]

Obviously those mice for snakes are carefully chosen.

No, not really.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by PontiusPirate

No, not really.

So the mice fed to snakes aren't kept disease-free? Where does a snake owner buy mice?

[PontiusPirate]

I am not sure about the frozen mice, or specific feeder-breeders online, but any "feeder" mice bought at most pet stores....
definitely not.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by PontiusPirate

I am not sure about the frozen mice, or specific feeder-breeders online, but any "feeder" mice bought at most pet stores....
definitely not.

I guess snakes have a less sensitive physiology than cats. Maybe Thamar can just duct-tape cat food to a small RC car and drive it around the house to simulate prey.

[magical spatula]

I have read good things about all-natural pet diets (not necessarily raw meat, but cooking your pet's own food), but from a magazine called "Natural Awakenings", so it's obviously going to be biased. However, the same magazine/article said that dry food is bad for cats, because their teeth are made for ripping, not chewing; but dry food also helps clean their teeth and it's recommended by most vets as the primary staple of the diet because canned food is full of fats and byproducts and can lead to obesity.

In any case, I am all for natural pet foods; one of my cats used to throw up at least once a day, sometimes several times a day, until I started feeding him natural foods. My choice is Blue Buffalo; I buy it from PetSmart. Aside from the occasional hairball, he doesn't throw up when he is eating this food. It is going to be more expensive, but I find it far better worth it if my cat is healthy and happier eating what he should be. This is a really informative article if you are interested in what you are actually feeding your pets; it gets brand specific, tells you what the "rules" of pet food are (e.g. what is required to call a certain food a "dinner" or "with", such as "chicken dinner with liver" and so on), what to look for when you are buying pet food and a lot of useful links.

[internalflames]

well i can honestly admit i dont know that much about cats, but i have a standard poodle who is on a raw meat diet but we buy it from a greyhound feed store so its safe for him to eat and we dont have to worry about parasites or any health problems. he's really healthy and happy and in great shape. idk if they have that for cats but its something to search for. its better than canned food because it doesnt have corn in it. the corn is bad for them (recall or not).