fresh fish for my cats?

Hi All,

You all seem like knowledgeable folk.
My cats, who are both getting on in years and are pretty healthy, will not eat any soft food that I put down for them. They have hard-tack to munch on all the time but I would like for them to eat some meat too.
Does anyone know if it's a bad idea to feed an adult cat tinned tuna or fresh chicken etc every day, or maybe every other day? I know it sounds extravagant, but they'll just leave any soft 'cat' food to dry out - and believe me, I've tried them all!

Thanks

 

i don't think that it would hurt because cats eat fish all the time. maybe you could compramise with them. give them the fish or chicken everyother day and mix it with their dry cat food and that would make it less hard to chew and they would still get their dry food. i recommend tuna. my cat shadow loves it even though shes not suposed to have people food.

 

I think I've read somewhere that canned tuna can increase the chances of UTI (crystals in the bladder) but I'm not positive. I don't know that it would be the *best* diet for your cats because of the nutritional differences in 'people food' and 'cat food', but if there's nothing else they'll eat it can't be all bad since it is meat.. Are they eating any regular cat kibble at all? If it's a good quality kibble than they don't really need the canned chicken or tuna. If it's a mouth/teeth issue, sometimes if you soften the kibble in water or broth they find it easier to eat, or a try to find a smaller sized pellet. I only ever give mine canned tuna, salmon, kippers or sardines (in plain water or oil) as a treat.
If they're not eating any "cat food", then someone will most likely (cause they're so darned helpful here!!) post you some links to sites that set out "raw diets" or homemade diets for cats. There are some supplements that you might need to add to the people food that will keep them in good health.
Your best bet might be to give a quick call to your vet to find out for sure. There are a ton of foods that smell like ambrosia to cats that yours might like. They may be a developmental diet or for those who are off their feed (and therefore high fat), but I would think that for occasional feeding they probably wouldn't hurt.

 

:m23: and welcome! What are your kitties' names and do you have pics to share? I would limit tuna because it has high mercury content. Whitefish is a good source. If they did fine all these years without soft foods, then I wouldn't worry about it. You could always throw in a bit here and there with their dry food for variety. I recommend using baby food vs adult foods due to seasonings and salt contents. I think I remember that from Mary_NH. :mrgreen:

 

Wow, thanks for the quick replies everybody!
To answer karen_80's question, yes, they're eating the kibble and it's a pretty high quality one. It's just a question of variety I think. But if the consensus is that they'll be perfectly fine without it (and they do seem very healthy) then I'll probably just stick with giving them tuna etc as a treat once in a while.
And I'd love to share a picture. How do I do that? I don't want to bog down the site with a huge file.

 

Hi. The most popular ones are Photoisland and Photobucket. They are both free.

From EternalFlames's post:
Quote:
Posting images is simple. Just get a photohosting account with a place such as photobucket.com

Upload your picture. At the mentioned site, it gived u 3 formats for the picture. 3 codes. u want the code with the at the front. Just copy and paste the whole code into your thread window.

Simple as that Smile Good luck and cant wait to see the pictures!
_________________



From Chessmind's old post:

Quote:
Go to [url=http://www.photoisland.com]www.photoisland.com[/url]

Choose the sign-up free and fill out the membership form. Go to Upload Pictures and use the BROWSE button to browse to where you have the pictures saved on your computer. Choose UPLOAD. On the left side of the screen choose MY ALBUM LIST: Personal (or whatever you named your album) This will display your pictures. Click on one. Now on the left choose LINK FOR AUCTION. Copy the URL FOR YOUR PHOTO.

Now come back to Auspet. In your post click on "[img]"%20(it's%20located%20above%20where%20you%20type%20in%20your%20message,%20next%20to%20'List'%20and%20'URL.'%20It's%20one%20of%20the%20grey%20boxes%20on%20the%20upper%20right).%20Then%20paste%20the%20URL%20FOR%20YOUR%20PHOTO%20then%20click%20"" again (after your URL link). Good luck.

For a free avatar, pic under your name read this thread:

http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4947

Or just pay Auspet $9.99 through Paypal and they'd host the avatar for you. Good luck and have fun. Can't wait to see all your pics!

 

I'm sorry, I should've mentioned from when I tried to register that photoisland has "new registrations currently suspended. There is no further information available".

Photobucket.com was definitely an easy site to use!

 

When my kitty who had CRF would eat nothing else, I gave her canned salmon and canned tuna.
Also, there is a recipe for some kind of stew for cats that makes use of chicken and some other ingrediants. This is something that people on the CRF boards used for their cats as it had limited phosphorus and other bad stuff for kitties who's kidneys are shutting down.

I'll look for the recipe and try to get it posted

 

If your really want to feed fish I would do so in small amounts and only ocassionally and I would avoid giving any kind of fish packed in oil.

Here is an article with more info on feeding cats fish:
http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/fish.php

 

Thanks again. I'll post pics just as soon as I have a moment. Being a freelance artist often means being up to the eyeballs in work before a last-minute deadline!
And thank you nern, that article was exactly the info I was looking for. Guess the kitties won't be getting as much as they would like!

 

o i didn't know that,
:0011: now i'll have to figure out how to keep shadow from it better.

 

Thank you Nern for the informative article! My grandpa's cat used to dive in his ponds for fish. He was amazing! :qm4: :qm1: