For some years now I have been feeding our cat whatever is 
the cheapest bulk dried pet food at Sam's Club per oz. (dog or cat) 
with every now and then expired date code cans of tuna, chicken, 
or turkey from the disaster supplies.  

Other than an occasional tendancy to dry-hump my leg, bark, chase cars, 
yowl at the full moon (just kidding!)...

Cat (neutered, declawed, female tabby mutt of no known breeding) gets
regular vet visits and shots and only about once or twice a day escapes
outside but quickly returns. Generally a housecat.  And no comment
or complaint from the vet even though he is a hoity-toity high
roller type who has a reputation for prescribing custom diets and
drugs costing thousands a year - I figure he just recognizes a
sangre-de-petra problem in the first place (only reason I go there
is that I can walk the cat instead of drive).

About the only odd behaviour is that it will gnaw on the cold water
faucet in the bathroom sinks and turn on a trickle of water which
it will drink from - never the hot water.  And this seems to be only
when it is particularly hot weather or cold - steam heat means the
bathroom where it's water bowl is is warm too.  (No central air)  I
guess it just likes a cool drink of water from time to time.  And
since we don't have metered water...

The cat eats, drinks, shits and pisses in the same room generally.
We higher types only shit, piss, bath, and brush our teeth in the
same room.  Plus we pay for the food.  At least we use toilet
paper instead of our tongues.

So, the point is that just like geriatric retirees can live on
cans of dogfood when Social Security proves to be less than, your
cat or dog (or even your goldfish which is the next experiment)
can probably live and thrive on what is the cheapest form of 
food you can provide.  Your choice, four bucks for an 8-oz can
of purina gormet' cat chow (chow chow chow(R)(C))or the same
for a a generic 20-lb. bag of generic dry dog food.

45 responses total.

cats cannot produce taurine on their own.. it is in catfood but
not dogfood. that is why it isnt a good idea to feed a cat dogfood.
(dogs can do ok on catfood, though)
taurine is an amino acid, by the way.

you can buy a kitty water fountain that pumps water in a
continous flow... many pet stores carry them.
i think they generally hold about 6 cups of water, and you could also
get one with a reservoir.

I think sometimes cats just like to prove they don't absolutely *need* you
to set out water for them.  That's the only explanation I can figure out
that accounts for the way our cat would drink out of mud puddles when her
dish was twelve feet away, at any rate.

The main thing I've observed with cats is it doesn't matter so much which
cat food you feed them, as long as you don't feed them too much.  Every cat
my parents have ever had has gotten overweight when provided with a
limitless supply of food.  They always end up having to ration it.  The cat
will try to convince you it's starving when you do this, of course.

        Perfectly normal behaviour for something that was once a solitary wild
hunter, though ... don't always drink from the same spot, and eat whenever
the opportunity presents itself.

"Your choice, four bucks for an 8-oz can
 of purina gormet' cat chow (chow chow chow(R)(C))or the same
 for a a generic 20-lb. bag of generic dry dog food."

Geez, where are you shopping?  The expensive natural-food canned
cat food we get is about 80 cents per 5.5 oz can.

We do get some more expensive stuff, most particularly the 
freeze-dried meat which the kitties love, and the frozen raw
turkey which they don't much care for  :/  Our dry food 
is probably about 4 times as expensive as Brian's generic
food.

Over the long run, I'd worry about the ash content of the cheap or 
mass market food and its impact on kitty kidneys.  The mass market 
food may have gotten better in this respect since the early 
1980s, when we first ran into this problem.

        I used to use Science Diet. And they could access it 24/7.
        Never had a weight problem. They don't eat it for 'fun'
        because it tastes good, they only eat it when they're 
        really hungry. Plus they never 'go hungry' waiting for
        you too feed them. Plus this makes the occasional mouse or
        table scrap that much more interesting.

        to

Mine are on Iams - it's kinda pricy, but the cats like it and it's good for
them.

This response has been erased.

SPOme tiems           YOU do.

Purina Cat Chow isn't too expensive, and the kitties haven't gained weight
despite "open feeding".  I'd worry about giving them dog food, though.  Cat
food has extra vitamins that cats need for healthy organs and sight.

Scott M. Evil (a domestic short hair/ neutered/ male cat) eats IAMS (he 
prefers hairball formula), and has no qualms about his food.  He stays 
in the 11-12 lb range of weight, is active (5 am fun fests 
are "great").  And is healthy.  So, yes, I do pay more for my cat food, 
but I have never had a weight issue for my cat, and it is open 
feeding.  He averages about 1/2 cup serving per day, plus approximately 
30 to 40 peices of pounce a day.  My cat is cute.

That's only because it's not been on tv.

Just you wait.

does the cat drink *excessively*?

Define *excessively*? The cat named dog primarily lives indoors 
where it stalks mice (not so much since we took counter measures)
and moths and yowls like it has reproductive organs and knows what
to do with them.  Perhaps it remembers days long since past along 
with such notions as 'claws'.  I do sometimes think about a long
two hour or so road trip and dropping the 'dog' off but figure
the child unit is not so stupid after all.

Oh, and the 'dog' only licks the canned dog food to the 
extent that it is lacking water and then the damn beast knows full
well that folk are watching and just to confuse things eats every
thing else in site.  Truely I believe cats are the devil's spawn. And
they know it and agree and act accordingly.

I think cat weight is influenced quite a bit by the amount of exercise
they get.  I've seen "blimp" cats, that were primarily indoor beasts
including one particularly memorable example that, whenever it was tired
and wanted to rest, didn't bother lying down, it just retracted its
limbs and lay on its belly.  I saw that same cat, after a year or so of
living in an actual house and given the opportunity to go "exploring"
outdoors, turn into a beast that was, well, not exactly thin, but *much*
more cat shaped.

Cats in the wild are not exactly solitary hunters: they actually would
tend to live in small clusters, and might hunt either alone or in small
teams.  They are certainly capable of cooperative behavior, which is
probably an advantage in hunting, and is also why they get along so well
with humans.  Another example of a social cat is the lion, which is
actually not at all far from the domestic cat in terms of behavior.
There are other cat species that are much more solitary; the tiger is
one well-known example.  As a solitary creature, it can take advantage
of habitats with lower prey densities.

We have 6 kitties.  We feed them Iams, hairball formula since 3 are longhairs.
We have 2 big self feeders that get filled when they are empty.  We have one
overweight cat.  We actully think that she may have an eating disorder.  She
had problems eating when she was little, her teeth didn't seem to be able to
break up food right.  They all got sick when the 2 males brought back the
feline equivilent of kennel cough when they were neutered.  She didn't eat
for a long time around then.  Since she recovered she eats everything in sight
and begs for more.  She is the cutest kitty and begs so prettily that most
people in the house will refuse her.

I don't want to switch to daily feedings, we tried that for a while when Mom
cat was still here and she needed to switch from the kitten/nursing cat
formula to adult but the kittens still need to be on kitten food.  It was a
nightmare trying to keep them apart and seeing that each got the proper amount
and didn't steal from one of the others.

I just have one cat. I feed her IAMS. I leave it out for her because I 
would rather her be fat than wake me up in the mornings. I let her 
outside even though she is declawed because she pretty much stays in my 
fenced yard and I figure that the dogs will protect her from anothing 
she might need her claws for. She weighs 9 lbs. She lost a lot of 
weight when I first got the dogs. She likes to eat out of their dishes 
from time to time and I guess the dog food is less fattening than the 
cat food.  My vet said it is probably ok as long as she is still eating 
cat food too which she does so I am not worried. 

Its really surprising that people are worring about cat when millions of
fellow huaman beings are suffering from mal nutrations,starvation. A typical
market oriented society, a camel like behavior. I amfeeling sorry for these
"drawing room" thinkers.They are great without any greatness, except money.

are you saying that cats are not sentient?

I freely admit that I care more about my cat than I do about starving 
people elsewhere in the world. While I do care a little about starving 
people in the world and do donate money to one charity that addresses 
hunger issues (http://www.heifer.org/), I have to say that I spend more 
on my cat in a year. I spend even more on my dogs. 

I suppose I would be a better person if I spent more of my money 
helping others. But then, that would be true even if I didnt have a 
cat. 

If starving people in to world would quit breeding like rabbits, there
wouldn't be so many starving people in the world and we could stop worrying
about them altogether.

(if there's a starving person willing to purr in my lap, brush against
my leg, catch mice, use the tiny pet door, and shit in a litter box, I
know someone who will take them in.)

(however, if they're willing to pose for pictures, call mynxcat.  she's
into that sort of thing.)

this should probably be linked to pets, too.

resp:23 LOL

This response has been erased.

The respondent from post # 19 is just pissed because his parents didn't 
let him have so much as a gold fish . . . you don't raise your food as 
pets.  Besides, whoever you are, do you even practice what you preach?

Magnus gets feline growth kitten formula, Science Diet.  He's 16 wks 
and nearly 5 pounds, and not fat.  <sigh of relief> On August 22, he 
weighed in officially at 3 lbs, 13oz. He's just going to be a big cat, 
as he's MMC. My sweet kitten is up to 1/2 food per day.  He also gets 
Cat Sip.

This response has been erased.

(Sweet Magnus also eats a good dose of Iams Weight Control/Hairball 
control food that is offered to Sasha - now Sasha would much rather 
have the Science Diet Feline Growth...)

What the hey, will link to Pets.

I have a hard time believing that dog food and cat food are that
much different.  The cat - I don't say 'my cat' as unlike a canine
the feline have no tolerance for slavery - has survived on whatever
the lowest cost pet food is a Walmart or Sam's Club for at least
until my daugher is in third grade.  Other than a propensity
for sleeping on its back with all four paws in the air resembling
dead road kill the cat seems to be what one would excuse as normal.

The really neat thing about cats is they are so stupid as to chase
laser dots around a room to the point of panting and dogs don't.

The dietary needs of cats and dogs is different.  You can raise a dog 
to be a vegetarian, but you can kill a cat by raising in on a 
vegetarian diet.  With the diversity of being different species, there 
also comes different dietary requirements, uptakeof much needed 
vitamins, amino acids, and other nutrients.  So, while you can feed 
your dog that cat food, don't feed your cat that dog food.

They *are* different.  The effects of taurine deprivation are long-term,
though, so in the short term your cat will seem fine.  Feed the cat cheap cat
food.

Dogs have masters, cats have staff.  (I suppose that being easily amused
is a requirement for survival in the Beady Aitch household.)

I find this wisdom hard to believe.  Near as I can tell both
canines and felines are carnivors.  Thus I find it hard to believe
that cheap and suitable feed for either are not.  They will with
gusto eat each other and their own specie. Thus I continue to feed
the damn cat whatever cheap food is on sale - along with date code
expired human food.  

re#33: In the greater scheme of things the organism with the
most offspring wins.  What is our count?  One to zero?

From http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=1&cat=1397&articleid=1165:

Dog Food for Cats: Why is it a No-No?
Veterinary & Aquatic Services Department, Drs. Foster & Smith, Inc. 

As we often say, "Cats are not small dogs." In the case of diet, it is
important to realize a cat's nutritional requirements are much different than
those of a dog. For example, cats require higher levels of protein than dogs.
Cats must have the amino acid called 'taurine' in their diet; dogs can
actually make their own taurine. A cat eating food deficient in taurine can
develop severe heart disease and other health problems. Almost all cat foods
now contain added taurine. 

Cats require a different form of Vitamin A than dogs do. Dogs can use
beta-carotene as a source of Vitamin A; cats cannot. Cats can not manufacture
the fatty acid called 'arachidonic acid' and must have it supplemented in
their diet; it is not essential for dogs to have this fatty acid in their
food.

So, you see, if a cat is allowed to eat a significant amount of dog food, the
cat would be eating a diet deficient in many of the cat's required nutrients.
For your cat's health, be sure she is eating quality cat food.

canines have omnivore tendencies

Maybe the cat is out hunting to supliment it's diet?

stalking some brocolli?

or spiders

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss