Not helpful but... :2razz:
I asked my wife, and the first thing she said is, human tuna is not good for cats. A quick internet search by me confirmed this. A tiny amount here and there as a treat is okay, but definitely shouldn't be a part of their overall nutrition program. Even tuna packaged for cats should be used in moderation, because of the mercury issue. As for the other issues, she kinda said what I did, you may have to experiment with each individual cat since some are more sensitive to certain brands than others. She wasn't really sure about the urinating outside the box thing. We have a young female cat that occasionally does this, but I think it's because she ain't too bright. :mrgreen: My wife keeps straw on the floor of the "Catio", and in their little nighttime building, and I think she confuses it with litter occasionally.
I did a little research on the "wet/dry" debate. And it's true to some degree that a diet of pure dry food can be problematic. But, a diet of wet/dry mixed food is generally considered okay. I guess what you have to watch for in cat food, is too much grains. Cats are carnivores, and need mostly animal protein. I plan on looking into this a little more in depth, and will let you know what I find.
Your post has spurred me to investigate this, and I thank you for it. I usually consider the cats to be my wife's deal (though I am really attached to our oldest one), and never really paid too much attention to their care. Of course, I am tasked with the building of our vast, zoo quality, cat compound. I am allergic, and we can't really keep the cats in the house, so we have spent most of our free time this summer expanding their protective outside domain. :mrgreen: Maybe I'll start a thread about it.
I asked my wife, and the first thing she said is, human tuna is not good for cats. A quick internet search by me confirmed this. A tiny amount here and there as a treat is okay, but definitely shouldn't be a part of their overall nutrition program. Even tuna packaged for cats should be used in moderation, because of the mercury issue. As for the other issues, she kinda said what I did, you may have to experiment with each individual cat since some are more sensitive to certain brands than others. She wasn't really sure about the urinating outside the box thing. We have a young female cat that occasionally does this, but I think it's because she ain't too bright. :mrgreen: My wife keeps straw on the floor of the "Catio", and in their little nighttime building, and I think she confuses it with litter occasionally.
I did a little research on the "wet/dry" debate. And it's true to some degree that a diet of pure dry food can be problematic. But, a diet of wet/dry mixed food is generally considered okay. I guess what you have to watch for in cat food, is too much grains. Cats are carnivores, and need mostly animal protein. I plan on looking into this a little more in depth, and will let you know what I find.
Your post has spurred me to investigate this, and I thank you for it. I usually consider the cats to be my wife's deal (though I am really attached to our oldest one), and never really paid too much attention to their care. Of course, I am tasked with the building of our vast, zoo quality, cat compound. I am allergic, and we can't really keep the cats in the house, so we have spent most of our free time this summer expanding their protective outside domain. :mrgreen: Maybe I'll start a thread about it.
Yup, definitely. I give a dollop of tuna as an occasional treat, and sardines for their birthdays. :mrgreen: But land critters should be the base of the diet.
I think it's also important what you said about the wet/dry debate, and to make sure you always double check your information. There's lots of conspiracy theories about dry food out there and how it's poison, but really, it's not the complicated.
It's simply that cats have a weak thirst drive, so they don't drink enough water to compensate. They're dry-weather animals and they just don't feel thirst like we do. Long-term, that can cause issues. That's really the biggest reason wet food should ideally be the primary part of the diet.
Secondarily, people often don't realize that dry food has more calories by volume than wet because its starchy, and that's why both cats and dogs can get fat on it so easily, and the issues that can cause. They eat until they're full, and they don't know if that's 200 calories or 500 calories.
For some people, cost or limitations on ability or time can stop some people from going 100% moisture-dense diet, but there are people that are way too shaming about this or believe all sorts of crazy stuff about dry food. What's important is that we do the best we can with the information we have. For some people, the best they can do is half-wet. That's better than none! And for other people, they simply didn't know. And if their vet has never told them, why would they think there's anything wrong with it? Like I said in an earlier post, back in the 90's, everyone fed totally dry diets to their cats. It was less expensive, and there was no research about it. I can't blame my parents for doing that when no one knew.
It's striking the balance between being informed and doing your best, and getting mired in the misinformation that can be on both sides of this, or people who can get overly intense or uppity about how other people are doing. I've seen people get really crazy about this on pet care forums, and that just isn't going to help anyone learn more or feel compelled to gain more information. It just makes people defensive and angry.
I get a big bag of dry if I have to go out of town so the pet sitter can actually feed her enough, because she can only visit once a day, and I don't worry about that even a little -- I just make sure she has an extra large water bowl down. It's not poison, it's just not the best option for a main, long-term diet. And I've had people brow-beat me even about that.
I think of the pet food debate like politics, honestly. Question everything.
Great post SmokeAndMirrors.
I had never been a cat person until my brother-in-law got the brilliant idea that he would drop his cat off in our woods. We didn't see hide nor hair of him for three weeks. Then he started coming around, and the rest is history. Now, three more cats later, I'm a cat person whether I like it or not. Luckily, I love the little butt heads.
Our latest addition. Haven't named him yet, but I'm leaning toward Blue. He's a 6 mo old Siamese/Tabby mix. Also a dropped off cast away from the area. You can't really tell through the screen, bit he's got ice blue eyes.
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I hate when the pics load sideways. It was straight on my phone lol.
