Turbohot

Oh right! I knew none of that! It's great to have a cat expert among us.




This one ^ is a stunner, too.

I still prefer my common cats, and won't ever swap them for better. It's like your own children, innit. No matter how ugly they are, you think sun shines through their backside, and they're the best in the world.

Leslie

Certainly not-he is evil when it comes to mice!

We did not have a cat then and Mrs L is as soft as butter when it comes to furry animals!

Les

Turbohot

That's cool. I'll get on with Mrs. L very well, then. We'll talk about our cats all day long.


FAO cat specialist Mr. thenewgalaxy:

I have a question for you.

My cats are very fussy eaters when it comes to cat food. They get bored of the same brand of food very easily, and I have to change the make every so often. I never repeat the same flavour, I change flavours all the time. But I don't understand how they get bored of say, the whole of Kitekat regardless of the miscellaneous flavours, which forces me to get Whiskas. They hog on Whiskas for a bit, then they start rejecting it as well. Then I have to get Iams and so on. It's like a vicious cycle. They never stay on the same make of food. Is it normal, or is it just that they have they the spoilt cat syndrome? If you could please enlighten, thanks.

It's really difficult that after you have given them food, and they just smell it, reject it, and then they just stare at your face quietly without even mewing. You say- "You've got your food THERE! Just eat it!" But they don't budge. If you continue to ignore them, they go to bed and curl up, as if in a passive-aggressive mood with you. Thing is, you can't leave them hungry, so you have to drive to Tesco in the middle of the freezing night to get a different make of food for them.

What shall I do?

dpb

Four figure numbers for something that uses you as a door mat!

Afterall cats are wild animals

Turbohot

I don't understand your first line, but for the second one, they're not wild once you've accepted them as your family members.

dpb

Over a grand!

As I understand it a cat is always a wild animal, but okay I'm not judging

Turbohot

Ok, man. I've got it now, thanks.

However, cat has been domesticated. I don't know when it started to bond with humans as a house pet, but I saw on cat diaries that they worked for their food at the farms. They had to kill mice for the farmer in order to be fed meat etc. From then on, I think they started to become mates with humans, and eventually moved in with them.

I think if my domesticated civil cat ever meets a wild cat, they won't get on.

thenewgalaxy

As are dogs, rabbits, hamsters and even humans. Why do you think that humans often display the kind of behaviour that they do? What a bunch of *****

Cats, like dogs, are on the higher end of the animal intelligence scale so it is possible to not only have an animal that treats you as a doormat but actively plots against you.

Four figures for a cat tends to buy one from a line with exceptional characteristics and is usually one that will be high breeding or show potential but unfortunately like with many things you are always taking a risk. Most cat fanciers will pay comfortably three figures for a top drawer pedigree.

Sorry just seen this post. Been looking after the baby while wife has been busy this weekend, and also been reading the 2008 hatch thread from the beginning. About a third through it!

Hehe, now I'm an agony aunt for cat owners too! I am a hobby owner not a vet or professional breeder so this is based on my own opinion supplemented by knowledge from my line of work (on humans lol).

Difficult one to be honest. Cats get fussy in the same way we do, they require a balanced diet and to be fair if they're already fussy then something that has happened will have pushed them towards that behaviour. They're smart animals and that comes with smart problems - I reckon a big problem that is not often picked up on by the cat specialists is that a fussy eater isn't necessarily food related. If the cat has been locked up in the kitchen all day smelling fresh meat and cheese smells coming out of the fridge and been looking out the window, wanting to get at all the birds on the lawn in the sunshine it's going to be quite upset with you when you feed them!

Cats are keen predators but also scavenge in the wild and will always eat if necessary so don't worry about a cat starving. However a well looked after domestic cat has the opportunity to be fussy as they are used to you providing them with a wonderful assortment of flavours. If I fed you food made by Gordon Ramsey every night and then came in one day with a plate of cold beans covered in cider vinegar you'd refuse to eat it but under different conditions you'd wolf it down!

Some have tried to make a science of it by saying that cats prefer high protein food and cheaper brands of cat food have too little protein to be appealing - but at the end of the day how come cats go mad for carbohydrate-loaded dry food too?

We found that we put them off a very posh brand of catfood when we bought it in bulk and fed it to them over and over. We can't give it to them at all now! We also found that some of the mass market cheaper brands get left but if you look at them you can see why!

So we have our way of doing things and it works for us -

We have set meal times, they eat when we do.

Budget cat food brands get left behind and they eat more dry food. A lot of cat food brands will often say "with chicken" rather than "chicken". If it's basically filler meat (usually stripped cartilage and marrow etc) then they're not going to eat it all unless very hungry.

We base all their meals around dry food - IAMS, Royal Canin and the Pets at Home Advanced Nutrition in cycle. We put a bowl out each and top it up as necessary.

We also use the Gourmet Cat food, Felix as Food as it looks - rotate the flavours round as there are three or four different ones at least in a pack. We give them each a sachet morning and night, and split one at lunchtime. Occasionally we plump it out with boiled chicken or leftovers from the roast provided it hasn't been too heavily herbed out (some e.g. garlic are very poisonous, like chocolate is to dogs and cats). Places like Pets at Home often have offers on food, if there is another premium brand on offer we'll give it a go. We've got one right now that's basically cooked meat in sachets and they go nuts for it - but we're not going to give it them every day or we'll find it hard to go back to regular food, or they may suddenly decide they hate it.

Occasionally we may mix wet food with a handful of the dry, and if they are playing up we'll often put a small handful of cat treats in with it. Ultimately a mix of dry and wet food will give them all the nutrients they need.

Doesn't cost us that much and we don't get fussy cats!

Turbohot

Most helpful, thenewgalaxy. "Wanting to get all the bird on the lawn" seems to be the reason. We have bird nests on our trees as well. That's exactly what my cats long for. Each of them- dead or alive.

You really are a Scoobynet cat specialist. Thank you.

Leslie

We do have a cat now-he was left as a kitten under our hedge so we fed him up and he decided to stay I am glad to say.

We also get visited by a feral cat who stands outside and shouts until we give him a meal.

He is too timid to come in the house yet but I bet it wont be long before he does. Our other cat Oscar does not seem to object to him so far.

Les

Turbohot

Leslie, do you know that there is one amazing Oscar the therapy cat?

Here> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_(therapy_cat)

^ That link is acting a bit dodgy, so read that> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...sing-home.html

Here he is with the doc who wrote a paper on him>



I continue to look forward seeing your Oscar and Co. pics one day.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

£50 a month to feed cats

Iv'e got a Cane Corso that weighs in at just shy of 50kg maybe more as he's not been weighed for a few months, and doesn't cost anywhere near £50 a month.

All this fancy food is a big con, IMO, Royal Canin along with others costs an absolute fortune, I buy the cheapest dry food I can find in 10/15kg bags and supplement with boiled chicken carcass, leftovers, bread and free bones from the butchers, cost around £20 a month max, everyone always asks what I feed him as his coat is so shiny.

As for fussy eaters they are animals, they won't starve themselves to death and would quite often go without food for a day or two and quite possibly more in the wild, I just leave a small amount of the dry food only sometimes to make sure he doesn't get fussy, he doesn't like it much but it's usually gone by the morning.

If they refuse food they are over fed simple, don't feed them for a day and watch it disappear 24hrs later, if not leave it a bit longer, it won't do them any harm and their appetite and attitude towards food will improve.

Swati can I come and live with you, sounds like paradise to me.

Turbohot

Well, I'll have to check with my cats first. They are the masters of my household, I am a mere servant to them. And you know they are very territorial by nature. So if they say 'No', that will be a 'No', I'm afraid.