Thumbs up for Maxi Zoo.

Maxi Zoo’s own brand, Select Gold, used to have a small amount of grains in it but now they make their wet food completely grain and gluten free. On the tin they call it sensitive. I call it common sense. Every cat should be eating grain and gluten free food. For dry food, Applaws is still the best option. See my blog entry on cat food.

Fat Cat

Last week I was back home in the Netherlands for a short week of mainly family visits.

I stayed with my niece and her family. They live on a nice, fairly quiet street, with a lot of cat owners. Every now and then I would meet one of these felines, walking from or back to their house. What struck me was the number of obese cats, not just in their street, but also in other streets. These are cats that are allowed to go out, so at least they’re not stuck inside all day. So how do these cats get so fat? Overeating? Wrong food? Or is it just a suburban cat thing? But that doesn’t seem right as I also saw normal, healthy looking cats. I would love to chat with their humans to find out. I’m just curious. I do know that some people have the notion that it is “gezellig” – a Dutch word that is hard to describe, but cosy comes close – to have a fat cat lying in the windowsill. Personally I think that a combination of wrong food (mostly dry food with a lot of fillers) and a constant supply of it could be the reason for these cats getting so fat. There’s no need for a constant supply of food. Feed at regular times a few times a day. If you can’t be there yourself, get a timed pet feeder. You can get them for up to 5 feeds. Weigh the food so they don’t get more than they need for their body weight (So you need to know the weight of your cat to start.)

Our two started looking for food in between mealtimes, but they’re outside a lot and it is getting colder. They’ve filled out but they are still lean, mean, killing machines. They are so active, always chasing flies, leaves, toys, each other and catching mice, rats and shrews. Somebody commented on the fact that we don’t let the two out at night. He said: “that’s the time they want to hunt”. He’s absolutely right but that’s the compromise in our house: inside at night. We don’t have a cat door and don’t want to leave the window open at night for them to go in and out and maybe bring prey back with them. Other cats could come in and go for their food as well. Then there are also foxes around and I don’t want them to get into a scrap with a fox. From about 6.30 am until 6 pm they normally can come and go as they please. They then go for naps and get some playtime in between as well. No constant supply of dry food. Dry food (grain free) is given as a snack every now and then and for the rest they get their regular meals of wet food. That and plenty of exercise will keep them in good shape.

I really feel for those obese cats. It’s not nice for them to have to carry all that weight around and it could cause all sorts of health problems in the long run. Cat owners: wake up. Don’t let your cats get fat. If you really care for your pets, you watch their weight. It can also save you a lot of money on vet bills.

 Picture through Google image search.

Thanks to the original uploader.

Just answering some questions.

Hi everyone and thank you for the private mails with compliments about my blog, encouraging me to continue on with it.

Not everyone seems to know how Blogspot works. On the right hand side there is a blog archive where you can look at my older posts. When you click on the months, the posts will show.

People have been asking me about cat food. I wrote a blog entry about it. You can find it here. In this entry I promote canned/tinned food. One person wrote to me that I should be promoting raw food as that is the best food for cats.

I totally agree, but not a lot of people have a meat grinder that can grind meat and bones at home. Not everyone can or will invest the time in making raw food. Making raw food is a responsibility. You have to get it right. You have to make sure that your cats get the right amount of taurine and vitamins and minerals in their food. High quality canned/tinned food is the next best option. Even the cheap supermarket wet food would be better than the dry food. In some countries you may find ready-made raw food in the freezer section of your pet store.

Other people were asking me about the website I promote: zooplus.ie.

From the information I got, zooplus operates in at least 20 European countries. Try it out: zooplus.nl, zooplus.it, zooplus.es, zooplus.ch etc. It’s all there. So you might find the one for your country too. What I like about zooplus is that they offer good quality products at a reasonable price. You don’t pay delivery costs when you order over a certain amount.

Your local shops might have those products as well so make sure to check them out. I can’t get certain products here, or sometimes the products that I can get are much dearer so then I buy them at zooplus. They are reliable and delivery only takes a few days.

Somebody asked me where I get all my information. Well, I read books, watch TV programmes and I do a lot of research on the internet. On the internet especially, you have to be careful as there is also a lot of misinformation available. Common sense and using more than one source is the way to go. When I decided to give my cats topical treatment for the ringworm, I spent hours reading up on it first, before I decided on what to do. Some people recommended teatree oil but I read elsewhere, in several places, that teatree oil can be very bad for cats. So: no teatree oil or products containing teatree oil.

When I finally decided on what to buy, I asked for additional information in the chemist shop and health food shop and carefully read the leaflet before even going near them with the stuff.

If you’re not sure if your cats are healthy, go to the vet. If you’re not sure about health issues concerning your cats, always go with the vet’s advice.

It’s the safest way. If you’re not sure about the advice your vet gave you, go to another vet for a second opinion.

Ringworm is not life threatening. That’s why I tried out less invasive topical treatment first. If I don’t know what’s going on, I will always go to the vet.

Last but not least I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and compliments. And yes, I am a photographer also. You can find my work on my photography blogspot, on facebook and on Flickr.

Charlie and Tina, day 3.

Woke up early and checked on the pair. Of course they had been on the countertop that they’re not supposed to go on. If they had a middle finger…. But they were grand. Tina is taking to the wet food easier than Charlie. So I mixed it with some kibble again and he ate it. Then gave them playtime. When they were finished playing I had my breakfast and spent time doing my own stuff. Charlie and Tina don’t really play together. They don’t chase each other around. They both prefer different toys too. Every now and then Charlie will jump on Tina’s toy and the other way around, as if to say “I can do this too”. They do lie together on a chair sometimes and when one goes to investigate, the other might follow.

They’re both so different though. Charlie is easy going and a real boy. Tina is a bit nervous but also very clever and…. feckin’ hell she’s fast. The way she chases that toy, I feel sorry for little critters once she’s out and about. We’ll keep them in the house for a few weeks and then let them go outside as well. I’m already nervous thinking about it. Don’t want them to end up like poor Cato but don’t want to restrict them to an inside life either. This afternoon the missus and myself were watching a film and the cats joined us in the sitting room. Nice and relaxed. Well, for a bit anyway. We had to give them some playtime during the film as well. And every now and then they demanded some luv and attention.

Fed them some chicken fillet again at around 10pm and I also managed to get a vinegar treatment of the thin hair spots in with both of them.

Their poo has solidified more so that’s a good sign.

Charlie on one of the cat trees.

 Tina chasing a ball.

Feline food (with a lot of important information)

When we decided to take a cat again, I had already done a lot of research on-line and come accross several interesting sites and forums.

The one that I found a real eye-opener was catinfo.org, a site by an American veterinarian who really cares about cats and did a great write-up on feline food. Read if you really care for your cat or cats.

The main message of the site is: Feed your cat canned food as a main food, not dry food.

Dry food contains only about 7 percent moisture. Canned food about 80 percent.

When I told this to a pet shop owner in the Netherlands, he replied with: "canned food contains too much water. They won't get enough nutrients from it" BULLSHIT!!! What an idiot. Muscle meat is about 75 percent water, 2/3 of our human body weight is water.

Good brands of tinned food contain mostly meat: muscle meat and innards and often a few percent of grains. There are also added vitamins, minerals and taurine which is important.

Dried food on the other hand, even the better brands, don't have a meat content that high and contain a lot of plant-based fillers like maize to bulk up the food and make it cheaper so the profit margin is higher. They also have added vitamins, minerals and taurine, but the fillers are bad for your cat's kidneys.

Dry food has been boiled and dehydrated. Canned food is fresh meat that has been canned and hasn't had the crap boiled out of it.

Cats don't really have a thirst thrive. That means that they don't drink enough. In nature cats get most of their moisture from their prey, which contains about 75 percent of moisture. You never see a cat dry his food before eating it, so dried food is not natural to a cat.

This means that on dry food they would have to drink a LOT more to compensate, which they don't. Even cats who drink quite often only get maybe half of the moisture they need.

 Their urine is already concentrated. With dry food the kidneys have to work really hard to process all the plant-based fillers and there isn't really quite enough moisture to flush it through properly. NOT GOOD!

"But my cats really love dry food" Yes, the food industry makes it smell and taste nice.

Your kids probably love McDonalds, but do you bring them there every single day and give them junk food a few times a day? Because that's what it is. Dry cat food is junk food.

"But dry food is better for their teeth" That's what the industry likes you to think. Most of it is swallowed whole as cats can't chew. They don't have molars. Their teeth are made to rip and tear. The food is so brittle that the bit they do crunch, isn't in contact with their teeth long enough to have much effect.

"But in the wild they don't eat canned food either" No, they don't but it's the closest you can get to their natural food if you don't want to go make your own raw food. With a cat living in a human environment, you have to make food compromises.

"So what do you give your cats?"

 I give my cats canned food from Maxi Zoo's own brand (Real Nature and Select Gold)

Thinking of changing to Grau's grain free which you can buy at zooplus.ie

 I also give them some fresh chicken fillet every now and then. They love it. Chop it up as fine as they need it but let them tear at it if they want to. Chicken wings are great too. They can crunch the bones.

 Don't be squeamish about that. Our Cato once brought in a dead bird and insisted on eating it inside, on the kitchen floor. He devoured it feathers and all, only left the tiny head behind.

Now, I do give my cats dried food as a snack every now and then. Applaws makes dry food that has no grain fillers in it. It is the best dry food you can get because of the high meat content. You can buy it at zooplus.ie

There is a lot more information at catinfo.org, so please take some time to read it (downloadable versions available on the site) if you really care about your cat's health.