Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with food and cat

Fuckin' cats, Donny.

backseatpilot — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:51:44 -0800

Question about the feeding of two cats on different diets. We adopted two cats last week, Doppler (6 months) and Maxwell (about a year). The rescue told us to keep Doppler on kitten food until he's a year old, so we've been putting out a bowl of kitten and a bowl of adult cat food. Problem is, Maxwell really loves the kitten food and has been muscling Doppler out of the way to get at it first.

We feed them twice a day, and the bowls do not get devoured entirely at once - there's often a little bit of each food left when I get home from work. I've tried feeding Max first with the adult food, but he won't touch it until the kitten food is presented. Trying to sequester Doppler and the kitten food behind a closed door has been hit-and-miss, since Max gets underfoot and won't leave me alone until the kitten food is on the ground. When they both get put down at the same time, both cats will eat some of each food.

So, two part question. First, is it bad for the older cat to be eating kitten food or for the kitten to be eating adult food? Second, how can I prevent them from eating each other's food with a minimum of fuss?

How to protect my wall from the cat dish

kosmonaut — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:22:35 -0800

Cat fanciers: is there a convenient way to keep dried bits of food from getting on the wall next to the cat food dishes? We keep our cat's food and water dishes on the floor against a wall. Over time, the wall area near the dishes builds up a nasty spattering of dried food all over it. The wall can be washed, of course, but we'd love to have a way to keep it from getting dirty in the first place.

Rather than affixing something to the wall semi-permanently, I was thinking that it would be great if there was some product that was a platform for the dishes with a little divider sticking up in the back that would guard my wall from the dish area. It might look sort of like a little stage. A unit like this could easily be rinsed off in the sink from time to time. Does anyone know if this (or something similar) exists?

If not, then how do other cat fanciers protect against this kind of wall mess?

cat feed directly from can?

pharcide — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:43:21 -0800

can you feed your cat directly from the can?

How can we stop our dog from antagonizing our cat before meal times?

slowfasthazel — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:13:16 -0800

How can we stop our dog from antagonizing our cat before meal times? Our household consists of a 5 year old rescue cat, who previously lived well with dogs, and a 6 year old Border Collie McNab rescue, who previously lived well with cats. We've only had the dog for about a week and a half and, while he's well behaved and a great dog 99% of the time, we're noticing he's getting more and more aggressive before we feed them. At meal times, they both come racing into the kitchen, but the dog will herd/chase the cat either away from her dish, or out of the room completely. This morning he chased her out and snapped at her. The dog does not seem to be particularly protective of his food when he's eating it. We have started feeding the dog in his kennel so the cat can have some time to finish her meal. That addressed the eating of the cat food by the dog, which he would do if there was opportunity, but not the pre-meal aggression.

Any recommendations before this gets out of hand? The dog and cat food is currently housed in a cupboard near the cat's dish. We thought about moving the food, since maybe the dog is associating that area with his food. We are also considering installing a cat door on our laundry room door, so the cat can eat in peace. Should we just put the dog in the kennel and then bring his food to him? I'm not sure if these steps will just help the symptoms rather than the problem. I have also heard of letting the cat eat a little bit out of the dog bowl before the dog does, which is supposed make the cat appear higher in the pack.

The dog and cat get along fine when there's not food involved.

CatFilter - is adult food OK for an older kitten?

CrazyGabby — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:50:22 -0800

Am I hurting my 7-month-old kitten by letting him eat adult cat food? Zappa is a very playful and active 7-month-old kitten. Ever since we introduced him to Gabby, our older cat, at about 4 months old, he has been eating her food. We kept giving him kitten food, but he always chose the adult food over the kitten food. He ate the kitten food if that's all there was, but wouldn't touch it if there was adult food.

We free-feed dry food to both cats. No wet food, and no cat treats. (Gabby doesn't like them, and we haven't started giving them to Zappa yet.) They're eating a mix of Royal Canin hairball formula and sensitive skin formula.

Zappa is very healthy, and seems to be thriving. He's already up to 10 pounds! I just want to be sure I'm not hurting him by depriving him of some vital nutrients that are only in kitten food.

(And since this thread is worthless w/o pics, here's a link to one of him when he was just a little guy. Gotta upload some new ones...)

Thanks!

Highly absorbent; highly nutritious?

Dr. Wu — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:23:04 -0800

Could I eat cat litter? Let me be clear here: I have no intention of actually eating cat litter.

But! We recently switched to the laboriously named Swheat Scoop-brand cat litter (which works quite well), which appears to be made of nothing but dried, cracked wheat.

Could I, say, cook this stuff up in some hot milk or water, add a little butter and brown sugar, and enjoy a piping hot kitty-litter breakfast? If not, why not?

Why can't we feed our cat after he's been tranquilized?

tomatofruit — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:22:15 -0800

Our 20 pound monster of a cat had to be injected with a tranquilizer today at the vet. Afterwards, we were told not to give him any food or water until tomorrow. Google searches have turned up plenty of suggestions for how to tranquilize one's pet, but nothing mentioning not letting them eat or drink. We're obviously going to do as the vet says, but this cat has a darling habit of clawing furniture and knocking things off shelves when his dish is empty, so I can't help but wonder why. Any ideas?

Eeeew, we can't eat that!

DiscourseMarker — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:58:24 -0800

Catfilter: What is the texture of your cat's wet food? So my vet is concerned that the current wet food I've been feeding my cats has too much sodium and is urging me to get better food for them. They also have weight issues (overweight) and I just got the labs on one of the cats and she is a little dehydrated, so I really need to get them to eat more wet food, less dry.

So here's the thing: my cats (obligatory picture) are finicky, particularly with respect to the *texture* of their wet food. As in, they just won't eat food that has identifiable chunks of real meat. It has to be minced/pate/whatever you want to call it, or they just stare at me and yowl. I read through this thread and am interested in Evo or Wellness, but I can't tell from the websites what the food actually looks like in the can.

So those of you who use these brands--tell me about the texture. Are specific flavors of either brand chunky/minced? Somewhere in-between? I really don't want to buy more food (I've already been burned this week!) that I know they won't even look at.

Feeding My Cats Homemade Raw Meat Diet - Good Idea?

billysumday — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:50:59 -0800

I want to make my own homemade, raw meat (chicken and rabbit) cat food. My girlfriend thinks it's a bad idea. Almost everything I can find on the interwebs suggest that feeding a cat a BARF (biologically appropriate raw food) diet is healthy for the cat. This wiki suggests that there is no scientific evidence pointing to a clear resolution - in the references section there are some vets arguing one way or the other, but nothing concrete. Has anyone been there, done that, or have any other advice? Following the advice and instructions of this vet, I'd like to grind up whole pieces of chicken, add the necessary supplements, and feed that mixture to my cats as a supplement to their dry food.

Girlfriend is pragmatic and a Ph.D. student in the sciences and is demanding solid research to support this idea. There is no solid research, so far as I can tell, but there are a lot of supplemental anecdotes by random people on the internet that swear by this diet. Also, online companies selling people raw food to feed to their cats.

I would love any suggestions people have of other, better recipes; advice on how to make homemade cat food; and ideas to convince the g/f to feed the kitties my super awesome Billysumday's special all-natural feline delite raw food diet.

What to do with cats who don't eat wet food?

chudmonkey — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:54:51 -0800

My cats are effectively ignoring their wet food in favour of their dry food. What can/should I do to keep them eating healthily? I'm a very happy dad to three 7-month-old tabbies, but I'm afraid my lack of cat experience is turning me into a bit of a worrier.

The rescue foundation that we adopted from gave us a supply of food and told us to keep using it, because it's apparently primo stuff. (Wellness brand canned wet food, and Orijen brand Biologically Appropriate Real-Food Kibble)

We feed the cats wet food twice per day, around 12 hours apart. They get kibble in between, and we take the kibble away around 1 hour before wet food time.

My problem is that they don't eat the wet food. I've taken the portions down to about 4 tablespoons per day, each. They nibble at it, but they always leave the bulk of it to dry out and get disgusting in their dishes, and then they spend their time wailing at me for "Crunch Particles", which is their term for kibble, as far as I can tell.

I want to be a good dad, but I'm highly opposed to buying a bunch of brands of cat food until I find one they like, and I'm starting to feel like a real chump laying out 6 portions of ignored food every day. I don't know what to do... If I stir kibble into the wet food, it's a crap shoot: sometimes the mixture gets fully devoured, sometimes its' just a waste of kibble.

What I'm hoping is that I can simply feed them what they like (dry food) and stop feeding them the wet food they ignore, but I certainly don't want to compromise on nutrition. Ideas? Suggestions? Anything? Please? I'm freaking out over here.

Thanks in advance!

Good, healthy cat food - whats the real deal and not just fluff that I pay extra for?

Carialle — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:51:42 -0800

Good, healthy cat food - whats the real deal and not just fluff that I pay extra for? I have two young cats who are energetic, indoor, mix breed cuties. I feed them each 1 can of wet food a day (1/2 in the am, 1/2 in the pm) and give them 1/4 dry food each twice a day (maybe more). What kind of dry and wet food should I get them? They love Trader Joe's cheap by-product filled wet and are much more flexible on the dry food (eat Nutro/Purina/Etc). But my REAL question is what is ACTUALLY good food for cats? I heard that by-products are bad, but I have also heard that might not be so true after all, protein content is important and yet many of these "healthy" foods contain a lot of vegetables (i.e. Spot's Stew). Do cats need vegetables? I've heard that a lot of these new supposedly healthy brands are actually not so and that cats don't need peas and spinach. I could use specific brand suggestions and knowledge of whats foods are truly good for cats and not just pretending. My kitties thank you!

mmm, salty and crunchy...

kidsleepy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:07:10 -0800

[SillyKittyFilter] Is it okay for my cat to eat pretzel sticks? I left out a bowl with about ten pretzel sticks (the small ones) in it, and over the course of a weekend my cat ate them. I think that's fine, the boyf disagrees. Kitty seems no worse for the wear.

Are pretzels ok? Is there a good resource for what "people foods" should ABSOLUTELY be avoided when it comes to cats? Or a list of people foods that are perfectly fine to share with your feline?

Why isn't my cat hungry?

Newbornstranger — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 05:35:39 -0800

What could have caused my cat's sudden lack of appetite? We've been feeding our cat Wellness Complete Health - Salmon, Salmon Meal and Deboned Turkey (dry food) for about 2 months now. She usually eats very enthusiastically for a few minutes just after feeding then leaves it and comes back to finish it later on.

Literally overnight this has changed. She no longer will eat the Wellness food. She is still acting the same though - running around and playing but she won't eat the food. She does, however perk up when we start to get her food and follow us to the kitchen, but when presented the food, she sniffs at it then leaves the room. She will eat wet food, but not with the same enthusiasm as wet food usually gets from her. She's still drinking water with no problem.

She's vomited twice since this started (2 days ago) but only water. She's a year and a couple months old if that can make a difference.

The Wellness food we bought her says it expires in May 2008 but we've been feeding her from the same (large) bag for the 2 months.

Any ideas as to what the problem could be?

Is changing my cat's diet while I go on vacation a bad idea?

FortyT-wo — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:30:19 -0800

Is it reasonable to change my cat from wet food to dry food for a few days while I go on vacation? We put our kitty on a new diet about a month ago. He went from all-you-can-eat dry food to 1/3 can of wet cat food 2x daily. He's getting on a little in age, and he'd put some extra weight on. With the new diet he's definitely slimmer and friskier, so it's worked out really well.

In a couple of months I plan to go on about 4 days of vacation, which will require me to have someone come to feed him. It would definitely be more convenient for whoever might end up doing me that favor if he was eating dry food at the time. Also, kitty wouldn't be thinking he might starve to death because nobody's home to feed him. Moving him to a bowl of dry food might be more comforting for him (he freaks out when we're away overnight, I guess he thinks we're not coming back). But I worry that messing with his diet will either cause him to have some sort of gastric distress, or cause him to put on some of the weight he's lost.

I'd want him back on wet when I get home, so that'd mean changing it again.

I don't want to screw my cat up just for my convenience. But I'm thinking he might be happier if he had constant access to food while we're gone.

Any ideas / advice / experience most welcome.

how to feed two cats separately

logic vs love — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:22:21 -0800

I have two cats who are used to eating together. But one has a weight problem that needs to be controlled. How can I get them used to eating separately? posted for a friend:

I have two cats, a 10-month old kitten and a 10-week old kitten. We got the 10-week old only a few weeks ago, but both cats are already close friends. Even though I tried to feed them in separate bowls to begin with, they quickly began eating out of the same bowl, making it impossible for me to tell how much food each is eating. The problem is, the 10-month old kitten is already a little overweight and will stop being a kitten fairly soon. She will have to be switched to adult cat food sometime soon, while the 10-week old will have to keep eating kitten chow for quite a while. I need to figure out how to get them eating out of separate food bowls and possibly at different times of day so that I can switch the older cat to regular cat food and control her weight.

The problem is, I have no clue how to do this. Currently, they eat only dry food (Iams Kitten food), which I leave available to them all day. I assume getting them used to timed feedings is part of the process, but what else should I do? How can I get my cats used to eating from separate bowls and leaving each other's food alone?

Miaow, I'm hungry

holgate — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 12:37:06 -0800

Our cat eats like a pig. The backstory: we free-fed him for his first few months with us, until he started putting on weight and developing various hygiene problems related to having a large belly. So he's been on weight-management dry food for a while -- one that agrees with him -- and is down to a comfortable weight. But our lives are now somewhat dictated by his feeding schedule, since he empties his food bowl Hungry Hippo-style regardless of how much we give him. He throws kitty temper-tantrums when he's considers it feeding time: scratching furniture, knocking things from counters, chewing on wooden table corners and cables. We've wondered if he's bored, but we try to keep him as entertained as possible. (Getting another cat for company isn't an option right now.) Any ideas?

A human version of Science Diet?

ontic — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:21:31 -0800

Is there a human equivalent to premium cat food? That is to say, a single form of synthetic food that will serve all hunger and nutritional needs? If not, why not? My cat subsists quite well on his cat food, Science Diet, and the occasional treat. It fulfills all of his nutritional and hunger needs. He's healthy and active. It seems like this should at least be a rarely used option for humans. When I don't have time to cook a nutritional meal but want to stave off hunger and keep my blood sugar in line, I'm kind of jealous. I wish I could just measure out some human kibble and know my nutrition was being taken care of until I can cook something tasty again. So what gives? It wouldn't be glamorous to eat, but it sure sounds useful.

My cat is starving

ubu — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:49:38 -0800

What can we feed our cat in an emergency? We have to buy our cat special prescription cat food from the vet, and it closed before we got off work. We have to leave tomorrow before it opens, and our kitty is hungry. Is there anything in our house that we can feed him to tide him over?

Klaus is insane and kind of a dick

ibeji — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:52:56 -0800

Why does our cat try to cover our heads like litter when we sleep? Does our cat think we're filthy?!? I'm a little insulted... A brief background of Klaus: he is Balinese (3/4 siamese and 1/4 angora specifically), and has never been outdoors. He is crazy, demanding, and overly affectionate. Many people have called him a dick. Also:

*OCD: He is very particular about the litter box: our other cat doesn't get the whole covering the poop thing, so Klaus will go in there and cover it for him, spending ten minutes to make sure the offending waste is buried forever.

*Rage Issues: If he's not sleeping, he'll want you to pet him constantly or talk to him or throw toys for him; if you do not do these things, he will climb up on your chest and yell in your face. If you push him off, he will run around the house in a rage, screaming horrible things.

*Food issues: He's not very interested in food usually, though when he is, he wolfs it down.

So the question is, basically, what does it mean when he
(a) covers up his food like it's litter
(he did this only when I kept putting the bowl in front of him)

(b)cover up my husband's sleeping head like it's litter
(my husband's head is clean, as were the sheets)

Your thoughts and experiences? There's nothing wrong with him, and we love his insane behavior; I'm just wondering what drives this little bat devil monkey thing.

Cat pee is killing me! :-(

twiggy — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:29:52 -0800

Catfilter: Questions about prescription food and cat pee problems... A couple of years ago, one of my 2 cats started peeing on the carpet. Luckily, rather than just thinking he was a dumb kitty, I looked around and found it was a sign of urinary problems. Sure enough, I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with crystals in his urine. He is now on a prescription diet.

He's been on a prescription diet for a long time now, but still pees on the carpet relatively often and I can't seem to get him to stop. I've had him re-tested before and the crystals are gone. I've tried having 3 litter boxes (for 2 cats), cleaning them more often, changing litter, etc and nothing seems to work.

Now, I'm moving to a new place (my first purchase) and am even more concerned about his peeing problem.

I have 2 questions as a result:

1) Easier to answer, perhaps: Since I'm moving, I need to find a new vet. This prescription food is very expensive (I can't remember if it's Feline S/D or Feline C/D .. one of the two) -- is there anywhere I can get it online or not from a vet for perhaps cheaper?

2) The place I bought had carpeted bedrooms and hardwood in the rest of it. I prefer not to have carpet, and I wanted to avoid giving kitty a soft comfy place to pee other than a litterbox, so I've put pergo laminate flooring (i.e. "fake hardwood") in the bedrooms. Will this discourage kitty from using the floor to pee on, or am I just setting myself up for ruined wood/fake wood or for him to start using the couch/bed? Has anyone had good experiences with any sort of behavioral tricks to try and discourage this? I've broken myself of the habit of freaking out when I catch him (I started off by yelling for him to stop, which clearly scared him and probably just taught him not to pee when I was present, regardless of where). I've praised the living heck out of him when I do happen to see him coming from using the litter box. What else can I do?

As frustrating as this is, I am 100% against the concept of giving him up for adoption to someone else or putting him down, so please don't suggest that.

While I'm asking stuff: Any suggestions for a great litterbox? I have a LitterMaid that I love, and both kitties did too for quite some time, but once the pee problems came for one of them, he stopped using the LitterMaid entirely and will only use one of the regular junky boxes I have.

What to feed two very different cats?

gilsonal — Tue, 02 May 2006 22:20:54 -0800

Looking for suggestions for a good dry food to feed two cats with slightly different needs. They refuse to play nice and eat from their "own" bowls, each preferring the other's food. I have two cats, and I think I need to get new food. I am currently feeding a mix of Iams Kitten food and Iams Indoor food. I tried giving each cat the one best suited for them, but had to settle for mixing since they refused to cooperate.

One cat is very active, a year old, so needs to go off kitten food. I want something that will help him keep running around like the crazy cute maniac he is.

The other is about 2 and a half, and is a lot more, well, lazy, than the other. She'll still play, but prefers window watching to running lately. She has lots of dandruff, which I assume would be helped by food with more good oils in them? Shes a bit overweight, though, and could stand to lose a pound or so.

How can I balance the needs of a very active cat with an older, not so active cat? They are currently allowed free access to all the food they want, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. Any suggestions for coat supplements that will help with dandruff would be great too. We brush a lot but it still keeps comin'

Why doesn't my dog eat cat kill?

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:35:03 -0800

Why does my bulldog ignore dead critters in the house? We have a mighty hunter in our midst, Eustace, the cat, who makes sure we are provided with a corpse or two a day, usually mice, voles, rats, birds, snakes or squirrels. My question is why does my English bulldog, Fanny, completely ignore these offerings? She is a major chow hound who only gets fed once in the morning and spends the rest of day snorking up anything she considers remotely edible. When we go for walks I have to be ever vigilent to guard against her finding old food wrappers or gum or chicken bones, etc.

But she never shows any interest in the cat kill left lying around. Lettuce with a drop of ranch dressing? oh yes! Burnt pizza crust? bring it on. Raw chicken skin? more please. Fresh, bloody rat? that is about as interesting as the rubber band on the floor, no wait...the rubber band deserves a second glance because it might have become edible in the last 2 seconds.

What is most strange to me is that a dead squirrel on our route really makes her day. She would be happy to spend all day sniffing it, but a dead squirrel in our living room is old news.

Why doesn't she show any interest in fresh meat unless I am standing in the kitchen chopping it up for dinner?

Taco Bell Beans or Fancy Feast?

roguescout — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:26:17 -0800

I hope this doesn't wreck the experience for anyone... But why do the refried beans at Taco Bell smell just like canned cat food? This really bugs me.

Good wet food for kitties?

calistasm — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 20:00:55 -0800

Help me find good wet food for my cat. The Zoey is currently being fed dry Nutro Maxcat chicken (she picks at this all day) and half a can of Fancy Feast grilled once a day. I'm trying to wean her off it since it contains byproduct, and I would like her to eat healthier. But there's so much premium wet food to choose from, I don't know where to start. She also prefers the texture and loose composition of the grilled, and while she'll eat the can-shaped pressed stuff, she makes her preference known. I think she also prefers the gravy in the non-pressed food, so she has something to lick. I am hoping you cat-owning MeFi-ites have found something that meets the above criteria, or something close. Thanks for your time.

How to feed a cat without really trying.

asnowballschance — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 01:37:14 -0800

What do I feed my new kitten? Where I live, cat food is not available (or at least, it's prohibitively expensive), and I want to make sure my cat is getting all the nutrients he needs. There is some good info out there, but advice from cat owners would be reassuring. Can I just feed him whatever I eat? How do I make sure he's getting enough protein (I don't eat much meat)? What other vitamins do I need to watch for? Are there foods I should avoid?