Safe Kitten Food?

[stinky catz]

Hello I'm picking up a new Siamese kitten tomorrow! I'm really excited :D

My questions is...

What is the best, reliable and healthiest food brand for my kitten? There has been so much chaos with pet food, that I'm not sure what is safe anymore.

Thanks. :)

Btw I live in the U.S.

[fransetter]

Google BARF feeding for cats. That is the healthiest way you can feed your cat. Natural food and nothing commercial is the best.

[lottie]

Yep, raw meat i believe is the way to go...especially from a kitten, they'll grow up very healthy etc...and probably turn their noses up at crap like Whiskas and Felix!! :D

[21_12_2012]

Mice.
Live if possible, or frozen (defrosted) from reptile/pet supply outlets.

Best meal a cat can have.

I feed mine 3 a day. Occasionally live ones which i breed myself. Plus other,
mainly raw, foods, such as:- Organic chicken breast, rabbit (raw and minced
in my meat grinder...with all organs and some bone in),
venisson (occasionally !), lamb liver and lamb kidney (very small portions once
a week, a pilchard about once a week, small amount of salmon once a week,
organic lamb steak (small portion occasionally).

Raw meats should be served fresh, cats need the taurine in fresh meat.
I'm not sure how much taurine is actually destroyed by freezing.

[krakhead]

Occasionally live ones which i breed myself.

:eek:

Although I can see the logic behind it, I really don't think I could do that!

[21_12_2012]

:eek:

Although I can see the logic behind it, I really don't think I could do that!

It wasn't easy to do at first, I used to breed mice and rats as pets when I
was young, so I have quite an attachment to them.

I've only fed 2 live ones to my cat (kitten) so far.

She takes too long to kill them, I thought it was cruel, and had to leave
the room while she did it.

So I bought an electricutor mouse trap off ebay for about £25 which
i put the mouse in, and it's zapped to death in a few seconds.
(Which is also cruel ! But I care more about my cat's health, and i do look
after the mice very well)

I then wash the mouse and cut it up into about 4 pieces and serve it
fresh to the cat. She then runs round like a lunatic for ages after with
loads of energy, like nothing you've ever seen !

I buy frozen ones in batches of 100.

Works out about 70-75p per mouse. They deliver them in ice packed boxes
by parcelforce, and the cat seems to love them nearly as much as fresh ones.

I get a mixture of extra large mice and jumbo sized mice, they're absolutely
massive.

[pacoquerak]

21_12_2012 you are awesome and i envy you.

This year a cat came to our farm and I was very tempted to keep it, but I didn't want to feed it disgusting cooked cat food, so I opted out : (

are the mice you feed the cat organic however? haha. I would not be surprised at all if they were fed loads of antibiotics and dead mice and other such naties, but I know nothing about mice so...

[21_12_2012]

21_12_2012 you are awesome and i envy you.

This year a cat came to our farm and I was very tempted to keep it, but I didn't want to feed it disgusting cooked cat food, so I opted out : (

are the mice you feed the cat organic however? haha. I would not be surprised at all if they were fed loads of antibiotics and dead mice and other such naties, but I know nothing about mice so...

Thanks.
Well, you could be right...
Who knows what the frozen mice are fed on.
However, the place i get mine from is supposedly the biggest reptile supply
store in the UK
http://www.888reptiles.co.uk/ and their mice are supposedly:-
"clean, graded and of the highest quality." as it says on their website.

I doubt they will be anywhere near as bad for a cat as commercial
cat food (especially the dry stuff)

The mice i breed myself are of top quality. Chosen carefully from different
pet shops, no in-breeding of families, fed on organic rice, cheese and top
quality mouse food/nuts/scraps etc and drinking bottled water.

I aim to have at least 1 a day of my own mice to give the cat.
It just takes a while to get the breeding going on a regular scale.

I currently have around 30 mice, but most are babies, and will take a few
weeks before i pick out the males, and a few females, to feed my cat.

[pacoquerak]

Ok I thought of two things I would suggest as potential boons to your cat's health

First off, Millet i believe is more nutritious (not sure on this) but it certainly is much cheaper mice feed. Also, consider flax or even fish carcases (you can get these free at a fish merchant to help your cat get those needed omega 3's so they will have healthy minds and glossy coats!
INSECTS. Why not feed your cats an even more natural diet and feed them insects? If you grow them yourself you can feed them to your mice too. Cats love bugs. Crickets and mealy worms are both nutritious and easy to grow.
Lastly, cat's love to chew on grass when they aren't hunting! Cats should have some kind of roughage greens in their diet!

I'm not expert though, but I think varying your cats diet and infusing it with more healthy nutrients like I said... BOON BOON BOON!

[21_12_2012]

Ok I thought of two things I would suggest as potential boons to your cat's health

First off, Millet i believe is more nutritious (not sure on this) but it certainly is much cheaper mice feed. Also, consider flax or even fish carcases (you can get these free at a fish merchant to help your cat get those needed omega 3's so they will have healthy minds and glossy coats!
INSECTS. Why not feed your cats an even more natural diet and feed them insects? If you grow them yourself you can feed them to your mice too. Cats love bugs. Crickets and mealy worms are both nutritious and easy to grow.
Lastly, cat's love to chew on grass when they aren't hunting! Cats should have some kind of roughage greens in their diet!

I'm not expert though, but I think varying your cats diet and infusing it with more healthy nutrients like I said... BOON BOON BOON!

Thanks for the advice.

I have heard of millet. The cost of the mouse food doesn't matter much to me
I am ok with feeding them a variety of foods, mainly leftovers from my organic
meals ! But yes, i would consider buying some millet for them next time i see
some.

As for the Omega 3's, well, i give her salmon oil capsules on her food quite
regularly, which, according to many cat breeding sites, are perfect for
omegas.

I have considered crickets too...she does eat spiders when she sees them.
I don't let her outdoors, only at the front of the house while i am there, for
a few minutes a day, she doesn't seem to want to go out anyway, which is
fine by me. Her mother was the same, and her father stayed in the garden
or inside most of the time.

As for greens/roughage in the diet, from what i have read, cats require no
vegetables/fruit or anything non-carnivorous.

In fact, many vegetable/fruit and plant matter can cause serious health
problems and death.

The only time cats need any type of plant material is when they need to be
sick, and that's grass.

I have bought cat grass for her, she didn't seem to want to eat it, just
played with it.

But yes, mealworms could be good too.
I do intend to get some insects from the pet shop soon.

Thanks for the post :)

[pacoquerak]

what about that lion who was vegan haha? Once I had a cat that loved tomatoes, she would sit and eat as much spagetti with spagetti sauce as you would let her, I always had to take her away!

What about greens in the mice? If you fed the mice greens then the cat would get them pre-digested.

oh oh and fish!
what about fish that has insects eating it? Do cats eat carrion fish? Fish that is allowed to decompose gives crazy amounts of energy because you yourself don't have to exert energy digesting it nearly as much. I am pretty sure any tribe of native americans who ate fish, often just let them sit out in the sun a couple days til they had started to become infested and then ate them.

[21_12_2012]

what about that lion who was vegan haha? Once I had a cat that loved tomatoes, she would sit and eat as much spagetti with spagetti sauce as you would let her, I always had to take her away!

What about greens in the mice? If you fed the mice greens then the cat would get them pre-digested.

oh oh and fish!
what about fish that has insects eating it? Do cats eat carrion fish? Fish that is allowed to decompose gives crazy amounts of energy because you yourself don't have to exert energy digesting it nearly as much. I am pretty sure any tribe of native americans who ate fish, often just let them sit out in the sun a couple days til they had started to become infested and then ate them.

A vegan lion?! wow... now that is definately a rare thing.
Did it have something wrong with it's teeth or something ?!

Yes, i have heard cats do get a taste for various foods which they aren't
supposed to be eating. Yours liked tomotoes, mine seems to like organic ice
cream and Lloyd Grossman's Korma curry sauce ! ha but i only give her the
tiniest amount, very rarely.

She also likes stuff i make on sandwiches such as ham, beef, fried chicken,
she even tried eating some rocket salad leaves a few times, but i took them
off her.

Yes, i suppose some mice do have green stuff in them, but i have
also read that 'wild cats' will often leave the stomach, and eat the rest of
the mouse.

Good point about carrion fish...i would have to look into that.
My cat is a bengal, and apparently bengals are very adapted to eating fish,
just like the asian leopard cat which it is bred from, so i guess most fish
would be ok to feed her, but not too often i suppose.

A mouse has all the nutrients necessary in a perfect balance, so i suppose,
theoretically, a cat could live on just mice. But a variety of food is definately
good.

[icecoldmeltz]

Hello I'm picking up a new Siamese kitten tomorrow! I'm really excited :D

My questions is...

What is the best, reliable and healthiest food brand for my kitten? There has been so much chaos with pet food, that I'm not sure what is safe anymore.

Thanks. :)

Btw I live in the U.S. KIT KATS are Good. with some milk mabe:D