Cat Food Questions

Soubrette

The Vegetarian Society don't recommend that you feed your cat a veggie diet.

You probably can't get less unbiased that that

Good luck and keep us posted

Sou

ZTD

It depends on why you don't eat meat. You could buy a mincer and half a lamb and Tufter would love you forever and it would be dead cheap.

adouglasmhor

The thing cats need from meat you can't get from veggies is Taurine - but you can get Taurine from a processed veggie source now. I use it when I am bulking, still don't think it's fair on a mogser though. Cats who get a low Taurine diet, ie chap dog food etc usually end up diabetic or blind or bot.

sleepymy

Badger Lady you can get organic pet food from Pero if you're on the mainland.

liz545

Maybe not the cheapest option, but Burns' don't use intensively reared meat in their pet foods: http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk/cat_food.htm
You can always supplement dry food with some cooked fish or add 1/4 cup warm water to the biscuits to make a kind of 'gravy' if your cat's more used to wet foods.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Lack of taurine in cats causes retinal atrophy leading to blindness.To be honest I don't think it wise to feed cats which are natural carnivores a vegetarian diet.I would'nt risk taurine derived from other sources,it's just not natural to the cat and I would'nt risk its eyesight when it can easily be fed naturally.

sleepymy

The food from veggiepets has taurine added just the same as meat based cat food has it added.

Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid that can be readily produced by the human body, however, cats need a dietary source of taurine for good health. In a 1974 study, it was found that a diet deficient in taurine contributed toward retinal degeneration in cats. Taurine deficiency can also cause a heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy. For several decades cat food manufacturers have added taurine to cat food.

http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodandnutrition/f/goodingred.htm

redmel1621

Wow, How much contradictary information in what is a relatively short thread!!!
I was pleased when I first saw this as I was wondering about what I should be feeding my cats (to my budget, of course) and now I just feel more confused than ever.

I think I will stick with what i'm doing for now...cat's seem happy and when my income increases I may try some of the more expensive vet feeds...

Mel x

cupid_s

I was looking at my tin of cat food yesterday and noticed the ingredients, meat and animal derivatives, derivates from grain, additives etc, (basically a load of rubbish that I can't believe i ever fed to my little Moo) and a lot of the dried food isn't much better. I want her to eat good quality food so we've decided to give her more dried food than we currently do and are going to buy some better quality stuff, maybe from the vets.

But we don't want to feed her just dried food, she never drinks much and she really doesn't like the dried food much anyway - except go-cat!

So i was thinking of making my own, buy some meat, fish, kidney, liver etc and add a bit of veg or rice or something and blend it up loosely.

Does anyone currently feed their cat on this? Is it advisable? I just want her to be healthy, and giving more natural things surely must help. I'd feed her salmon and fillet steak if it would make her happy and healthy and live longer (and save money in vets fees lol).

Also if anyone has any good recipes please post them.

MoneySavingStudent_2

Hope this helps!

http://www.ehow.com/how_12698_make-homemade-cat.html



What a good idea! hehehe