Vegetarian cats?

[dottedaloe]

Now, before you all grab the pitchforks, hear me out. I've been feeding some strays for awhile now and I had no idea until recently that what I've been giving them to eat, isn't actually all that good for them.

I am a vegetarian/pescetarian myself and I don't ever have actual meat in my home, so I've just been feeding them the most cat appropriate things I do have - eggs, lower lactose dairy like yogurt and cottage cheese, all kinds of seafood and natto (stinky, sticky fermented soybeans). I've bought them cat food multiple times, but they won't eat it and I end up feeding the crows instead. They don't like canned or dry. I even got fish based Fancy Feast, thinking they'd eat it since they like fish, but they will not.

I'm unsure what to do. I'm worried they're gonna go blind. I tried to buy ground chicken for them, thinking they could get taurine from it if they ate it raw, but they will not eat it. They will not even eat it cooked. They will not eat anything raw in general, even if it's things they like cooked, like oysters.

I know one of them is a proficient hunter, but I don't think the other two are. I could be wrong, though - no idea what they get up to when I'm not watching.

Will they be OK? How can I make them eat cat food? I feel really bad and I'm worried. I've read that fish is addictive to some cats, so I think I've accidentally spoiled them and that's why they won't eat anything good for them now.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi - you can purchase taurine in powder form, which you can add to the food you're giving them.

Also, try mixing the eggs (the whites need to be cooked, just to mention) with small amounts of canned food initially until they get used to it. If they resist the quantity you put in, wait a bit and try again with less until they eat it. Then when they're eating that, very gradually increase the quantity of canned.

You might want to cut back on the amount of natto if it has a lot of sodium, but I'm also reading that cats can't digest soybean very well.