Change of diet.

elin

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Hey everyone!

I'm the somewhat proud co-mother of two Rex cats, one nine years of age and the other one three years old. The tend to eat almost anything I give them, but with the recent chain of events in the meat industry (cats can obviously get BSE, too), I'm looking for alternatives to normal canned food, but also to the crispy-crunchy stuff they love so much. After having a look at what the manufacturers put in most cat food I've decided to try more "clean" alternatives like fish and chicken, the only thing I fear is that due to my anxiety to treat my cats well I'll just render them sick instead.

What would I need to consider, what food do you recommend or have you tried this yourself? Please do mind that since I'm not in the US I have little access to the food brands you have over there (except for IAMS, Royal Canine and Science Diet), so any general advice would be great.

Thanks in advance!
 

kathleen

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Hi,

You can try a home-made diet. One of my kitties has irritable bowel disease and has been on a home-made diet since he was 5 months old. He is now 5 years old and one of the healthiest cats!
There are many home-made diets. With my homeopathic vets approval, the diet I use is a recipe by Dr. Richard Pitcairn. The concern with home-made diets is that the kitty will get the adequate amount of daily vitamins, minerals and trace elements essential to her overall health, so it's important to work closely with a veterinarian that knows the nutritional needs of a kitty.
Your other alternative is to add fresh chicken or fish whenever you can to her canned food. Three of my cats won't touch the home-made diet, but they love turkey and chicken. So whenever I am cooking chicken or turkey for myself, I always make extra and add it to their food. They love it!
Of course, as with any new food, always introduce gradually, over a 7 to 10 day period so you won't cause any gastric distress.
I hope this has been of some help.
Sincerely,
 
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elin

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Thank you Kathleen!

Since I eat turkey and chicken quite often myself I'll start by letting my kitties have some as well. My goal, tho, will still be to find a fully acceptable alternative to canned and dry food, so I guess it's off to the...vet...

I think they heard that.
 

eeva

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Hi, I sympathise (sp?) with your dilemma. Ever since I found out about what's really in pet food (both dog and cat), I looked for alternatives to feed my pets, to maintain optimum health. I myself don't consider any commercial food adequate, so others can advice you on that. I myself feed my two dogs, and my new kitten a raw diet, the older cat is still unfortunately eating mainly Nutro kibble, since she refuses anything else, but I'm working on her. I have been very pleased with my pets' health and attitude since they've been eating a raw diet, but it does take some work to do it right. If you wish to find out more about feeding a raw diet to your cat, here are a few sites you might want to start with.

http://www.holisticat.com
http://www.blakkatz.com
http://ighawaii.com/naturally/newsle...ewsletter.html

If you do decide to go for raw, please read up lots and lots before doing it, it does take a lot of knowledge and common sense to feed a proper raw diet. Or any home prepared diet for that matter. Also keep in mind that most or at least many vets know next to nothing about nutrition, and that at least in the US, just about all of the info on nutrition (which is not a whole lot!) in vet schools comes from pet food manufacturers. In my country, I'm not sure of the source of info, but I believe that it's not a lot, unless the vet is interested in the topic and decides to pursue it further. So I would suggest you try and find out things for yourself first (the internet is a good place to start), so that you can evaluate your vet's knowledge in this topic- never take anyone's word just because, but try and ask around for other opinions.
 
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elin

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Moi Eeva!


Thank you for the excellent links; the blakkatz.com was especially useful to me.
 

eeva

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Hej på dig också!

I didn't even look at which country you're from, funny to "run into" someone so close by. =) If you want to join an email list to know about raw diets, there is a Scandinavian (Scandinavian BARF or something like that) one which I'm not on- my Swedish isn't all that good. I don't know how active the list is, but I do know there at least used to be some very knowledgeable people on it. It's on yahoo.
 

donna

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Elin,

I've always fed my cats Science Diet. My friends Rene, Sandie and Michelerad feed their cats Max Nutro. It's all natural. Have heard nothing but good things about it. I got a small bag from the distributor this past weekend and have put it in 3 out of six bowls. They've been eating it so I guess they must like it. I like that I'm giving them a variety.


BTW, I have a Sphynx, MooShoo who is one year old. What kid of Rexes do you have? Cornish or Devon? They are great cats too.

Donna
 
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elin

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Thank you all for the replies!

Eeva - I had a look at the Yahoo! egroups, but I couldn't find a scandinavian one. I'm thinking about joining the US one, though.

Donna - Yes, I've been feeding them IAMS and Science Diet for some time now, the only problem is that I have fairly bordering to no control whatsoever of what they actually put in the pellets. Following the foot-and-mouth epidemia, as well as the mad cow disease (which evidently managed to spread to cats), I decided I wouldn't for the life of me feed to my cats what I wouldn't even touch with a pair of pliers myself. Idealistic, sure, but you have to start somewhere.
'

As for my cats, Caspian is a Cornish of three years (over-active, extremely talkative and with an ulcer after a stressful kitten-hood) and Prince is a Devon of nine years (getting a bit bald as we speak, other than that he's the most gentle cat I've ever met). Interesting to meet someone who has a Spynx, out of all cats!

Picture of them both, btw: http://www.kosmonaut.nu/img/katter.jpg
Prince is the one to the left and Caspian is to the right.
 

eeva

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Here is the address for joining the Scandinavian BARF group (no wonder you couldn't find it, it's NordBARF):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nordbarf

And here is the address for a cat BARF group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawcats/join

At http://www.barfers.com you can go to a page that lists tons of raw diet email lists, so you can pick and choose your own. I'm on the "big" BARF list myself, so I have to warn you- there are dozens of messages a day, and most of the discussion is geared towards dogs. But it's a wonderful list, and provides plenty of information.

Eeva
 
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