Advice on feeding a 1 year old female Maine Coon

Hi everyone,

We have a beautiful Maine Coon girl called Mia. She was exactly 1 year old yesterday :-)

Here's our bendy, fluffy, soft, growing slowly more confident Mia [emoji]128578[/emoji][emoji]128578[/emoji]


She weighs 4kg, she's quite skinny / lanky, she just hurt her foot and I asked the vet about her weight and she said she's totally fine and healthy and everything feels fine, she's on the thin side of healthy but nothing to worry about.

Do you have any ideas of what to do so she can put on weight or do we just do nothing / what we are already doing and she will grow when she needs to?

We have Orijen cat and kitten dry food down all the time for all 3 of our cats, Mia LOVES this, more than wet food but she loves the wet food too depending on flavour:

http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/orijen/45156

Then for wet food we feed them all applaws :
http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/applaws/applaws_wet_cat_food/288992

Either ocean fish, mackerel and sardine (Mias favourite!) or chicken and just tried chicken with pumpkin, she loves it!!

We give our 3 cats one 156g tin of this split 3 ways, twice a day. We also occasionally, maybe once or twice a week give the 2 kittens raw minced beef or lamb. Just that nothing mixed with it just human grade, organic if possible. Minced meat.

As Mojos (our other Maine Coon kitten, who is 4.5kg and 10 months old, but a male) human mum gave her Maine coons this and they were all in amazing health with super shiny coats and mojo is super stocky and strong!!

​Don't know enough about homemade and raw feeding to only feed them that so I don't, I know how important it is for them to have a balanced meaty diet. I've tried reading the forums here about that and the more I read the more complicated it seems so I think best to just buy the best already made balanced diet food for the time being. Unless any of you have good suggestions? Hoping so! 

Do you think this diet is ok for her? We have been through many brands of cat foods and this seems the best we can get. We were only giving them kitten food but the Orijen says its' for kittens and cats, we gave them the kitten applaws as well other stuff.

We still have quite a bit of this https://fetch.co.uk/natures-menu-kitten-pouches-with-chicken-12-x-100g-234389011 which they do seem to like but won't eat it if they get it every day, lol! 

We tried the Royal Canin Maine Coon kitten stuff but read it's full of crappy fillers that cats can't digest, I noticed on Hills and Royal Canin and lots of other 'vet recommended' brands, they are pretty cagey about the ingredients.

http://www.maine-coon-cat-nation.com/royal-canin-cat-food.html

http://www.maine-coon-cat-nation.com/royal-canin-pet-food.html

There's lots of fresh filtered water at various places around the flat including one fountain which they all like. Mia never eats a lot in one go, but comes back for more often [emoji]128578[/emoji] She's had all her worming treatments and feline flu vaccines etc.

​Maybe I am worrying about nothing - and I am not worried per se - just never had Maine Coons before and she does feel quite bony. Maybe they grow in spurts. Her mother was fairly thin but not as lanky as Mia is!!

She is a super laid back, chilled out, happy cat, she was a little timid when we got her but is getting more and more confident every day. :-) She absolutely loves our other 2 cats so she couldn't possibly be stressed!

She is going to the vet tomorrow for her last check up with her foot that she hurt, so I will ask them again then. We have lovely vets.

​If anyone could spare any time to share any advice with me about any of the above points it would be gratefully received. :-)

Just to add - she might be lanky because she is quite physically large - she has HUGE paws, and her spine is very long - longer than our 6 year old male moggy cat. An absolutely epic tail!!! long legs - kind of like a teenage supermodel type build maybe lol! Maybe this is just what Maine Coons do - their skeletons grow before they fill out? Just wondering if it could be anything to do with her metabolism or diet?

Thank you so much for any replies :-)

Female Maine Coon Cats do run smaller and a bit slighter than males, and both reach maturity in 42 to 48 months.  In a year or two, you might be posting here asking, "DEAR LORD, HOW CAN WE MAKE THEM STOP EATING???"



My (male) Big Red was about 12 pounds at one year; at age 5, he was 33 pounds, but he didn't much care for people riding him.

Your Mia is simply gorgeous.

..

HI 1CatOverTheLine - 

Thank you so much for your reply! Do you have a photo of your amazing Big Red boy? I'm in the UK so had to translate pounds to kg - wow so he was 5.4 kg at a year old and then.. lol I knew it would be huge - shit - !! 14kg at 5 years old - WOW that's insane!!! 

Because ours are SOOOOOO cute together, we bought a tough canvas carrier - when they were smaller we could take them both to the vet or on short car journeys, in the plastic large carrier we had but now we think it's a bit cramped both of them in there together - so we bought this other bigger one - but already they are quite tough to carry in the large thing both in there together bless them. And they have under a 10kg combined weight, haha - !!

WOW 14kg that is HUGE!!   lol was trying to search for an appropriate icon thingy there - fairly new here still so not used many yet lol!

So you think it's just normal then? She will fill out in time?? We don't need to change her diet or add or remove anything?? 

Mias mum wasn't much bigger than she is now and I think she was about 2 or 3 years old when we met her. Mojo's dad was only 9 months and was already MASSIVE - not 14 kg massive but given his age, lol. Mojo was the runt of a litter of 7, has such a spunky funny personality though!!

I was just wondering, as Mia was getting fed Felix or some fairly crappy quality cheap cat food, when we got her - and she was quite bony when we got her aged about 12 weeks. Mojo was eating raw meat and even as a little kitten, we got him when he was about 9 weeks, he was stocky! 

Thinking diet must have something to do with it. Might Mia have a not ideal metabolism due to if she didn't get great food when she started weaning etc?? If so is there anything we can do about it now??

I guess genes too play a big part?? Mojo's mum was bigger than Mia's mum for sure, and Mojo's dad was a fair bit bigger than Mia's dad - I met them all. 

Mia has longer thinner hair than Mojo, his coat is shorter and seems a lot thicker - Mias coat is still thick though. It's amazing how liquid / water just runs off it! IN small drops anyway! Maybe that's genes or diet??

Thank you for any replies. :-)

sunshineclare said:

 
Just to add - she might be lanky because she is quite physically large - she has HUGE paws, and her spine is very long - longer than our 6 year old male moggy cat. An absolutely epic tail!!! long legs - kind of like a teenage supermodel type build maybe lol! Maybe this is just what Maine Coons do - their skeletons grow before they fill out? Just wondering if it could be anything to do with her metabolism or diet?

Thank you so much for any replies :-)

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I bet she's lanky simply because they're just long cats!  Awfully long!  Long enough to make the Guinness Book https://www.mainecoonfancy.com/maine_coon_growth_.html.  I was curious about their weights, reading somewhere that they tend to not reach their optimum size until something around 3 - 5 years of age (don't quote me on this).  I'm sure there are plenty Maine Cooners here can chime in on this.  Easy for a cat to gain weight than it is to lose it.  Don't be like me...I worried about my lad being a healthy weight, now he has filled in his harness.  0.0     Now I will have to buy the larger size.

I have a couple of images that might scan; Big Red's been gone more then fifteen years now.

Mia will fill out, no worries there.  No Maine Coon to my knowledge has ever eclipsed forty-eight inches, but a semi-local cattery has one enormous male currently who's touching forty pounds - a fraction over 18kg.  He's a bit overweight, but you daren't tell him so - he might eat you.



Their coats are amazing though, aren't they?  Seldom even the hint of a tangle, and never a mat; they rather like old-fashioned silk surah in the sunlight.

.

I found one of @Columbine's posts about good quality commercial foods in the UK: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/332370/my-kitten-doesnt-like-posh-expensive-wet-cat-food#post_4175835

sunshineclare said:

 
​Don't know enough about homemade and raw feeding to only feed them that so I don't, I know how important it is for them to have a balanced meaty diet. I've tried reading the forums here about that and the more I read the more complicated it seems so I think best to just buy the best already made balanced diet food for the time being. Unless any of you have good suggestions? Hoping so! 

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 Columbine also made this post on commerical raw pet foods in the UK: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/328390/where-to-start#post_4126514

Thanks KatNapper! I had been on their site before but not not the weight page - recently -  I think I did when they were younger but not for a few months Thats cool then, there are older females weighing less than Mia so I guess nothing to worry about, there was a 15 month old one weighing 3.9kg, maybe small genes, or poor food, or a huge range in them maybe :-)

Mia is just gorgeous :love:

As far as food goes, the Orijen is just fine, but I'd be very cautious with the Applaws: it's a supplementary food, not a complete one, and should be viewed as a treat rather than a mainstay of the diet - especially for a still-growing girl.

The nearest equivalent to the Applaws in a complete food is Thrive Complete. They have a wide range of adult flavours (far more on their own site), and do make one kitten variety too.

If they like the Nature’s Menu, I'd look at trying other paté style foods too. Feringa, Animonda Carny, Forthglade and Bozita tetrapacks are where I'd start. If you're happy feeding some adult food (I don't have experience with Maine Coons ), Catz Finefood and GranataPet are good too. Lily's Kitchen trays are also good, but I find them a little expensive for what they are. (All foods I mention are available from Zooplus ).

@GemsGem has a lot of experience with Maine Coons - she may be able to advise you on growth rate etc.

1CatOverTheLine said:

 
I have a couple of images that might scan; Big Red's been gone more then fifteen years now.

Mia will fill out, no worries there.  No Maine Coon to my knowledge has ever eclipsed forty-eight inches, but a semi-local cattery has one enormous male currently who's touching forty pounds - a fraction over 18kg.  He's a bit overweight, but you daren't tell him so - he might eat you.



Their coats are amazing though, aren't they?  Seldom even the hint of a tangle, and never a mat; they rather like old-fashioned silk surah in the sunlight.

.

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Oh wow, an old legend! RIP Big Red - yes that would be amazing if you could find an image or 2 to scan - I had hardly even heard of Maine Coon cats last year, and it was only a failed attempt at adopting a rescue cat that led us to having these kittens . (FYI the rescue cat hated our other adopted neighbours cat and any other cats, period, there are lots of sweet local cats, we think he had been attacked previously by other cats in his old home, see my post "grumpy cat" if interested) 

4 feet long - hahaha - that's amazing!! I'll measure Mia when I get home - she has to be around 2.5 feet now - including the tail - is the 48 inches including the tail or not?!! I presume it must do?!! That would be silly otherwise you'd have a lion, lol!

It was amazing seeing her tail get fluffier and fluffier as she grew! Mojo's tail is amazing too - he is white and tabby - I'll post a pic shortly - Their tails are so strong - different to a normal cat's - Mia often tucks it between her legs, haha, especially when we brush her. And yes they don't need brushing much at all, we try to do it once a week or twice a week just so they don't hate it, they generally seem to quite enjoy it if you catch them at the right sleepy moment!! Mojo's tail is very dark tabby on top, grading down to white underneath - and still growing!! I'll take a photo just of that when I get home later! :-) Yes beautiful in the sun xx

Columbine said:

Mia is just gorgeous

As far as food goes, the Orijen is just fine, but I'd be very cautious with the Applaws: it's a supplementary food, not a complete one, and should be viewed as a treat rather than a mainstay of the diet - especially for a still-growing girl.

The nearest equivalent to the Applaws in a complete food is Thrive Complete. They have a wide range of adult flavours (far more on their own site), and do make one kitten variety too.

If they like the Nature’s Menu, I'd look at trying other paté style foods too. Feringa, Animonda Carny, Forthglade and Bozita tetrapacks are where I'd start. If you're happy feeding some adult food (I don't have experience with Maine Coons

), Catz Finefood and GranataPet are good too. Lily's Kitchen trays are also good, but I find them a little expensive for what they are. (All foods I mention are available from Zooplus

).

@GemsGem has a lot of experience with Maine Coons - she may be able to advise you on growth rate etc.

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Aw thanks Columbine.  Mia says "yes, I know - thank you so much though xxx " LOL. 

OK, wow, I had no idea that the Applaws was only a supplementary food not a complete one, I had read the ingredients and thought it sounded great with loads of whatever the main meaty or fishy ingredients are, taurine, etc, loads of added great veg and herbs and stuff, sounded amazing. I'll buy some thrive complete then and see what happens. So how often should we feed the applaws then? Just once or twice a week maybe??

LOL the problem is we adopted this 6 year old male moggy from next door and the poor little thing, he was left outside a lot, they didn't feed him enough, we think he survived on mice and rats and whatever else he could catch, they might've left a few biscuits or something out but they would've been the poorest quality - so we started feeding him and we already had a cat flap (a couple years ago before we got the kittens) so now he knows warmth, love, and FOOD he will quietly sneak in to the room with the kittens'  food in and before you know it he has munched his way through most of the kitten food, lol.

He is getting stealthier and stealthier at this, haha, he will eat his food AND still then go looking for more, lol - I guess once a cat has known hunger then he has an instinct to ALWAYS eat even if its too much, as he never knows when the next meal is coming from, is that how it works??

We have tried putting all their food in the same place, we have tried separating it, and with the applaws and orijen we thought finally as we are giving them all the SAME food then he wouldn't think 'oh the grass in greener I don't need the kittens food, lol

We had tried an appetite suppress food from Royal Canin, just for him, not the kittens obviously. The first time he ate it it worked a treat - then subsequent times - lol yes it took him a whole day to realise he was being tricked, haha, (good job I went and bought a 10kg bag, lol  ) he would eat only a little and then go on the hunt for pastures or rather, bowls greener!! 

I won't buy it again for reasons on the links I posted above, but then little Mojo aged about 4 months started tucking into that, lol, so we had to be super careful who ate what!! Cats are so funny and silly, they always look for stuff that's the opposite of what you want, lol.

As our kittens have never known hunger, they eat but they don't always finish it but like to keep tucking into it especially at night - Angel the moggy will leave the Orijen if it's left out but he cannot resist the Applause no matter who's bowl it's in - unless he he literally stuffed his face so much he has to sleep it off, haha - which only happens if we aren't paying attention or have to go out. And we don't like having to take their bowls away if we are out or sleeping, as we like the kittens to have whatever they want whenever they fancy it - so we are still figuring it out.

OK, so, good that the natures menu you think is great. We still have lots of that so I will give them more of that. We have worked our way through most of the options on Zooplus. Even the greedy moggy angel who eats pretty much anything, refuse Feringa. I read the ingredients and they seemed decent, but the smell of it was awful and all cats refused it. I had bulk bought that too - it ended up at the local animal home! I hope some of the cats liked it! :-)

We have bought some animonda stuff, can't remember being overly impressed with it - both us and the cats  but Feringa was definitely the least favourite. I'd never buy that again. We tried several flavours too, all got the same results. I've not heard of the other 2 brands you mentioned so will check them out. Thank you so much. 

I had looked at Lily's kitchen but to me it looked a lot worse quality than Applaws, the thing I am confused about - maybe you can help - thank you so much if you can - I have done quite a bit of research on organic food and there are lots of brands that claim to contain 'organic' meat - but then a lot of them once you dig a bit deeper, it's the hearts, livers, and organs. And I read somewhere, that while it's good for cats to have a bit of this type of meat - essential really, as that's how they would find it in the wild and they'd eat everything - but it's also really important to not ONLY give them organ meat, organic or not - as this isn't representative of what they'd eat in the wild - so not too sure. 

I really like the look of Thrive - thank you - wow it is expensive isn't it! 

Will try it and see what we think, really want to give them the best food we can but hoping to not spend a fortune. If we serious were giving each of our 2 kittens 3 cans of thrive a day that's £6 a day - £180 a month - lol - that's wayyyy too much we might as well make it ourselves for that price - that's not including dry food either! 

Be great if any Maine Coon experienced owners can chime in and help with any advice, it's very much appreciated. Really, really good to know about the Applaws though, thank you, will cut back on that a lot .

Best wishes, Clare :-)

You've gotten great advice above. Dietary needs of any cat breed aren't really different; your cats will just need to eat more because they are larger.

It's good that you have dry food down all of time and feed meals of wet in addition. I would try to get more wet food in their diets. Especially for the growing kittens.

I would also caution against a seafood-heavy diet.

When you look at a food, you want to see that the first several ingredients are meat, not byproducts or grains.

Zooplus must have a supply issue at the moment with Thrive - they normally have saver packs of 24 cans that work out at £9 something per kg. That's not all that much more than the Applaws..and certainly better than £11 something per kg!

Applaws patés are complete, btw, so those might be worth a try :dk: When choosing Applaws (or Almo Nature, which is similar) just be sure to read the fine print - it'll be on the website if it isn't on the can. If it doesn't say 'complete' then it should be viewed as a treat only. I wish these manufacturers were clearer with their labeling - I've been caught out that way a few times in the past.

As a general rule, treats or supplementary/complementary food should make up no more than 10% of the diet, and that should not be on a regular basis. The only exception I make is with extra ravenous cats, like Angel. In that instance, supplementary foods can be a really useful way to top up a complete diet - they're usually around half the calories of complete foods, so are a good way to control weight without them feeling too deprived. In this case I'd probably feed 95% complete, and top up with the supplementary. I rescued a farm cat a couple of years ago (the farmer wanted her to be removed), and it took quite some time for her appetite to settle. Even now, she'll self regulate to a slightly higher quantity of food than she needs, so I have to keep a close eye on her intake.

Personally, I agree with you about Lily's Kitchen, which is why it isn't ever my first choice with pet food. It's expensive for what it is, and there are better foods out there. Having said that, it's not a bad food per say, and many cats do really like it...and it's certainly a big step up from brands like Royal Canin

With organ meat, there are two definitions. The first, which you're using, is the way we humans categorise organ meat - based on what is medically considered an organ. The second definition is the nutritional one, and is used in terms of cat and dog food. Many 'organs' are considered to be muscle meat when creating a balanced cat or dog food. Only secreting organs (eg liver, kidneys etc) are classed as organ meat nutritionally in this instance.

Meat
Muscle
Heart
Lungs
Tongue
Tripe (green tripe, not white/bleached)
Trachea
Gizzard

Offal
Liver
Kidney
Spleen
Brain
Pancreas
Testicles

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(From https://rawdogfood.co/offal-or-meat/)

Hope that clears things up a bit

Thank you so much Columbine! I will sit down when I am home and had another look through. 

Thank you talking peanut - this site is amazing, people reply so fast with super helpful advice! :-) Thank you KatNapper and LTS3 and anyone else sorry if I missed you.

OK, yes that list is great. Are you in the UK too Columbine? Do you make your own food or do you buy it?

Thing is, I'm a bit squeamish, I never used to do dissection in biology class, and I was a vegetarian for years. Reason being, I think if you kill an animal (or fish) you should be prepared to skin it, cut it up, fillet it, etc, do all the messy stuff that comes from killing an otherwise perfectly fine animal or fish quite happy being alive. I could NEVER bring myself to do that. I mean if I was starving and hadn't eaten for days I guess if it came to it I would have to out of desperation but since I luckily don't face that situation and never have, I was veggie. I always still ate fish, so call me a hypocrite if you want, lol, I just know how good fish is for you which was the main reason!!

So I was reading all the stuff about people boiling big pots of hearts and grinding kidneys and livers and stuff and I just thought, wow, that sounds awful. If I knew more exactly what to do, I guess I could consider it if I knew exactly what to buy - and how to do it. I will do more research into this. I bought a book called Raw Meaty Bones - do you know this book Columbine - is it worth reading? It sounded like a raw pet food bible from the site that recommended it - I just got it 2nd hand off amazon - I have SO many books still needing to be read - so that is queued!! 

lol yet I still have found myself spending several hours on this site on many occasions, so I guess I could've been reading lol!! Money is a factor for sure with diet, and as we have 3 cats, if we could make a big batch of our own lovely food for all of them, that would be great. I've been talking to talking peanut about fostering and if we did that then we would have even more mouths to feed so a bigger batch would be even better - 

Hey the you make raw food can you feed into both older cats and kittens or do you need to change the recipe for each? Presume different just curious??

We live in a 2 bed flat, so we have 3 main rooms - bedroom - our work room and both of our general storage room - (full of stuff but making space slowly!) and the lounge. Considering building a side extension in a more temporary cheap way - obviously London space is expensive, lol. IF we did we could maybe get a chest freezer and put cats meals in there - not sure how big of a batch people make. If you can answer that great but honestly i don't want to waste your time as it's up to me to do my own research on this and then I can as more educated questions once I've learnt the basics! :-)

So I will definitely try Thrive, I REALLY am happy they make treats, we know Maine Coons are very clever, so we want to teach them things. Mojo has learnt to "shake paw" - hes so clever and curious - such a brilliant personality - we are trying to get him to 'High 5" now!! we tried with Mia but because she was more timid when we got her, she just looked at us and withdrew her paw very fast. Like, ***?!! Now she is becoming more confident, she too can "shake paw" -I think she has been quietly watching mojo do it and learning ;-)  we have been using cheese as treats. Mojo LOVES cheese!! He is very particular though, lol, he is a cheddar boy. 

We give them the teeniest tiniest amounts and only for around 5 mins- we probably only give them the equivalent of 1/4 of one medium thick / thin slice of a £2 block of cheese if you can visualise that - but anyway cheese isn't good for humans so we presume it's not amazing for cats either - please don't tell me we;ve been awful giving them that - or please do if it's really bad - we have only done it with them at a max, once every week, and often we don't have too much cheese left, lol so we just give them one tiny bit not several!!

Mojo just loves it SO MUCH - if we are eating cheese even without being asked, he sits there all sweet and puts his paw up asking us for it!! But we want to switch out the cheese for something healthier and hopefully the Thrive treats will do the trick!! Mia goes mad for coconut oil!! 

If Angel gets ill he's super easy as we can mix the antibiotics into his food, we know for dead cert it will all get munched ASAP. LOL. Especially if we mix it with the Applaws lol.

But Mia, she doesn't finish anything so we have been learning how to do that horrible thing where you make them open their mouths and put the little pill in and make sure they swallow it. It looks so easy when the vet does it. We put some coconut oil around Mia's pills. If she just finished all her food she could have it crushed up in there, but no matter how small a portion you give her she always leaves some, lol. And as previously described, they all love each others food so don't want anyone else to get antibiotics!

OK, so , thrive is good, yes Zooplus have been raided they are out of stock, I have the discount plan thing with them so I'll wait until it comes back in.

Do you think Orijen is too rich for them all as I read somewhere some cats can't digest it properly - I thought, oh no, not that too? Angel, LOL, when you give him a bowl of Orijen, he looks at it like "come on, I know you have the juicy sweet succulent applaws somewhere - lol why are you giving me this?!" but then he tucks in!!! Before with the Royal Canin diet food, he was like "you for real?? seriously?? You expect me to eat this shit?" he *did* tuck in eventually but generally after his stealthy raids in the kitten areas proved fruitless, lol...

I'd never buy Royal Canin again though, I was saddened and shocked to read about how rubbish it is, and even worse, Hills Science plan, there are lots of lawsuits in the US about them and other companies too, most of the main "standard" "good quality" brands... sad it's all about profit putting the animals at risk. Guess we need to take responsibility, which is what I'm trying to do here

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! for all the help xxxx

Oh no I just wrote you loads in reply on the train and it just lost it all due to sketchy internet... will try again.

The first part was THANK YOU SO MUCH everyone who has replied!! REALLY appreciate all the replies Columbine, talking peanut, and the others :-) I'll attempt to write it again and copy it before attempting to post more!! I might just wait until tonight - I will reply though!! thank you xxxx

Oh there it is-sorry the sketchy internet looked like it hadn't posted- YAY well there you go. I'll go to my phone and try to post some photos of the others xx Thank you SO MUCH for all the help xxx It's hugely appreciated xx

Aw xxx he's beautiful!! Doesn't quite seem real those 2 hugely differently sized cats next to each other!! [emoji]128578[/emoji]

sunshineclare said:

OK, yes that list is great. Are you in the UK too Columbine? Do you make your own food or do you buy it?

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Yes, I'm in the UK too I don't make my own food - there are so many really good brands on the market that I really don't feel the need to. Constructing properly balanced recipies is an art in itself, and anyway, I don't have the freezer capacity to batch make and preserve my own cat food

I was a vegetarian for years. Reason being, I think if you kill an animal (or fish) you should be prepared to skin it, cut it up, fillet it, etc, do all the messy stuff that comes from killing an otherwise perfectly fine animal or fish quite happy being alive. I could NEVER bring myself to do that.

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I'm a long time veggie too, and really hate handling cooked meat, let alone raw!

If I knew more exactly what to do, I guess I could consider it if I knew exactly what to buy - and how to do it. I will do more research into this. I bought a book called Raw Meaty Bones - do you know this book Columbine - is it worth reading? It sounded like a raw pet food bible from the site that recommended it - I just got it 2nd hand off amazon - I have SO many books still needing to be read - so that is queued!! 

lol yet I still have found myself spending several hours on this site on many occasions, so I guess I could've been reading lol!! Money is a factor for sure with diet, and as we have 3 cats, if we could make a big batch of our own lovely food for all of them, that would be great. I've been talking to talking peanut about fostering and if we did that then we would have even more mouths to feed so a bigger batch would be even better - 

Hey the you make raw food can you feed into both older cats and kittens or do you need to change the recipe for each? Presume different just curious??

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I've not come across that book, but then, I've never dug too deeply into scratch made raw feeding. I was considering it for a while, but my girl really didn't take to commercial raw at all. That, combined with some family members being really uneasy about raw feeding, was enough to stop me going further down that path.

I strongly recommend that you try your guys on commercial raw before getting into making it yourself - not all cats take well to it, and it's so much better to find that out before making up a batch of your own! The easiest raw to test with is Nature’s Menu raw - they're relatively widely available (Pets at Home carry them, for a start), and are in maybe 3cm square nuggets. This means quick defrosting times, and you don't have to thaw and portion a big block before you start (as is the case with many commercial raw foods).

Kittens and adults eat exactly the same foods with raw feeding - the kittens just get more relative to their size.

Raw feeding done right is a great option, but there is no scientific evidence that it's any better for the cats long term than a high meat canned food. All homemade diets have their pitfalls too, as getting the balance right is crucial. The following articles may help you decide, and the recipe threads are great homemade food resources. [article="33544"][/article][article="32765"][/article][article="31801"][/article][article="31796"][/article][article="31673"][/article][article="32321"][/article][article="31714"][/article][article="32194"][/article][article="31138"][/article][article="29707"][/article]
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So I will definitely try Thrive, I REALLY am happy they make treats...we have been using cheese as treats. Mojo LOVES cheese!! He is very particular though, lol, he is a cheddar boy.

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Fyi, Cosma Snackies and Cosma Thai Snackies are essentially the same as the Thrive treats (they're all freeze dried meat/fish), but are significantly cheaper My guys love both equally, but I generally go for the Cosma ones purely on price.

Whilst cheese isn't great for cats (they're lactose intolerant), a little as a treat every once in a while does no harm at all. My old boy adored Wensleydale cheese with cranberries (no other sort would do :lol3: ), and he got a little every so often as an extra special treat My girl goes wild for parmesan cheese...a very rare treat for her.

High value treats are essential for trick training - to make sure they stay high value, keep them for training only. If they start being given at other times they'll become less exciting, and therefore less motivating

But Mia, she doesn't finish anything so we have been learning how to do that horrible thing where you make them open their mouths and put the little pill in and make sure they swallow it. It looks so easy when the vet does it.

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Vets have a way of making pilling look far easier than it is for us mere mortals at home :lol3: You may find some useful tips here:- [article="32724"][/article][article="22402"][/article]

Do you think Orijen is too rich for them all as I read somewhere some cats can't digest it properly - I thought, oh no, not that too?

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Orijen is one of the best kibbles out there. I personally don't feed it as I prefer to use UK or European brands - simply on the basis of air miles etc The reason these higher meat/lower carb kibbles can cause issues is that the starch has to be replaced with something - and very often it's fat. The premium kibbles are almost all bith higher fat and higher calorie than the higher carb varieties, and its this increased fat content that is most often responsible for upset tummies. The other culprit is that, very often, people switch brands too abruptly, and this sudden change causes the upset. Whilst its fine to rotate similar wet food brands without a transition period, kibbles need to be gradually changed - usually over at least a month.

I'd never buy Royal Canin again though, I was saddened and shocked to read about how rubbish it is, and even worse, Hills Science Plan,

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Whilst the ingredients in these brands aren't great, they DO have a place, especially when it comes to the prescription veterinary diets. I've noticed that a lot of members who care for nursing mothers and their kittens speak very highly of the RC Babycat range too. Opinions can very quickly become polarised when it comes to cat food, but the first and golden rule of feeding is the best food for your cat is the one (s)he will happily eat! The best food in the world is useless from inside the tin

sunshineclare said:

Aw xxx he's beautiful!! Doesn't quite seem real those 2 hugely differently sized cats next to each other!! [emoji]128578[/emoji]

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In Big Red's defence, Measle was a tiny little (female) Meezer.  That notwithstanding, a Friend from those old days always asked the same question when he visited - "how's the pony doing?"

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