Care And Feeding Of Your Ragdoll

Your Feline Is A Carnivore!

Cat Appropriate Cats are obligate carnivores. They need meat protein in their diet to survive. Kibble is made with grains to hold it together and also for filler. A high protein percentage doesn't necessarily mean that all the protein comes from meat sources. Some or almost all of it can come from plant sources. Cheap, grocery store brands generally have no real meat in the ingredients. Look at the label on a bag of Friskies, Meow Mix or Fancy Feast. What's the first ingredient you see? It's not meat! Cats do not need carbohydrates.

Kibble is a convenience for pet owners. We can put it into a bowl and not worry about feeding our pets. Carbohydrates in cat food turn our little carnivores into fat cats prone to diabetes. It's been our observation here that many cats maintain their ideal weight being free fed, but it's not an ideal situation for every cat. Some cats will pack on the pounds if allowed to be free fed. Although ALL kibble contains carbohydrates, there are some very high in grains. We try to choose kibble with the least amount of carbohydrates, not an easy task! Many pet foods have now come out with low carbohydrate grainless kibble. Most contain potato that replaces the corn or rice. A couple that we have tried, our cats won't touch. Currently, our cats eat California Natural, NutroMax, and Orijen and EVO. Orijen and EVO are the lowest in carbs and grain free. Why more than one? We have more than one cat, and they all have something they like this way.

Some of the pricier brands of food aren't much better than the cheap foods. There are so many different cat foods on the market now, it's no wonder we have a hard time figuring out what to feed our felines. There are many "natural" or "organic" products now, but many of them are just as high in carbohydrates as the cheaper grocery store brands. A lot of canned foods have wheat gluten in them as a thickening agent. This adds carbohydrates.

Watch out for some of the premium brands of canned cat food. They contain vegetables like carrots, squash and potatoes. Cats don't need vegetables, but the ingredient lists impress the heck out of humans. If you are a vegetarian, please don't make your cat one. If you object to meat eaters, you shouldn't own a cat.

There are advocates of raw food. A good place to start: http://catnutrition.org This is an extremely controversial diet. If you decide to feed raw, please use caution when handling and preparing raw meat. You also might want to read Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins book: "Your Cat". Dr. Hodgkins advocates a raw diet for felines and in her book she explains why. Most adult cats who are on a kibble diet need a lot of convincing to eat canned or raw food.

How Many Litter Boxes Do You Need?

The rule of thumb is one litter box per cat plus one extra. You do the math. If you have a multi level home, you will need at least one box on each level for your cat. While this may seem excessive to many, it is far better to have enough litter boxes than to end up with litter box issues!

More cats are turned over to shelters for litter box issues than any other issue. Cats have no other way to express their troubles. If a cat resides in a multi-cat home, you may also have marking issues.

Don't make the mistake of putting all the litter boxes into one area. If you have more than one floor in your home, place at least one box on each floor. Large cats equal large litter boxes. You can now find some pretty good sized ones, but if you can't, you can use the Rubbermaid type storage containers for litter boxes. Many cats do not like to urinate and defecate in the same box. Covered litter boxes have a lot of downsides. They trap odors. Many cats don't like the confinement of them, and many are just too big to fit comfortably into one.

Keep those litter boxes scooped and cleaned! We know of people who scoop once a week. Don't you flush the toilet every time you use it? What makes anyone think a cat is happy at using a dirty litter box? You should be scooping those boxes at least twice a day. It's not a hardship. You scoop in the morning and you scoop at night. If this task is distasteful, then you need to rethink to whole indoor feline as a pet thing. All pets require some type of maintenance.

Some people love the automated litter boxes--some cats, not so much. We found them difficult to clean! Our sister-in-law reported that her cat decided the bathroom floor was preferable than the Litter Maid, but others have told us that their cats are fine with them and so are they. When we had them, Danie would deliberately get in them and walk around, not do anything, get out and wait for it to self clean. She'd sit and watch it as it did it's thing. If a cat happened to be hpving a bad poop day, it would muck up the rake. We have just decided scooping is easier and less messy.

Litter Box Help

Dangers!

Never feed your feline chocolate. Onions are also toxic. Most cats become lactose intolerant past weaning stage and will experience tummy upsets and diarrhea if you give them milk. I know you are wondering--why would I want to feed my cat chocolate? You wouldn't, but your child would. Please don't feed your cat dog food. Dog food is not formulated to meet a cat's specific dietary needs. Cats need a balanced meat diet that includes taurine for optimum heart health.

List Of Toxic Foods

Keep string, yarn, dental floss and anything else you think your cat may ingest put away. Because of the barbs on a cat's tongue, once they begin to swallow something, they can't spit it out. String, dental floss, Christmas tree icicles---they can get wrapped around the cat's intestines and cause a big emergency.

Essential oils are harmful. Cats cannot process these oils and they will slowly damage the liver.

Do not use any products containing tea tree oil. Many pet shampoos now contain tea tree oil. Read the label and don't use them if they contain it. What may be completely safe for a human may not be so safe for our felines.

yarn

Keep blind cords out of reach. A cat can easily entangle himself and strangle.

If you must use a collar, use only a breakaway kind. That old saying "curiosity kills the kitty"--curiosity can lead to a cat's death if he gets his collar hung up on something and it is not a breakaway. An indoor cat really has no need for a collar. If might want to consider microchipping for identification purposes.

If you must allow your cat outside, beware of the many lethal dangers outdoors. Antifreeze will kill your cat. Walking across a newly fertilized lawn will kill your cat. Many plants are poisonous. Even vaccinated, your cat can still be at risk for disease. Many people still do not care whether their cat is vaccinated or not, or whether they are altered or not. When you let your cat out, you are placing him in a high risk situation with these cats. Unaltered males particularly have a marked territory that they will and do defend by fighting.

For a complete list of poison plants to cats:

www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Sites For Lists Of Toxic Plants