Cat lovers...advice appreciated

[BeTheChange]

My cats are finicky eaters. They also wont drink anything but mineral water. I mean, these cats turn their nose up at solid white tuna in water. Up until recently they have enjoyed the grilled fancy feast combo pack, they wont eat anything by 9lives or iams.

Im debating actually cooking them food. I mean, a real chicken and rice would be enough food for a week for the two of them. Also, Im starting to become morally opposed to feed them cast of animal parts and sick animals that normally get ground up into animal feeds.

Does anyone have any homeade catfood recipes that seem to be a hit?

[Brundle_Fly]

1. hmm

move to a science diet food.

and try regular water with ice cubes....

[BeTheChange]

2. They wont eat science diet

and they bat play with the water displacing it from the bowl if I put ice cubes in it.

Little primadonnas.

I thought maybe they were junk food addicts, but they wont touch cat chow or the other cheap dry foods either.

[sparky_in_ma]

3. I have tried many foods.

I've noticed that there are no cat skeletons around the house. This would lead me to believe that given a choice, the kitty will eat.:D

I use science diet senior for my kitty. (she's had bladder issues in the past) She likes it.

[Heidi]

4. Same here.

For two years, our very spoiled Wiley and Excellent Boy Cat Named Ginger was eating _only_ bio chicken-and-rice cat food (Almo Nature is the brand but I don't know if you can get it in the US), supplemented by a dry cat food of his choice and drinking distilled water.

We recently learned that our cat's diet was "too white" and that he wasn't getting all of the necessary vitamins from eating an all-chicken diet. In addition, the commercial dry cat food that we were feeding for supplemental vitamins resulted in deposits of magnesium/phosphorous crystals in his lower urinary tract, requiring an emergency vet visit last weekend. Ginger's still allowed to eat the bio chicken and rice, but it's now supplemented by a prescription dry cat food from Science Diet.

Going "all natural" is commendable, but you should consult your vet about this before drastically changing your cat's diet.

Good luck! :hi:

[AlGore-08.com]

6. Excellent point - - just 'cause it's natural doesn't mean it's balanced

I would definitely get feedback from a vet, whether I was going to feed the cat human food or commercial cat food.

[BeTheChange]

8. Thats who told me chicken and rice :)

Ive bought the science diet from him in the ocean fish and the nature's best chicken one. They wont touch the ocean fish. They will instead scream at me like Im starving them to death for hours straight. Ive got 4 bowls of dry food sitting out currently. It appears that they have eaten a little bit from the science diet chicken one, but prefered the fresh sliver of chicken that fell out of my lettuce wrap which they jumped on, devouring like tyrannasaurus rex. The other two are purina one and iams kitty chow.

Maybe Ill try the lamb. They seem to dislike anything with fish in it.. but what puzzles me is that they always liked chicken, turkey and sometimes beef but only fancy feast.. arg

[friesianrider]

16. Try Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Adult Cat Food...

It is a dry food, all 14 of our cats (7 indoor and 7 outdoor) LOOOOOOVE it. It's outrageous. From ages 6 months to 19 years, all of them absolutely love this dry food.

[1monster]

5. Give them a good nutritional dry cat food and tap water. When they get

hungry enough, they will eat it. Years ago, I had to put my cats on a special diet due to one of them getting Feline Urinary Syndrome (FUS). They did not like the change to that diet at all in the beginning. After a couple of days not eating much, they started eating it. After a couple of weeks, they would tear open the new bag and eat it right out of the bag... Once in a while, give them some tuna as a treat.

Your cats sound a bit spoiled. But then, so are (and were) mine.

[Brundle_Fly]

7. bingo

they will eat a leather boot if they get hungry enough.

leave out the dry food and let them "chose life" :silly:

[BeTheChange]

9. But how long do I leave the food out for?

Im a little concerned when they can be so persnickity that they refuse food for over 48 hours.

[grace0418]

11. 48 hours won't kill them. Believe me, every animal

has an inborn survival instinct. They will eat eventually, and will end up liking it. I swear.

[friesianrider]

14. True.

No cat is that picky of an eater that they would rather starve to death than have their favorite delicacy...think about it, would starve to death because you were really in the mood for fettucine alfredo with garlic bread and all that was available was some carrots?

Besides, a cat can survive several weeks without any food at all...I would bet your kitties wouldn't go past 48 hours at the most without eating even a little something. They'll get used to it, I promise :)

[grace0418]

10. I use the same method my mom used with all of us

when we were kids, which was "If you're hungry enough you'll eat it." It's amazing what we ended up enjoying that we initially turned our noses up at. No offense, but we're talking about animals who's instinct is to hunt for whatever will provide nutrious protein and who clean their own asses with their tongues.

I'm not saying I don't give my little cutie pies treats now and then, and I certainly don't feed them just any old cat food. But I found a good, nutritious food and I give them (well, now just him) fresh water every day. I get no complaints.

If you're really into the idea of homemade catfood (which I did for awhile when my one disabled kitty was sick), cooked ground turkey or chicken was always popular. As was scrambled egg and a little all-natural peanut butter. Don't add a lot of seasoning or anything (although my one cat adores basil and I would put a little in his eggs as a treat).

[BeTheChange]

12. Thanks..

I think alot of it has to do with our tap water. It is way over treated with chemicals. I wont even drink it and I dont like to shower or bathe in it either. Its truly horrible. That was the first thing they stopped doing, drinking the tap water. They would go and drink out of glasses of spring water we had left laying out when we went to bed.

My cats arent usually this persnickity and I dont normally feed them tuna or even cat treats. They have never gotten any people food till the last week. Usually, they just wanted some variety every few months so I had to change it up for them. One of them has developed some sort of allergy where she is obsessively licking off all the hair on her stomach and hindquarters so Im giving her atopica with little success so far. I dont medicate myself and I dont like medicating my cats. We have evaluated fabric softners, laundry detergent and house cleaning chemicals and it hasnt helped.

I was just hoping to change to a more natural diet for a short period to get whatever is bugging them cleansed out of their system. The vet suggested boiling some chicken with no seasonings and rice, but I was concerned about them not getting any other meats, or good fatty acids.. so I was thinking of doing some type of beef/chicken mixture or some other meat. In the wild they would kill rodents and birds so my logical mind is just trying to get back to nature.

[friesianrider]

13. Don't feed IAMS anyway.

They have had MAJOR problems with abusing animals/allowing animal suffering in the making of their products...they have a horrible record.

I would do anything for my fur babies, but they got to a point like yours...spoiled senseless! :) I have to agree that if they get hungry enough they will eat whatever you put in front of them, and I finally had to start just putting down what was in my budget and fit my moral beliefs (in my case, a vegetarian cat food). They didn't like it at first and turned their noses up at it, but now they love their veggie kitty food, and the vet has noted some health improvements in two of them since switching them to a veggie diet.

Also, I do know PetSmart and stores of the like (try to stay away from PetCo...they also have a bad record of abusing animals and allowing animals in their store to suffer) you can buy the vegetarian cat food, which is what I feed my guys. They eat it just fine now and don't seem to mind it at all. If you do feed meat to them (canned kitty food) just look on the back of the cans - you want the least amount of ash as possible in their food (can lead to health problems in kitties).

[BeTheChange]

15. Muchas gracias

My vegetarian hubby fully supports the idea of vegetarian cat food, I wasnt that sure (Im trying to get him to take cod liver oil as a fatty acid substitute currently) :)

Ill definately check that out tomorrow.

[friesianrider]

17. Aww!

Good for yuor hubby! I just recently became a vegetarian, and feel GREAT. I have seen the benefits of a vegetarian diet not only in my health (more energy, better sleep, losing some weight), but also in my peace of mind for not financially supporting the horrible way animals are slaughtered these days :)

My kitties didn't like the vegetarian cat food at first, but they got used to it after awhile and really seem to like it now. Plus as I said the vet has noted our 19 year old kitty and out 5 year old kitty (both had chronic UTIs) haven't had a UTI since they started the veg diet. They used to get one every few months, but haven't had one for 2 years now.

In any event, good luck finding something that works for you, and let us know how it goes! :) :hi:

[jukes]

18. BeTheChange

don't get me wrong, i love my kitties!


you've got spoiled cats. cats love to control your behavior and yours have you well trained.

please be aware that commercial catfoods have necessary nutrients that home cooked may not have. cats REQUIRE l taurine in their diet; i've known a woman that almost lost her kitty because it was spoiled & wd only eat canned tuna; which did not meet her taurine needs. when the cat's hair began falling out in clumps, she was taken to the vet and put on science-diet or somesuch and recovered nicely.

if you want to waste money on vet-supplied food, it's wholesome and good (if a bit tedious & boring, but cats don't mind that as much as we). the OTC foods, except for sick animals that require special feeding, will certainly keep you cats as well fed w/o falling prey to some fufu pseudo-science nutrition guru. i've had cats live for 20 years after having been stray, w/ nary a sick day, fed soley on OTC and generic foods. VETS are businesses; if they can convince you to purchase all your food from them, their profits increase. and what they sell is as nutritionally sound as anything found in a grocery or petstore, so they haven't REALLY misled you!

put out regular food for your cats; add a bowl of dry so they can nibble. after several days of being butts; they eat because they're hungry and you can reclaim part of your life.




EDIT: BTW, leave the toilet lids up; coldest, freshest water in the house, changes several times a day. most of my guys think water-bowls are for sissies!

[Rhiannon12866]

19. My cats have all demanded canned food.

Dry just wouldn't cut it with them, but they were spoiled, as well. For my last kitty, it had to be Fancy Feast grilled chicken or turkey. They don't get bored. They want what they want. I've cooked for my dogs, per my vet's instructions, but he never suggested cooking for my cats, though I did have some success with tuna and chicken. My advice is to listen to jukes. He's the expert here on cats.:-)

[jukes]

20. rhi!

:hi: :pals:

[Rhiannon12866]

21. Hello, my dear friend! I'm just giving credit, where credit is due...

How are you? Please let me know. And how are the kitties?:hi::pals:

[lovelaureng]

22. There is another organic cat food

called Pet's Promise that seems to be really good. Both of our cat's are finicky eaters also, to the same point of not eating. I would not resort to cooking for them, however. They will eat eventually when they get hungry enough. My wife and I have gone through this with ours many times before and in the end, they eat. I would say stay with the mineral water and stick to Science Diet or Pet's Promise cat foods.