My cat's diet...

[jay48]

Hello,
Here's my story with my cat Zuccho. (I've just joined the forums and my introduction thread is here- http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=234125)

Zuccho will be 3 in September this year and he is a healthy indoor-outdoor Tom (he roams the neighbourhood in the night and sleeps till around noon in the morning. He then gets petted by most family members and once his meals are given he's out on the prowl again!). His diet problems started last year where he got a severe case of indigestion and diarrhea coupled with high fever. The vet advised us not to give milk as it can cause diarrhea in some cats (my cat drank quite alot when offered milk in the morning!). So after August last year, I refrained from giving him milk. Instead he got two raw, cleaned fish in the morning and evening and some boiled rice and meat/fish in-between (so he ate two raw fish in the morning, rice at noon, raw fish at around 5.00pm and rice in the night if he wanted). The fish I give him is a small sardine-type fish commonly found in the Indian Ocean. I should also add that I'm in Sri Lanka and our staple food is rice & curry so Zuccho usually gets a small portion of what we have, minus the vegetables. Our family cook loves him and feeds him all sorts of human food scraps when Zuccho's in the kitchen, so I'm sure this is where his diet problems began!

He was doing alright till last month when I noticed his appetite had grown bigger. I gave him worm tablets as I thought he was having worms, but he still kept eating more and more. Then last week he had a loose bowel motion and I knew he was having diarrhea so I took him to the vet. The vet treated him and recommended not to feed him rice as this can cause indigestion. He also recommended two fish given once a day or one fish given twice a day. I did not agree with this as Zuccho is a large Tom

Instead, I decided to give him four a day. I tried twice-a-day feeding, but Zuccho isn't happy with that arrangement so now I give him three meals at roughly 8 hour intervals. He's still not happy, but he'll have to deal with it!
I read about raw feeding cats on the internet and decided to stick with it because I can't find premium wet cat food here. I will also introduce some raw chicken once I'm sure he has recovered from his indigestion. The current diet is one & half fish in the morning, one & half in the afternoon and one & half in the night at 7-8 hour intervals. This brings the total to four & half fish a day. The average weight of a fish is about 17g (uncleaned), but I'm guessing it will be around 14g once the innards are removed. I still don't know my cat's exact weight, but I estimated it at around 3.5kg.

My question is-how much food does an average cat require for a day as a percentage of its body weight? Why do you think my cat gets indigestion frequently? Should I give anything else in between his fish meals? Should I give him the whole fish or should I at least remove the gut? (keeping the other parts intact).
Thanks in advance and sorry for this lengthy post!
Regards,
Jay.

 

[lizame]

Please don't try to manage your cat's diet on your own. Please take him to a vet. Especially if he is having diarrhea.

 

[aprilyim]

Hi Jay! Welcome to the forums again!
Thanks for writing such a detailed post. There is nothing to apologize for! You just want the best for Zuccho's health.

You're definitely right about the human food scraps part. We love our cats like our family and we want to show our affection through food (like we do to our loved ones) but we often forget we have different digestive systems! It's good that you asked your family members/cook to stop giving him food scraps, rice, and cow's milk.

I just have a few questions for you:

• Do you know the nutritional values found in that small sardine-like Indian Ocean fish?
  Does it contain enough Taurine?
  
• How long has Zuccho been on this fish-only diet?
  Is it the same species of fish everyday? I'm pretty sure that you should keep the organs intact as they usually contain lots of minerals and vitamins.
  
  Considering that he is an indoor/outdoor cat, it may be something he is eating outside that is upsetting his stomach when you aren't watching him?
  
• Is Zuccho drinking enough [clean] water?
  
• I would get the exact weight of Zuccho from your vet. He's going to be 3 but if you don't know his exact weight it may be difficult to determine how much you should be feeding him. I've read that "average cats needs about 20 to 30 calories per pound of body weight per day." http://www.ehow.com/about_5459849_ma...cats-need.html
  
• Is there any way you can order cat foods on the Internet? I've never lived in Sri Lanka so I'm not sure how air mail delivery friendly it is? Although there is a great debate for raw food only diets, there are also a lot of good dry foods that seem to work well for many cat owners.
  
• I recommend mashed pumpkin (that has no salt, sugars or anything added), mashed squash, and zucchini for an in between meal snack that will also help his digestion.
  

Good luck with Zuccho!

Best,
April

 

[minka]

Hello Jay48, welcome to the forums!

Like said, it is good that you stopped feeding rice and milk and scraps because they are not good for kitties. *nod*

I don't feed raw, but I wouldn't recommend feeding a fish only diet. Fish are not nutritionally complete for cats, and on top of that, many fish are contaminated with hard metals (but smaller fish like you are feeding are on the safer side). Most raw feeders don't feed any fish at all, but I can understand why you would feed them as part of the diet if they are more available than other meats. (I don't know anything about Sri Lanka.)

When feeding a raw only diet however, you do need to keep all the guts and bones because they contain minerals and vitamins that can't be found in the meat.

I would recommend sending a PM to Auntie Crazy to have a look at this thread as she feeds raw only to all of her cats. You can also take a look at catinfo.org

Good luck!!

 

[jay48]

Hello,
Thanks for your replies, everyone! I've read alot on raw feeding and have decided to include raw chicken as well.
To answer some of the questions asked; he's been on his fish-only diet for a week & gets plenty of water to drink (although most of the time he doesn't drink much). I have been removing the fish organs/gut as my vet recommended it, but I'll just remove the stomach & leave everything else next time. The bones are not removed though. I don't know if he's eating various stuff during his prowls.
I'll give him mashed pumpkin as you said, I doubt he'll eat it though!

Regards.

 

[jay48]

Sorry for dragging my thread up again, but I thought I'd tell you about how my kitteh is doing after one month.
He's getting raw chicken now as well but I haven't started him on chicken liver or organs yet. He did get cooked chicken gizzard sometime back though.
I am also giving him whole sardines now (not cleaned/gutted like earlier) so he is very happy about it!

He is getting four meals a day; one in the morning, one about 8-9 hours after, one small meal (smaller than the morning meal) at around 6.30 and another small meal late in the night. I initially wanted to stick to three, but he's settled to four meals now.
I also gave him boiled mashed pumpkin with his meals and he ate it without any fuss! I'll give him some more this week.
Well, that's it. Thanks to everyone who shared great advice!
Regards.

 

[auntie crazy]

Hi, Jay!

I'm glad your boy is doing well; you've made some good changes to his diet. And I'm not surprised he prefers four meals a day - it's more in line with a cat's natural hunting pattern and suits their rapid digestive system better.

The more variety you offer him, the higher the quality of his nutrition. With the amount of food you're feeding, I would guess he's not catching a lot on his own, so it's even more important that what you give him includes the necessary fundamentals of a raw diet: 80% meat, skin, tendons & sinnew - 10% bone - 5% liver - 5% secreting organ (kidney, pancreas, etc.).

The TCS thread Natural Diet Information Resources covers the basics, or you can take a look at the Raw Feeding page of CatCentric.org for more detailed info.

Good on you for taking such good care of your cat!!

AC

 

[jay48]

Thanks, AC! He's become a very pudgy cat now (just like his papa

) and I'm told his brother is the same. I've snapped some new pictures of him, I'll share these with you all soon.
Regards.