Okay, for those not following my plight with my Misty...
About a month ago she was diagnosed as having hepatic lipidosis. Basically, a liver disease caused from malnutrition that causes the liver digest itself. It nearly killed her but we've managed to bring her back to health. She is still extremely skinny and frail but her jaundice is nearly gone (the tell-tale sign of the disease) and her attitude is back. The malnutrition came from he reluctance to eat and drink. For weeks, we've had her on a special science diet in which we used a dropper to force feed her. We started with several feedings a day back down to two-a-day.
We've tried to introduce kitty food back into her diet but she's not having it. Thinking it's something psychological, we even changed and moved bowls. Still nothing. We give her purified water (no more tap) and she drinks it. Not as often as we'd like, but she drinks. I attest this to her lack of eating. We've tried mixing the science diet with no prevail. We've tried feeding Misty her favorite brand of kibble and nothing. We've tried to feed her the good canned food. Still nothing. She nibbles and leaves it to dry.
What we have noticed, though is that she loves real food. Chicken and ground beef are her favorites. It's come to the point where we now cook her up a small portion of unseasoned meat just so that she will eat. And eat she does.
My question is this:
Since she will eat this food and not the other, does anybody know of any "real food" diets for kitties? I've got no problem buying and portioning out some for her if it helps her get better. Are there any dangers to a diet like this for our Misty?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
About a month ago she was diagnosed as having hepatic lipidosis. Basically, a liver disease caused from malnutrition that causes the liver digest itself. It nearly killed her but we've managed to bring her back to health. She is still extremely skinny and frail but her jaundice is nearly gone (the tell-tale sign of the disease) and her attitude is back. The malnutrition came from he reluctance to eat and drink. For weeks, we've had her on a special science diet in which we used a dropper to force feed her. We started with several feedings a day back down to two-a-day.
We've tried to introduce kitty food back into her diet but she's not having it. Thinking it's something psychological, we even changed and moved bowls. Still nothing. We give her purified water (no more tap) and she drinks it. Not as often as we'd like, but she drinks. I attest this to her lack of eating. We've tried mixing the science diet with no prevail. We've tried feeding Misty her favorite brand of kibble and nothing. We've tried to feed her the good canned food. Still nothing. She nibbles and leaves it to dry.
What we have noticed, though is that she loves real food. Chicken and ground beef are her favorites. It's come to the point where we now cook her up a small portion of unseasoned meat just so that she will eat. And eat she does.
My question is this:
Since she will eat this food and not the other, does anybody know of any "real food" diets for kitties? I've got no problem buying and portioning out some for her if it helps her get better. Are there any dangers to a diet like this for our Misty?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Las Vegas
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 9:55 AMMy boyfriend's brother-in-law from Egypt just laughs at all the fuss and bother we go through of opening cans of cat food. In Egypt, as in many places, those who keep cats will simply give them a portion of whatever the humans are eating that day. Of course, in those cases, most cats are working cats even in the cities, and do a fair bit of hunting on the side to keep themselves in good nutritional balance.
There are some challenges with formulating a properly balanced feline diet from scratch at home, but once you know all the nutrients to balance, it really is not hard to do. One thing is, must give calcium in bone or supplement form to balance out the phosphorus in muscle meat. Some organ meat is desirable for the taurine, along with other important nutrients. Somewhere around this tribe is a list of nice veggies that are good to include a bit of - and a smidge of whole grain, like brown rice. There are a lot of raw food recipes around here, that might give a good idea of what you need, though you might wish to supplement that with some enzymes that will help the nutrients absorb well.
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 10:07 AMSome things to remember when feeding homemade food. If cooking the food you MUST add a lot of supplements (taurine, vit E, etc) because heating will destroy these nutrients. Feeding raw is preferrable because they can get these in their natural form. You must also, if not feeding whole prey, feed bone or calcium supplements as Wind suggested. Otherwise your can can develop painful bone deformaties.
There is absolutely no need to feed your cat any veggies or grains. They do not have the ability to access any nutrients in these foods. You can feed pumpkin in small amounts (never more tha 10% of their diet) to aid in digestion and the passing of hairballs.
I recently bumped some threads that you might be interested in. -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 8:32 PMhi ms
you said:
There is absolutely no need to feed your cat any veggies or grains. They do not have the ability to access any nutrients in these foods.
my understanding is that in a raw food diet, some veggies are used because the first part of live prey a cat will eat is the belly...which often contains vegetable matter (as their prey are usually eating plants and other things).
could you give a citation or a weblink for why veggies arent necessary in a balanced raw food diet for a cat?
thanks! -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 8:31 AMCats are what you call "Obligate Carnivores" meaning that they are true carnivores. They must get all of their nutrients from other animals. They may eat the stomach contents of prey, but this is debated. They have no need for grains or vegetables/fruit. The high carbo load in these foods has been connected with causing diabetes in cats. Also look at their physiology. They do not produce the enzyme amylase in their saliva which breaks up starches. Nor do they produce cellulase for breaking down cellulose into glucose. Their jaw does not move back and forth for grinding, nor do their teeth have flat areas to do so. They have very short digestive tracts, which don't allow for enough time to break down plant materials.
I can give plenty of links:
rawfed.com/myths/cats.html (at the very bottom of the page)
www.homevet.com/petcare/fe...ourcat.html
www.mercola.com/2005/feb/5..._grains.htm (you may need to register your email, but this is a great site for human and animal health)
www.felinefuture.com/nutriti...ains.php -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 4:25 PMhi ms --
thanks for the links.
while i was aware that they are indeed carnivores, i find the debate about the eating of vegetable matter via their prey rather interesting.
this doesn't of course mean that a cat's diet should be half vegetables, or mostly vegetables, however, it does go to the idea that there may be some extra nutrients in the vegetables (already partly digested by their prey) that the cat wants to eat in addition to their prey.
since the vegetable matter has already been partly broken down, it seems that the starch issue would be somewhat avoided. that being said, i can see how people would assume RAW vegetables should be added to a raw meat diet....i'd always add cooked (and in a very small amount, say, the amount a mouse might have in his tummy). and veggies high in cellulose i'd avoid (corn especially). -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 4:35 PMjust remember that cooking does not break down vegetables like the gut enzymes in an herbivore's stomach do. Cooking also destroys a lot of the nutrients. -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Sat, August 11, 2007 - 12:29 PMThanks for all the help and links. Misty is doing well. Since alot of this is proving to be finicky eating habits, we've opted to alternate her diet. Every other day, she gets raw foods. She loves raw chicken and liver best. On alternating days she gets wet cat food (a different flavor every day). It seems to keep her interest and she's eating again. She's still rather lethargic and lazy so our next goal is to build some muscle tone in her again. We try to "play" daily. -
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Re: Real food diets for kitties?
Sat, August 11, 2007 - 8:43 PMJust be aware that liver can cause Vitamin A toxicity and should only be fed once per week maximum.
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