By Ric Wiley
Well what can I say about feeding your cat. If your cat will eat it then generally let them eat it but there are some foods that you should keep away from your cat, chocolate being one of them but more of that later.
What does my cat like, well most things especially if I have spent my money on it for him. He's like that. I mainly feed him on a famous brand cat food, which provides him with a balanced diet, and he tends to concentrate on his favorite flavors which are fish or chicken based. He has his favorites and as such I don't tend to waste my time buying stuff he doesn't like.
He also likes me to cook, as he knows there will be lots of spare food. He likes prawns and other shellfish which have been shelled, chicken and virtually any meat, raw or cooked although I refuse to give him raw meat. He doesn't like vegetarian, which is not that surprising for an animal which is basically a hunter.
What you need to remember is that your cat will let you know what he likes so that's what you should feed to your cat. There are exceptions though and one of those is chocolate. It may be OK for you, but is it OK for your cat. It is not any good for me as it just tends to move from my mouth to my waistline, but then again that is like most foods I eat.
So what about chocolate and cats? Well chocolate speeds up the heart beat of a cat; it acts as a diuretic and as you well know it is loaded with calories. Don't make your cat a heavy weight, as that's bad for them as well.
My cat, Tigger, loved chocolate but I found out early on it was bad for him so I used to buy him a special chocolate developed for cats. It was sold by a major cat food manufacturer so I assumed it was safe and I have since found out that these companies which sell cat chocolate either produce a vegetable based substitute which looks and tastes like chocolate or they take out a substance in the chocolate called theobromine, which is what causes the problems for cats. Just be careful when you are buying chocolate for your cat. Make sure it is safe as apparently the treatment for chocolate poisoning in cats is not nice for the cat and the owner.
Apart from that give then what they like but don't give them too much. I always bought Tigger a special Christmas Stocking full of cat treats. The first time I ever got him one I wrapped it up and placed it under the Christmas tree. When he came into the room he sniffed a little, went under the tree and rummaged round all the presents till he found his present. There wasn't any waiting for Christmas, he ripped it open and ate everything he found. As for the squeaky mouse and the flea collar, well if I hadn't moved them they would still be there today. He was too much a real cat to play with a squeaky mouse. He liked the little plastic balls with the bells in though and played for hours chasing those. I suppose that burned a lot of the calories off that he had gained eating the treats.
Just be careful, but in general feed you cat the food it likes. It will soon let you know what it doesn't like and what it does, just like a child will.
Ric Wiley is a gardener, established writer and Internet author. His latest site about High Density Gardening can be found at http://www.highdensitygardening.com/home.html |
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