Saturday, July 19, 2003

Follow Cats' Lead for Taking Bite Out of Heat

By Dr. Jeff Nichol, For the ABQ Journal

link to full article

Question: We are confused about our very beloved cat Suzy (almost 13). A year or two ago I clipped out your column about dry food. Our Suzy was then overweight and gaining. You said Science Diet r/d was the best weight reduction diet. We followed your advice and Suzy is now looking good. BUT, in the past few weeks you have been very emphatic about feeding cats only canned kitten (?) food. We don't know what we should be feeding Suzy. She has a tough time with canned food. She smashes it down while eating it and then won't touch it again until we push it all into a pile in the middle of her dish.

Dr. Nichol: I, and my colleagues, have confused and confounded the pet owners of America. Dry food for cats has been recommended for as long as I have been in practice (28 years and counting). Now we find that we've been wrong. There is egg on our collective veterinary faces.

Hills prescription diet r/d does work well to manage obesity. The problem is that r/d (low fat, high fiber) causes weight loss partly at the expense of healthy muscle mass. Now we know we can do much better with a high protein, low-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. Assuming that Suzy's 13-year-old organs are functioning properly, she'll be slim and much healthier on canned kitten food — no fooling.

A cat Suzy's age should have a senior lab profile to make sure that all systems are running strong. If she checks out well, I suggest a very gradual transition to canned kitten food over as many months as it takes. If she never learns to enjoy it, well, at least you tried.

Suzy's unwillingness to accept canned food isn't unusual. Cats get "habituated" easily as youngsters. This means that if you raise a kitten on dry food, you may find it difficult to convert her to canned later. Try offering small amounts often. If Suzy ever wants to climb Mount Everest, she'll need to be fit. Of course you and I could do it; we just choose not to.

This is interesting. I recently just upped the canned food in both of my cats diet. One of my cats is overweight and I figured if lc worked for me, it would work for him too.

Here I go again...

The best food for your cat or dog is raw meat and bones. My dog and cat have been on this diet for almost as long as I have been low-carbing. My dog is 14 years old and my cat is 2 1/2 years old and they are both in excellent health and Bandit's diabetes has been controlled.

It may take a little more work to feed your pets the way they should be eating, but it is so worth it.

Pets fed on raw meat and bones have a much lower incidence of cancer and urinary problems and they do not develop diabetes, which is epidemic in older pets fed on commercial pet foods. Their teeth are better, they have more energy, they shed less, and they go to the bathroom less. They veterinary bills are lower, which more than offsets the slightly more expensive food.

To find out more, do a web search on BARF (stands for bones and raw food).

;-Deb

Hi Deb,
Yes, when I found out that dog and cat food contained all the cancerous and other non-usable meat that is rejected for humans, I quit feeding my dog commercially prepared food. The following book has recipes that have kept my little pet healthy although she was diagnosed with cancer over 5 years ago (she's either 13 in Aug).

These recipes are a bit easier to do than raw meat because you can keep them in the fridge for a few days - a good starting point. My dog's food is made of beef, brown rice, olive oil, vitamins, a probiotic, and some veggies. It's best for her condition. She has never had any skin problems or other problems common with older dogs, even though she was the runt of the bunch.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...31242?vi=glance

I do love my pooch!
Jinx

Good for you, Jinx. Bandit, however, doesn't get any grains. I have found a supplier of ground chicken (including bones) for pets. I mix that with chicken organ meats and freeze it in single-serving baggies -- I make up about 2 1/2 weeks' worth at a time. And once in a while I give him soft veggies such as carrots and zucchini. He really likes that.

Ruggles, on the other hand, doesn't get any veggies. It turns out that cats can't metabolize veggies properly. They'll even throw up a bird's stomach because of its contents -- yuck!

Thanks for the reference!

;-Deb

I have been feeding my 4 dogs a raw diet for a couple of months now. I have a 12+ year old poodle, 8 year old rotti-mix, 1 1/2 year old Brittany Spaniel and a year old sheperd-mix. Our Brittany Spaniel was having trouble with lameness in her back legs and her acupuncturist suggested BARF to us. She hasn't had any problems since she started eating raw.

I took the old dogs in for their yearly checkup last week and my vet couldn't believe the diffence in them after only a couple of months of eating raw. The rotti has lost 3 pounds and the poodle has lost 1 1/2 pounds. They have never looked better in their lives. The poodles eyes don't run nearly as much and their coats are so thick and shiny.

I just can't say enough about the raw food for pets. So far, I have only given them BARF food. Ready-made patties and home-made patties from the meat and bone mince and veggies. They also have raw meaty bones each day. I am checking into other raw diets and if anyone has used a different one, I'd like to know what you think.

Low-carb works for us and our pets.

Abequa

Hi I tried to do barf with my 3 cats 12yr 10yr and 1.5 yr. They all had problems getting into it so I started label reading all canned cat foods, if it had veg and or grain anything in it woulden't feed. To this canned food I started adding ground meat and egg yolks a little to start hoping to slowly switch them around. It works my lazy 15 pounder (10yr) has lost 2lbs in 3 weeks and he is starting to play with the youngster, no diff in the hips of the oldster yet, time will tell.

Diane

My dog was a BARF dog and he looked fantastic. One cool thing was that he never smelled like a dog. His fur had that nice puppy smell even when he was grown. No doggy breath, either. Funny: he was the low-carber, I was a high-carb vegetarian. I was the one with doggy breath!

You are all so great to be taking such wonderful care of your pets. I only wish I'd known earlier so I might have saved the two teeth Bandit lost to his poor diet before he started low-carbing.

About getting the cats used to it... It took Ruggles almost a week to start eating his raw food. Now he won't eat anything else. I persevered because I had read an article about cats' taking a long time to adjust and that it would do them no harm to go without eating. It turns out in the wild it's not uncommon for cat species to go several days without eating and their systems are adapted to that. I almost gave up before he went for it though.

;-Deb