New here! I just got a new cat and I have some questions.

I just adopted this 3 month old male yesterday. His hame is Pepe. I've had cats all my life but it's been about 3 years since I had a cat. 

He's very affectionate and has a huge appetite. He slept beside me all night. He has a strange fascination with eye balls. Whenever he is near my face he constantly paws at my eyes, sometimes with his claws out. It's painful some times. 

He has been vet checked, had his first shots, and has been dewormed twice, according to the pet shop I got him from. 

I'm curious about cat food- I know a lot of commercial cat and dog foods actually contain cat and dog, from animals that have been put down. I don't want to feed that to my cat. I'm looking for basically the best wet and dry food that's available. Sources I have available near me are Pet Valu (a Canadian chain), PetSmart, PJ's, Big Al's, ordering online, and a small local shop that carries a lot of brands I've never heard of. I'm wary of them carrying expired food though. 

Any concerns with using clumping cat litter with a young cat line this? The stuff they advised me to get at the store was some kind of recycled newspaper pellets but they're not working for me. Impossible to scoop messes out properly, no odor control, etc. I'd rather get decent clumping cat litter with baking soda in it or charcoal or something like that. I had forgotten how fragrant kitten poops are. 

Hi Mr. Sprinkles. Welcome to TCS!

I think so long as you avoid food with "meat meal" in the ingredients list, as opposed to specific meat meals, (i.e. chicken meal), you'll be fine. That said, I don't think many brands use euthanized cats and dogs, roadkill, etc. 

For choosing your cat's food, you may find this article helpful: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

LaraLove said:

 
Hi Mr. Sprinkles. Welcome to TCS!

I think so long as you avoid food with "meat meal" in the ingredients list, as opposed to specific meat meals, (i.e. chicken meal), you'll be fine. That said, I don't think many brands use euthanized cats and dogs, roadkill, etc. 

For choosing your cat's food, you may find this article helpful: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

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Actually, tonnes of pet foods include those. Usually listed as "Animal protein" or "meat by products". That's what concerns me. It can be hidden under creative wording like that. 

Gah, I take it back, you're right. 

Alright, so your timing is good in that the current contest of the month involves members reviewing the various cat foods they've given to their kitties. If you look to the right panel, you'll see some of those postings. ------->

I feed Fancy Feast Classics, which have meat by-products.  But I'm transitioning to a PMR diet soon, so I can happily avoid a frantic search for a better but still affordable alternative. 

Any thoughts about my cat litter question? Thanks!

mistersprinkles said:

 
Any thoughts about my cat litter question? Thanks!

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Welcome to the Forums! You'll get more answers on litter if you ask in the Care & Grooming Forum.  We use the World's Best Litter but also had some Arm & Hammer from before. They both clump.

Hi MSprinkles, 

Do you have a Global Pet Foods in your city? I'm not sure where you live, but there's a few of them across the larger cities in Ontario, where I live.  They tend to carry all the popular upper end brands, as well as some more economically reasonable brands. 

Global Pet Foods: 

Dry foods: lots of choices, including Orijen and  so on. 

Canned: Hound & Gatos, Natural Instincts, Tiki Cat, Merrick, Weruva, Wellness, Innova Evo 95%, Felidae and so on.

- Just watch the sales staff, they're rather obvious when it comes to recommending food - the nice gals there tend to steer you to the most expensive canned/dry food.  They're knowledgeable and quite helpful; just know what you want before you go in.    I'm a sucker for a pretty face and indeed ended up spending more than I intended, but that's my problem  

You'll find Chicken Soup for Cat Lover's Soul at Pet Valu.   I find Pet Valu rather pricey though.  I guess it depends on location.

You'll find Fancy Feast (Classics) - 'Turkey & Giblets', 'Chicken Feast' Pates, as well as Friskies Pates at PetSmart or Walmart.

We've got some independents in my city as well but of course their prices and selection leave much to be desired.  YMMV.

mistersprinkles said:

 
Any thoughts about my cat litter question? Thanks!

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I'm not sure. Oliver was 6 months old when I adopted him. His foster mom brought him with some form of Tidy Cats that did not clump. I don't remember the specifics. I immediately combined that with Precious Cat clumping litter for a quick transition. He does well with it. 

There are a variety of tidy cats clumping that work well. I like it because you can adequately get the pee balls out which I am sure the cats appreciate. There are low dust varieties they have that are good. I think all of them have some perfume masking but I tend to avoid the ones that are advertised to have stuff like glade fragrance in them because cats aren't fond of perfumy smells.

LDG just posted in a similar thread what the definition of meat is and meat-by-products today. I read the Slate article which doesn't indicate where the author got its sources re: euthanized pets continuing to be part of the pet food industry. I clicked on the "vague academic paper" and read it. While it doesn't discuss euthanized pets, there is extensive coverage of various meat proteins including beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish including what comprises poultry meal, bone meal, etc. I was surprised to see the discussion on feathers which indicated it isn't used much, but some of the more alarming editorial pieces and books on pet food makes it sound like most of the can is comprised of feather meal. So I would have expected in the academic paper to see that feather meal was more commonly used.

One of the things that vets offer for your deceased friend is for them to be cremated. Obviously the pet's body gets sent away for this and then ostensibly returned to the owner. I would be really surprised if shelters don't cremate euthanized cats and dogs and instead send them to rendering plants as some written material would indicate, including the Slate article with no sources cited for the facts.

Orjien and Acana are great foods and are made in Canada. As for litter, clumping litter is fine for a young kitten all of mine have used clumping litter since they first started useing the litter box. The finer the pieces of litter the better it with coat, clump, and trap in the smell. Try to find one with baking soda in it or add some yourself. Don't get any litter with frangrance, cats generally don't like it as they have a much stronger sense of smell. I use Special Kitty (WalMart) or Champion Breed ( KMart). It doesn't have to be expensive litter to work well.

Thanks for the tips everybody! I will try to get some Orijen food. 

mistersprinkles said:

 
Thanks for the tips everybody! I will try to get some Orijen food. 

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My kitten likes Wellness Core if that helps any lol.

lauraG said:

 
One of the things that vets offer for your deceased friend is for them to be cremated. Obviously the pet's body gets sent away for this and then ostensibly returned to the owner. I would be really surprised if shelters don't cremate euthanized cats and dogs and instead send them to rendering plants as some written material would indicate, including the Slate article with no sources cited for the facts.

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I can tell you for a fact (at least in the U.S) That pets are always cremated and returned to their owners as requested. I'm a Mortician in training. We NEVER send out ashes that DO NOT belong to the deceased whether it be human or pet. If the family doesnt want the ashes (etc.) they are disposed of properly, never given as material to some plant. No decent Establishment would ever do that. That article needs more sources cited for me to take it seriously. 

GraveKandi said:

 
My kitten likes Wellness Core if that helps any lol.

I can tell you for a fact (at least in the U.S) That pets are always cremated and returned to their owners as requested. I'm a Mortician in training. We NEVER send out ashes that DO NOT belong to the deceased whether it be human or pet. If the family doesnt want the ashes (etc.) they are disposed of properly, never given as material to some plant. No decent Establishment would ever do that. That article needs more sources cited for me to take it seriously. 

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The rendering plant doesn't want ash. Ash just contributes to the food's ash content, which is particularly dangerous to male cats. Cat food has a purposely low ash content because of this. What they do is take entire, euthanized cats and dogs from shelters, grind them up en masse, and use them as a protein supplement in cat and dog foods. I have seen several documentaries on this subject. 

lauraG said:

... I read the Slate article which doesn't indicate where the author got its sources re: euthanized pets continuing to be part of the pet food industry. I clicked on the "vague academic paper" and read it. While it doesn't discuss euthanized pets, there is extensive coverage of various meat proteins including beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish including what comprises poultry meal, bone meal, etc. I was surprised to see the discussion on feathers which indicated it isn't used much, but some of the more alarming editorial pieces and books on pet food makes it sound like most of the can is comprised of feather meal. So I would have expected in the academic paper to see that feather meal was more commonly used.

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Feather meal is not commonly used, but Royal Canin just introduced a dog food (anti-allergy) this year using feather meal: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/07/17/feather-meal.aspx

One of the things that vets offer for your deceased friend is for them to be cremated. Obviously the pet's body gets sent away for this and then ostensibly returned to the owner. I would be really surprised if shelters don't cremate euthanized cats and dogs and instead send them to rendering plants as some written material would indicate, including the Slate article with no sources cited for the facts.

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It isn't cremated pets that are used at rendering plants. It is euthanized pets.

This is the former President of the AAFCO, Hersh Pendell:

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

This is one of the usual references for euthanized pets used in pet food: Deconstructing the Regulatory Façade: Why Confused Consumers Feed their Pets Ring Dings and Krispy Kremes

It's a 3rd year Harvard Law student's paper. The references are older.

I believe most rendered dogs and cats end up in cattle feed these days.

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/FDAVeterinarianNewsletter/ucm110419.htm

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1050731/pg1

If you decide on clumping litter make sure to keep an eye on your kitten for a while and see if it eats the litter or just nibbles it out of curiosity and then leaves it be. I always wait until my cats get past that put everything in their mouths phase. Until I'm sure I can trust my kitties with the clumping litter I use the plain old Tidy Cats clay litter, it's none clumping but it smells better than the corn/paper litters I tried. When you want to introduce the clumping litter to the litter you are using now just add in a little at a time to see how the kitten does with it.

I know the normal clay litter and other safer litters can smell or are harder to keep clean but they won't block your cat like clumping litter can so it's worth it until you switch over.

I didn't say they used cremeated pets. I'm just saying that SINCE cremation is offered it would be pretty stupid for shelters to send euthanized pets to rendering plants if it were convenient enough to cremate them.

That makes no sense, Laura. If they can make a small profit by selling them for meat vs paying a small amount per animal to cremate them, which avenue are they going to choose? Obviously they'll take a few bucks for Fido's corpse vs shelling out to cremate it. 

Well, what about this? It's a blog post by Dr. Patty Khuly,  a practicing veterinarian based in Miami.

Interesting - I didn't even know (or think) about how cows and horse are put down. Makes a lot of sense, this part:

For starters, I've never heard of a cow being euthanized via barbiturate — except one downer cow in vet school that was later used for anatomy class. The large quantities of barbiturates required make it an expensive and impractical option for cattle — especially for those destined to enter the pet food supply. Same goes for horses. Because, if you’ll recall, we used to slaughter horses in the U.S. So why would you sell your beloved horse to a rendering plant after the expense of a private veterinary euthanasia?

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Thanks for that link!