Since Speak died, while my brother is miserable, there have been two clear beneficiaries: Tunch and Whisper. I used to ignore Tunch every time he came in and started bitching, now I pick him up every single time and lavish him with kisses and rubs and tell him how much I love him all over – “who has the pretty whiskers and the pink nose- this guy!” Seth is doing the same with Whisper.
At any rate, he has spent the whole day reading catinfo.org, and it looks like we will be both transferring our furkids to basically a mouse in a can diet, whether it be chicken, rabitt, or turkey. He’s going to do the research into the transition and the storage issue, and since he is a vegetarian and really does not want to be knee deep in rabitt and turkey guts, I will be doing the butchering.
I think this is the smart move to make for all of us. Any suggestions from you all?
Comrade Jake
You want all of us to move to the mouse in a can diet?
All joking aside, is there some thought that the regular cat food is what caused the cancer?
Just Some Fuckhead
I can’t live like that, John. I want out of your sick cult.
Omnes Omnibus
@Just Some Fuckhead: Pie him.
srv
Cats like fish. The mercury s good for them.
And they’ll be a good filter for all that Fukashima iodine 131.
raven
You won’t last 2 months.
The Dangerman
I just went long on Johnson and Johnson (just make sure it isn’t THE johnson that gets in the way of the knife).
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: So you are saying that naked butchering should not be in Cole’s playbook? It would save on laundry.
John Weiss
I don’t know how well this diet would work for cats, but to me it sounds like it might.
Feed ’em with kidneys and carrots – of course you must cook ’em together. The resulting mush freezes well.
Gettin’ too fat? More carrots, less kidneys.
It works for dachshunds. Why not for the kitties?
JW
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So… you’re gonna be canning homemade, home-butchered cat food?
What will Atrios make of this?
Comrade Mary
Hey Tunch, I got somethin’ real important to give you, so just sit down and listen …
Tunch, you know we’ve been together such a long long time (Such a long time)
And now I’m ready to lay it on the line
Wow, you know it’s Christmas and my heart is open wide (Open wide)
Gonna give you something so you know what’s on my mind (What’s on my mind)
A gift real special, so take off the top
Take a look inside
It’s a mouse in a can (it’s in a can)
To all the fellas out there with felines to impress
It’s easy to do, just follow these steps
1, cut a hole in a can
2, put your mouse in that can
3, make it open the can
And that’s the way you do it
? Martin
Well that the end of this blog. Cole won’t have any hands within a month.
schrodinger's cat
But will Tunch eat it? Kittehs are creatures of habit. Post needs more Tunch.
? Martin
@Comrade Mary: Ok, I really needed that laugh.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sounds very West Virginia when phrased like that, doesn’t it?
Cassidy
I’m going to feel bad about this later.
Yes, Cole. Do the butchering. Go crazy. Smart choice.
John Cole
@Comrade Mary: This is what Charlie Sheen meant when he talked about winning.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Or as they call it in West Virginia: food.
Poopyman
Just pop a couple into the Mouse-o-Matic and give it a couple of pulses. Problem solved.
Cassidy
@Comrade Mary: You truly know the way to a mans heart. Awesome.
Peter
I did the same research, and my cat gets Wellness Core. Basically, you want a grain free, low carbohydrate food. There ard a couple on the market-regular Wellness, or Evo.
As a plus, the canned food gives him enough moisture that he stays hydrated without wanting to drink out of the faucet. And he sheds much less, and maintains a good weight.
Hmmm… Maybe I need to have someone force me onto the same food plan.
David Koch
Tunch may want to flee to china.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Be very careful. Cats are obligate carnivores, as you know, but feeding them raw (or home cooked) is much more difficult than for dogs. Also, if there is a history of urinary tract disease, (aka “an FLUTD cat”) you will need to be careful. I think it’d be spectacularly difficult to meet the magnesium and phosphorus limitations for an FLUTD cat, and avoid problems like nutritional hyperparathyroidism, etc. Cats are much more sensitive to over-supplementation of some nutrients as well, so you have to be careful with adding vitamins to the mix.
Look what cats eat in the wild–small mammals, birds, and lizards. They aren’t small beef cows, they don’t have a lot of muscle meat; they have a lot of organ meat, and many of those organs contain ingesta of the prey, which is mostly plant matter, depending on the nutrition of the prey at the time of kill. That’s a significant, but not predominant, portion of plant matter.
Long story short, talk to a vet to be sure you get it right. It’s much easier to do with dogs.
@John Weiss: It works for dachshunds. Why not for the kitties?
See above.
Suzanne
This has FAIL written all over it in an array of languages.
I predict “presents” on your pillow.
geg6
Jeebus. No way would I do that. Too much work and mess.
Our dogs eat great food, Taste of the Wilderness. It’s pricey but they are tolerating it really well. And since both have dicey digestive systems and, Otis especially, allergies, that’s a miracle. Koda likes the bison and Otis prefers the lamb. We also add pure pumpkin to their food.
We get it at the local Agway and the guy there gave John some samples of another food Nutri Source, that he thought was just as good quality but less expensive (the current stuff is $45+ per 30 lb. bag). I can only hope that they take to it. I gave a little to Koda, mixed in with her usual and she seemed to like it.
But no way will I go to this length that you are contemplating, no matter how much I love my pups.
schrodinger's cat
@Peter: I think you need the Weight Watcher Cat..
TaMara (BHF)
My cats have been on an all natural, no preservative, no grain, mostly protein dry food, supplemented with canned for years and years. Their fur is soft, their litter box is not smelly (ok, that’s relative, cat people will understand) and fur balls are a minimum.
They’re 11, 10, 10 and 9 and doing really well.
I’m with John, all it takes is an animal with cancer or diabetes and you suddenly start looking at their food. Between that and digestive issues, grain was the first to go.
Just Some Fuckhead
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): My cat would hunt and eat corned beef Reubens if they existed in the wild.
Comrade Mary
@John Cole: I swear to God that the only thing I’m high on is Yorkshire Gold.
? Martin
Hmm. After thinking about this more, I don’t think you should give Tunch an appetite for small mammals. He’ll end up eating Lily.
Comrade Jake
Is this what it really means to be a Botsplainer? That we’re all going to be chewing on canned squirrels in West Virginia?
schrodinger's cat
Trader Joe’s cat food is pretty good and my kittehs love their Tuna for kittehs.
Yatsuno
You’re taking away Tunch’s all-ahi diet? You are history’s worst monster JC. There will be mighty retribution from His ighty paw, oh yes there will be.
TaMara (BHF)
@geg6: I did an all meat, raw diet for three Great Danes for a year. It was awful. And I didn’t think they got all they needed, even though it was a comprehensive product. Switched to a good quality no grain dry diet after that and it worked just as well.
CaseyL
All this lavishing of affection and (attempted) switch to Home-Made Food will have Tunch wondering if he’s being groomed for sacrifice to the Stillers come football season.
Particularly once he sees you lurching around with a meat cleaver.
Just sayin’.
(Also: Cats do not like change, so you might want to start by adding some of the fancy homemade stuff to the food he already eats and is familiar with.)
Peter
Oh, and the manufacturers of dry cat food doctor it up with an enzyme that makes the cats want to eat it – from consciouscat.net:
When you switch them to wet food, they may not want to eat it, but they will get hungry enough. It took mine 2 weeks of crankiness.
Since the natural diet for a cat is meat of various kinds – mice, birds, etc… the vegetable based stuff like with carrots and beans provides them with carbohydrates that they would not get naturally.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Jake:
Squirrels are hard to skin; let’s go for rabbits.
NickT
@Comrade Jake:
It beats what T&H has been chewing on for the last 5 years.
Poopyman
@TaMara (BHF): Care to give us the product name(s)?
Betty Cracker
I had a neighbor years ago when I lived in an apartment building who asked me if I’d feed her cat when she was out of town. Sure, I said. The day before she left, she asked me to come by for feeding instructions. Well!
She fed her cat a mixture of raw meat, veggies and liquid aloe? Jesus, it was a pain in the ass. I had to thaw out little bags of meat and mix it up with the other shit twice a day it a blender, which i then had to clean. Her pukey, neurotic critter didn’t seem any happier or healthier than my Meow Mix eaters.
Anyway, maybe it’ll work out better for you. Just be sure and give any future cat-sitters fair warning. I felt quite snookered by my neighbor, whom I barely knew. And was damn glad when she came home and relieved me of that odious chore.
Omnes Omnibus
@NickT: How do you know that? Why do you know that? Knowing that, how do you sleep at night?
Comrade Jake
@NickT: urine soaked Cheerios? I guess you’re right!
The Dangerman
Anyone know why I am seeing the American Beverage Association’s commercial (“it’s not the Governments job to show for my family, it’s mine”) about a dozen times a day (and I don’t watch that much TV)? I haven’t seen anything about new regulations lately. Too many more of these commercials and I’m going all water consumption just to piss them off…
? Martin
Wow. How fucking unhinged are the GOP?
CA state legislator is on the record demanding that a billion dollars not be spent in his district, and instead be sent to Massachusetts. Talk about running over your own dick with a 200MPH train. Could the GOP try harder to lose even more seats in CA?
Comrade Jake
@Omnes Omnibus: time to pet the rabbits?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@TaMara (BHF): Taste of the Wild is also much neater to store and serve. Layla still enjoys some greens, but she’s just as healthy and sound on that kibble as when i was butchering for them( and then adding vegetables, berries and eggs).
NickT
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, you just have to look at these things through the right PRISM….
Mrs. WhatsIt
We switched our diabetic cat to canned only, Innova Evo diet and got him off of insulin. Diets definitely made a difference. That said, neither of our cats (or the kitten that joined us after the diabetic cat passed on) would have anything to do with any of the raw diets we tried. Our dog is on frozen raw beef mixed with freeze dried raw turkey and is doing really well. Her coat is incredibly shiny and soft, and she just feels good. I just couldn’t deal with all the nutrients, vitamins, etc. you have to add to plain meat. It’s pricier, but I figure it’s just like people–higher quality food is better. For that cats, we have had to settle for kibble with freeze dried bits and canned food. We’re careful to watch for high quality ingredients, grain free, and not made in China. ;)
pokeyblow
@raven: 2 months?
That must seem like forever, in your cell.
p.a.
I will be doing the butchering.
He could be talking about his spelling…
Haydnseek
One of the best sources of high quality nutrients is the flesh of the dam building animal with the large, flat tail. Since you’re doing the butchering, you’ll be able to employ the seldom used beaver cleaver.
s.irene
Extra water dishes ? As they get older, their kidneys can give out, and apparently a lot of cats don’t drink enough water (having originated in the desert, supposedly). So I put 2 or 3 bowls around the house and 1-2 outside the house. Mine likes to drink it out of metal (stays cooler?) mixing bowls (deeper).
Violet
Just visited a friend who has put her kitties on a raw food diet. She invested in a professional grade meat grinder (found it used so not that expensive) and grinds up whole chickens–bones and all. Apparently the bones are so small, they aren’t a danger for the cats. She got the instructions from her vet.
She freezes it in small portions and puts out a small portion at a time so it doesn’t go off because it’s raw food. The rest stays in the freezer or the fridge, if she doesn’t put out the whole portion at once.
The cats have really thrived on the new diet. One has had fur problems and other issues and has definitely recovered from those. The other didn’t have noticeable problems, but started acting a lot younger once on the diet. She says the meat grinder has been indispensable to making this happen for them.
SIA
@Comrade Mary: laughed out loud, OMG haha!
different-church-lady
Any time I try to show my little man any sort of sentimental extra affection, he gets annoyed and starts acting like, “Hey, why are you acting so weird all of a sudden? Get away from me.”
I adore this cat.
schrodinger's cat
@different-church-lady: My boss kitteh does that too. He will swat me and even bite gently if I don’t get the message!
Mnemosyne
G is installing our new cable modem, so I’m on 3G with the iPhone. Depending on how it goes, communications may be limited.
On the car food front, our three get Blue Buffalo Wilderness, which is their grain-free option. We’re all pretty happy with it. There are still many hair balls from Keaton, but that’s because he is the designated bath-giver for all three cats and his standards are meticulous.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Tell me about the “rabitts”, John.
SIA
@geg6: we do Taste of the Wild and pumpkin also. And pure coconut oil. Oh, and PUPPARONIS!!
Comrade Mary
@SIA:
Dear God, those had better not be made out of what I think they’re made of.
schrodinger's cat
@Comrade Mary: Puppies?
NickT
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Bits of Rabid Republicans, natch.
magurakurin
@srv:
Iodine 131 isn’t the worry. That’s more or less long gone. It’s the Cesium 137 that we fear. And of course, Strontium 90, but that is just too horrible to really contemplate. Life goes on, even if it’s shortened…
MomSense
@Suzanne:
I am imagining the Tunch version of Cole’s experience after eating Taco Bell.
schrodinger's cat
All your munnies is belonging to kitteh.
MazeDancer
Wellness brand is a very high quality canned food. There are others. Just go to a knowledgeable pet food store. Switching Tunch to high quality canned will make a huge difference.
Have tried raw diet with my cats but it didn’t work out well for any of us. Now I just stick with no grain canned, sometimes raw meat, no dry, and freeze dried organic chicken treats. Which is kitty crack of the good kind.
Just recognize eliminating grain and dry food will mean a world of difference.
A Ghost To Most
I was going to suggest grinding up T&H, but that much shit couldn’t be good for any critter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Will Cole still run the blog when Uncle John’s Wes’ Virginny Potted Rabitt (Sic) Fer Critters makes him a One Percenter?
srv
This just seems excessive when Tunch could probably feed a third world village for a few months.
Yatsuno
Thread still needs moar Tunch.
trollhattan
During a bout of pancreatitis last winter we had to give the Dal a home-cooked diet that was low-fat but had carbo and protein calories. She got better but now gets about a quarter kibble and three-quarters “muttloaf.” It’s a mix of either chicken or low-fat hamburger, rice, vegetables and whole blended raw eggs (avec shells), mixed and baked in loaf pans.
Oddly, I don’t think it costs as much as the old designer kibble. She’s ten and seems to be doing great, certainly fewer issues than before.
trollhattan
@Yatsuno:
What, this:
“who has the pretty whiskers and the pink nose- this guy!”
wasn’t sufficiently disturbing?
TaMara (BHF)
@Poopyman: Well it’s the stupidest name ever. Chicken Soup for the Cat (or Dog depending on the food) Lover’s Soul. Sigh. I KNOW. But the ingredients are basically chicken, duck, salmon, cranberries, blueberries, barley.
And it’s the cheapest of the high quality foods and my cats love, love, love it. I’ve tried switching it up and they just look at me like I’m a complete fail.
Yatsuno
@trollhattan: I see no pictures of His Floofiness to summon the wifey with. Do you?
Elie
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
excellent advise. Of course, you can ignore it John but most cats when fed raw meat will not tolerate it particularly well. I had that bright idea with my old cat Bill and he promptly threw it up within 15 minutes, whether ground beef, liver or chicken that I diced in to small bites, etc.
Why are you doing this?
Somebody (jake?) upstring said that the commercial cat food gave Speak cancer. No way to know, but cancer is a disease of genetics, aging and exposure to a lot of things. Also, none of us, cat included is going to liver forever, no matter what we eat….
TaMara (BHF)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I actually just saw that at the feed store today (where, yes, I buy my cat’s food…great people there). And it look interesting. I didn’t bite, but the guy said they’ve been selling out of it at a rapid pace.
duckbilledplacelot
I switched my critter over to an all meat/wet food diet this year on vet’s advice – she’s still a big cat, but she’s gone down from 12 lbs to 11 over six months, which is fine by me. I don’t have the patience or freezer space for the home-grind, but Wellness cat food (some of the kinds, anyway) gets decent reviews from the catinfo lady. Anyway, it can be done, and the difference in her water intake has been amazing (wet food supplies a good portion of the water cats need – also maybe she was leaning pre-diabetic? Who knows, we didn’t get blood work done). Her poo still smells to high heaven, though. Maybe even worse. Anyway, consider giving Wellness a try before you introduce into your home an appliance made for grinding the very substances you’re made out of. At the very least, promise us to never use it drunk or naked.
TaMara (BHF)
Also, OT, I have a geese problem.
trollhattan
@Yatsuno:
Have visions of Cole suffering either numerous punctures or a blown spinal disc from goin’ all lovie-dovie with the Great Fuzzy Whale.
Ayn Randy
My 15-year-old chihuahua goes in for a teeth cleaning tomorrow. I have never been more nervous than I am right now. I had no idea that it was so vital to have a dog’s teeth cleaned and I feel like an idiot.
Lizzy L
I want to recommend the Wellness canned food also. My cat particularly likes 4 of the flavors, and I just rotate. She’s 14 and has 4th stage renal failure, but she’s happy, eats plenty, and the vet says she could go like this for another year.
Avoid ALL dry food. Seriously — dry food kills cats. I found this out three years ago, and I wish I had known it much earlier, my beautiful sweet cat Tommy might still be with me. I’m not persuaded that the raw food diet is that much better than the high quality no grain cat food, plus it’s a PITA and many cats just don’t want to eat it.
If you don’t already have one, John, get Tunch and the girls a water fountain. Drinkwell makes various kinds. Cats need a lot of water as they get older, and they really like running water, the sound stimulates them to drink more. It’s good for their kidneys.
Diana
@Just Some Fuckhead: My cat was born and bred in lower Manhattan, and the first day I came home with a pastrami sandwich, I came under feline assault. There was no other word for it. All I can think is, she must have been descended from ancestors who lived off pastrami from the ancient Jewish delis in my neighborhood.
So, yes, there may indeed be the equivalent of “reubens in the wild”….
Little Boots
hearing a log cabin republican right now, on the alan colmes show, reminds me how completely fucked up every republican is.
it is truly amazing.
but there is absolutely no, not one, none, reason to be a republican these days. it is all complete shit. nothing going on there of any use.
just wanted to share.
max
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Will Cole still run the blog when Uncle John’s Wes’ Virginny Potted Rabitt (Sic) Fer Critters makes him a One Percenter?
Too Cracker Barrel to make any money. “John “John” Cole’s Rare Redneck Roadkill for Red-blooded Kitties” (‘Made from artisan-harvested all native organic West Virginia roadkill. Helps keep poor hillbillies in dogs and porches!”) is probably more like it.
@TaMara: Also, OT, I have a geese problem.
Looks more like a free
lunchdinner problem.max
[‘Rask is fucking awesome. And what a great brawl at the end!’]
Little Boots
like I suspect a lot of liberals, I actually do want a useful second party.
but goddam, what that fuck is going on over there?
anything?
gnomedad
We need a “what could possibly go wrong?” category.
mai naem
IMHO I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference. We fed our car Whiskas for years, we tried changing it a few times but she didn’t like it. When she finally started having too many problems with furballs(when she was about 16) we switched to Innova which she got fussier and fussier with as far as the flavors. Anyhow, the last couple of months of her life, she got pickier to the point that she would only eat chicken(we used to get the bag packed chicken cuz we’re veggies) and bag packaged tuna but she preferred the chicken. She was around 20-21 when she died. I don’t know about Speak but our cat was an indoor cat from about 2 yrs on except for two times when she took off for about 2 wks and I think that was the reason she lived as long as she did. And yeah, good genes.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (BHF):
I would not suggest trying to bump a Canada goose with your bike to see what happens. Those suckers are mean.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Dry food kills cats, and not slowly either. We learned that lesson the hard way; lost three boy cats and one girl, all before the age of 5, until we switched.
So far it looks like, at a minimum, switching to commercial wet tripled their lifespan. Homemade wet would probably help even more.
Little Boots
@gnomedad:
the least of what you need.
Steeplejack
@SIA:
Uncle Steep, who is beloved by the sighthounds at Sighthound Hall, is always expected to give them a treat from the special kitchen cabinet when he comes over, but when I open the Pup-Peronis bag the whiff is so strong I almost get a contact high and/or never want to eat pizza ever again. But, damn, the hounds do love ’em. I just hope there’s no Chinese melamine or asbestos in them.
Steeplejack
@MazeDancer:
What brand?
Felonius Monk
Soon to be known as “Thumbs-in-a-Can”.
greennotGreen
I am not a big believer in a lot of the “natural”, i.e. “archaic” diets. What nature intended by evolving animals that fed on that ancient diet is that they live long enough and be strong enough to produce many litters. What we want for our pets is for them to live long, period. Sure, you could feed a really high protein diet and probably have the healthiest five year old cat or dog in the world, but at ten that dog or cat could be dead from kidney failure.
I don’t know what the best food is; I just know I don’t want to use what my toy dogs’ wolf-like ancestors ate as a guide for what to feed them now.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: You have Charter, right? Did you order it online or go to their office? I’ve own my own modem and they want me to upgrade, so I’d have nothing to exchange. I may also go see them cause I have some stuff in my cable package I might want to get rid of and maybe add dvr.
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
God, DVR is life-changing, if you haven’t had it before.
I sometimes find myself reaching for the “go back 10 seconds” button on the radio in the car. LOL.
lojasmo
MAMMALS NOT EATING GRAINS? HERESY!
nobadcats
I am so sorry for the loss in your family. If you want to go raw, please please pick up a copy of Anitra Fraser’s “The New Natural Cat’ (recently updated).
We used it when we had our cats on the raw food diet, and then moved out of the country (to Asia, where the diet was just not feasible due to time/supplies). She gives comprehensive advice on going raw.
As I did, here, too (just hit “next” after the this post):http://zoje-george.livejournal.com/100095.html
nobadcats
And I should also say that our cats are now on the “Taste of the Wild” kibble with a nightly soft food (from EVO) canned dinner treat. I’d go raw again if my roomie would get on the program with me. But she had years and years of dealing with a diabetic/schedule cat, so we’re not likely to switch over soon unless I do it all myself.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
We’re on Charter — G basically disconnected all of our old stuff, brought it down there with a list of the changes we wanted to make, and came home with a big bag of the new stuff. The Charter DVR interface is not nearly as nice or user-friendly as TiVo’s, so we may end up switching back in a few weeks.
Triassic Sands
@? Martin:
The GOP nuts don’t want to lose those seats, but they do want to be free to be totally insane while holding them.
Teresa
Raw diet done right is far better than the food produced by today’s corporations for pets.
There are blogs and mail lists for raw feeding cats.
HeartlandLiberal
There are many brands of cat food on the market that are trustworthy. Buy them. For Tunch, I would recommend a good mix that includes the senior versions, balanced to help weight control in older cats, and deal with aging issues.
I think the PetSmart staff rejoice when they see us coming, because we stock up for a month’s supply at a time.
We feed a small portion of canned cat food to our two male cats three times a day. Each has a small bowl which is refreshed daily with dry cat food. The dry cat food is a mix we make up from several varieties, including one with stuff to help them deal with hairballs.
They do not over eat, are not overweight, and the oldest is going on 16 and still very active.
They are indoor / outdoor cats, have their own door, a tunnel through the wall by the door on the lower level opening on the backyard.
This has its risks, namely the coyotes we know are in the neighboring woods. We kept them in at night during this past winter, and if we have a drought set in, I will probably do so later this summer. The weather affects the coyote movement and feeding patterns, we think. In times that cause scarcity or problems with their regular food supply, the move closer to the neighborhood. Last year six neighborhood cats disappeared in just a few weeks, including one of our beloved cats, a female named Josephine.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Dunno. Can you get his blood and urine checked? If everything’s working well with the diet he’s on, probably the best thing you can do for him is (insert obvious comment about … here). If you go off dry food completely, you may want to look into a kitty toothbrush, too. Bad teeth are a pain and a heath hazard for anyone.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scotty
Go with the chicken or turkey. I don’t think you’ll have the heart to butcher rabbits, such that you’d end up with yet another batch of pets.
Blue Galangal
I made the switch from a canned to an actual insane crazy raw diet about 8 years ago, after losing my second cat to kidney failure. I can’t say that the raw diet helped with the hairballs, but it did noticeably improve coats and weight – and LITTERBOXES! :)
I’ve been feeding a mix of whole ground rabbit and whole ground chicken, with some whole ground turkey thrown in once in a while. The best place I’ve found to get reasonably priced food (they ship it, frozen, via UPS and FedEx in styrofoam-lined boxes) is hare-today out of Pennsylvania. They grind the stuff whole and package it in 1 lb bags. You can even get whole ground mice. (My cats didn’t like it.. Weirdos.)
However, another aspect of the switch was that I went from leaving dry food out all the time to meal feeding them, so they get fed twice a day, as close to 12 hrs apart as possible, This is supposedly better for their digestion.
There is also a nice dry cat food called Simply Nourish that comes in a grain free option at Petsmart. Recently I switched the cats to this dry food in the mornings and still getting their raw food at night. It’s cheaper and easier. I meal feed that dry food, too – each cat gets 1/4 cup and they finish it in less than five minutes.
zirgar
Smart move. Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they get everything, including moisture/water, from the critters they eat, which are basically birds and small rodents. So, getting the cat’s diet as close as possible to matching what one finds in a field mouse can only benefit the cat. I plan on switching my cat over to a raw/natural diet shortly, so I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. Good luck.
Keith G
Like humans,cats vary in how well (and long) they are able to live. My last two cats both lived into their late teens with a mixture of grocery brand dry and canned food. My current pair of wonderful sisters have a wet/dry mixture of premium food – selected for it high meat and low everything else content. They are a highly active 7 and a pure joy in my world.
Cole, if you are the manufacturer of cat food, make sure that you understand how to get and add supplements that the kitties need. As mentioned above, work with vets.
klokanek
I’ve had my Balloon Juice rescues since April, and I did lots of research on food before getting them. I learned that fish is bad for male cats (urinary tract stuff), carrageenan is bad for all cats, and wet food is preferred but dry food is cheap. Thus I’ve had my purrballs on Wellness Indoor Core, which I supplement daily with 3 oz. wet food split daily between them. Here’s the website that I found to be the most informative:
I’ve since revisited that website, since I’d like to feed the purrballs a wetter diet, and discovered the dehydrated raw foods that are listed in second place *only* because folks might forget to hydrate them. I just ordered Honest Kitchen’s Grace and Prowl and will be trying them soon. They’re the only pet food that uses human-grade food, and that’s good enough for me. The link above made the genius suggestion of ordering the trial sizes from their website, and it’s less than half the price of Amazon PLUS each box comes with a $3.50 coupon on it.
One last thing: Not only was it super easy to transition the three cats from Purina ONE to Wellness Core Indoors (one week of mixing the two foods with shifting proportions), the mama kitty, Persimmon (who was Cornelia) has dropped from almost 12 pounds to almost 11 pounds in about two months, and I promise you that it’s only a switch in food, not a restriction in calories. More protein = more filling, so cats eat less. They had never had wet food, so that was a harder sell, but they’re all slavering for their afternoon treat! Tiki Cat’s Puka Puka Luau has been the most favorite and looks like something a human would eat.
Best of luck to you!
Maude
If Tunch is healthy, why would you change his diet?
If you are going to cut up animals, how do you know the animals don’t carry diseases? Test them beforehand?
Here little rabbit, I want to see if…
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
MazeDancer
@Steeplejack:
Freeze dried organic chicken treats from Whole Life Pet: http://wholelifepet.com/
ThresherK
Ever since my cat started eating broccoli, I’ve been sampling every kind of produce on her.
Pumpkin, watermelon, and sauerkraut are three of the odder things she’ll gobble right up.
InternetDragons
It’s more complex to provide cats a balanced raw diet than dogs. Don’t start messing with this just because you are freaked out over Speak’s death.
Keep things simple for yourself and very healthy for Tunch by simply going with the Wellness line of cat food (you can also switch the girls over to Wellness dog food if you are so inclined). They’ve already done the research and the work.
I’ve done the raw/grind meat+bones route and I’ve gone the Wellness route. I prefer Wellness, and my critters appear to like it also.
Ella in New Mexico
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Long story short, talk to a vet to be sure you get it right. It’s much easier to do with dogs.
Although, if they’re like too many vets, they’re the ones who put the fat cats on “hi fiber” Science Diet dry foods in the first place, and wonder why the poor kitty didn’t lose weight on a 1/4 cup of kibble a day.
I agree though–science says that cats won’t get the proper amounts of important things like Taurine if we feed them our version of raw meat. The whole lizard or mouse or bird WOULD supply all the trace elements they need, but really, who wants to whirl a deer mouse in their Ninja?
Death Panel Truck
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Oh, Jesus H. Christ. When I was a kid, we had a calico named Lucy. She lived 18 years and ate Purina Cat Chow every day of her life. She was hit by a car while crossing the street at night. She was an indoor-outdoor cat who roamed the neighborhood all night long, and scratched at the door every morning to get in so she could eat her cat chow and crash out all day long.
Ella in New Mexico
@Death Panel Truck:
That sounds like the story of my neighbor’s Uncle Harry who smoked two packs a day from age 12, ate bacon and eggs every morning and was 50lbs overweight his whole life, but lived to the ripe old age of 92. The luck of his genetic draw protected him in spite of the assaults on his body. But 90% of the REST of the people with those risk factors—not so lucky.
Just because some cats seem to thrive on these older diets doesn’t mean they aren’t killers for many, many more. Lucy was a lucky, hardy anomaly. Indoor-outdoor cats supplement their diets with live kills, too, which means Cat Chow was most likely NOT Lucy’s sole source of nutrition. We had our mouser barn cats who did the same thing.
Rebecca
I’ve got to second the rec for New Natural Cat Book by Anitra Frazier. We refer to it as the Insane Cat Book due to things like “it has been scientifically proven that you can telepathically communicate with your cat”. However, it has been proven right over and over again (about DIET and CAT BEHAVIOR not about telepathic communication). It’s been more right than the vet several times, especially about diet, with some rather disastrous consequences. We have mostly resorted to it out of desperation: we had a cat with Irritable Bowel Disorder who had thickening of the intestine/malabsorbtion lost tons of weight and had stopped eating on the vet’s last resort treatment, so I tried cooking for him (I’m a vegetarian, there was a phone call involved where I was told that the noise the meat was making was called ‘sizzling’ and was perfectly normal).
The diet we ended up having him on was lamb, quinoa and either carrot or zucchini. It turns out he was allergic to practically everything (sea food, beef, millet, yeast) and even when he wasn’t allergic to stuff, he still got sick without his special food. We eventually got it down to a science: every three weeks, we’d spend a day cooking, fry ground lamb (far easier than having to cut up lamb chops, but it had to be really fresh or Mr. Picky wouldn’t touch it), cook quinoa, grate carrot or zucchini, put the whole thing in a stock pot, and grind and mix thoroughly with a stick blender (worked better than an actual blender or a food processor). Then we’d bag it in 1/4 cup servings in individual ziplock type freezer bags that would get thawed the meal before they were used. The actual lambing process was disgusting, but it was only once every three weeks or so (food didn’t keep more than a month in our freezer), so it wasn’t that much more work than an ordinary cat.
Our cat lived for 11 years on this diet, and aside from several vets recommending a higher portion of meat and the cat subsequently developing kidney failure (after this, we read the warning in the Insane Cat Book that this was a danger) and having to modify the diet for kidney failure, it all went well. He ended up dieing of something completely unrelated!
Good luck! It kind of sucks, but the cat was ridiculously healthy on this diet, and several people who are usually allergic to cats had no problems with him. We did vow to never do this again, but now that we have another sick cat, we may be cooking again.