Postings by Smudge's Family

(Page 1 of 135: Viewing entries 1 to 10)  
Page Links: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  [Last 10 entry]  

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Thu May 23, '13 4:04am PST  Also, if the only canned she'll eat has gravy then that is still more desirable than going back to feeding her kibble. If you want, once she is fully established on her canned diet and settled with it, you can try incorporating some pate style foods into it, just mix in a little, then a little more, etc. and you can see if she notices. I thought that you might find this site interesting if you haven't seen it before. http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Thu May 23, '13 4:00am PST  What I have always heard is that a cat fed solely dry food will never drink enough water to be properly hydrated. This is because our domestic cats arose from small desert cats who obtained all of their moisture from food and do not naturally have a strong thirst drive. This is one of the reasons it is best to feed only "wet" foods, i.e. canned or raw. It therefore makes sense to me that your cat would have a higher urine output on an all canned food diet than on an all kibble diet. I would say not to worry about this unless you see her straining on the litter box or see the signs of diabetes that Merlin already mentioned (or that you know about from your own experience). As for the poop, again, because there is a higher moisture content in canned food and the usable nutrients are more densely packed in the food, it makes sense that there is less excretable waste, i.e. poop. More of the food is digested and doesn't have to be disposed of. Congratulations on switching Cali to a wet diet! Purrs, Shade my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Cat Health > Shempi's story (warning, very frustrating)

Blackberry Somewhere there- is love for- everyone     Purred: Sun May 19, '13 6:42am PST  Well, for one thing, if he is FIV+ he should never be allowed outdoors unsupervised to spread the virus to other cats. And, anyone who adopts him needs to be notified of his status so that they don't unknowingly mix him in with their FIV negative cats. As far as his care, he needs a very good diet, I personally would say grain free canned and it certainly can't hurt to give him lysine every day, omega 3's and 6's, etc.. He should live in a stress free environment too. I've been reading that you don't really need to give FIV+ cats medication every day if they are asymptomatic. You just need to keep an eye on their health carefully and if they get ill with anything, bring them to the vet right away as they might have a very hard time dealing with bacteria and viruses without intervention. There are tons of sites on the internet about FIV but check out these: http://cats.about.com/cs/healthissues/a/fiv_in_cats.htm h ttp://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/cat-care-feline-immunodeficien cy-virus.aspx http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fiv.html Best of luck, Blackberry my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Raw Food Diet > New to raw, excited and nervous!

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Sat May 18, '13 7:36am PST  Well, when I started out I fed ground raw, but I mixed in small chunks of meat for chewing purposes. I used ground turkey and chunked up chicken thighs/breasts at a 50/50 ratio. I used a pre-mix (Instinct TC, which I think is called something else now) that had calcium so that I didn't need to use bones. After a couple of months I started feeding a prey model diet and now the boys mostly turn up their noses when I try to feed them ground raw. I buy ground raw with bones sometimes from hare-today.com though. I very rarely make a ground mix with anything added to it. The diet that I feed my cats is grain free canned for breakfast, usually NV Instinct or Dave's, raw around 3:30pm, and raw again around 8-9pm. Two of my cats are 4.5 years old and the other 2 are 3.5 years old. So I've been feeding a 2/3rds unsupplemented raw diet for 4 years now. Everyone is very healthy (well, except for BB, but he's a different story), shiney coats, lots of energy, etc. Supposedly, if you really feed a proper prey model diet, you shouldn't need to supplement with anything, but I've been reading this week that many people do anyway, so I have to admit that I'm wondering about maybe adding in some B vitamins, vit. E, and taurine. I don't know how you could mix supplements into chunks of meat though. I would love to add some fish oil to their food occassionally, but I have yet to find one that I haven't had to throw out because my cats refuse to eat food with it added. If you do decide to go with a ground diet, you can always feed chicken gizzards as a treat on the side. They are great for getting some chewing in for your cat. Check out rawfedcats.org for some info on prey model feeding. Purrs, Shade my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Raw Food Diet > New to raw, excited and nervous!

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Fri May 17, '13 9:53am PST  Hi Roxy! No you don't have to worry about feeding canned and raw, you can even feed them together in the same meal. The reason is that canned has about the same water content as raw and will move through the digestive system at about the same speed as raw. If you are feeding grain free canned you also will not have to worry about too many carbs being in the food and the acidity of the digestive tract changing. The problem with kibble is that it basically turns into a slow moving sludge and you don't want to have raw food, along with any possible bacteria, backed up behind it waiting to be eliminated. I believe that some people say that if you do feed kibble, you should wait something like 10 hours before feeding a raw meal. Purrs, Shade my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Fri May 17, '13 4:01am PST  Hi there. The link below (sorry that I don't know how to make it a clickable link) has a lot of good information on switching cats from kibble to canned. http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.p df Good luck! my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Raw Food Diet > Some questions..

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Fri May 17, '13 3:57am PST  Hi there Ritchie's parent. I'm a little confused, what does Ritchie eat now, kibble? And you want to switch him to canned? Or raw and kibble? Since I'm not entirely sure what you want, let me throw a few things out there. 1. Never feed a cat kibble when you are feeding them raw. One reason that the bacteria that exists on raw meat doesn't harm a cat is because raw moves through their digestive tract very quickly and their digestive tract is very acidic which is an unfriendly environment to bacteria. Kibble moves very slowly through the digestive system because it is almost totally lacking in moisture and feeding kibble also reduces the acidity of the digestive system. Both negatives. 2. Why do your dogs deserve raw food and not your cat? You say he sometimes steals raw from the counter. I say he's a smart cat who knows what he wants to eat and what's good for him. Cats are obligate carnivores and have no need for veggies, grains, and excessive carb's in their diet. You can not get away from carbs feeding any kind of kibble, even grain free. 3. I have found that a prey model raw diet is cheaper than buying top of the line, grain free canned food, like NV Instinct. Is cost part of the issue? I don't know if any of that was any help, but why not come back and ask some more questions. Purrs, Shade my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Cat Health > i highly recommend Interferon for FIV+ cats!

Blackberry Somewhere there- is love for- everyone     Purred: Wed May 15, '13 7:12am PST  Hi Precious. I just found this blog. I don't know if it will be of any help to you, it won't be with your question of sourcing Interferon, but I thought it was interesting. http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2013/01/24/my-cat-has-aids/ One of my cats may possibley have FIV so I found the blog looking around for information on respiratory symptoms and FIV. My cat too has constant mucus coming out of his nose along with sneezing. He's been on antibiotics and methylprednisolone as well as some other meds and they have only helped slightly. So far the FIV and FeLV rapid tests have all been negative, but we are awaiting the results of a western blot for a (hopefully) definitive FIV test result. Purrs to you. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Raw Food Diet > Unprepared Broke Owner Looking for Best Answer for the Best Diet

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Tue May 14, '13 5:13am PST  Hi there, It should very very easy to convert a 7 week old kitten to raw food, after all, she was probably weaned just a very short time ago. The prey model raw diet (80% muscle meat/ 10% bone / 5% liver/ 5% other secreting organ like kidney) is probably the cheapest way to go, but I'm not 100% sure as I don't make one of the ground recipes, as on catinfo.org, myself. Definately a store bought, pre-made raw is the most expensive, although you don't have to worry about balancing out your proportions and worrying about including all of your nutrients. However, you absolutely have to do your research before you feed a homemade raw diet. Here are some websites that you can read: catinfo.org, catnutrition.org, feline-nutrition.org, rawfedcats.org, and catcentric.org. Also, please don't hate me for saying this, but please make sure that you teach your 4 year old to be very gentle with your baby kitty as they are delicate little things at that age and you don't want Daisy to learn to fear your son/daughter. Purrs, Shade my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

Shade My name is not- Kittyfloss!     Purred: Fri May 10, '13 4:32am PST  I feed 3x/day. First meal is grain free canned and the other 2 are usually prey model raw. Canned foods that I am willing to buy to feed my beasts are NV Instinct, EVO, Dave's Naturally Healthy Grain Free Canned Chicken Formula and Turkey Formula, Dave's 95% Premium Meat, Ziwi Peak, Weruva Nine Liver, and By Nature 95% Varieties. Ingredients that I avoid are: grain, fish (usually), menadione sodium bisulfate, meat by-products, brewer's dried yeast, artificial color/flavor, animal digest, preservatives and I'm sure that there are others that I can't think of off the top of my head. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends [notify]

(Page 1 of 135: Viewing entries 1 to 10)  
Page Links: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  [Last 10 entry]  

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the rapid nature of forum postings, it's quite possible our calculation of the number of ensuing forum posts may be off by one or two or more at any given moment.