Feeding and Nutrition :: Natural Diet

[kmichael55]

I know Marisa, they're my sister's cats (she has 3 now, she's becoming one of those crazy cat ladies!) and I said I would tell her about the Bravo diet reptilegrrl mentioned. I actually went on the site and found a retailer that sells the Bravo products right up the road from her house.

Unfortunately, my family has a whole mess of pet feeding problems. My mother-in-law feeds her dogs, 3 little yorkies, boiled chicken only! I've printed up so much information about how unhealthy this is and the kidney problems that can arise, but she thinks she's spoiling them and won't listen. The oldest dog is 3 and looks like its near the end of her life. My whole family is so stubborn, my grandparents also used to feed their cats on a tuna and chicken only diet. One of their cats lived 23 years, but yes I recognize how unhealthy it was/is to do this.

[marisa]

So sorry to hear this! It always amazes me how some people feed their pets what they think the pet will like (which is usually the keeper's taste), not what the animal actually needs.

[reptilegrrl]

Wow, Kate, I am just amazed that you persevere in the face of that. I think I'd go nuts.

My mom is also not good at animal care. She's certifiably crazy, though, so I have given up on any kind of intervention. Fortunately, right now all she has are dogs and she loves dogs, so they get vet care sometimes and aren't beaten or kicked. But one of her dogs basically spends all his indoor time in a kennel, because he pees as a territory thing. Sigh, poor dog. At least he gets to go outside and play.

[reptilegrrl]

I have another question- why is red leaf lettuce recommended as a staple, but green leaf is not? I thought they were almost identical in nutrient profile, but I don't know much about them in-depth. Does anyone have any more info?

[marisa]

Nutritionally similar. For my turtles, the coloring of red leaf lettuce is more attractive to them and it's more readily eaten.

[steve]

I have another question- why is red leaf lettuce recommended as a staple, but green leaf is not? I thought they were almost identical in nutrient profile, but I don't know much about them in-depth. Does anyone have any more info?

Yes, they are very similar. On this page, www.redearslider.com/plants.html they are both listed as staple choices. Did you see it on a different page?

[steve]

On the site I used "collards" as a general term for that family group (and not necessarily as leafy collard greens). There are good collards and questionable ones, so if an individual wishes to try it or research it more, then it is up to them. There are several links on the bottom of that page, and I think its always important for keepers to get information from multiple sources and come to their own conclusions rather than only rely on this site.

[reptilegrrl]

Yes, they are very similar. On this page, www.redearslider.com/plants.html they are both listed as staple choices. Did you see it on a different page?

Totally my bad, Steve- I guess I got confused and thought green leaf was under "moderate" with the romaine. Thanks for clearing me up

[SpotsMama]

Sorry I'm a few days behind - I missed this post last weekend.

WARNING: canned tuna will make a male cat sick. It causes crystals in the urine which in turn cause inflamation and infection, and can progress to stones which can totally stop the cat up. I believe the root problem is too much protein in a cat's diet. I suppose it would also affect female cats but because of a male cat's anatomy it can be fatal to them. We used to feed our male cat tuna to supplement his pellets because he loved it but we nearly lost him to this problem a few years ago. We noticed he was trying to pee and couldn't. Since then I've heard of several other cats with the problem.

I think if you are using anything but a high quality cat food you have to be very careful that it's balanced.

[kmichael55]

Update on my sister's cats:
Since I've told her about the raw food diet and the overwhelming negative response about her all tuna diet, she's switched back to cat food.

It's not the raw diet, she decided that was just too expensive on her budget, but she has stopped feeding tuna. Has anyone heard anything bad about IAM's wet food??

[SpotsMama]

I'm sure all the premium foods that were contaminated have long since been pulled from the market. Here's a recent list of the recalled items:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/ ... tml#recall

Almost everything that was recalled was wet. For what it's worth, I feed my cats nothing but Science Diet dry food for indoor cats. They love it so much they refuse to eat anything else except an occasional cat treat and pet grass. I think the dry food keeps their teeth cleaner.

[marisa]

A friend of mine just told me she put her dog on the Bravo diet and he loves it.

[reptilegrrl]

I'm sure all the premium foods that were contaminated have long since been pulled from the market. Here's a recent list of the recalled items:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/ ... tml#recall

Almost everything that was recalled was wet. For what it's worth, I feed my cats nothing but Science Diet dry food for indoor cats. They love it so much they refuse to eat anything else except an occasional cat treat and pet grass. I think the dry food keeps their teeth cleaner.

SpotsMama, please see the link I provided upthread: there are NEW contaminated foods found, and the names of the brands have not been released, so of course they have not been recalled.

Science Diet is one of the worst foods you can feed a cat. It is full of grains. Cats are obligate carnivores: their bodies are not made to eat grains. Your cats love SD because it has a ton of sugar- they are addicted to that sugar high.

Dry food has not been found to keep cats' teeth cleaner; in fact, it tends to stick to their teeth and cause more decay. If you won't go raw, at least consider feeding them a high-quality canned diet.

[reptilegrrl]

Update on my sister's cats:
Since I've told her about the raw food diet and the overwhelming negative response about her all tuna diet, she's switched back to cat food.

It's not the raw diet, she decided that was just too expensive on her budget, but she has stopped feeding tuna. Has anyone heard anything bad about IAM's wet food??

I've heard some bad things about IAMS but nothing specific that I can recall, except the use of dirty ingredients. But, I used to feed IAMS canned, and one problem I had was that when I opened the pop-top cans, there was often mold on top of the cat food. I called the company and they said this happened a lot, and they gave me a bunch of coupons for free food. After that I only bought the tall cans that need a can opener.

[reptilegrrl]

A friend of mine just told me she put her dog on the Bravo diet and he loves it.

My late cat, Princess, sure loved it. She would go crazy when it was meal time! She would stand on her hind paws and wave one front paw around while I was warming it up, meowing the whole time.