So we're bringing a "fur baby" (rolls eyes) on the boat. I don't really do animals so all I know is they eat whiskas. The stuff I buy cause Mr man who owns the fur baby doesn't. My issue is cat food takes up an insane amount of space and after basic research it seems the kibbles not even good for them!?
This one does eat raw fish, which is great on a yacht, very cost effective. Won't touch cooked anything. At all. Ever.
What do you guys feed your cats? Any reason why you feed them what you do?
Used it to emphasize how much he loves it and how much I tolerate it.
After one of ours got a UTI and it “only” cost $400 (we were lucky no crystals formed otherwise x that by 3) the cats are on Hill Science Urinary diet. We add water to the bottom of their bowl so they get more water. Didn’t like it at first but they gulp it down now.
Cat food $100 or so for 6kg or so. Worth it to not have the UTI stress again.
Use online vouchers - food much cheaper at the online pet stores than from pet stock etc
seems like you'd be better off getting your own uti and sharing your meds with the cat
Haha probably… one shot of antibiotics and some other antiinflammatory type drugs $400.
What do i feed my cats >> Catfood .
Reason >> Because they ain't dogs
Grain free - https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/product/vip-fussy-cat…
Or
Applaws its all good - https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/product/applaws-cat-f…
What comes in… comes out. Make sure there’s a balance between wet and dry food. We give ours 2x teaspoon of wet and about a cup of dry. We split some for morning and some for evening.
Make sure you look for high protein for wet food - they come from tigers and stuff so they are built for digesting protein.
For dry food, you want to avoid high % rice - these are fillers… tigers don’t eat rice.
Look at the ingredients as these will usually stack rank on %, ask yourself, would tigers eat that because that’s what your kitty will be built for.
Mine get Royal Canin indoor cat food and canned tuna for a snack. The $1 a can tuna (for human consumption) is cheaper and much healthier than the crappy canned cat food.
Human flesh
Depends on whether the fur baby is a boy or a girl. Technically wet food is better for them in general because most dry food contain grains i.e. fillers/carbs/weird cereal that makes them fat. Wet food are closer to their original diet and conveniently packed but then again some also contain very little meat lots of fillers and bad for their teeth because it sticks and causes gum issues (I didn’t find this a problem with mine because I sometimes brush my cat’s teeth and he chews on a lot of toys etc which help to clean his teeth).. There’s also raw food diet (which seems like your cat prefers) that is probably best for them but grosses me out so no go for me. So back to gender being a boy wet food has more water content so that is better for their urinary tract system because they are prone to stones and female cats generally not as prone (according to the vet). My cat used to love wet food until I transition him to mainly wet food after the vet visit so he now loves biscuits more. I feed them a variety of stuff - wet food, human chicken just pan fried no seasoning, air dried meat mixed in with lots of water. They had it since young so pretty used to the water. I still give them biscuit for a snack but very little and ivory coat is grain free and pretty inexpensive if you are looking for dry food. Also have to be careful with fish because there’s actually quite a percentage of cats that can be allergic to fish lol and my cat would vomit every time he has tuna
Thanks for your answer. You mentioned air dried meat with lots of water? Can you elaborate do you mean something akin to homemade jerky? That is extremely doable
Oh sorry I mean freeze dried or air dried meat bought from shops. I usually get feline natural or absolute holistic or ziwi peak. But if you can make it yourself it will probably be better.
I was told by my vet to only feed my cats dry food, and giving them chicken necks once a week, as well as raw lean red meat once a week.
If your "vet" told you that I'd be changing vets right away. Cats don't drink enough water, giving them wet food is an easy way to help rectify that.
Fairly even combination of the kangaroo raw food you can get from Coles or Woolies and Whiskers dry food.
I varied it up when I first got them and it seemed like they were allergic to other dry foods (scratched holes in their heads) and hated any other raw food I tried, especially the defrosted stuff. Never really tried much with canned wet foods although one of them straight up won't eat any wet food I've ever tried.
I also sometimes give them full cream milk or whipping cream. They don't appear to be lactose intolerant, their shits remain solid. I also feed them bacon rind offcuts whenever I cut the rinds off of bacon, which they love with a firey passion.
They are of a breed with known deficiencies (which I didn't know about when I got them) but are currently in the top end of listed average life spans for the breed, in one year they'll be beyond that range. They've never had any medical issues and have virtually never seen the vet since their early vaccinations. They are yet to show any obvious signs of aging (teeth problems, loss of the five senses, smarts, ability to jump or run etc.).
Thanks.
You mention feeding them milk or cream. You're the first one to do so although he does seem to love cream and cheeses…pinching them off the counter while my back is turned. How much do you feed them?
Unfortunately I have no idea of the cat variety. It looks to be a stray mostly black but it's nearly two years old and the size of a kitten still so I think it's a miniature something or other perhaps.
My cats are indoor cats so I can easily examine the results of dairy. If they vomit: I know. If they spray it instead of soliding it: I know. If they appeared in gastro distress: I'd know.
That's the test. The breed isn't really the determinant. It is a genetics thing but as far as I'm aware no-one has ever narrowed it down by breed. If you give them dairy and they project liquid from either end: that's dairy/lactose intolerance.
Cats will consume dairy because it's tasty. Regardless of the results, usually.
So you've just got to test and see.
Vet said cats should eat both wet and dry food.
My cat gets Hills Science dry food and fancy feast wet food. We always have the dry food containers full as she grazes throughout the day and give her wet food at night. Sometimes we boil her chicken instead.
Mine prefers chicken over fish.
I have 2 cats. They eat Whiskas.
Half wet, half dry… and roast chicken for "snacks".
They seem perfectly happy and healthy to me.
No issues at the vet either.
I read a lot of stuff about cat food when I first got my cats too.
The online info is pretty heavily skewed towards "supermarket cat food suuuuucks".
Had a chat with a couple of vets… General answer was that supermarket stuff is fine unless you cat has issues. (allergies, sensitive gut, etc)
So yeah… I reckon most of the stuff in the shops should be fine for most cats.
Doesn't mean they'll eat it though. Mine eat whiskas beef jelly wet food… but refuse to eat the loaf or gravy varieties.
My fussy Birman eats
Vip Fussycat Steak Mince With Chicken and grazes on Purina One Adult Cat Dry Food With Salmon & Tuna. Both sold at Woolworths
Used to be on Black Hawk until the recipe was changed and cats started puking everywhere way too frequently.
Changed over to Hills wet plus royal canine dry and all better. Tried Wellness and ziwi stuff but they didn't like it. They also get woolies canned tuna as snacks and a few other cat treats. They prefer chicken and kangaroo flavours but not fish and beef.
Our cat was on iams dry food until her final year of life when she developed kidney problems and needed more liquids from her food to support her system.
Thing is everytime we went to the vet they would chastise us for feeding her wet food due to her poor teeth and gums and wouldn't believe us that she was on an all dry food diet and my wife brushing her teeth regularly. It's only our experience but in my opinion I don't think vets know shit about cat dentistry and paint all dentistry the same between different species of animals.
I would still recommend the iams dry food, she made it to approx 14 years, it's cheaper and seems to be better formulated than wet food. Also no tummy upsets with the dry food when compared to the wet stuff.
Go a super premium food to save on potential Urinary tract issues.
We buy ours by the bag at Costco - about $35 for a 13 KG bag, and that covers us for a month. We have 4 (don't ask lol)
Both wet and dry food for our 2 cats, and other foods.
We buy those satchels for wet food.
We mix oral car with other kibble for dry food.
Other foods include chicken, carrots and egg. We cook these in batches and give a bit each time throughout the week.
Wife's a Vet.
we used to feed our cat Applaws, now we feed her Hills KD, both wet and dry.
our cat is 4 years old and developed serious Kidney issues (blocked ureter) and had to go into surgery.
they installed a bypass tube of one of the ureters, and $7000 later our cat is better than ever.
mind you, this would have costed $17000 to a non Vet.
My recommendation is good quality food, either wet or dry
and have regular checkups (with a blood test) yearly with a good vet.
Cats can easily live up to 20 years these days.Having a pet, and keeping it in good health is a serious commitment, both in responsibility and dollars.
please don't keep a cat, if you're going to put it down at the first sign of trouble.
Although it might sound easy, vet's struggle doing this, and a great deal of them suffer from depression and unfortunately commit suicide. it is THAT common.
PS: the only brand that has been tested thoroughly, and has published studies is Hills.
If you want something easy to purchase at your local woolies or coles, i'd recommend applaws. Please don't feed your cat whiskas or any cheap branded dry food that has "Cereal" as its first ingredient. Cats are carnivores and stuffing them with cereals will make them more lethargic than other high protein kibble. I normally recommend to mix wet with dry for cats that are super picky with their food or just stick with just dry as its fully formulated for a cats diet. You can add kangaroo mince as a treat if you want to spoil them. Just read the ingredient list on the product that you are buying and as long as meat is the first ingredient than that will be heaps better than most like aldi branded pet food.
Rat🐭
We've kept our cat on a raw food diet since we got it - about 5 years ago - at the advice of the breeder. We're preparing something like this Recipe 1 or Recipe 2 once every couple of weeks. Once prepared, we store the food in single serve bags in the freezer. Then it's a simple process of taking a bag out to thaw, serving it and then repeat for the next meal. The cat is happy and the vet is always telling us the cat is looking great and is healthy.
We had dry a bowl of dry food we kept topped up and then a quarter to a third of a can of homebrand tuna.
Choice did an article a few years ago. I don't remember it perfectly but the general gist was expensive doesn't necessarily = good. One of the top choices was Felix Beef (red colour on the packet, the "sauces" one). That's a Purina brand that they sell at Woolies and Coles. My cats like the Felix stuff. They are absolutely obsessed with the seafood gravy tins from Aldi. They lije the green packets of Purina dry food. They flat out refuse to eat anything grain-free.
Apparently cats get addicted to the strong flavours in commercial cat food and it's hard to go back to a raw diet. I have varied luck with raw meat and often end up throwing out meat when they change their minds.
They also eat…. whatever I'm eating. Salmon, chicken and anchovies are crowd pleasers.
liberal party supporters
1/3 cup of grain free dry for a 10 year old grey tabby. She has been on this diet for 7 years but also didnt get vaccinated for first half of life, has a heart murmur and often has worms as she eats my neighbours rats (1 one a day at least). She is in great health otherwise.
I feed NOW biscuits and Sheba wet food.
hey, this was your own choice of words