Hi! I have a silly question. When you're making the chicken and rice for cats, how do you make the chicken? Do you bake it, or boil it - and if you boil it, should it be the thigh, or the breast? Thank you in advance!
Wait. Cats aren’t small dogs?!Why would you put rice in it? Cats are obligate carnivores, no rice! they can't use or digest that. It's even useless for dogs...
I don't know why the rice works, but it does. I've never had plain chicken get the job done. Plain chicken on its own has never cleared diarrhea or improved vomiting in my experience. Somehow the rice helps with that. My cat doesn't like baby food much at all so I'm not sure how well that would work. I get that cats, in general, have no need for grains, and I like to keep them out of the regular diet, but if it cures an upset stomach quickly and is only for a short period of time I see no problem with it.If the point of the temporary diet is to be bland and easy for an upset tummy to digest, why is rice needed? You could just feed chicken without the rice. The rice doesn't make the chicken any more bland or easier to digest.
Or feed meat baby food. No rice in that either.
White rice being easy for cats to digest goes against what we know about obligate carnivores though. I feel like we have just taken an age old trick that works for humans and applied it to cats as if their digestive systems function the same way but in reality they are very different. If my cat had an upset stomach the last thing I would give him is grains.White rice helps with diarrhea. It's easy for cats to digest and helps firm up stools. I would guess that it is in the recipe because Lisa's cat has diarrhea. Same idea as when people recommend adding pumpkin to food to firm up stools.
If your cat had an upset stomach the first thing it would do is go outside and eat grass, which is a grain.White rice being easy for cats to digest goes against what we know about obligate carnivores though. I feel like we have just taken an age old trick that works for humans and applied it to cats as if their digestive systems function the same way but in reality they are very different. If my cat had an upset stomach the last thing I would give him is grains.
We actually don’t know why cats eat grass. My vet said that they tend to throw it up because it scratches their throats and advised me against feeding it. There’s not much of a digestive benefit to it. Popular to contrary belief, cats aren’t supposed to be puking all the time.If your cat had an upset stomach the first thing it would do is go outside and eat grass, which is a grain.
This is obviously not a long term diet, but if it works for op to settle her cat's gi issues then I don't see a problem with feeding chicken and rice for a few days.