Noted in Readers’ Digest «Quotable Quotes»: «You own a dog; you feed a cat.» true; but what do you feed a cat? There is certainly a limitless choice of what to feed your cat. The pet food aisle at the supermarket gets longer and longer. The «tube» bom bards us with finicky Morris, the cartoon Crave Cat, Meow Meow Mix, Chow Chow Chow, and the barber shop quartet, to mention a few. Newspapers and magazines are filled with cents off coupons enticing you to try new foods, or to buy more old ones. How do you decide which is best?
You won’t; your cat will, but you can steer puss in the right direction. Just as true for cats as for people is the fact that a balanced diet is the key to good health. Here are a few tips on how to persuade your feline tyrant to eat a balanced diet, accumulated from my own seventeen years of associating with feline gourmets and gourmands.
First, my basic premis is that cat food companies have invested a lot of money into researching feline nutritional needs, so I feel safe in assuming that most commercial foods (except the cheapies) are acceptable fare. Furthermore, I don’t even like to cook for me, so I’m not interested in becoming a cats’ chef. Second, cats, unlike dogs, do get bored with the same old thing every day. Mine will periodically turn off on something that they have been wild about for months. When that happens (always just after I have bought a whole case of the stuff) I simply set it aside for a month or so until they have again turned up their noses at the current fare. Then the old food is again new and delicious. Third, some cats like anything including cantaloupe and ripe olives; most kittens will eat anything that comes in a cat food can; but most cats have some definite dislikes, food they would rather starve than eat. The trick is to develop more likes than dislikes in your cat so you can vary his diet. Cats like the things they learned to eat as kittens! Some of my tribe won’t touch raw kidney; I wasn’t feeding it when they were kittens. Those that had it when they were small love it. Moral: feed the kids a little of everything. Fourth, vary the consistency of the food. Dry food is a good toothbrush.
I had one fellow who had to have his teeth cleaned about every six months until he learned to eat dry food. How did I teach him? By not giving him quite enough canned food to satisfy him and leaving dry food available for him to snack on. Fifth, and maybe most important; don’t make an issue of mealtime. If puss takes a couple bites and leaves, so what? Leave the food there; he’ll come back later. Cats are natural nibblers. In nature, very few of the game animals that a cat can catch would make a full meal; they survive by catching a lot of small meals instead of one big one. Cats also like to eat at night more than in the daytime. Food rarely spoils in a 12 hour period, so leave it available. If it should spoil, puss won’t eat it anyway! In warm weather, I often find that most of the food I put down at 4PM is still there at bedtime, but by morning it is gone!
Sixth and last, if your only cat really gives you trouble, get 10 or 15 more cats! Competition dous wonders for finicky feeders!
Speaking of food, if any of you feed a total DRY FOOD diet, (discounting occasional treats) please let me know. My vet opthamologist is doing a research project that could be very important to your cat and all others!
Pet owners in Houston, Dallas-Ft Worth, and Austin, TX, Atlanta, GA, Tuscon and Phoenix, AZ, Denver, CO, and Orange County, CA can now call on the services of «Special Pals» if their fur footed friends go wandering. They shouldn’t be running loose, but if they are, accidentally or on purpose, and they don’t show for dinner, you folks in these areas can find the Special Pals ad in the lost and found column in your local paper. S.P. utilizes a computer as wall as «Pound Hounds» who go looking in the shelters. Pre-registered pets get a special I.D. tage which really enhances the service. If you have a gypsy in your household, you should look into this.
One final note: Sally Miller reported that she saw «Peavine» (fall S.S.) at a recent cat show, but said she failed to notice whether he used his litter box or left the room!
CONNIE