Comments on: What Exactly are We Feeding Our Cats?

By: Kinga

Kinga — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:09:51 +0000

I wrote an article about this too! If you want to read it its here: http://therealowner.com/shopping/the-truth-behind-pet-food/
I am so glad that more people are aware of the pet food situation. Thanks for sharing!

By: John Csakany

John Csakany — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:51:04 +0000

@CaSundara: Thank you for your kind words.

At first I was concerned of a certain immorality; after all, I’m essentially using other people’s pets to test the safety of my own cat’s food, right? But there is no moral quandary: this only works because most people WON’T do what I suggest.

I do my best to share this bit of advice (I even sign my real name on websites like this) and I mention it whenever I can in real life conversation. In the end, people will do as they will.

I guess it’s the perfect storm of adoring my cats and my old habit of thinking too much. Anyhow, thanks again for commenting.

By: CaSundara

CaSundara — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:13:01 +0000

@ John – thanks for adding all that extra info, it’s nice to see there are people out there doing their own research, rather than trusting blindly that these companies have the welfare of our animals as their paramount concern.

By: John Csakany

John Csakany — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:29:35 +0000

I did a lot of research on cat food and the solution I came up with is that I mix several brands together for a custom blend that I store in empty, cleaned kitty litter buckets. I gave a few buckets to my ex whose cat had dry skin. It cleared up and in about six weeks her cat had a shiny black coat. The recipe:

1) Orijen Cat (15.4 lbs.)
2) Wellness Core Cat and Kitten (12 lbs.)
3) Innova EVO Cat and Kitten (15.4 lbs.)
4) Eagle Pack Cat Holistic Select Anchovy, Sardine and Salmon Meal Formula (2 – 6.6 lbs = 13.2 lbs total)

A word of advice: you can protect your pets against the next product recall by keeping at least three months of food on hand since it takes about that long for a product recall to happen. Just tape the receipt to the bags and store them in a cool, dry place until needed (pay attention to the expiration dates, of course!). After you mix the blend, hang on to the empty bags just in case.

Although mixing several brands together increases the odds that one bag would be contaminated/recalled, the effects of any one contaminated bag are minimized. In other words, your cat would get a little sick (time enough to get to the vet) but not die. If you feed your cat only only one brand and that one brand is the one recalled, 100% of what they’ve eaten is poisonous, instead of only, say 25% of a blended mix. You follow?

I also offer a small can of food split three ways once daily. Feeding dry food exclusively is a bad idea since cats would normally get most of the water they need at the same time they eat from the mice they consume. Gobbling down dry food and then drinking a whole bunch of water separately isn’t all that great for digestion and elimination. Also, salts from dry food will crystallize in a male cat’s penis and can eventually stop urine flow, possibly requiring amputation!! Fresh water at all times is a MUST.

CaSundara mentions the importance of wheatgrass for indoor cats. That’s good advice. I use treats for training (well…”training” is broadly defined). I found some freeze-dried venison et. al. online: excellent quality, but pricey and again brings up the question of proper moisture.

/like this website.

By: CaSundara

CaSundara — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:22:02 +0000

I know, it’s shocking, isn’t it? I’d never heard about the tuna but I’ll remember that for future reference.
One of my cats had flakey skin when we got her and her fur wasn’t soft, either (she was two when we got her and had been back with her breeder for six months after the new owner had lost her home). She’d been feeding them cheap dry food and it was obvious my cat had been pushed out of the way by bigger cats because she was underweight, too. Luckily she’s put on weight and her coat looks far better – and it only took a couple of weeks for the difference to show!

By: Sarah Sullins

Sarah Sullins — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:54:47 +0000

Wow. I can’t believe that we feed our cats this stuff. I also read in a book that tuna can be bad for some cats, so I make sure the food we get doesn’t have tuna in it. I used to “treat” my cats to a can every now and then, but our black cat started to lose her fur and here skin was flaking like she was getting over a sunburn. It was awful, and we didn’t know what was going on until I read a book on cats. A few weeks after I stopped giving them tuna, her fur grew back and there was no more flaking.