Feline Nutrition, What do you feed your furcats? Options

[Muffins]

Hi Everyone:

Over the past 2 weeks, our girl Ms. Lucy has been ill on & off. She has been an insulin dependant diabetic since October, 2004. Blood tests performed on January 27th showed that she is now hyperthyroid. So, as of now, she is on Tapazole, 5mg in the morning.
She HAD been on Humulin insulin up until 2/1/2007, when she was changed over to PZI insulin (for cats). Humulin was no longer being made, so switching her was necessary.

Lucy has suffered from chronic diarrhea ever since we rescued both her & Mr. Yoster in March, 2004. There were a couple of days over the past two weeks where her stool was very, very watery diarrhea. Knock wood, since we have taken up all of their dry food -- her stools have become a bit more firm .

I have been doing A LOT of research over the past couple of weeks on feline nutrition. I must admit -- I am extremely overwhelmed.
One of the things I have found out is that - NO cat should be given dry food.

Because cats are obligate carnivores, they don't need corn, wheat -- grains.
They have very short digestive systems which are not designed to digest carbohydrates, only proteins, which are supposed to pass through their systems very quickly and not hang in their for too long.

On occasion, I look through the feline diabetes site, and recently came across the name of Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins. I am learning quite a bit with regard to diabetes & diet for felines.

I added several links here that you're all welcome to look over.

My question to all of you who read this is:

What foods do you feed your furcats? Do you feel that your furcats body requires dry foods???

A couple of days ago I took up all of the dry food that we had down for our kids. Right now, they both are on wet food ONLY. We are feeding them "Wellness - grain free" and "Wysong meat w/au jus" <<-- we add "Wysong Call of the Wild" food supplement with that.

Thank you all very much for reading this. I am looking forward to learning even more through your feedback.

Peace & Love,
Denise


http://www.catnutrition.org/

http://www.catnutrition.org/resources

http://www.wysong.net/

http://www.all-about-cats.com/index.htm

http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/wellness/c..._can_index.html

[Furkidlets' Mom]

Kim,

Well, since I've been reading and re-educating myself for so long already, all I can say is that these particular vets seem to have their data backwards. Most holistic vets who've been practising for 20-30 years (some, longer) have a completely opposite view of what's happened to animals since the introduction of commercial diets. Plus, without exception, every vet I've ever had contact with (quite a few, with one thing or another) has said that most cats, anyway (never asked about dogs), do NOT live that long anymore (take this board as a 'for instance'), nor are they anywhere near as healthy at a given age as they used to be, nor even as Nissa was...despite her problems. And the sanctioned standards for feeding and nutritional requirements are grossly underrated, just as many vitamin and mineral standards for humans have been for many years. In essence, they don't even come close to what a body truly requires for optimal nutrition and health. These are the usual standards that the huge commercial firms follow. At further issue is the quality of their ingredients, most of which are not even considered acceptable for human consumption. I would not feed any kidlet of mine anything I wouldn't feel safe eating as well.

And the story doesn't end there, either. Iams produces Eukanuba, and Iams has been blasted (and boycotted) recently for conducting horrid animal tests and imposing cruelty on cats, dogs and other creatures. Buying their products helps fund and support that cruelty. Here's just one link of many on Iams cruel practises.

Iam's cruelty

ALL of the articles there are important to read. Iams is also owned by Proctor and Gamble, one of the worst torturers of animals for product testing. If for no other reason that this, I would never buy their products. They also use dead, diseased and contaminated meat in their pet food. (that book I mentioned before mentions all of this kind of stuff and more, regarding most commercial pet foods) So how "balanced' could a diet of such ingredients be?

So, to me, there are also important ethical factors to consider in the whole dietary debate. I could not not think about just HOW these companies conduct their research and WHO they might harm in the process...just to make a buck. Iams' animals often end up dead and what that says about a company is equally important to me.

One vet we used to have personally visited the research facility for Hill's. She was impressed. When I asked a few pointed questions and got answers to them, I was not! And their facility/environment was nowhere near as barbaric as Iams is.

Perhaps you also might want to speak to an equal number of holistic vets, too, to get their viewpoints as well, and to be fair in your assessments. There are always a few exceptions to any rule, but here we're talking about the majority of animals nowadays, and from what I've learned, combined with good common sense, over-processed food (and especially lower quality ingredients) is not the optimal way to go. I can just imagine what kind of shape I'd be in myself, had I eaten nothing but chips (and canned goods) my entire life.