Picky cat: Friskies or Whiskas?

PipeDown wrote:

: I'm sure your cat would also like fresh fish or canned tuna but that is
: definitely not less expensive. The most nutritious food I know of is raw
: beef or poultry but as a vegetarian, you may not want to deal with that
: just for kitty.

Others in my family can handle those things, we are not dogmatic about
it. If we dice up some uncooked chicken breast, is that good for the
cat? Of course it won't be complete food for her, as I am sure it won't
for humans either. But will it work as occasional treat?

Phil P. wrote:

: Try offering the loaf diet again, alone. But this time, cut it up into
: small chunks with a knife- don't mush it.

Hi Phil, I just wanted to acknowledge that this seems to be working.

Well, only one trial so far, but today I offered her an IAMS loaf, only
that instead of mushing it up with a spoon (I can't think of any reason
why I was doing that earlier), I cut it up into small chunks with a
knife and she lapped it up, no problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

"Newbie" wrote in message
...
PipeDown wrote:

: I'm sure your cat would also like fresh fish or canned tuna but that is
: definitely not less expensive. The most nutritious food I know of is
raw
: beef or poultry but as a vegetarian, you may not want to deal with that
: just for kitty.

Others in my family can handle those things, we are not dogmatic about
it. If we dice up some uncooked chicken breast, is that good for the
cat? Of course it won't be complete food for her, as I am sure it won't
for humans either. But will it work as occasional treat?

I wont give my cats raw chicken, don't know if they are prone to suffering
salmonella poisoning or not. When I cook chicken, I make sure a couple of
pieces are un-seasoned and un-breaded, let it cool and then let them snack
on that over a period of a couple of days as a treat.

Stone
Some pic's http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/stoneman72/my_photos

Newbie wrote:
Shawn Hirn wrote:
How long can you leave the dry and canned food before your cat decides
they are too stale to eat?

For our cats you can leave the dried food out for days at a time and
they'll still eat it. Canned, about 30 minutes...

--

http://www.ollieclark.com/acronyms.html

Newbie wrote:
PipeDown wrote:

: I'm sure your cat would also like fresh fish or canned tuna but that is
: definitely not less expensive. The most nutritious food I know of is raw
: beef or poultry but as a vegetarian, you may not want to deal with that
: just for kitty.

Others in my family can handle those things, we are not dogmatic about
it. If we dice up some uncooked chicken breast, is that good for the
cat? Of course it won't be complete food for her, as I am sure it won't
for humans either. But will it work as occasional treat?

No, you should cook the chicken before you give it to her. Other than
that, it's fine as a treat (if she'll eat it - ours don't really like any
'human' meat).

--

http://www.ollieclark.com/acronyms.html

In article , Newbie
wrote:

Shawn Hirn wrote:

Thank you for sharing your experience again. I appreciate the details.

: My cat is fed a variety of different brands of dry and canned foods.
: Whiskas dry and canned are the two brands my cat likes the most...
: If I put a can of sliced beef out for her, my cat will typically polish it
: off in an hour or two, but the other kinds take her much longer to
: finish.

How long can you leave the dry and canned food before your cat decides
they are too stale to eat?

My cat's dry food is dispensed from one of those automatic dispensers,
so the cat always has just the right amount for its needs. Other than
the dry food that accidentally gets on the floor, I have never had dry
food go uneaten by my cat. Canned food is a different story. It depends
on the type of food. The sliced meat in gravy almost always gets
completely eaten within an hour or two. The canned cat food that is
flakey style like tuna can and does something sit and rot because my cat
does not always gobble it up fast enough. I would say that takes about
twelve hours, but I really don't pay enough attention to it to be sure.

: I rarely buy premium brands for my cat. Most of the time, when I
: give my cat a new premium variety of food, she gives it the cold
: shoulder. I only try the premium brands if they are on sale and if
: I haven't given them to my cat before. I guess I am lucky, because
: my cat will eat almost anything, yet it sure seems to have a
: preference for the cheaper cat foods....

I too should feel lucky, my cat has shown a strong prference for
inexpensive canned food. I have tried just about everything available
in local stores, up to about $1/can, yet she is happiest with 30 cent
cans. In fact I am having a really hard time using up the premium cans
I accumulated on sales.

I was moved to try premiums because of the "byproducts" and
"carbohydrate" controversy. I guess you have decided/found that they
don't matter?

Yup. Unless I see some oddities in my cat's blood work that require a
better diet to correct, I will continue feeding my cat as I do.

"Newbie" wrote in message
...
Phil P. wrote:

: Try offering the loaf diet again, alone. But this time, cut it up into
: small chunks with a knife- don't mush it.

Hi Phil, I just wanted to acknowledge that this seems to be working.

Well, only one trial so far, but today I offered her an IAMS loaf, only
that instead of mushing it up with a spoon (I can't think of any reason
why I was doing that earlier), I cut it up into small chunks with a
knife and she lapped it up, no problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm glad it worked! I guess some cats just don't like sticking their faces
in mush. ;-)

"Ollie Clark" wrote in message
...
Newbie wrote:
Shawn Hirn wrote:
How long can you leave the dry and canned food before your cat decides
they are too stale to eat?

For our cats you can leave the dried food out for days at a time and
they'll still eat it.

You shouldn't put down any more food than the cat's daily caloric
requirement. Whatever food the cat doesn't eat in a day should be thrown
away, the bowl washed, and refilled with only enough fresh food to fulfill
the cat's daily caloric requirement.


Canned, about 30 minutes...

When feeding canned food, the cat's daily caloric requirement should be
divided into two feedings- about 12 hours apart. You shouldn't put down any
more canned food than the cat can eat in 30-45 minutes. Whatever food that
the cat doesn't eat in that time should be thrown away. If you follow this
pattern for a few days the cat will learn to eat her entire ration in about
30 minutes.

The most nutritious food I know of is
raw beef or poultry but as a vegetarian,
you may not want to deal with that just for kitty.

We are also vegetarians so the only "meat" our cats get is what's in
their catfood. They eat Nutro and Chicken Soup dried and ProPlan canned
food.

I thought it would be a great treat for them to get some "real meat" so
i bought some chicken livers. My cats wouldn't touch it. I tried some
other chicken, both raw and cooked. They wouldn't eat that either.

I got some hamburger. They tasted a little bit of that, they preferred
it raw, but really didn't care too much for it.

I remember when I was a kid, raw meat, especially chicken livers, would
drive our cats crazy. They loved it and if you tried to take it away
from them, they would get really upset.

I don't know why my cats don't like it.

"Shawn Hirn" wrote in message
...


Because I tend to be away from home a lot during the day, I also always
keep a steady supply of dry food available for my cat. I use one of
those cat food dispensers what drops dried food into its bowl as the
bowl gets emptied by my cat.

If you're away from home most of the day, simply put out just enough food to
meet your cat's daily caloric requirement and throw out any uneaten food
everyday.

Gravity feeders are disgusting because they're rarely washed and fresh food
is often poured over old food. When cats eat they drop saliva-moistened
crumbs back into bowl. Air + moisture + food = excellent breeding ground
for bacteria. The new food that drops into the bowl from the hopper gets
contaminated by the bacteria-laden food that's already in bowl that hasn't
been washed for who
knows how long.